IMPORTANT! LETTERS MUST BE SENT BEFORE MAY 15TH

It is imperative that we FLOOD the BIA office with letters of concern and disapproval of the proposed detention facility on Pima Mine Road. Below is a sample letter that you can use OR write your own.

PLEASE this important to do BEFORE Friday May 15th!

May 7 , 2009

Nina Siquieros
BIA Circle Dr Building 49
Sells, AZ 85634

Ms. Siquieros,

As of May 1, 2009, we are in receipt of an Environmental Assessment (EA) report and letter commissioned by the Tohono O’Odahm Nation (TON) San Xavier District located in the South West region of Arizona. Certified Environmental Inspectors (CEI) authored the EA. The report outlines issues, if any, for the planned building of a 1500 bed Detention Center. The report summarizes that no significant impact would occur to the communities if this project were to move forward. The City was given only 15 days to comment, which seems unreasonable since TON had several years to plan.

We live in Rancho Sahuarita, which sits adjacent to, or just across the street from, the planned Detention Center’s location. According to an April 21, 2009 article in the Sahuarita Times, Robert Charles Lesser, a renowned real estate consulting firm, writes that Rancho Sahuarita is a nationally ranked top 5 master-plan community. We have over 4500 single-family homes and 13,000 residents. Most families have children under the age of ten. The EA ignores us and makes no mention about our town, our parks, and schools. It neglects to address the negative impact this planned Detention Center would have on us.

The EA also makes no mention of The Desert Diamond Casino and any impact the Detention Center would have on it and its patrons, which is a recreational area less than 1.5 miles from the planned prison.

Another issue is the third waste water facility that would have to be built. Residents of Rancho Sahuarita already live between the Rancho Sahuarita and Casino waste water facilities. Both waste water facilities are less than 2 miles from Rancho Sahuarita resident’s homes. The planned prison waste water facility is a (DBO) design, built and operated on the prison’s premises. This would make a total of three waste water facilities all within 2 miles of each other and all within 2 miles of Rancho Sahuarita residents. The air environment caused by the rotten sewage smell is already an issue that permeates the air where we live now.

Traffic counts, if accurate, would require the two lanes of Pima Mine road be expanded to 4 lanes along with the repair of the bridge over the Santa Cruz river bed. Old Nogales Highway is not 4 lanes as it is reported in the EA. Old Nogales Highway is 2 lanes, one lane in each direction and opens up to 4 lanes once it reaches Tucson City Limits, approximately 10 miles to the north.

The population table shows 1970-2000 censuses of the State of Arizona, Pima County and Tohono O’Odahm. Yet Rancho Sahuarita, the adjacent community to the planned detention center, a top 5 master planned community of 13,000 residents in one of the fastest growing communities in the state during this same time period isn’t even a consideration in this census table. Besides being outdated information, one should evaluate the current census data along with that of Rancho Sahuarita and neighboring towns like Green Valley and the City of Sahuarita from 2000-2010 as a more updated picture of the area’s growth and water use trends.

We have a signed petition that contains over 1400 signatures opposing the location of the Detention Center because of the above cited reasons and other grounds. The TON, which owns over 2.8 million acres of land, has many alternative building sites. Rancho Sahuarita will be negatively impacted; air, noise and light pollution, increased traffic, and depreciating home values are just a few of the issues we feel are not addressed.

In total, this EA report is riddled with inaccuracies and falsehoods. The report purposefully avoids any mention of our town and the impact the project will have on us. We challenge the findings of the EA and further question the integrity and reliability of the any of the information it contains. The government review, permitting, licensing and approval processes are being decided on incomplete, if not distorted, information gathered in part from the EA. It is obvious there are large omissions of fact. We ask that our concerns be made part of the record of your review, that you extend the time period for further review and comment by Rancho Sahuarita’s city officials and council, and if possible require an Environmental Impact Statement by an independent source. An EIS would seem to be a more reasoned approach to a project of this magnitude.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Signed,