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Bridging the Headgate in Arizona
The State of Arizona is served by four Reclamation Area Offices. The southwestern corner of the state is covered by the Yuma Area Office headquartered in Yuma, Arizona. The rest of southern Arizona is served by the Phoenix Area Office. Most of the northern half of the state is assisted by the Lower Colorado Area Office headquartered in Boulder City, Nevada. The extreme northeast corner is covered by the Western Colorado Area Office in Durango, Colorado (see map.)
Yuma Area Office - Yuma, Arizona
On the California side of the Colorado River, Reclamation’s Yuma Area Office is co-sponsoring two projects with the Coachella Valley RCD. The first is a mobile lab program for on-site irrigation evaluations. The second involves a demonstration of new GPS technology for soil salinity management, similar to the Parker Valley NRCD project in Arizona. Both projects are co-sponsored by the Coachella Valley Water District and the California Department of Water Resources. The Yuma office also co-sponsors an irrigation water management education program administered by the Palo Verde RCD in the Palo Verde Valley.
Past projects include Reclamation's Yuma Area Office working with the NRCS and the Parker Valley NRCD to demonstrate a new precision irrigation technology developed by the USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS). The new technology uses a specially-equipped tractor and electronic system that ties mobile soil salinity sensors into an on-farm GPS system. The project was administered locally by the Parker Valley NRCD, with technical assistance provided by NRCS, and financial assistance for procurement of the equipment and training provided by Reclamation. Other sponsors included the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the Colorado River Indian Tribe, and the USDA-ARS.
Phoenix Area Office - Phoenix, Arizona
In central Arizona, Reclamation's Phoenix Area Office is providing technical and financial assistance to seven Arizona NRCD's to support "mobile lab" programs. These mobile labs perform on-site irrigation system evaluations, and analyze ways to improve on-farm irrigation efficiencies. The NRCD's include: the Agua Fria New River NRCD; the Buckeye Roosevelt NRCD; the East Maricopa NRCD; the Eloy NRCD; the Florence Coolidge NRCD; the West Pinal NRCD; and the Pima NRCD. This group of NRCD's are also collaborating with Reclamation to develop and conduct a series of water management workshops specific to local needs and conditions in central Arizona. The first workshop, held in April 1999, was attended by NRCS, Reclamation, the NRCD's, and local irrigators. Subsequent workshops are being scheduled.
Reclamation is working with the NRCS and many other partners, including the Fort Defiance Soil and Water Conservation District, the Navajo Nation, BIA, and the University of Arizona, on a project to rehabilitate the Ganado Irrigation Project in northwestern Arizona. Reclamation is designing the water delivery system, and the NRCS has provided funding to install conservation practices, provide technical assistance, and sponsor educational programs.
Reclamation also participates as a member of the NRCS State Technical Committee in Arizona, and for the past several years, Reclamation has been a presenter and exhibitor at annual meetings of the Arizona Association of Conservation Districts (AACD). Recently, the Phoenix Area Office has begun negotiations on an agreement with AACD to help support 28 environmental education centers presently sponsored by Arizona conservation districts.
