Published: 07.05.2008

Plantings boost neighborhood, water quality

CODY CALAMAIO
Tucson Citizen

An old neighborhood south of the University of Arizona is conserving water and fighting pollution with the help of a local nonprofit group and a $100,000 grant from the state.
The main goal of the project is to improve the quality of water that flows from High School Wash into the Santa Cruz River, said Lisa Shipek, executive director of the nonprofit Watershed Management Group.
The Rincon Heights neighborhood, bordered by East Sixth Street, North Campbell Avenue, Broadway and North Park Avenue, floods quickly during summer storms.
Project volunteers are digging retention basins and planting trees and bushes in the strips between the curbs and the property lines in the public right of way, Shipek said.
The water trapped in the basins will irrigate the plants there, said Carrie Sturm, landscaping coordinator with the Rincon Heights Neighborhood Association.

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