Water — For a Thirsty Mine

BY EDWARD H. PEPLOW JR. WATER - FOR A THIRSTY MINE

An old-timer once said water is like a woman: you can't live without it, but sometimes it's mighty tough to live with it. This has been especially true in Greenlee County. Back in the days of the early miners, raging floods flashed down the canyons every few years, doing tremendous property damage and claiming numerous lives. But between floods which was most of the timethe miners had difficulty locating wells with sufficient capacity to serve the industrial needs of the area.

James Colquhoun tells the story of one period when the mining community succumbed to the willow-wand craze. Clifton was seriously in need of an improved water supply, and suddenly the town was full of experts in the matter of locating wells. After much debate, one gentleman proved most persuasive and was chosen to locate the well.

Chase Creek is twelve miles long, and Colquhoun said there was only one place in its whole length where it is possible to sink a well without finding at least a little water. That is a spot where some gigantic upheaval of the earth in remote ages past tore off a section of mountainside and deposited it in the creek bed, where gradually it had sunk below ground level.

But that's right that was exactly where the willow wand, "assisted by a jag from which its holder was suffering," dipped down and indicated the spot to drill. And drill the townspeople did. They battled down into the barren rock sixty feet and didn't find enough water to flush out the drill holes.

Today the water problems of the district have been solved in much the same manner as the mining problems, by engineering imagination and skill. The benefits have spread far beyond the borders of Greenlee.

Before the decision could be made back in the 1930's to proceed with the vast expansion of the Morenci mine, Phelps Dodge engineers had to be certain of a sufficient, long-range supply of water. Copper mining is not a large net consumer of water; in fact at Morenci Phelps Dodge reclaims and reuses 89 percent of its industrial water. But without water modern ore benefaction could not be accomplished.

The first step to secure water was for Phelps Dodge to purchase water rights on Eagle Creek, six miles from the mine. Then they drilled wells farther up the creek, but results were disappointing.

The nearest reliable source of additional water was the Black River, more than fifty miles from Morenci. The trouble there was that the Black is a tributary of the Salt, and thus its waters belong to the Salt River Valley Water Users' Association. If the Phelps Dodge Corporation were to ask for water out of the Black, it would have to find some means of compensating the farmers in the valley for it.

Desert country surrounded by mountains, like so much of Arizona, is subject to flash floods when heavy rains melt the mountain snows rapidly. Such a flood occurred in the spring of 1941 when the single dam the Salt River Project had on the Verde River at that time was unable to contain an unusually heavy runoff. It was obvious there was pressing need for another storage reservoir on the Verde.

Phelps Dodge made a deal with the Salt River Valley Water Users. It built Horseshoe Dam on the Verde to impound floodwaters for use in the Salt River Valley. In return it was credited with the first 250,000 acre-feet stored by the dam, a credit it could use for with drawals from the Black River.

Of course, there was still the problem of getting water from the Black to Morenci. This was accomplished by the installation of a pumping plant which lifts the water 300 feet out of the canyon and dumps it into a thirty-inch pipe, through which it flows nearly six and one-half miles to the head of Willow Creek. There it is metered and released to flow by gravity to another pumping plant on Eagle Creek. This plant lifts the water 1,100 feet into another pipeline through which it is conveyed another six miles to the mine.

Published figures indicate the company has drawn against its 250,000 acre-feet credit of about 5,000 acre-feet a year for twenty-one years. At that rate its reserves could be predicted to last another twentynine years. But in the mining business, and especially in such a huge operation as the Morenci mine, as little as possible is left to chance. Phelps Dodge still was not comfortable.

Accordingly, with possibilities of developing additional water in the Salt and Verde basins, the company turned its attention northward, to the Little Colorado watershed. There it perceived the potential in Show Low Creek. It built a dam just outside of the town of Show Low to impound the creek and create Show Low Lake. The farmers downstream are guaranteed their full annual allotments, with Phelps Dodge getting only floodwaters, if any. Some 1,200 acre-feet of water always are retained in the lake for the benefit of fishermen and other recreationists. Benefits to the company have averaged some 1,600 acre-feet of water a year, which can be saved in credits on the Horseshoe Dam deal.

Most recent of the company's undertakings to make certain of its water resources is the Blue Ridge Dam on East Clear Creek, atop the Mogollon Rim, southeast of Winslow and a few miles from Strawberry. This dam creates one of the most beautiful lakes in the Southwest for the benefit of everyone who loves the outdoors. Some 2,000 acre-feet of water are left in it constantly.

The water it impounds is lifted by pump about 700 feet to cross the ridge separating the reservoir from the Salt River watershed. It is dumped into the East Verde, via which it runs eventually to the Verde and the Salt River Valley. Completed only two years ago, the system promises to earn Phelps Dodge some 6,000 to 7,000 acre-feet a year credit for withdrawals from the Black.

So the effects of the solutions of Morenci's water problems are indeed widespread. Three beautiful lakes have been created for the use and enjoyment of the public; valley areas have been protected from floods; floodwaters have been saved for beneficial use; Phelps Dodge has the water it needs; and the United States will continue for many years to receive Morenci copper which is so vital to the country's industrial prosperity and military might.