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Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot | Could be a buried turnout to the canal, but I'm guessing it is irrigated with groundwater.
Even as dry as Arizona is, there's a surprising amount of groundwater irrigation. Much of the runoff from the mountains during big rains ends up soaking into the ground. Even a lot of the area around Phoenix uses groundwater or a mix of canal and groundwater. I've spent some time around Gila Bend on a place that uses groundwater to irrigate around 15,000 acres. They have wells every mile or so along the canal, and many of them are decent sized wells that can pump 2-4,000 gpm. Put enough of them together and you have a pretty good head of water. They can also use river water, but only water in the Gila River at certain times.
A lot of the cotton and silage corn fields are flood irrigated. AZ is one of the places where it works as well as anything. Sprinklers take less water, but are much less efficient and need to be ran more frequently than flood.
There is another aqueduct on the other side of the Colorado River that starts at Havasu and runs to Los Angeles and San Diego. An then further down the river you have the Wellton Mowhawk and Imperial Canals that are bigger yet. It's no wonder the river dries up long before it hits the ocean... | |
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For you guys wintering in Arizona
