The Arizona State Parks Department is Concerned for
Ecological Impact of Development Adjacent to Kartchner Caverns State Park
A proposal was made in July to the Benson Planning and Zoning Committee by Whetstone Springs Holdings, a business entity of Coastal Hotel Group, that a luxury spa development would be built on a slope northwest of Kartchner Caverns State Park. The 180-acre parcel of land was carved out of the 15,000 acres known as the Whetstone Ranch and sold to this business group in early 2001. This remote piece of property is approximately nine miles from downtown Benson, does not have city water, electricity or public roads.
Arizona State Parks staff learned about the meeting in late June and asked the Planning and Zoning Commission members for time to study the proposed development and its environmental impact on the cave before they voted. Unfortunately it was approved and sent to the City Council.
Since the purchase of the 550 acres that make up Kartchner Caverns State Park in 1988, the goal has been to develop the cave while still protecting it as a natural resource. This is a complicated problem and one that is being observed and lauded worldwide by cave experts. Kartchner Caverns State Park has been named one of the top ten caves in the world and the only one of the ten in the United States that is open to the public. It has the longest known soda straw in the world.
This luxury resort may be built on top of a convoluted matrix of limestone (karst) known as the Kartchner Block. This subterranean block may be connected to the cave through the thousands of faults that are created when limestone is formed.
Unfortunately, some people believe the State Park facilities are also built on this block of limestone, however the entire development was sited to be southeast of Guindani Wash. The Wash is the southern boundary of the limestone block. The Arizona State Parks department even uses electric vehicles to cross over the wash with visitors so there would be no chance of contamination by gas-powered vehicles.
Solutions to this dilemma might be for the development to be moved to the north off this block of limestone. Another solution would be to sell the land to the State so it can be protected forever. The agency’s concern is not the development, but how its location might impact the cave’s ecosystem.
The Benson City Council has tentatively put this issue on the September 5th Council meeting agenda and may vote on whether this property should be zoned for this commercial use. If you are concerned about this issue, please review the attached files for information and review the geologic maps carefully. This material will help you understand how the cave was formed within the unique Escabrosa Limestone and the problem with contamination that may occur.
"Assessment of hydrological impacts on Kartchner Caverns State Park of a proposed Whestone Springs Resort" by Tom Aley, Director and President of the Ozark Underground Laboratory. html version | pdf version
"Geologic and Hydrologic Basis for Concerns with Mixed Use Development of Whetstone Springs Parcel" by Rickard S. Toomey, III, Ph.D. html version | pdf version
"Possible Impacts for Park Bats with Mixed Use Development of Whetstone Springs Parcel" by Rickard S. Toomey, III, Ph.D. html version | pdf version
Map 1 - Kartchner Caverns State Park Area Geology from Creasey (1967)
Map 2 - Kartchner Area Geology
To download the PDF files, you will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, available from Adobe's website at www.adobe.com.
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