Before Interstate 10 was built, the Tohono Oβodham Nation was relatively removed from the rest of southern Arizona.
But in the 1960s, construction on the cross-country highway skirted the edge of the reservation. According to one of the tribeβs elected leaders, it didnβt just bring noise and air pollution, it encouraged development around the once-quiet community.
Austin NuΓ±ez has been chairman for the Tohono Oβodham Nationβs San Xavier District since 1987, or as he says, βa few years.β
NuΓ±ez said when he was a child, downtown Tucson seemed far off in the distance, but thatβs no longer the case.
βI mean, itβs right there, weβre just adjacent to the city of Tucson boundaries,β said NuΓ±ez, whose district includes the historic San Xavier del Bac Mission.
As neighborhoods around the reservation expanded, there were more and more trespassers. One I-10 exit within the reservation led to nowhere.
βPeople would get off there and trespass on the desert and theyβd sometimes take cactus or wood and weβd have to let them know that that was not allowed,β NuΓ±ez said.
Eventually, Tohono Oβodham leaders worked with the Arizona Department of Transportation to close the exit so travelers would be unable to access the reservation from the interstate.
Now, members of the Tohono Oβodham feel threatened by another federal highway, this one a north-south interstate that would be built adjacent to their community.
For the past decade, the Federal Highway Administration has been working on a plan to extend Interstate 11, which runs for 22 miles in Nevada and concurrently with U.S. Route 93 between Henderson, Nevada, and the Arizona state line. A proposed 280-mile extension from Wickenburg to Nogales would skirt the Tohono Oβodham community.
NuΓ±ez said the original plan called for I-11 to cut through a corner of the reservation.
βWe told them βno,β we didnβt agree with that,β he said. βThey should keep that corridor as far away from us as possible.β
Even though the proposed path doesnβt go directly through Tohono Oβodham land, NuΓ±ez said itβs still a problem.
βWeβre being intruded on,β he said. βThere should be other alternatives that could be looked at that wouldnβt (include) constructionβ so close to tribal lands.
In addition to nearby I-10, a major electrical transmission corridor and natural gas line run through the Tohono Oβodham Nation.
βThe community just said, βWe donβt need any more,β β said NuΓ±ez, reflecting on the proposed I-11. βAnything we can do to prevent (another highway) would be the best thing for all of us.β
But some see economic benefits to expanding the north-south highway that could eventually stretch from Canada to Mexico.
Christian Price is the former mayor of Maricopa and chairman of the I-11 Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group in favor of the highway.
βPhoenix and Las Vegas are really the only destinations in America with β¦ over a million people that have no direct connecting freeway,β he said. βThis would help move people. It would help goods and services be transported β¦ and it is critical to a growing state like Arizona.β
Price said environmental impact studies have been completed to ensure the highway will take the best route.
But the proposed corridor would be built through Saguaro National Park, the Tucson Mountains and Ironwood Forest National Monument, which has drawn the attention of conservation groups.
In April 2022, the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of Ironwood Forest and Tucson Audubon Society filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Tucson over the proposal.
In the lawsuit, the groups allege that the Federal Highway Administration failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, Section 4(f) of the U.S. Department of Transportation Act and the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act of 1958.
They said the FHWA did not do its due diligence in assessing the environmental impact of the proposed highway.
Ironwood Forest National Monument has the densest stand of ironwood trees in the world, according to Tom Hannagan, board president for the nonprofit organization Friends of Ironwood Forest. He said itβs also home to the only indigenous herd of desert bighorn sheep in southern Arizona.
βWeβd like to keep that herd as healthy as possible,β he said.
Along with desert bighorn sheep, there are desert tortoises, pygmy owls, lesser long-nosed bats and cactus wrens living within the monument.
Hannagan said the FHWA did not include Ironwood Forest National Monument in its environmental impact statement.
