State honors East Wetlands water

An effort to return additional fresh water to the Yuma East Wetlands has been honored as a top Arizona public works project for 2007.

The project was recently picked as top Public Works Project of the Year under $2 million by the Arizona Chapter of the American Public Works Association. It will now be submitted for national recognition.

The city of Yuma's Utilities Department focused on revegetation and restoration of 25 acres of the 1,400-acre East Wetlands. The city augmented water flows in the area using about 500,000 gallons of drinking water a day.

This water had previously been used to backwash sand filters at the city's treatment plant.

Water used to clean the filters is collected, settled and later pumped into back channels at the wetlands. By returning this water to the Colorado River, the city also gets return flow credits, meaning it costs the city little to reuse the water for restoration.

Augmenting the flows of the Colorado River's back channels keeps an area that would otherwise become overly salty and difficult to restore lush and growing.

The overall East Wetlands restoration project, coordinated by the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area, consists of 1,400 acres between the Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge and the confluence of the Colorado and Gila rivers.

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Sun staff writer Sarah Reynolds contributed to this report. She can be reached at sreynolds@yumasun.com or 539-6847.