Liquid gold, that is.

Tombstone Public Works Director Philip Korte with Alan O'Brien of Gannett Fleming – an engineering consulting firm – and a few other city employees drove south on Charleston Road to the Huachuca Mountains recently, in an effort to clear debris from springs that are part of the Tombstone water system.

"We're cleaning the leaves to keep this from flowing down to our reservoir. This water, coming out of these springs naturally, drops into the pipe that goes to Tombstone." Korte explained, motioning over his shoulder as he drove a city truck to the base of Miller and Carr canyons. "It's going to make the system work a lot more efficiently and all of it be within ADEQ (Arizona Department of Environmental Quality) limits and regulations."

Clearing the springs is critical to the city's water system because they are the city's primary sources of. Three springs in Miller Canyon and two springs in Carr Canyon feed into Tombstone's million-gallon reservoir, located just south of the city.

Spring water is mixed with the city's three groundwater wells to help keep their arsenic levels down. Tombstone, with a population of 1,500, on average uses just under 53 million gallons a year.

While the check dams of Miller Springs were quickly cleaned, Korte and O'Brien continued on in search of breaks in the water lines leading to Gardner Springs, the canyon's highest source of water at 6,600 feet.

O'Brien, a manager at Gannett Fleming, explained the importance of linking Gardner to Miller Springs, especially in the case of blending spring and groundwater to lower arsenic levels.

"We (Gannett Fleming) just completed an arsenic mitigation study for (Tombstone) for blending," O'Brien said, balancing himself on a large boulder. "One of the wells has high arsenic. We're looking at blending (it) with another source to bring that level down to within the potable water guidelines."

The two quickly found a break in the galvanized waterline, with one end capped off, and the other filled with pink and yellow leaves fallen from forest trees.

Using the dry pipe as a guide, the two continued through the uneven landscape, climbing over fallen trees, skipping from rock to rock and pushing though low-lying branches.

Korte joked about the irony of O'Brien and him looking for water. In the days of the pioneers, gold was most likely the reason anyone would hike to the springs.

After a few hours of hiking through the rocky, forested terrain, Korte and O'Brien headed toward the Miller Canyon trail, looking for an easier climb to Gardner Springs.

The tandem quickly slid down a steep embankment filled with dead leaves and thick brush, down to Gardner Springs.

Korte rushed to the tiny, icy waterfall flowing from a small crevice between the rocks. He and O'Brien quickly photographed the pool of water – what could extend the life of Tombstone's water supply.

Korte and O'Brien estimated the spring's flow at close to 50 gallons per minute –enough to prolong Tombstone's water supply by at least a couple decades.

"It's going to ensure the water for this community with the wells that we have, once we get this system all fixed and back up to operating conditions," Korte said.

Though the team was elated to 'rediscover' the unused spring, questions about the feasibility of building the connecting pipes became a talking point on the way down from the spring.

"There are two things driving this," O'Brien said. "One is the physical ability to get the water, the second is the environmental constraints to get the water."

After climbing out of the canyon by way of the same steep embankment, it was clear that reconnecting the pipes would require a large yet environmentally sound effort to deliver water to Tombstone.

"You can't get up here with equipment," said Korte. "It's not, 'come in here and stomp all over Mother Nature just so we can have water."

The two returned to the public works office and said their findings would be enough to get the ball rolling on pipe reconstruction at Gardner Springs. More research would need to be done before Korte presents his assessment to the
city council.

"Now we have to sit down and figure out where we go from here," Korte said.

"It's probably going to be a month or so...We're going to have to make one more trip up and take measurements and do all kinds of stuff before we go any further."