RAINBOW LAKE

April, 2024

FINDING A COMMON GROUND

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To break down the apparent wall between lake enthusiasts and irrigation company interests, the parties needed an intermediary, a willingness to listen to each other for an hour or so, a touch of trust, and a concrete offer of cash with no strings.

 

The irrigation company has rock solid title to all the surface water from the edge of the White Mountain Country Club at the Rim downhill through Woodland and Rainbow Lakes, as well as Porter Creek through Scott's Reservoir, Billy Creek, Show Low and Fool Hollow Lakes.

 

Lakeside residents have no rights to any water or water management. The only exception is the municipality of Show Low which owns one third of Show Low Lake's volume (the reason is for another chapter).

 

Apparently, some lake residents threatened to sue the irrigation company for failing to keep the lake clean. The company's response was to reiterate its territorial rights to the water and threatened to drain the lake. Efforts by the Rainbow Lake Coalition to offer money to the company to fix the leaking headgate went unheeded. In 2022, The Shores formed a Lake Committee and hired a water lawyer to open communication.

 

Between 2021 and 2022, the irrigation company leadership was decimated; the three most active members of its Board died. During the same time, the company debt went into six figures because of the Navajo Hopi Little Colorado water adjudication case, then in its third decade. When the Shores lawyer contacted the company lawyer, the company lawyer had little interest in adding to the company debt to him.

 

Through a lot of luck, Dave Derickson made friends with Eric Penrod, who has a beautiful property on the western shore of Rainbow, and whose family traces its Rim Country roots back to the immigration of the pioneers who ranched the area and acquired the water rights. Eric knew each member of the company board and set up a Board meeting.

 

Dave Derickson and George Shirley, a retired professional engineer and Shores resident, attended that first meeting on behalf of the Coalition and The Shores. They assured the company Board that the community recognized its legal right to the water and to the lakes. They stressed that the community knew they needed financial assistance to fix the dam and ditch works infrastructure, some of which had not been modernized in 150 years, and none of which had been remediated in the past fifty years.

 

Believing that the headgate needed replacement immediately, the two offered to provide engineering advice, work assistance from the Coalition and $15,000 which the Coalition had collected. The only request in return was that they consider a private conservation plan to modernize the infrastructure, reduce the loss of water by leakage and seepage and make a priority of keeping Rainbow Lake as full as possible. The company Board seemed relieved that no written agreement was required nor promises on their part other than to consider a good faith offer that provided everyone with an immediate benefit.

 

George Shirley went to work on plans to replace the headgate, researching state Water Department records to get specifics on the dam. The headgate structure was installed before statehood, in 1911. The manufacturer went out of business decades ago. He found a replacement headgate available and collaborated with the company on redesigning the rods and mechanism for the headgate. He designed a makeshift cofferdam to dewater the area where the gate was.

 

In the meantime, Dave Derickson continued drafting the form of written agreement for the Board to consider. To the Coalition, the key to a meaningful contract was a provision calling for keeping Rainbow as full as possible. To the company, such a provision necessarily had to be subject to two considerations: the predictable draft of sufficient water for irrigation shareholders, and the unpredictable beneficence --- or lack thereof --- of Mother Nature.

 

By the end of 2022, the best of intentions ran into hard reality. Sandbags and cofferdam could not keep enough water out of the headgate box because of the deep silt layer. However, the company was able to clear out silt that had fouled the gear box that opens and shuts the headgate. They replaced the rods that drove the gears. While the headgate still needs to be replaced, their ability to engage a long-term problem with a low-cost 'patch' incentivized them to continue with our informal partnership.

 

Jonathan Ellsworth, the company's new young president, gave Dave Derickson the 'go-ahead' to present the company with a written offer of a conservation contract. In February 2023, the proposed agreement was ready.

 

Next chapter: Would the company sign the Agreement? Who would the agreement include? (Coming soon)

Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona (WIFA) grant update