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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHistorical Records - Miscellaneous (73)TUCSON URBAN STUDY NEWSLETTER - U. S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS Oft FLOODING & EROSION PROBLEMS IN THE TUCSON AREA Explosive runoff causing flash flooding, a broken dike, and the evacuation of about sixty residents from the Oro Valley Country Club Estates occurred on July 19, 1980. A local summer thunderstorm had dumped four -tenths of an inch of rainfall in the Oro Valley area, most of it in the Tortolita Mountains. While flood waters:. caused no damage to buildings or homes,,, streets were impassable and, after the p..� water subsided, sediment and debris remained. This small flow event, which caused damage and disruption, underscores the fact that the usually dry and sunny Tucson area is not immune from potential high-risk flooding along and near its washes and streams. Erosion problems due to flooding exist on all the watercourses being studied by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in its Tucson Urban Study. Some people feel that flows should be contained in structures that stabilize channel banks and bottoms. Others have told the Corps that nothing should be constructed that impedes the ability of the natural channel to recharge water into the ground. Whether the area's watercourses are channelized or left in a natural state is an issue with which local citizens and elected officials are grappling. The costs of doing either are great. However, all agree that hazards to life and prop- erty from flooding and erosion must be eliminated. Looking east along Canada del Oro Wash; the Oro Valley Country Club Estates are on the right. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1.980 -- This newsletter has been issued to inform the general public in eastern Pima County about activities conducted under the Tucson Urban Study. For more information, contact Captain John C. Jens, Tucson Urban Study Manager, La Placita Village, 120 West Broadway, Suite 238, Tucson AZ 85701. Phone: 792-6796. L FLOOD CONTROL ELEMENT The Regional Flood Control Element (RFC) of the Tucson Urban Study addresses the problem of flood damages on eight of the area's watercourses: the Santa Cruz River (at Marana and Green Valley), Canada del Oro Wash, Agua Caliente Wash, Tanque Verde Creek, Rillito River, Pantano Wash, Airport Wash and Rodeo Wash. The objective of this study element is for the Corps to come up with some flood damage reduction plans for each of the watercourses. Corps planning criteria call for the plans to cover a wide range of possible solutions and to include information on economic, environmental, recreational and institutional impacts. Solutions developed for flood -prone sites along the watercourses will be in suffi- cient detail so that local governments, agencies and citizens can identify the most acceptable plan for each watercourse. The Corps is in the process of doing its technical homework, defining flood damage problems in detail, and drafting scopes of work for contractors who will carry out the following studies this fall: Structural Solutions for the Rillito River and Pantano, Airport and Rodeo Washes. These alternatives will include plans for bank and bottom stabilization, detention and diversion, levees, channel widening. NonstructuraZ Solutions for All Watercourses. Alternatives studied here will cover a wide selection of flood plain management possibilities, including flood - proofing, relocation, and potential insti- tutional solutions such as purchase of land and development of incentives to avoid building in flood plains. Ground Water Recharge and Detention of Urban Storm Water Runoff. This study will cover possible ways to recharge additional surface water and evaluate some potential sites where artificial recharge could be accomplished. 2 Early Flood Warning System. The Corps will identify possible hardware and opera- tion of a system to be used as one measure to reduce flood damages. Wildlife Habitat Protection and Damage Mitigation. In cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Corps will develop plans to protect and/or replace wildlife habitat areas that may be affected by proposed flood damage reduc- tion plans. Environmental and Recreation. After flood damage reduction plans are developed, the Corps will identify significant environ- mental changes that would occur if the plans were implemented. Also, recreation plans will be depicted along with each plan, reflecting public desires along the watercourses. The schedule and funding for all these activities have been geared to completion of this study element by May 1981. A critical point in the planning process will occur tentatively in March 1981 when the Corps will sponsor a series of work- shops to learn which alternative plans are preferred by the public. Details of these workshops will be announced in a Tucson Urban Study Newsletter in January -February 1981. The Tucson Urban Study itself is scheduled for completion in October 1981. Public InvoZvement To Date. Many oppor- tunities to influence the Corps' planning process have been provided to interested individuals and representatives of commu- nity organizations and special interest groups. Highlights during the past year include the following: 1. The Citizen Steering Committee (CSG) has met monthly to monitor progress of the Regional Flood Control Element. (The CSC is made up of eight private citizens elected by the advisory committee, described below, and appointed by the Pima Association of Governments' Regional Council.) The CSC has taken action to modify draft staff reports, to request detailed information on flood control projects sponsored by other agencies in the area, and to promote full public review of the economic tradeoffs involved in planning along the area's watercourses. 2. The Citizen Advisory Committee for the Regional Flood Control Element has a review and comment role and meets every other month. Nearly seventy people have achieved and maintained voting membership status under attendance rules the committee adopted in February 1979. The committee has heard presentations on sub- jects such as the overall Tucson Urban Study planning process, private channeli- zation proposals along Canada del Oro Wash, Golder Dam, activities of the Pima County Flood Control District, results of public workshops held in late 1979, and the Cultural Resources Report for the Tucson Urban Study prepared by the Arizona State Museum. 