$82M earmarked for water infrastructure

Federal funds will go to repair and improve aging systems, aid projects in yuma area

More than $82 million is headed to the Yuma area for the repair and improvement of outdated water systems and projects.

The funding comes from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs law through the Aging Infrastructure Account, a program Arizona Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Marl Kelly say they prioritized while negotiating provisions of the historic law.

“Improving outdated water systems ensures the health and safety of Arizona communities, strengthens economic opportunities, and secures our state’s water future,” said Sinema, co-author and lead negotiator of the bipartisan law.

“As the historic drought continues to impact our state, and farmers in particular, repairing our aging water infrastructure is more important than ever. Thanks to our bipartisan infrastructure law, these projects to repair dams, pipes, and aging canals in the Yuma area are going to get done,” Kelly said.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs law makes the strongest investment in clean drinking water and wastewater infrastructure in U.S. history, with the aim of delivering clean water to millions of families.

The program, facilitated through the Bureau of Reclamation, includes significant repairs on canal linings, dam spillways and water pipeline replacements.

“The Bureau of Reclamation, in partnership with states and local water districts receiving municipal water and

irrigation water from federally-owned projects, is responsible for much of the water infrastructure in the West,” said Acting Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner David Palumbo.

“These water systems work because of this federal to non-federal partnership, and this funding will help to complete necessary extraordinary maintenance keeping projects viable and partnerships strong,” he added.

The 26 projects listed by the Bureau of Reclamation for the Yuma area include the following:

• Sludge Pipe Replacement, $6 million: In the current state, the desilting basins at Imperial Dam are minimally functional, leaving excess sediment in the All-American Canal and river channel. This project will improve efficiency of the desilting basins and have broad impacts on delivery and increasing efficiency in the delivery of water through minimizing sediment removal between Imperial Dam and Morelos Dam.

• Rebuild One Gila Diversion Gate Pair, $2.3 million: The Imperial Dam project has minimal design requirements, minimal permitting requirements and facilitates Colorado River water delivery to southern Arizona.

• Repair Imbeds on Gila Diversion Gate, $1.04 million: Project is an Imperial Dam project with minimal design requirements, minimal permitting requirements, and is operated to facilitate Colorado River water delivery to southern Arizona.

• Gila Gravity Wasteway No. 1, $887,360: This project is on the Gila Gravity Main Canal which delivers Colorado River water to the greater Yuma area. The aged wasteway is in very bad condition. Multiple parties contribute to the GGMC maintenance, several of which are small and underfunded. Funding will expedite the completion of this project.

• Gila Diversion Motor and Gearbox Replacement, $772,123: The Imperial Dam project will increase efficiency of dam function and reduce maintenance of aging infrastructure.

• Refurbish Pilot Knob Check Gates, $637,172: This is a shovel-ready project related to the Imperial Dam and the All-American Canal. PK is the last diversion off the AAC and the Colorado River to deliver water to Mexico. These gates currently leak, making inefficiencies in the system which directly correlate to excess flows to Mexico, and are a major inefficiency in the system. Failure of this component could jeopardize meeting treaty requirements.

• Replace Manual Radial Gate Controls Throughout the Yuma Mesa Project, $333,000: Replacing the gate controllers within the Yuma Mesa Irrigation and Drainage District with Radio Controlled Actuators will allow for the gates to be controlled from the district headquarters. YMIDD serves the larger Yuma mesa area as well as wheels deliveries to a second water district, Unit B. Though Unit B is small, both YMIDD and Unit B have a large amount of water ordered but not diverted, in part from their system being manually operated. This project would modernize the system, allowing for greater operational efficiencies that could significantly reduce water ordered but not diverted in these two districts.

• Flume Replacements, $250,000: A number of flumes of significant age require replacement as a result of many years of repairs and ongoing deterioration. Deterioration is observed not only in the conveyance pipe itself, but also of the concrete pilings and abutments which provide support to these features. The failure of any of these flumes would result in very significant system outages affecting all of the downstream shareholders.

• Replace All Five Sluice Gates on the All-American Canal, $250,000: There are five sluice gates off the AAC which sluice downstream towards Bard Water District. They are in need of replacement to limit impacts to the area of service.

• Maintenance and Fabrication Building for Infrastructure, $200,000: This project is proposed by Bard Water District to replace the maintenance shop with a more modern and efficient facility.

• SCADA for Major Checks and Turnouts, $100,000: Much like YMIDD, BWD has a manually operated system that needs to be put on SCADA to realize efficiencies in water operation. This project would fund the evaluation, design and implementation of SCADA on major checks and turnouts on the system.

• West Main Canal Heading Study/Replacement, $100,000: The West Main Canal Heading is centrally located in Yuma, up against two major roads, a bike path and low-income residential areas. Due to the age of the system and fluctuations in flow, the feature has experienced significant backing up near to overtopping in recent years. A study is being proposed to evaluate the structure, identify required maintenance and replace or rehabilitate the project to meet treaty requirements and protect the public in this urban area.

• Navajo and Concow Laterals Concrete Pipe Replacement, $75,000: The distribution system that serves Bard Water District in the Reservation Division is past its design life and is inefficient. A history of being underfunded has left a multitude of large capital projects without adequate funding in reserves to finance the large projects that are required. These two laterals are major laterals on the system and will be piped in reinforced concrete pipe, extending service and creating efficiencies in the system.

• Gila Gravity Main Canal Repairs, $50,000: Sloughing has been an ongoing issue on the GGMC for over a decade. The main access road is widely used to reach the Mittry Lake area so the traffic far exceeds what was expected in the design of the facility nearly 100 years ago. This project would help make needed repairs which would provide safety by stabilizing sloughing and protecting the road.