The residents of Cochise County, working collectively, are protecting the groundwater (aquifers) for future generations.
SUN JAN 02 Sierra Vista
WED JAN 05 Bisbee
SAT JAN 08 Douglas
THU JAN 13 Sierra Vista
SAT JAN 15 Benson
TUE JAN 18 Willcox
SAT JAN 22 Sierra Vista
WED JAN 26 Douglas
SAT JAN 29 Bisbee
MON JAN 31 Hereford
SAT FEB 05 Sierra Vista
TUE FEB 08 Benson
SUN FEB 13 Douglas
WED FEB 16 Elfrida
SUN FEB 20 Sierra Vista
MON FEB 21 Willcox
THU FEB 24 Sunsites
SAT FEB 26 Hereford, Location TBA 3:00
MON FEB 28 Douglas, Location TBA 6:00
SAT MAR 05 Sierra Vista, Location TBA 2:30
Few journalists in Cochise County and surrounding communities write about our groundwater woes. Those who do never touch the third rail of Arizona politics—the role of corporate agriculture in draining our aquifers at several times the recharge rate (and fouling what groundwater they don’t steal).
Most local media is owned by print and broadcast conglomerates. Corporate media will never criticize corporate agriculture, for obvious reasons.
Surprisingly to some, our problem gets decent coverage in national and international press, though we’re often portrayed as victims of an unstoppable juggernaut, and few solutions are ever discussed.
What’s never discussed is the growing support for an immediate moratorium on all industrial mining of the groundwater for corporate agriculture.
There are many excellent efforts currently afoot to save and preserve the most precious natural resource in Cochise County: the groundwater, on which we all depend for life and livelihood. The efforts of women and men of good will toward this common goal include education and research, legislative advocacy, ballot petitions (we encourage everyone in the Sulphur Springs Valley to sign the petition and vote FOR the AMA), voting better candidates into office, etc. We applaud this multiplicity and pluralism. To this already great mix, our campaign humbly adds the following: All these activities are good, but if this is ALL we do, we probably won’t achieve our goal.
For this reason, we’re building a People’s Power campaign to take our demand directly to Corporate Ag to cease industrial mining of groundwater.
In the same way that people put financial assets into a trust so they can grow despite market ups and downs (as well as the temptation to spend them before they mature)—all in the hope of leaving a legacy to their heirs—we want to place the groundwater into a similar instrument—a public trust—to assure a water-secure Cochise County down to the seventh generation. To quote the Code of the West, Remember that some things aren’t for sale. Know where to draw the line.
Everything we hope to accomplish in this campaign is mediated by the trust that neighbors, friends, and family have for each another. To join us, you must believe that everyday people have the right and the ability to improve their lives through communal struggle. Talking to our neighbors allows us to begin formulating sensible and workable bottom-up solutions to the groundwater catastrophe that’s enveloping us. We invite the everyday people of Cochise County to take a stand, join our campaign, and begin the patient cultivation of neighborly conversations that can unite our county to stop the profligate waste of our groundwater on corporate agriculture that profits the few—now—while threatening to leave us all dying of thirst—forever.
We model our activities on the Committees of Correspondence active in the run-up to the American Revolution (1775-83). The Committees created an argument that was acceptable to a majority of residents and the rallying cry crucial in our young nation’s daring to throw off the yoke of British oppression—arguably the most powerful country in the world at the time. We use an activation model that focuses on continuous base expansion (reaching out to everyone in the County, including the folk initially indifferent or opposed to our campaign). Our activating principles are easy (and fun) for almost everyone to learn. Once mastered, we need only rinse and repeat until we’re victorious.
Join us! ~The Groundwater Guardians