8/18/2009 11:12:00 PM Supervisors keep river study flowing
Bruce Colbert/The Daily Courier file photo
Yavapai County Flood Control and the Army Corps of Engineers are partnering to study the Upper Agua Fria River watershed. The study encompasses the river's watershed from its headwater in Prescott Valley to Lake Pleasant south of Black Canyon City. Above, the river flows over Bloody Basin Road in the Agua Fria National Monument.
"This breathes life into the study for one more year." - Charlie Cave, county flood control district administrator
PRESCOTT - A six-year study of the Upper Agua Fria River watershed got a new lease on life Monday.
The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved partnering the county's Flood Control District with the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) in order to move forward with a feasibility study.
"We needed to partner with a county agency in order to get the matching funds from Congress," Bryon Lake, Corps of Engineers water resources planner said. "The county's flood control district is a natural choice because we share some of the same concerns."
In 2002, a consortium of federal agencies, biologists and hydrologists, called Southwest Strategies, started studying the Agua Fria's watershed. The consortium wanted to study the Agua Fria River watershed because it is one of only a few watersheds in the state that are relatively unscathed by development, Lake said.
The first phase of the study, called the reconnaissance, divided the river's watershed into two sections - an upper and lower.
The reconnaissance defined the upper watershed from the river's headwaters in Prescott Valley south to where the river flows into Lake Pleasant, and the lower watershed from the south end of Lake Pleasant south to where the river joins the Gila River near Avondale.
Maricopa County is responsible for the Lower Agua Fria River study.
The reconnaissance included the surface "characterizations" of the river and its feeder creeks and streams, Lake explained.
"We are not getting into the water supply side such as what is going on with the Big Chino and with Active Management Areas," he said.
In 2006, Congress pulled the plug on the study when it was 50 percent finished. A group of volunteers called the Upper Agua Fria Watershed Partnership (UAFWP) worked with Lake on the study.
"Since then, we did finish the reconnaissance and now we are ready to move to the feasibility study," Lake said.
The feasibility study will define watershed issues and concerns and identify federal programs that the county and communities could apply to for money and help.
"This will be a planning tool for the county and communities," he added.
"This breathes life into the study for one more year," Charlie Cave, county flood control district administrator, told the Board of Supervisors Monday. He emphasized that the purpose of the partnership is to study the watershed, "but it doesn't do the work."
"This helps the county and communities see how different programs could be used collaboratively," Lake said.
He estimates that the entire study eventually will cost around $1.6 million. The cost is equally shared and the county's share, about $800,000, could be dollars or in-kind services.
The county owes about $80,000 for the remainder of fiscal year 2009-10. In 2010, the feasibility study kicks into high gear.
Cave said that he is not spending money this year, but instead is using in-kind services such as aerial mapping.
This past year, the UAFWP in conjunction with the University of Arizona, the Bureau of Land Management and dozens of volunteers walked about 30 miles of the Agua Fria River using GPS monitors to map wet and dry areas of the river.
"It's very exciting that with the board's vote we have positive forward motion," Mary Hoadley of the UAFWP said.
Reader Comments
Posted: Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Article comment by:
Jo Ann Johnson
Bruce, Good work. Glad to see this coverage of an important project. JJ
Posted: Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
"The consortium wanted to study the Agua Fria River watershed because it is one of only a few watersheds in the state that are relatively unscathed by development, Lake said". How did CAP/BOS miss that one? Quick, start planning a "stucco jungle". Oh...and another pipeline!
