Turkey Creek, Gila River Watershed © Nanda Currant

Environmental Groups visit Gila River Valley

Environmental organizations The Nature Conservancy and the Gila Conservation Coalition sponsored a field trip in the Gila River Valley to point out changes that arise from uses of the area and possible impacts on the river of the Arizona Settlements Act, under consideration in Congress.

(adapted from an Oct 19, 2004 article by Mary Alice Murphy)

Peter Russell, field representative for The Nature Conservancy, led the tour from the northern reaches of the Gila River Valley to the point where it disappears into mountains and canyons. Participants, who met at the Lichty Ecological Research Center of The Nature Conservancy in the Gila Valley, included Craig Roepke, hydrologist with the Interstate Stream Commission; Bill Hume, director of policy and strategic planning in Gov. Bill Richardson's office; Allyson Siwik, representing the Gila Conservation Coalition; Denise Fort, University of New Mexico Law School professor; and several of her students.

"This is above all the irrigation diversions," Russell said at the first stop on the tour. "The Cliff-Gila Valley is 20 miles long and bounded at the top and bottom by national forest."

Storage facilities have been suggested for the 140,000 acre-feet of Gila and San Francisco river water to be allocated to southwest New Mexico over a 10-year period under the act. "An infiltration gallery could be put under the river, flow to a collector and come out from there," Hume said.

"Some have proposed putting a project upstream and using gravity feed to a storage facility," Russell said. "The Mangas Creek area has been mentioned. Storage would have to be above the diversion for Virden." Roepke said if gravity feed were to be used, "it would have to be downstream a significant distance for the gravity drop, assuming a need occurs for a diversion. If there is a need to take water out, it has to be done in the most environmentally friendly way."

Hume pointed out that in the agreement, New Mexico can take only a percentage of the water. "As the flow increases, so does the percentage," he said. "But the area might have to allow the surge to go down the river."

"In the agreement, we maintained base flows in the Gila at 150 cfs (cubic feet per second)," Roepke said. "If the river were flowing at 200 cfs, we would take, at the most, 50 cfs, and that is less than the measurement error on the gauges." "We need the input and cooperation of the environmental community," he said.

Hume said the use of the Gila River water allocation "is going to be different from any other reclamation project. The primary design will take care of the environment. I would say the National Environmental Protection Act will ensure it." Decisions on how to use the water allocation and the $66 million in funding that accompanies it will be locally designed. "It's taken away from the secretary of the Interior Department," Roepke said. "We need to get all interested parties and agree on basic data and basic studies. They will then come to a rational agreement."

The north end of the valley features a recovered area, where cattle and all-terrain vehicles have been fenced out. Trees within a few feet of the water, which was flowing at 54 cfs Saturday, included alder, Arizona walnut, juniper, cottonwoods, and hackberry, separated by a few feet of elevation. "What is of note is the lack of salt cedar and Russian olive," Russell said. "This area also supports a remarkable fauna diversity. It has one of the most diverse populations of birds in the state and the densest nesting area in the country." He said three eco-regions - the Chihuahua Desert, the Mogollon Rim, and the Arizona-New Mexico mountains, extensions of the Sierra Madre - come together on the Gila.

Steve MacDonald, a biologist who lives in the Gila Valley and works with the University of New Mexico and the University of Alaska, said the river is where faunas collide, with animals and birds from the tropics and from the Rocky Mountains.

At the next stop on the tour, Russell pointed out the relative paucity of cottonwoods and willows below the irrigation diversion. "It's consistently running at half its normal flow," Russell said. "At 54 cfs, it's below the median flow of 74 cfs. That's because of low snow levels the last few years." He said agricultural values and wildlife uses are not categorically opposed to each other.

A resident of the valley, Mary Burton-Risely, said the perennial water is now in the ditches.

MacDonald said where the river widens was historically where the greatest diversity was. "It's gone now," he said. "It's disconcerting to me that varying lengths of the river go dry. A big chunk of the money needs to go toward the environment, not toward the ditches, which do not support a diversity of species." He suggested using some of the funds for leveling fields for a better use of water. Roepke said if the ditches were acequias, the ISC would pay up to 90 percent of leveling the fields.

The group stopped at the widest reach of the valley. Pacific Western, a subsidiary of Phelps Dodge, owns much of the area, which is farmed by David Ogilvie on the U Bar Ranch. "The river runs to support the willow flycatcher and it runs downstream to Bill Evans Lake," Russell said. "Here you see a vigorous forest farther from the (irrigation) diversion."

The group stopped at the project that diverts water from the river into a canal that is pumped to Bill Evans Lake and then to Tyrone. "This is the largest diversion on the river," Russell said. "The water is returned to the river about half a mile down." Siwik said Phelps Dodge has offered water as collateral for the Tyrone Mine closure, but it hasn't been accepted by the state as bonding. She said it is still in negotiations to be resolved by the end of the year.

At a viewpoint over Mangas Creek, Russell pointed out the perennial low-elevation stream, which is a proposed site for a Bureau of Reclamation project. "A 50,000 acre-feet impoundment is one that has been proposed," Russell said. "One alternative of the Water Plan Steering Committee (working on a regional water plan) is to divert water from the Gila and inject it into an aquifer someplace else. I'm not sure aquifer recharge has been studied enough to know who would benefit." Roepke said if the area does watershed management and the flow in the river increases, the region could reap up to an additional 4,000 acre-feet of water, up to an annual average of 18,000 acre-feet. "The ownership of Phelps Dodge has buffered the valley from development, such as patterns that have happened in other areas, like the Mimbres," Russell said. "The company has done a service to transition this valley. Phelps Dodge is clearly a large stakeholder in this discussion. A lot of parties share common visions. It's an opportunity for something interesting and creative to emerge."