Is This Owl Forcing Historic Tombstone, AZ to Fix Water Lines With ‘Horses and Handtools’?

• Tombstone, Ariz., city officials have been battling for months to make repairs to water lines that fall within federal land. 
• A 1964 law bans use of heavy equipment on the land, so residents are forced to use shovels and other hand tools to make the repairs. 
• There are also reports of a nesting pair of Mexican spotted owls — a threatened species — which have some worried, although federal officials say the owl’s presence doesn’t affect the work being done. 
• The city has filed an appeal, which was rejected by the Supreme Court, against the government to make the necessary repairs and ensure the water supply for its more than 1,500 residents. 
• The water lines were damaged during last year’s wildfires and floods. 

It took months of asking for permission, a lawsuit and even discussion over a federally protected animal before the residents of Tombstone, Ariz., could begin to make some long-overdue repairs to their water line system that supplies more than 1,500 people. And even after all that, the government says the residents can‘t even use the necessary heavy machinery to secure their town’s water supply. But why?

More