The grant follows on the heels of another similar ADEQ runoff mitigation grant affecting the San Pedro last month of $86,163 to LS Cattle Company for rangeland improvement on the Sands Ranch southwest of Tombstone.
The grants are two of eight in Arizona this year administered by ADEQ’s Water Quality Improvement Grant program (WQIG) to address polluted runoff from many different sources.
The Three Brother Ranch project will remove brush and restore 600 acres of grasslands. Two water tanks will be remediated and additional fencing installed to better distribute cattle throughout each pasture area. The project work will improve ground cover within the San Pedro watershed and help slow runoff.
A 17-mile stretch of the Upper San Pedro River from the mouth of Babocomari Creek, a tributary of the San Pedro, to Dragoon Wash is listed as an impaired waterway by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency because of E. coli exceedances in past years. The source of the pollution is believed to be from both septic tanks and cattle grazing operations in the area.
“This grant money will help restore water quality in two key stretches of one of the most beautiful and important riparian areas in the state,” ADEQ Director Henry Darwin said.