Water towers are more than skyline markers
Each helps deliver the valuable resource to city’s residents
Cities’ water towers traditionally are landmarks that – well, tower - over the communities they serve.
But Yuma’s Friendship Tower likely holds a distinction in its double life as a towering Christmas tree and the centerpiece for the annual celebration that ushers in the holiday season with good cheer, dance performances and Christmas music. The festivities conclude with the Yuma County’s Citizen of the Year pushing the switch to activate thousands of holiday lights that descend in multiple strands from the top of the city water tower. Throughout the holiday season, the 200-foot tall Christmas tree can be seen from miles around as an iconic symbol of Yuma’s nighttime skyline.
But the tower’s day job is to help in the city’s delivery of water to its residents. That’s a job the Friendship Tower shares with water storage tanks in two other locations, explained Jeremy McCall, utilities director for the City of Yuma.
Check out the stats on Yuma’s water towers:
Friendship Tower looms above Friendship Park near Desert Sun Stadium. It is an elevated tank that can store up to 1.5 million gallons of water. It was built in the 1960s and repainted in 2003 with its current tan color and bright letters spelling out the city’s name and logo.
The 16th Street-Interstate 8 location perched on the hillside behind the McDonald’s restaurant has three water tanks, each with a capacity to store 3 million gallons of water for a total of 9 million gallons. Each tank is 100 feet wide and 50 feet tall. One is set at a higher elevation so it is 10 feet taller than the other two. They were installed in 1953, 1954 and 1993, respectively.
Agua Viva Water Treatment Plant at 2670 S. Avenue 9E has two storage tanks, each capable of storing 1.5 million gallons of water for a total of 3 million gallons. The Agua Viva water storage tanks were constructed in 2008 to serve the growing population on the city’s east side.
“There is strategy and reasoning for the site loca
tion of water storage tanks,” McCall said. “Water tanks need to be in the geographical region and proximity of the customers they serve. Therefore, typically water tanks are positioned uphill or even in an elevated area to ensure a positive pressure is maintained in the water distribution system.”
For every foot of water storage elevation, there will be 0.43 pounds of pressure in the system, he explained.
Each of the water storage tanks are operational-ready, he said. During the lower demand periods of the day (overnight) the water treatment operator will fill the tanks to capacity to ensure water is available to city customers.
In all, the city has about 24 hours-worth of water in storage, McCall said.
Friendship Tower does not currently serve the same operational purpose as it did in the 1960s, he said. When Agua Viva water treatment facility was constructed and brought online in 2009, the water distribution zones changed.
The three water storage tanks at the 16th Street location are a prominent part of the city’s eastern skyline.
But at one time they also provided an artistic backdrop to the city’s landscape.
They were painted with big murals designed and executed by Tucson artist Tim Merrick, who called the work “The Rio Project.” The Yuma City Council received flak when it approved the $50,000 project in 1999, according to Yuma Sun archives. But the criticism died down a year later when the work received an award from the Governor’s Pride in Arizona Committee.
The murals were painted over when the Yuma City Council awarded a contract for the repainting of the water tanks in 2017 to preserve the tanks. The contract called for the tanks to be recoated with a tan paint similar to the Friendship Tower, adorned with the city’s name and logo.
The Agua Viva water tanks are less conspicuous because they are lower profile and blend into the environment, and also because of their more isolated location off Avenue 9E.