News
Latest News
12/4/2024
In her letter to the San Manuel Miner, Board Officer Melissa Crytzer Fry calls out Redhawk Exploration for sidestepping crucial public concerns when it comes to ensuring future community water availability and the protection of the San Pedro's vital riparian ecosystem.
10/8/2024
Read the comments submitted by Chair Peter Else, on behalf of LSPWA and the Cascabel Conservation Association, to the Air Force on its intended use of ecologically rare and pristine wilderness areas along the San Pedro River and on nearby Tribal Nation lands, for daily training sorties involving supersonic military aircraft.
9/21/2024
Arizona Daily Star journalist Emily Bregel reports on how the aquifer that supplies the San Pedro River's headwaters in Sonora, Mexico, is being over-pumped by mining and how ranchers there are sounding the alarm.
9/9/2024
Catch an interview with LSPWA Board Chair Peter Else, in which he describes how a proposed mine along Copper Creek could irreparably harm its distributary, the San Pedro River.
8/9/2024
LSPWA Board Officer Melissa Crytzer Fry and her husband Steve share invaluable maps and insights with Arizona Luminaria and Inside Climate News, for their collaborative investigation into how the proposed Copper Creek Mine could end up imperiling both the city's water supply and the Lower San Pedro River Watershed.
4/19/2024
LSPWA Chair Peter Else explains why we revised our Mission Statement to focus on legal action and effective partnerships, following the Arizona court decision that is allowing SunZia to construct its massive transmission lines along the unspoiled banks of the Lower San Pedro River, a riparian ecosystem whose diversity and rarity knows no parallel.
4/18/2022
According to Earth Justice, "Groundwater pumping, harmful development threaten endangered fish and wildlife" on a river named by Americas Rivers as one of the nation's most endangered. Quoting LSPWA Chair Peter Else, "We must protect the last remaining natural and intact desert river ecosystem in southern Arizona. We must think beyond the span of our brief lifetimes."
12/15/2022
The Arizona permit for the proposed SunZia infrastructure corridor is being challenged by intervenor Peter Else and his supporters in Maricopa Superior Court. Fragmenting and degrading 33 miles of the most remote and ecologically sensitive portion of the San Pedro River watershed is not a "done deal". Far less damaging alternatives are available, including alternatives that would benefit Arizona to a similar degree as New Mexico and California. Significant legal errors were made during the recent amendment process. The intervenor knew that he needed representation by a law firm after the Arizona Corporation Commission included false and contested statements in their Order to approve SunZia's requested amendments.
→ Read the full text of the Complaint filed on January 24, 2023
→ Read the Opening Brief filed on May 12, 2023
→ Read the Arizona Court of Appeals Decision filed on June 13, 2024
2/11/2022
In this YouTube video, Peter Else discusses issues facing the San Pedro River in this presentation to the Sustainable Water Network.
7/16/2021
In an opinion piece to the Arizona Daily Star, Peter Else explains why the planned SunZia transmission lines would cause irreparable harm to the ecology and migratory flyways of the San Pedro River.
News Archive
3/12/2019: Updates on LSPWA for Early 2019 — Mar 12, 2019 11:24:28 PM
3/9/2019: Alex reports on Wildlife Monitoring
2/6/2018: 2017 Update from the Officers of the Lower San Pedro Watershed Alliance
3/8/2016: Comments Submitted on Ray Mine Tailings Proposal
2/16/2015: Winter Meeting, March 2nd at Oracle State Park
10/27/2013: Meader Releases New Paper on Water Usage by Mesquite
10/15/2009: Summer Meeting of the LSPWA
10/15/2009: Scenario Planning for Climate Change