3. Public Workshops -- 1979. A series of seven workshops for people most directly affected by any proposed changes to the area's watercourses was sponsored by the Corps in late 1979. Participants were asked to tell the Corps how they wanted to see each watercourse treated in the future. Results of all workshops were tallied and summarized in a Public Values Report. This report serves as a guide to the Corps and its contractors as alterna- tive plans are developed. Copies of the Public Values Report are available at the Tucson Urban Study office. DO YOU WANT TO BE NOTIFIED OF CITIZEN ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETINGS? Phone 792-6796 or send a note to the Tucson Urban Study office with your name and address. Meetings are usually held on Saturday mornings every other month in the central Tucson area. The next meeting is scheduled for November. -3 U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS' REPORTS The following Tucson Urban Study publi- cations are available at reference desks of branches of the Tucson Public Library: Feasibility of Utilizing Remote Sources of Water to Augment the Natural SuppZy of the Tucson Area (April 1980) Report on the Feasibility of Wastewater Effluent Reuse Options (October 1979) Report of Wastewater Treatment Plant Operation and Effluent Discharges (September 1979) Preliminary Central Arizona Project Alternatives (August 1979) Citizen Steering Committee members currently serving are: Tom Clark Marana Bonnie Haynes At -large Lois Lamberson Oro Valley Doug Shakel Tucson Bob Smith At -large Dick Walden At -large Jerry Wright Pima County The CSC is chaired by Carl Olson; Marybeth Carlile is vice -chair. WATER RESOURCES ELEMENT The purpose of this study element is to develop the facts about water needs and supplies for eastern Pima County during the next fifty years. The Corps' role is to provide technical advice and assistance to major water users and the Papago Indian Tribe, who meet formally as the Water Resources Coordination Committee (WRCC), which is advisory to official representa- tives of each water -using entity. In a nutshell, the WRCC needs to develop a regional water plan that will satisfy present and future water needs. Alterna- tive water supply and conservation solu- tions are being evaluated by the committee with a view to reaching an out-of-court settlement of the Papago Indian Tribe's suit against major water users in the basin. Neither the. Corps nor the WRCC is involved in negotiations of water rights between the Papago Tribe and individual water users. To date, the WRCC has accomplished the following: -- Developed information on present and future water demands, consumption and supply. -- Reported to the Secretary of the Department of the Interior on the critical water resource situation through the year 2030. -- Determined a need for an additional 89,000 acre-feet of water for non -Indian users in the eastern Pima County area. -- Supported the San Xavier Papago Tribe's request for a CAP allocation. -- Requested that the Water and Power Resources Service (formerly the Bureau of Reclamation) extend the CAP terminus to the southern boundary of the San Xavier Indian Reservation. The WRCC is in the process of preparing a response to the announcement of proposed 4 CAP allocations to Indians in Arizona. Public hearings take place in mid-September. As background in the WRCC Report to the Secretary of the Department of the Interior, the following information was included: "The WRCC has evaluated the potential of using other means such as interbasin transfers from outside of Pima County, weather modification, water harvesting, desalinization and iceberg harvesting to increase the amount of water available to eastern Pima County. Although some of these methods may provide relief in the future, none were considered a feasible source for the present. "The WRCC has recognized the importance of reducing demand in balancing the region's water budget. Agricultural users in eastern Pima County have improved their efficiency of irrigation by land leveling, lining of irrigation ditches, installing pump -back systems, and other water con- serving techniques. Additionally, antici- pated municipal and industrial development of currently irrigated land will reduce the amount of water consumption per acre by seventy-five percent. "Industrial water users in the region have also been able to realize conservation through a variety of methods. The mining industry has implemented such water - conserving techniques as recirculation, recovery of water from tailings areas, use of settling techniques prior to disposal of mine waste, reduction of water needs in flotation cells, and the use of water that naturally seeps into open pit mines. There will be other efforts to further reduce agricultural and industrial water usage beyond the assumed seven percent conservation water demand by the year 2000. "City of Tucson water customers have reduced their average daily per capita demand from 205 gallons in 1974 to 140 gallons in 1979. The significance of this conservation effort via public education is evident in the comparison of average use in other major cities in the southwest: Daily per Capita Demand C (in Gallons) El Paso 173 Phoenix 220 Las Vegas 310 San Diego 179 Reno 189 Tucson 140 "Sewage effluent is considered a separate source for planning purposes because of its unique water quality aspects.... The WRCC has evaluated the projected amounts of effluent to be produced from municipal users. Generally, the reuse of effluent for agricultural irrigation appears to be the most feasible, but other applications are being considered." SPECIAL NOTE: CONSERVATION PROJECT The Tucson area has been chosen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Institute for Water Resources as the site for its first case study to apply and test a recently developed water conservation methodology. The IWR has defined water conservation as "any beneficial reduction in water use or water losses." The focus will be on demand rather than supply management. Particular attention will be paid to evaluating the economics for conserva- tion measures in the Tucson area. Feasibility of conservation measures for municipal and other water users will be tested during the study. More details on the project will be announced by the Corps this fall. Copies of the Institute for Water Resources report, The Role of Conserva- tion in Water Supply Planning (April 1979), are available to the public at the Tucson Urban Study office. The Water Resources Coordination Committee is made up of representatives of the following: Mines Anamax Mining Company; Asarco, Inc.; Cyprus -Pima Mining Company; Duval Corporation Agriculture Avra Valley Land Owners Association; Cortaro-Marana Irrigation District; Farmers Investment Company, Inc. Municipal City of Tucson, Pima County Indian Papago Indian Tribe, Papago Allottees, Bureau of Indian Affairs Other Tucson Electric Power Company, University of Arizona, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Private Citizen Betsy Zukoski and alternate Jon Sebba provide general public representation on the committee 5 Do you want us to remove your name from our mailing list? Let us know by sending your address label to the Tucson Urban Study Office at the address below. DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY LOS ANGELES DISTRICT, CORPS OF ENGINEERS TUCSON URBAN STUDY OFFICE 120 WEST BROADWAY TUCSON, ARIZONA 65701 POSTAGE AND FEES PAIn DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY DOD -314 FIRST CLASS OFFICIAL BUSINESS PENALTY FOR PRIVATE USE $300