βThey did not consider it as a recreational area, which it is,β he said. βThey didnβt consider it as a wildlife refuge, which it is.β
Ironwood Forest National Monument also has as many as 3,000 archaeological and historical sites, according to Hannaganβs group.
After years of attending stakeholder meetings and submitting numerous complaints against the highway, Friends of Ironwood Forest saw only one option.
βWe felt like the only thing we can do now is ask a court to intercede,β Hannagan said.
David Robinson, director of conservation advocacy and interim executive director at the Tucson Audubon Society, said thereβs no way of knowing how many species would be impacted by I-11.
βWeβre talking about destroying a huge swath, and then having the ripple effects out beyond them,β he said. βItβs all so interconnected. But it really would impact an entire desert ecosystem.β
Robinson cited the desert tortoise as one animal that could be harmed.
βThereβs no way itβs crossing a freeway,β he said. βThis sort of freeway would be an impenetrable barrier to land-based animals.β
He called the entire proposal misguided.
βWherever they build, it is going to be damaging in terms of environment, in terms of human health, in terms of climate. This particular lawsuit is objecting to one of the two proposed routes that would go through really sensitive, really valuable desert habitat. Weβre absolutely opposed to that,β he said. βThe alternative route that would come closer to the city would have really bad impacts on human health. So weβre not in favor of that either.β
As for the development that the highway would inevitably encourage, Robinson worries how the desert could handle it.
βWe canβt afford that development just in terms of water,β he said. βWe donβt have enough water for things currently.β
The I-11 Coalitionβs Price disagreed.
When asked if he thinks there is enough water to support new development in the area along the proposed corridor, Price said, βOh, very much so. Arizona is about water in different areas. And one of the things that Arizona has done for a long time, is itβs planned for its water shortages.β
Part of I-11 would pass through the Lower Hassayampa Sub-basin, a groundwater aquifer in the far West Valley.
Ryan Mitchell, chief hydrologist and assistant director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, said itβs not a simple yes or no to whether thereβs enough water in the area to support new development.
The department issues certificates of assured water supply if thereβs enough water for 100 years to support development. But not everyone with a certificate has started building.
βWhen we do our model, we canβt just look at whoβs there pumping now, we have to also include any and all of those certificates that have been issued,β Mitchell said. βAnd as of right now, the results of our model when we project forward 100 years, is that there is unmet demand for those future planned communities β¦ that are already over-allocated in the aquifer.β
That means thereβs not enough water for more certificates to be distributed. But there are some undeveloped certificates for land near the proposed I-11 corridor.
βThey could sell the property with the water rights and the analyses,β Mitchell said. βThereβs a lot of stuff that people can do between now and whenever the highway is there and whenever it gets built.β
Robinson of the Audubon Society said thereβs a better solution than constructing another highway.
βIn terms of climate, this is about as backward thinking as you could get,β he said. βThis is like a mid-20th century solution to traffic congestion, when we need a 21st century one. Rail is an obvious answer and that was dismissed as an alternative.β
Although he supports multimodal transportation, Price said thereβs one crucial reason that it wonβt work: money.
βRail is very, very expensive, and so itβs actually cheaper and more effective to do a roadway,β he said.
On Jan. 26, U.S. District Judge John C. Hinderaker heard arguments in Tucson on a motion by the federal government to dismiss the conservation groupsβ challenge to I-11.
Wendy Park is an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.
βThe issue was whether certain claims challenging the highway administrationβs failure to analyze the impacts on public parks and wildlife refuges should go forward, or should wait to be heard until after ADOT decides the highwayβs specific alignment,β Park said in an email. βThe highway administration failed to do that analysis over the objections of BLM (U.S. Bureau of Land Management), National Park Service and other agencies.β
According to Park, it could take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months for the judge to rule on the case.
If the highway administration is allowed to move forward, the Tohono Oβodhamβs NuΓ±ez said his tribe may reach out to congressional leaders for assistance in stopping the project.
βItβs just undeveloped and looks beautiful,β he said. βWe would like to keep it that way as much as possible.β