Pima County, Arizona – At its August 10 meeting, the Pima County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a recommendation that Tucson Water treat new water discharges into the Santa Cruz River for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

PFAS is a class of more than 3,000 man-made chemicals widely used in common household consumer products including non-stick pans, stain protection coating on textiles and the coating on food packages.

Tucson Water recently announced plans to discharge treated water from the Tucson Airport Remediation Project (TARP) into the Santa Cruz River near Irvington Road after higher levels of PFAS than previously thought were detected in groundwater.

In June, the city closed the TARP facility, which had been built to treat contaminated groundwater emanating from the airport area.

Because of the health risks PFAS chemicals pose, supervisors strongly recommended that the levels be lowered as much as possible prior to releasing water into the river. Tucson Water plans to release water treated to an operating level of less than 18 parts per trillion for PFAS.

Supervisors and County officials want guarantees water from TARP will be treated to remove as much of the PFAS compounds as possible to prevent the further spread of the chemicals. PFAS could be further disbursed through the region as water released into the Santa Cruz River settles into the groundwater system.

“PFAS compounds persist in the environment and the risks of human exposure of are not fully understood.  For this reason, it is critical that we do everything possible to minimize the likelihood that these compounds enter the drinking water supply,” said Dr. Francisco Garcia, Deputy County Administrator and Chief Medical Officer. “There are some studies that have linked PFAS exposure with potentially increased risks for certain cancers, impaired kidney, liver and thyroid function, immune system disorders, and even developmental issues.”

The city received $2 million from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to construct a pipeline to discharge 3.5 million gallons of water per day into the Santa Cruz River near Irvington Road. Construction of the project has begun and discharge of treated water into the Santa Cruz is expected to begin in early October.

The lumber bubble has burst.

After lumber set an all-time price record of $1,515 per thousand board feet in May, the “cash” market price dropped to $472 per thousand board feet in the first week of August, according to data from trade publication Fastmarkets Random Lengths reported by Fortune. The highest price that lumber fetched by the same metric in the summer of 2018 was $582.

Driving the free fall has been an inversion of the supply-and-demand equation. Just as lumber producers increased their capacity and were beginning to shrink backlogs, developers and construction firms had already started planning for delays, pivoting to other materials or halting projects altogether, Fortune reports.

Lumber costs are felt most acutely by the homebuilding and low-rise multifamily construction industries, where project starts had begun tailing off as prices hit record highs in May, Fortune reports. Steel, which some commercial developers turned to as a way of avoiding lumber, continued to rise in price well into July, Bloomberg reports.

Perhaps because demand for steel is less tied to real estate specifically, considering its use in the automotive industry among countless other uses, demand for the material hasn’t tailed off to the same extent. The largest steel producers in the world have also refused to ramp up production to match demand, instead using the high-price environment to return more money to shareholders, Bloomberg reports.

Even steel should see prices retreat as the year draws further to a close, as supply chain backlogs have begun to clear and demand for automobiles hasn’t matched historical levels, according to analysis from KeyBanc Capital Markets and Bank of America reported by Bloomberg. Steel might already be in a mild oversupply environment, KeyBanc analyst Phil Gibbs told Bloomberg, and prices in India were already beginning to retreat at the end of July, Financial Express reports.

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Land Advisors Organization’s homebuilding team facilitated the closing of approximately 80 acres, marking the sale of the last investor-owned finished lots in Coolidge, Arizona.  

Scottsdale, Ariz.– Land Advisors Organization’s Homebuilding Team is pleased to announce the closing of nearly 80 acres in Cross Creek Ranch to Richmond America Homes and Oakwood Homes for nearly $27.5 million.

The sale delivers 372 finished residential home lots and is the second of a two-phase sale to these builders in the Cross Creek Ranch community, located in Coolidge, Arizona. The first phase, which closed in January of 2021 for just over $16 million, included 309 finished lots in the same development.

Cross Creek Ranch is located south of AZ-87 and just east of NEC West Vah Ki Inn Road and North Skousen Road, adjacent to the Casa Grand National Monument, in Pinal County. This month’s closing of these 372 finished lots marks the sale of the last investor-owned finished lots available in the city of Coolidge.

Land Advisors Organization’s Homebuilding Team of Ben Heglie, Bret Rinehart and Ryan Semro represented the buyer in the transaction.

“It’s very rewarding to be part of the growth that Pinal County is experiencing,” Heglie said. “With this purchase of the last remaining investor-owned finished lots in the city of Coolidge, builders will have to shift their focus towards securing unimproved land to meet demand as our growth corridor expands further southeast of metro Phoenix. It’s exciting to see builders returning to Coolidge.”

Land Advisors Organization’s Arizona Homebuilding team facilitates sales on behalf of landowners with virtually every major home builder in the market. The team specializes in home builder developments, multi-family communities and master-planned communities across Arizona.