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2 CAP I Special Report THE-'ARIZOI ;tJphill climb CAP water must rise 2,909 feet at heavy expense to reach Tucson I'll the West, it's wryly said, -water runs uphill toward money. Consider, for in- :: .. stance, the $3.5 bmion Cen- ,'. 'tral Arizona Project. : The water taken from the - . Coloiado River, by the time it gets south of Tucson, will be lifted vertically 2,909 feet, more than a half mile, by a series of pumping plants. Just to take the water from the riv~r at Lake Havasu will require a vertical lift of 824 feet, the single ~iggest such effort along th,e 333-mile CAP aqueduct sys- tem. Before the water reaches Phoe- nix, it will be raised three more times ~ 118 feet at Bouse Hills, 113 feet at the Harquahala Mountains and 192 feet near the Hassayampa River. From Phoenix to below Tuc- son, the water will be raised 1,662 feet by 10 additional pumping plants. . . . Boosting the water - 3\000 cubic feet of it per second at the maximum - from Lake Havasu with, the six 6O,OOO-hor&eJ)<JWer motors that will run the pumps wiD take a lot of electricity. 'rhat much water, equal to 22j440 gallons, weighs 187,200 pounds. The U.S. Bureau of Reclama- tion estimated it will take 2,863 million kilowatt-hours in a nor- : mal water year - 1.5 million acre-feet - to deliver CAP water. , That's enough power to light and ~. keep appliances running in 233,- 200 homes in the Salt River J Valley for a year. ; / The electricity - will come kom the Navajo Generating Station at Page. The Bureau of Reclamation owns 24.3 percent of the pOwe:r produced there to operate' the CAP. In years when the CAP can get extra water, the bureau will need additional electricity generated at 'Colorado Rive:r dams to oper-/ ate the pumps. ../ . . . When CAP construction began in 1974, the principal featUres were three aqueducts with a -iotal length of 300 milell, (our aune and a headquarte1'1l buildinj to house computers to provide-.ctm. tral control ove:r the system. In addition, there were the Navajo Generating Station and necessary power. transmission fa- cilities to operate the pumping plants and other equipment ~ong the aqueducts. , . These features generaU)t re,- main intact. The main chCntes include extending the aqu<<duct Ilystem by 33 miles, enlarginA' the size of the Tucson Aqueducf and proposing construction of" the - New Waddell Dam on the Agua Fria River, Cliff Dam on the I ~ Verde River and an enlarg6d -or new Roosevelt Dam on the Salt ,.-,RWer 8B an alternative to Orme . D~ at the confluence of the Salt N c;. N C'? c: -- and Verde rivers. Orme Dam, Charleston Dam on the San Pedro River and Hooker Dam on the Gila River, the latter in New Mexico, were ordered deleted in 1977 by the Department of the Interior, but Congress has not canceled the authorization for them. The fourth dam, Buttes, on the Gila Rive:r in Pinal County, was left untouched, Orme and Hooker dam alterna- tives were authorized in tbe 1968 CAP authorization law, The Orme Dam alternative, known as Plan 6, is awaiting final approval by the Interior Department. The Bureau of Reclamation is consid. e:ring an alternative to Hooker Dam, which was to provide 18,000 acre-feet of water to. western New Mel.ico. The bureau does not plan to seek funds for Charleston Dam because its original purpose, to store and deliver water to Tuc- son, has been replaced by the CAP's main aqueduct system. The bureau is restudying Buttes Dam to determine if its construc- tion would be the best way to provide flood control, water stor- age and sediment control. . wildlife also will be taken on the CAP's other two aqueducts. . . . The Granite Reef Aqueduct's maximum capacity of 3,000 cubic feet of water psr second is equal to about 5,940 acre.feet in 24 hours. The water, except where the aqueduct passes through mountains and under rivers and . washes, will be canied most of the way in a canal 24 feet wide on the bottom and 80 feet acl'088 the top. Service roads line bo;th sides. All concrete lining, except for repairs along some sections, is completed. Scheduled for com- pletion in 1984 are 25 contr()1 buildings to operate the canal manually, if necessary, and 60 radial gates with motors. The four, pumping plante on the aqueduct are structurally complete, and pumps, valves, motors and operating systems are being installed. Installation of power and control-cable equip- ment along ,the entire Granite Reef Aquedu~ should be finished by April 1985 SQ, testing can begin in June or July.