Guest Column: Energy pipeline would degrade wide-open spaces of Altar Valley

The Altar Valley west of Tucson is one of the few unfragmented desert grasslands left in Arizona. It stretches more than 600,000 acres, from the Sierrita Mountains to the Baboquivari Mountains, and comprises working ranches and the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge.

County opposes Tucson-Sasabe gas pipeline

The Pima County Board of Supervisors will officially oppose a planned natural gas pipeline between Tucson and Sasabe.

Plan may bypass western edge of wildlife refuge

The Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge would be either just east of the pipeline's route to Mexico or bisected by it. Refuge officials, however, say going through it would be too disruptive to wildlife, including the endangered masked bobwhite quail.

Plan may bypass western edge of wildlife refuge

Pima County and Border Patrol officials, among others, want the proposed pipeline to run next to Arizona 286 through the refuge.

Plan may bypass western edge of wildlife refuge

Kinder Morgan has applied to build a new natural gas pipeline just west of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge boundary - a decision that is pitting county, state and federal officials in a dispute over where it should go.

Ex-bus driver admits to sex with girl, fleeing to Mexico

Moments before the first witness in his trial was to take the stand a former school bus driver admitted he had sex with a 15-year-old girl and fled to Mexico with her.

Pipeline plan raises smuggling concerns

A subsidiary of pipeline company Kinder Morgan Energy Partners has reached agreement to build a new pipeline through a rural area southwest of Tucson to deliver natural gas to customers in Mexico, Kinder Morgan announced Wednesday.

Ex-coach who ran off with teen girl now jailed in Tucson

A former wrestling coach who was on the run with a teenage girl in Mexico was booked into Pima County Jail Friday morning.

Ex-middle school coach gets jail, probation in sexting case

A former assistant wrestling coach at Altar Valley Middle School was sentenced Monday to four years probation and four months in jail in a sexual exploitation case.

Altar Valley pipeline plan fuels host of area concerns

Melissa Owen shows the boundary between the private Sierra Vista Ranch, where she has a vineyard, and the federal Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, right. She is concerned the pipeline might cut a large right of way across her and her husband's land.