Facebook Twitter Email
OCTOBER 19, 2000

The Yavapai-Apache Nation is one of several parties pleased with the final agreement to close a diversionary dam in Arizona.

Along with several environmental groups, the tribe has been negotiating on terms of closing the Childs-Irving hydroelectric power plant, owned by Arizona Public Service (APS), a private company. Located on Fossil Creek, a tributary of the Verde River, the plant is also situated near the tribe's home in Camp Verde.

"We are grateful that a sacred part of our traditional landscape will be returned to a natural state," said Vincent Randall, chairman of the Yavapai-Apache Nation, on Tuesday.

The power plant consists of two separate generating stations, the Childs and the Irving. Both were built earlier this century and provide just 0.1 percent of APS' total generating power per year.

Together, the stations have been diverting as much as 95 percent of the flow in the creek. Consisting of a system of pipes and flumes, the Childs-Irving plant appears outdated to the modern eye and is unlike some of the dams which have been recently removed, such as the Matilija Dam in California, the largest in the world to come down.

Still, the plant has left a 14-mile stretch of the creek without water for most of the century.

Ever since APS' license to operate the project expired in 1994, environmental groups like American Rivers have been calling for the decommissioning of the project in order to restore the creek's natural habitat. The habitat consists of several varieties of native fish and plants, as well as a rare geological formation known as travertine deposits.

The agreement is still subject to approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which regulates hydroelectric projects. The plan calls for water to be restored to Fossil Creek by the end of 2004. APS will also vacate the entire area by the end of 2009, after which control of the area will be returned to the US Forest Service, who own the land.

Other parties who signed the agreement announced on Tuesday are Arizona Riparian Council, American Rivers, The Arizona chapter of Nature Conservancy, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Northern Arizona Audubon Society.

View a Slide Show on Fossil Creek with Maps and Info:
Geochemical Evolution of a Travertine Depositing Spring: Fossil Creek, Arizona (US Forest Service; Dept of Geology, Northern Arizona University September 1999)

Relevant Links:
The Yavapai-Apache Nation - www.yavapai-apache-nation.com
APS - about.apsc.com
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission - www.ferc.fed.us

Related Stories:
Babbitt continues dam busting (Enviro 10/12)