by Darrell Singleton

 

To the Wickenburg Town Council and Residents of Wickenburg "HELP! "

   I received a registered letter from the Maricopa Flood Control District to sign and return to them within 10 days. It requested that I sell them a permanent easement on my property. The flood control board plans will make Sols Wash resemble the Hassayampa River.

          Now I have worked 30 years, at my own expense and labor to clear all the islands and trash out of the three washes going through my property and that of my neighbors. I wanted to preserve the land that would have been destroyed by flooding if I had not done so. I wanted to preserve the habitat that was entrusted to the owners to care for and beautify. Three or four different years I have spent $10,000.00 out of my own pocket to hire heavier equipment to work on some spots that my equipment was not adequate to do. However, if people that live above you or below you will not do anything to clear obstructions or allow you to do it you have flooding problems anyway. We had a big bottleneck below Sols Wash Bridge, and what water that came down backed up and flooded residents on the north side of the wash all through Coffinger Park and everyone to the river.

          In order to involve landowners above me to cooperate, I proposed a “nature trail” from Coffinger Park to the Vulture Mine Rd. The land owners could donate a 30 foot strip along the northeast bank of their property to the town of Wickenburg. There were plenty of federal funds available to build trails with but the town government had to sponsor the project and apply for the government money to do so. The landowners could get a tax break on the value of the donated land. Guess what, the town fathers, the town council, would have nothing to do with the project. The Wickenburg Horsemen’s Association, and a couple of city clubs donated some money to fund the project to help. But when land owners above me turned thumbs down and wouldn’t let us do anything on their property it stopped the project. Then I returned the donated money to those that tried to help.

          Through my work I did get the water in Sols Wash to flow over to the south end of Sols Wash bridge so that it would flow faster to the river without backing up and flowing over the highway. Of course, when that happened the people along the southwest side of highway got flooded.

          Next, the city had a reservoir built up behind the bowling alley to prevent flooding along that area above me and ran two large pipes to take rain overflow underground to prevent flooding in that area. Great idea it worked well, but when the pipes got to Sols Wash instead of laying the pipes to angle the water to go with the flow of Sols Wash water, they headed the pipes in at a right angle and built a big bulk head out in the wash that not only shot that water straight to the north side of the wash but directed the Sols Wash water flow with it. Stupid? Yes.

          After the people got flooded along West Cavaness St. the County Flood Control proposed to move the south side bank from the bridge to the railroad about 20’ and riprap it. I donated what land I owned on that side thinking that it would again get water back to the south end of the bridge. I thought that there would be a water engineer on the job to see that it was done properly. Too bad, so sad. There wasn’t . When you drive across Sols Wash bridge, lookup stream and you will see a huge “V” that directs the full force of Sols Wash to the west end of Cavaness Avenue. Then the next rainstorm, all the people along Cavaness to Palm Drive got flooded badly. It also washed away the strip of land away that I had preserved for the purpose of preventing that, and allowing the two streams of water to flow together side by side and the larger stream would siphon the water along without turbulence. Now flood control engineers want to remove what is left of the land that I preserved to protect Cavaness Avenue residents to make a large retaining basin. Stupid.? Yes.

          Now county flood control has 10 Million dollars of FEMA money to spend on Sols Wash and they will not clear out the obstruction and debris downstream from Vulture Mine Road and have a free flowing river. A free flowing river properly guided will do most of the work for you. The water flowing down the middle of the channel flows twice as fast as on the sides as it draws the water from the sides which prevent erosion of the banks and so forth.

          Yes some rip rap will have to be put on dykes that have to be put up to prevent main Sols Wash from changing its channel, because of island and trash that is forcing it to find a better way, which would be washing across to the secondary channel which comes down and in at Cavaness Ave.

          Instead of cleaning the debris and islands in the main Sols wash, county flood control wants to enlarge the secondary wash and rip rap it and bring all of Sols Wash down it. The strip of land that has separated the two washes, the elevation of it is a foot and a half higher than the land that is on the east side of the secondary wash. We need to preserve that strip of land and not let the water cross it to the secondary channel.

          The work that I have done on the main channel of Sols Wash s so that it flowed

freely has lowered the bottom of the streambed from 4 to 6 feet. Old cars that people had said has sunk in quicksand are being resurrected. However, they never had sunk, they just got buried in sand that caused the river bed to fill full of sand because of obstacles.

          Anybody that has lived in this town 30 or 40 years knows that and has seen all the main channels fill with brush and the sand build up until the water has to find an easier route around it .Landowners along the streams know that it is what causes the river to start destroying their meadowland and pastures. They have tried to remove obstacles from the streams and to get the water to flow where it belongs and have been threatened by the flood control district to put it all the obstacles back within 30 days or pay a big fine

          I have not been threatened and told to put it all back or pay a big fine. The people that have watch my work on the wash know that I know what I am doing and will preserve instead of destroying heritage and habitat for generations to come. Something they can be proud of.

          I have worked with water all my life, from the time I was 10 years old, maintaining canals and irrigation systems in Idaho, from Three Rivers to the North fork of the Snake River, Fallriver and Teton River. You had to anticipate problems before they happened .If an irrigation system failed in the middle of a growing season all the crops were lost. We did not let that happen as our livelihood depended on it.

          Well, I’m 80 years old now- I don’t have much time left. But I would like to leave behind free flowing streams; preserved habitat and a heritage that the people of Wickenburg need not be ashamed of (like the Hassayampa River). It can be fixed now also, now is the best time to do it.

          In early July, I requested our local flood control manager to arrange a meeting with me, with at least 3 city counsel members, and with 2 or 3 county flood control engineers attending. He said that he would do so. I told him to schedule the meeting in 2 or 3 weeks, approximately the 1^st of August as I had to be in Idaho for family reunion and business. He said that if he couldn’t get a meeting before that, then he would arrange it for after I returned. When I returned I called him to report I was back in town. He said that when he got a date set for the meeting that he would call me. He did arrange the meeting-however; he did not advise me of the date nor call me to let me know anything about it. I didn’t know anything about the meeting until it was all over and the proposed flooding mitigation plan was approved by the Maricopa County Flood Control Board and the Wickenburg Town Council.

          I feel like that they just didn’t want anyone there that was experienced in water management to attend.

          If you don’t want it all destroyed, you had better let the town council and flood control boards know to do it our way or forget it. Everything they have done on Sols Wash has compounded the problem instead of fixing it. Talk about job security! Wickenburg residents could fix the wash and the Hassayampa for a fraction of the cost while preserving the environment.

Contact  your City Council Members at City Hall at (928)684-5451 and let them know your not happy.