Santa Cruz River Health
A Pretty Picture? Look Closely...
Industrial chemicals, residential sewage, and trash all gather in the Nogales Wash with other urban tributaries and run into the Santa Cruz River. This pollution directly threatens the river's health, as well as the health of border residents. Groundwater pumping also threatens the river's very life. If the water table is lowered too far by municipal pumping, the natural flow of the river will cease. The "unnatural" flow of the river is an ironic gift from the twin cities of Nogales. Sanitized effluent (treated wastewater) is discharged into the river from the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant. This effluent has restored many miles of riparian habitat which were lost several decades ago from agricultural pumping. If the effluent were to be reused by the cities that own it, the river from Rio Rico north would die once again. The possibility of industrial and residential development in the floodplain, which increases as US-Mexico trade booms, threatens the habitat that supports so much in so narrow a band.
RiverWatch, a FOSCR sponsored, volunteer-led monthly water quality sampling program has studied the Santa Cruz River since 1992. Click here for 1992-2005 and 2005-2009 RiverWatch water quality results in Excel format. Results from 2009-2010, including e.coli, nutrients and metals can be viewed here. Click here to see a short video piece about FOSCR's RiverWatch.
For information on the health of the Santa Cruz River, view the Sonoran Institute's A Living River: Charting the Health of the Upper Santa Cruz River. These documents summarize 10 river health indicators for water years 2008 and 2009.
Click here to view an article about saving the Santa Cruz River near the US-Mexico border.
Is Nogales Wash a disaster waiting to happen? View the editorial in the Nogales International here.
Will we lose the Santa Cruz River as an
inevitable casualty of growth?