Local News

Districts get federal funds for water needs
BY BLAKE SCHMIDT, SUN STAFF WRITER
Published on: December 20, 2005

The lifeblood of this desert community may flow better after the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation put nearly $1 million toward improving its veins.

The Bureau of Reclamation awarded $900,000 in federal funds as part of the Water 2025 Project Tuesday that will go toward water canal and pipeline projects in Yuma and Imperial counties.

The Yuma County Water Users Association received $300,000 in the deal, which will help the district pay for an estimated $2.3 million in unforeseen costs that the association will be paying
toward an increasingly expensive, three-year canal lining project.

At a news conference Tuesday, Bob Johnson, director of the bureau’s Lower Colorado Region, handed over three $300,000 checks to the water users association, the Bard Irrigation District and the Imperial Irrigation District.

The Bard district will put the funds toward pipeline improvements that will serve parts of Imperial County and the Quechan Tribe, according to the district’s director, Ron Derma.

The Imperial Irrigation District will put its funds toward improvements on automatic gates on 10 different canals in that district, Johnson said.

In Yuma, the funds will go toward unanticipated costs of a project that is now estimated to be $2.3 million, or 50 percent more expensive than when the project kicked off in 2004.

Don Pope, YCWUA Director, estimated the project to line 14 canals with concrete in the Yuma area will now cost $8 million, up from $5.7 million.

Pope attributed the underestimated project costs to unforeseen soaring construction costs, which have been exacerbated by costs of natural disasters in the U.S. this year.

Next year, the association will be lining the four final canals with concrete to complete the 14-canal project, which Pope said will increase water use efficiency and reduce seepage.

Pope cited a recent Texas A&M study, in which about 1 percent of water in an 800,000 acre foot district was conserved due to concrete lining.

The Water 2025 project aims to head off potential conflict by helping identify and find solutions to water problems in the West, Johnson said.

The grants constitute about 10 percent of the project’s nearly $10 million budget for this year, funds which have been matched with $27 million in local and state funds to address local and state problems.

The idea is for the Bureau of Reclamation to help address locally identified problems with federal funds, according to Johnson.



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