SRP Arizona Canal Dry-up Starts Jan. 6
Maintenance projects, monsoon damage repairs to run from Jan. 6 to Feb. 8
WHAT: Portions of the Arizona Canal on the north side of the Salt River will be drained over the next month for annual maintenance and construction activities and to address monsoon damage on segments of the canal. The maintenance and repair activities will impact some of SRP’s northside irrigation customers who will not receive water directly from the canals during the dry-up.
WHEN / WHERE:
From Jan. 7 to Jan. 10: Crews will be conducting fish herding and relocation of the fish while the canal levels are lowered. Weed-eating, white amur fish are used by SRP to control aquatic vegetation in its 131-mile Valley canal system.
From Jan. 6 to Feb. 8: Crews will be repairing the canal lining from about Arizona Falls at 56th Street and Indian School Road in Phoenix to about 48th Street. This will require Arizona Falls to be closed during this time.
Due to the unprecedented monsoons this summer, portions of Arizona Canal were damaged. Crews will be working to repair the damage from Beeline Highway to the Indian Bend Siphon just west of Hayden Road.
DETAILS: Crews will be in the canal using large nets to herd white amur fish and will load them onto hauling tanks that will deliver them to other portions of the canal system.
Front loaders and heavy equipment will be used to pull silt and dirt from the canal and moving it to large dump trucks throughout the dry-up.
There will be signage posted on the Arizona Canal from 48th Street to the Beeline Highway where the canals banks will be closed to all traffic including bikes and pedestrians. This northside dry-up will result in increased construction traffic on canal banks as SRP crews work to remove silt, replace concrete lining and repair gates as well as make repairs from the monsoon.
SRP is responsible for keeping its canal system in operating condition during normal water deliveries. Canal dry-ups allow SRP as well as other utilities and municipalities to perform construction and maintenance activities in and around the canals. SRP crews also will use the dry-up to examine the canals and underwater structures to look for evidence of invasive adult quagga mussels.
Reporters are welcome to tour the fish herding and canal dry-up process. Contact: Patty Garcia-Likens at (602) 245-0047.
SRP is a community-based, not-for-profit public power utility and the largest electricity provider in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, serving approximately 1.1 million customers. SRP provides water to about half of the Valley’s residents, delivering more than 244 billion gallons of water (750,000 acre-feet) each year, and manages a 13,000-square-mile watershed that includes an extensive system of reservoirs, wells, canals and irrigation laterals.