Project Status

In 1995, the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) negotiated an annual funding agreement with the United States Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) to construct and operate an irrigation project. That same year, the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project (P-MIP) was organized and began planning the construction of the irrigation system. When completed, it is scheduled to service up to 146,330 acres of land. As a federally-funded project, P-MIP was required to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) documenting the impact the project would make on Community lands. This was completed and submitted to BOR in 1997. In the eight years since P-MIP completed the PEIS, it has built more than twenty-six miles of pipeline, rebuilt seven miles of canal, constructed nine miles of new canal and conducted more than ten environmental studies and planned and designed the Blackwater, Santan, Memorial and Westside reaches of the main delivery system. During fiscal year 2007, P-MIP will have three miles of existing canal under reconstruction and will begin constructing eleven miles of lateral pipeline in the Santan Ranch area. During fiscal year 2005, the first settlement water flowed through the P-MIP constructed system into the Memorial Area. In addition, the project works closely with the Gila River Indian Irrigation and Drainage District in preparing a plan for the agricultural development of the reservation. Before P-MIP can actually construct the irrigation system, it must first design the system, gain the necessary National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) clearances, gain rights-of-way and secure input from the Community and the public at-large. By the end of fiscal year 2005, P-MIP had completed all pipeline construction in the Memorial area and all of the pipeline along the northern boundary in District Six. NEPA clearances in the Santan area have been completed, with mitigating work for the Pima Lateral initiated in fiscal year 2007. By the end of fiscal year 2003, environmental assessments were completed for the Blackwater and Off-Reservation Pima Lateral. The requisite rights-of-way for the planned construction reaches in the Santan area have been secured. In addition, rights-of-way for ST-IC and Santan Ranch Laterals are completed. When the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project is completed, it will have built more than 2,400 miles of canal, pipeline and laterals to irrigate up to 146,330 acres of Community land. What makes P-MIP unique is that it is the first irrigation project in the United States being planned and constructed by an Indian tribal nation through self governance. By so doing, it is setting the precedent that tribal nations across the country can do likewise.