Reclamation manager's career spans both extremes

Jim Cherry isn't packing up his passion for water just because he's cleaning out his desk as Yuma Area manager for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
 
Taking time out from the chore during his final days in that position, Cherry reflected on the nine years he held the post and the changes and challenges he's faced.
 
He recalled standing on Hoover Dam in 1999 and wondering when the flood waters would go over the spillway. At the time, he oversaw operations for that dam as well as Davis and Parker dams on the Lower Colorado.
 
"Four years later, you looked over the side and the bathtub was half empty," he said.
  
By then, Cherry was well into his tenure as Yuma Area manager of the river from Davis Dam to the international border - and finding himself with the challenge of stretching a dwindling resource for an area exploding with growth.
 
"We went from wet years, what we used to call normal, to the longest drought in the recorded history of the river," he said. "I don't know what the prognosis is for the drought, but I do know the growth will continue and demand for the river increase. Even if the drought ends, we will need to continue to be diligent."
 
That it will happen in a greater spirit of cooperation will be due to the collaborations Cherry helped form among the many stakeholders who have a straw in the river, from Mexico to Nevada and from the coast of California to central Arizona, and even environmentalists.
 
"In the Southwest, we all get water from the same source," he said. "I saw as a priority forging collaborations with other areas ... to assure we would all have the water we will need."
 
As a tribute to his efforts, many came to sing Cherry's praises during a farewell luncheon for him that attracted an overflowing crowd of well-wishers.
 
Among them was Charles Flynn, head of the city's riverfront redevelopment efforts.
 
Not long after Cherry took over the helm in the Yuma Area for Reclamation, the city embarked on its West Wetlands restoration project to convert an overgrown former city landfill into an inviting park for wildlife and the community's residents.
 
It wouldn't have happened without Cherry's help, Flynn said. Reclamation helped fund the project, then provided the support to help make the wetlands a reality even during a drought, Flynn noted.
 
As for Cherry, he speaks of the riverfront's transformation with a sense of a job well done.
 
Back east, factories line the rivers while the Colorado River is lined with houses as it passes through many communities, he said. But in Yuma, the river has been embraced in its natural setting.
 
"Here we have parks. It's nice to see that."
 
While Cherry's primary responsibility was managing the river and its distribution systems, he quickly learned not all the water was on the surface.
 
"I learned a lot about groundwater," he said, especially that the Yuma area has more of it in some places than it wants.
 
"We have 125 large groundwater wells, with a set on the border by San Luis, a set between the mesa and Yuma Valley and a set in the South Gila Valley," he said. "We've been pumping for 40 years and we still have groundwater only 4 feet below the surface in some areas."
 
He sees that challenge as an opportunity, however.
 
He thinks that if - or more likely when - the Yuma Desalting Plant ever becomes fully operational, that groundwater could become a new water source for the thirsty Southwest.
 
While the plant has basically sat mothballed since it was completed in the early 1990s, Cherry did get to oversee a 90-day trial of the plant at 10 percent capacity. The goal was to determine if the plant was still viable, what it would cost to make it operational and the cost of running it.

The demonstration run not only was successful, it exceeded expectations, he said.
 
With proof the plant will work and a water source available, the future of the plant is now up to Reclamation and the basin states, he said.
 
Meanwhile, Cherry plans to remain in Yuma - a community he has embraced as home. And while he is still passionate about water, his role in the future isn't certain.


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Joyce Lobeck can be reached at jlobeck@yumasun.com or 539-6853.

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YUMA AREA USBR FACTOIDS

-Goes from Davis Dam to the international border, and from the toe of Painted Rock Dam to the other side of Palm Springs
 
-It includes 12 irrigation districts
 
-It includes 12 Indian tribes
 
-19 communities lie along the river's corridor
 
-The river in the Yuma Area irrigates 2 million acres of farm land, including Mexico
 
-The river in the Southwest is the lifeline for 18 million to 20 million people