~ Turnouts along the aqueduct for, water users ftrljl expected to be: completed ~ by March 1985 in tilne for deliveries at the end of the year:- r Water from Lake Havasu . . . will be pumped up the The Salt-Gila Aqueduct, which western side of the Buck- starts on the southern side of the s~in Mountains through twin, Salt River, begins with a pump- sl9Ping 2,600-foot pipes, where it ing plant that will provide a wiD discharge into the 6.S-mile verticaIlift of 84 feet to the water Buckskin Mountains Tunnel. as it leaves the Granite Reef The tunnel, lined with 20 Aqueduct. indtes of reinforced concrete, has When--complete, the aqueduct artthlftden:ttllll'mt&rnf-22'teet:'The" wfIrcoi1sist of 58.2 miles of water will floW from there ;into concrete-lined canalL including a the open Granite Reef Aqueduct. siphon under the-Gila,River. On its' 190-mile journey from T!t~, p'umpi~, plant W88 '-com- Lake Havasu to the end of the pleted substantially in May. aqueduct at the Granite Reef Pumps, motors, valves and oper. Diversion Dam east of Phoenix, aung systems for the plant are the water win flow through 173.9 scheduled to be finished in Janu- miles of concrete-lined canal, 7.4, ary 1985 and a Visitors' facility by miles through six siphons unde:r January 1986. 'rivers, 8.1 miles through three The aqueduct will have a mountiiin tunnels and more than capacity Of 2,750 cubic feet of 'half a mile through four pumping water.' second at its upper end, plants. . tapexjlj,g.t.Q 2,250 by the time it '. Fourtee~ 'Yater holes are bei~ re,llcl:tes . \he Tucaon AQ1W'~ built .l'lorth_,9f !tie' aquedu~t _f~I"'.. ~t" :~t.:of the Pk:B.di6'"Resef ~om sheep '!ft'll-~'lI'eep'" 'ftftt!"" 'tli.,- ~" ~ animals away-from the. ca~~l, ,;:,:,,~he. Salt-GUs:- Aque.dUd#, in: which they-would droWn--~once , being built -in' five sections, Vtl'th they fell in, they woyld not be the first 5.98 rniles.-ab6Ut 99 per- able to climb up the 19-foot cent complete and work just $jdes). Where bighorn sheep and starting on the second 5.2 miles. deer are known to frequent, 112 An 8.5-mile section is 97 percent miles of fence will be built on complete, and the next 19.1 miles both sides ()f the aqueduct to are done. Work on the final 17,4- deter them. mile section, including the Gila Oasis-type landscapi~ wiD. ~_ River $iphon, is about half done. added near 35 overpakiies where The aqueduct is scheduled to animals can CfOSll the' aqueduct, deliver water in 1986. and eight will be covered"with-, F The Tucaon Aqueduct will end desert soil. ' 'at the southern boundary of the Ed Hallenbeck, manager, of the 'San Xavier Indian Reservation the Bureau of Reclamation's Ari- below Tucson. The aqueduct is zona projects office, said these being planned and built in, two measures are expected. to li~it parts. animal losses in the canal to no Construction on Phase A, to be more than 10 a year. 43 - miles long .and end near t4ea8~ to aid and protect -. RiUito,....~ _e,eM(Iuled to begin in 1984. Phase B, 42 miles long, will be 350 cfs, and the flow to should begin in 1986. The entire the reservation's boundary will be effort is expected to be finished 200 ds. At this point, three in 1991. mining companies, one non.In- Phase A, to have three pump. dian. irrigation district and water ing plants, will begin with a flow companies to the south can hook capacity of .2,250 cubic feet per up a! their own expense. second, dropping to 750 ds by w" the time it reaches Phase B. ~ As currently proposed, Phase B The flow in Phase B ~iD"be'650 would consist mostly of open cfs until the cantl-divtdes south canal and six pumping plants. to of Tucson_ Mountain County lift the water. A group calhng Park~"oml'Y8ection carrying water itself Friends of the Desert has t;o-'a Tucson facility near West opposed the open canal. It wants 22nd Street the other extending an underground system, either a to the San Xavier Indian Reser- pipe or a conduit-type ditch vation's southern border. covered by concrete. The bureau The flow to the city's facility llllltudyi.ng the suggestion.