AN INTERVIEW WITH ART HUGEZ
ONE OF MANY MISINFORMED S.PHX RESIDENTS
By: Carrie Stoner
Art Hugez is a very articulate, well-educated retired businessman who has owned several restaurant businesses in south Phoenix over the last 50 years. Mr. Hugez has been very much in favor of any and all new developments within South Phoenix – including the Rio Salado Project. That is, until now.
I met Mr. Hugez while having lunch at a favorite South Phoenix restaurant named Poncho’s. I approached him because he appeared to be very comfortable in his surroundings and seem to know everyone in the restaurant. I began talking with him and in the course of our conversation asked him his views concerning the recent developments within South Phoenix.
Mr. Hugez, probably like most Arizona residents, was aware that the Rio Salado Project is a restoration project of the Salt River. What he didn’t know is that the Rio Salado “Beyond the Banks” area plan has another name - “Toxic Park” named this by many environmental activists familiar with the FULL details of this project!
The reason for the “Toxic Park” label is simple – there are several TONS of toxins lying dormant under the very ground where the planners for the Rio Salado Project want to put 5 supply wells. Pump from a non-potable aquifer directly under the river with well capacity of 5.3 million gallons per day. This information comes directly from reading material our class was assigned to read in preparation for our meeting with the Rio Salado planners and of course, directly from the mouths of these planners during our meeting.
Excuse me – but what happens to all of those tons and tons and tons of toxins once you put running water around them? That would be the million-dollar question! According to an Arizona Republic article written by Dennis Wagner companies such as Innovative Waste located “in an industrial and dumping area along the Salt River bed . . . has always been a threat to the neighborhood because of the nature of the hazardous material they process.” However, the issues concerning this major threat to our environment just isn’t being addressed by our state elected officials – at least not to my satisfaction or several environmental activist such as Steve Brittle and his non-profit organization, Don’t Waste Arizona, Inc. (“DWA”).
When faced with this question we posed for him, Mr. Hugez stopped and stated, “well, I’ve never thought of it that way” and instantly changed his opinion concerning this project. Not only did he not realize the potential danger or hazardous waste contamination but also that this water would be, according to Mr. Brittle who is very knowledge in this issue, nothing more than major mosquito traps! Which of course, as most everyone knows, mosquitoes are major carriers of diseases.
We asked Mr. Hugez just how safe is that for the residents and business owners of south Phoenix? Also, what about the civil service employees such as the firefighters and police officials that serve and protect the citizens of Phoenix from such things as major explosions stemming from these toxic chemicals? How fair is this to them and the potential health risk associated with their jobs of protecting the residents of South Phoenix?
After much discussion concerning this, Mr. Hugez stated that there should be no reason to allow the potential threat of a toxic release into the environment which is what running water could possibly do to all of those toxins lying dormant under the very ground of the proposed Rio Salado Project. Also, since not one person including several City of Phoenix planners, engineers, etc., could guarantee the safety of this project, why would anyone support this project that has a potentially dangerous situation for not only South Phoenix residents but also for the business owners, such as Mr. Hugez.
Therefore, I would sensibly recommend the need for better education concerning this project among the residents and business owners of south Phoenix!