Blue Ridge overhaul cost tops $13 million
The Salt River Project has finally completed a $13.3 million overhaul of the existing stretch of the Blue Ridge pipeline and started drawing from a 15,000-acre-foot, filled-to-the-brim reservoir.
SRP has been releasing 12,000 gallons per minute into the East Verde River since April and will continue releases until snow once again blocks access to the pipeline and its pumping stations atop the Rim.
Payson contributed nearly one-third to the cost of fixing leaks in the 33-inch pipe, plus the overhaul of a pumping station and a hydro-electric generator.
The completion of the work caps 55 years of effort and maneuver to divert the copious runoff from a 71-square-mile watershed for the use of Rim Country and the Valley.
Payson will ultimately take delivery of 3,000 acre-feet of water annually, with another 500 acre-feet reserved for other northern Gila County communities. But even after Payson diverts that 3,500 acre-feet starting in about 2014, SRP will continue to release an additional 9,000 acre-feet annually into the East Verde River, which runs into the Verde, which feeds two reservoirs in the Valley.
Officially, “SRP’s acquisition of (the reservoir) was essential for Payson to establish a sustainable and renewable water supply,” said SRP’s Manager of Water Rights and Contracts Bruce Hallin.
The hungry pumps will cause dramatic changes in the water levels of the deep, narrow reservoir, which captures the flow of East Clear Creek.
Without the pipeline, that water would run north down into the Little Colorado River, which in turn drains into the Grand Canyon.
Heavy snows on one of the most productive watersheds in the state filled the reservoir to the brim this winter, creating a surface area of 240 acres.
Pumping since April has already drawn the reservoir down to 83 percent of capacity. The lake will drop another 27 feet by Labor Day and then another 33 feet by the time the pumps shut down in the winter.
That will reduce the surface area to about 160 acres, leaving just enough water to satisfy wildlife and habitat needs as determined by the U.S. Forest Service.
The reservoir sits atop the Mogollon Rim near Clints Well and is officially named the C.C. Cragin Reservoir, after SRP’s general superintendent in the 1920s and ’30s.
The dam was originally built by Phelps Dodge mining company in 1965 at a cost of $7.2 million to create a water right it could swap for water elsewhere in the state to supply mining operations.
Salt River Canyon - News
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The East Verde River is popular with fishermen and campers in the Rim Country. The Salt River Project is releasing 12000 gallons a minute into the river from the Blue Ridge Reservoir. The Salt River Project has finally completed a $13.3 million
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