USBR to spend $3.5 million to improve Yuma's pumping facilities

The Bureau of Reclamation's massive system of canals that deliver water to farmers and pumps that keep other areas from turning into swamps is about to get a $3.5 million boost.

Yuma's Bureau of Reclamation recently awarded a major contract for the repair or replacement of canals, drainage structures and several drainage pumping outlet channels, according to Jack Simes, local spokesman.

The three-year contract was signed with AAK-De Los Santos Construction out of Chandler, Ariz.

The importance of canals is pretty obvious to the lay person, but Simes explained the importance of the bureau's pumping facilities.

"We have a high water table in some areas that we need to drain to keep the water table manageable for farming and building homes," Simes said. He said in such areas the water table is as close to the surface as four feet.

Water pumped out of those areas proves to be useful, too. That water is returned to the Colorado River to help maintain a required level of flow.

Locally the Bureau of Reclamation operates and maintains 84 high-volume groundwater wells and 90 miles of canal.

Most of the work to be done involves facilities in the south Gila Valley. Some of those facilities were built back in the 1960s, according to Simes.

"This will be a significant improvement," he said. "We've had some other infrastructure improvements, not recently, but in the past couple of years. I think this is great."


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Darin Fenger can be reached at dfenger@yumasun.com or 539-6860.