GRIC Governor William R. Rhodes presses the button that opens the Rubicon Gate which allows a maximum capacity of 80 cubit feet of water per second.
The Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project completed the rehabilitation of Canal 13 and commemorated the project with a celebration held on Tues, Feb. 2.
The canal was designed by PMIP with assistance from Mallicoat Engineers and the construction was contracted out to Kiewit Western Company.
David DeJong, Lead Project Manager for P-MIP, said that Canal 13 was originally constructed as Lateral 2 in 1914 but throughout the years the canal has always had high water losses. Farmers and growers throughout the Community have complained about the lack of water that the system has supplied.
Canal 13 is the first sub-lateral that P-MIP has dealt with. “We did about 60 percent of the Southside canal which is a lateral off the Pima canal,” DeJong said. “This is the first sub-lateral that we’ve actually rehabilitated.”
In 2007, P-MIP staff had gone to a number of Gila River Water Users Association meetings. From these meetings, P-MIP had heard complaints from growers in District 5, off of Canal 13, that for years they couldn’t get sufficient water off of this system.
As the complaints persisted, the problem with Canal 13 was again voiced loud and clear. “I came back and got with the engineering staff and told them that I think we need to make every effort to do Canal 13 this year,” DeJong said.
In March of 2009, P-MIP decided to rehabilitate the lateral and begin construction of Canal 13 using American Recovery and Restoration Act (ARRA) funds awarded to the Community, upwards of $4 million.
With the improved capacity and velocity of Canal 13, growers will be able to cut the amount of time it has previously taken them to irrigate their fields. The canal utilizes a new lining that reduces the travel time of water to the fields and promotes much higher efficiency.
At the celebration, GRIC Governor, Honorable William R. Rhodes said, “Canal 13 will allow growers in District 5 to receive a more efficiently delivered water supply. Improvements o the canal will more than double the delivery capacity of the canal and enable growers to irrigate more of their lands.”
P-MIP, along with Public Involvement, has also taken safety considerations into mind while rehabilitating the canal. After speaking with all residents living along or near the canal, PMIP has put up chain link fences near residences and barbed wire fences where needed to keep livestock out of the canal.
David DeJong, Lead Project Manager for P-MIP, said that with the rehabilitation of Canal 13, growers will be able to irrigate their fields in half the time as previous.
Governor Rhodes told the assembled crowd that the celebration of Canal 13 marks the first of many irrigation projects that will lead to the delivery of water to Community members once again.
“This project was a high priority for Community growers, who desired a more dependable supply of water,” Governor Rhodes said. “The project was also important to P-MIP as it was a project that P-MIP engineers designed inhouse with assistance from Malicoat Engineering. This further demonstrates our ability to control our own destiny.”
While physically a large canal, the downstream capacity of Canal 13 before it was rehabilitated was limited to approximately 35 cubic feet per second due to the flatness of the canal and losses in transit. With P-MIP rehabilitating and lining, its new maximum capacity is 135 cubic feet per second.
The Canal 13 project also provided employment for Community members and other Native Americans. Throughout the project, Kiewit and its subcontractors utilized a labor pool that reached as high as 70 percent Native Americans.
Councilmen John Antone D4, Delane Enos D5, Frank Pablo, Sr. D5 Brenda Roberton D5 and Brian Davis D5 were all in attendance for the celebration.
In total, 3.8 miles of Canal 13 were rehabilitated with funding from the American Recovery and Restoration Act.
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