Jerome’s Water System

By John Scarcella

It was the summer of 1987 and my family and I were in a Jeep crawling along the flanks of Mingus Mountain. The map said there were springs up here. My God what a view! Suddenly there was a pipe and the gush of water could be heard inside. We followed the pipe up the steep hill and came to a metal door in a cool dark cave. “TOWN OF JEROME WATER-KEEP OUT” the sign said.

We found four or five other springs gurgling from cave doors that day. We also saw leaking plastic pipes along the road and I thought to myself, this is a great water system, it looks like it needs some work. Little did I know that one year later it would be my responsibility to maintain this water line. For the next seven years I learned every foot of Jerome’s water system. Best job I ever had.

Our water comes from the womb of Mother Mingus. It originates as snowfall or rain that seeps down through the basalt and limestone and comes out the many cracks that early day miners discovered and tunneled back into to collect and send to Jerome. Some of the water from our taps fell as rain only days ago, while some may have been snowmelt 50 years ago or longer.   We don't really know.

As we enter into the seventh or eighth year of below normal rain we have to ask ourselves some questions:

--Do we have enough water for current uses?

--If the drought continues what will the water sources do?

--Should we stop any new growth?

--Should we ration water? Charge big users big fees?

--Should we build new storage tanks? Where and who pays?

CURRENT SUPPLY

As this is written in mid-May of 2004 we have an adequate supply of water. Typically our “crunch time” comes in June when the springs’ output is at it’s lowest and the Town’s use is at it’s highest . According to recent measurements by Phelps Dodge about 160 gallons are flowing into the Town’s pipes every minute. This flow is about 25% less then measurements they took in 1949. Earlier this year after the snowmelt and during the wet years before the drought we would have had close to 300 gallons per minute and would still be allowing excess water to dump from the pipe before it got to Town. Our incoming pipes can only flow about 300 gallons per minute .Our system is all spring fed gravity = no pumps anywhere.

We have about 14 springs in various locations- Walnut, Tunnel and the Intermittent Springs are located about 2 miles from Jerome along the 89A. There is a 165,000 gallon tank there that fills with water from the springs called Intermittent. As the name implies these springs are like Old Faithful only not hot, not faithful ,and they don’t shoot into the air. They periodically gurgle up and flow at a rate of up to 1,000 gallons per minute and then they shut off completely after a few hours. This heavy flow is captured in the tank and then drawn down through the chlorinator at a rate of about 5 gallons per minute. The intermittent springs are greatly affected by the drought. They only run about once per week now compared to every day during wet times. The tank they fill can be used as emergency water if there is a fire.

Most of our water comes from the Allen Springs line. This series of 8 springs stretches out along Mingus Mountain for about 10 miles and begins with Allen Spring. A tunnel connects to a natural cave that goes over 1 mile into the mountain. The other springs, Copper Chief, Twin (two), Silver, Blowout , Baltimore and Cliff are similar to Allen Spring only smaller and with shorter or no cave connections.

These springs are all somewhat weather sensitive and may produce many thousands of gallons per minute during heavy rainfall or snowmelt. During extremely heavy flow the sides of some spring tunnels are eroded and very fine clay can be seen in our water. Don’t worry: the water is still safe to drink because it has filtered through many feet of soil before it hits the tunnels. One of our future requirements may be to filter our water because of these occasional bursts of cloudy water.

Building this system must have been quite a project considering the terrain. It worked well until the 1970’s when there were so many leaks in the old pipe that not much made it to Town. Because of grants and loans we have replaced 95% of the pipe and now have very little maintenance needed. When I started in 1988 we made regular trips to the dumpster at Cottonwood Tire Store to get strips of inner tube to make repairs. Root balls were also a constant problem. We were lucky to get 100 gallons per minute until the final sections of new pipe were installed in 1993.

The Allen Springs and Walnut Springs lines converge in 89A about a mile from Jerome. The water passes through Town and whatever is needed is taken off through the many miles of distribution lines to our homes and business’s . Excess water flows into the 2 tanks above Town (100,000 gallons each) and if they are full it flows into the “overflow ditch” which you can see making it’s way down the hill. Any excess water ultimately soaks into the ground before reaching the Verde River. It likely recharges the aquifer around Clarkdale.

DROUGHT EFFECTS

This is the longest drought our water system has suffered. The rainfall amount 2 years ago was the lowest ever recorded. The fact that we made it through with adequate water is indicative that much of our water is not “young”. A good portion of it is obviously from precipitation that fell over many years. This is good but is still not a guarantee that a continued drought will not drastically reduce our flow. Tree ring data show droughts of 40 years have occurred. What will our flow be then? The largest storage tank in the world won’t save us if the springs start drying up.

We need to closely monitor our spring flow and see what the correlation is between rainfall and spring output. With our current population and usage we have a pretty good “cushion‘; with continued growth and any major development that cushion will disappear.

WATER AND GROWTH

How did Jerome get by with its water supply (even if it was double the current output) when there were up to 15,000 people and 2 active mines (1920’s)? There are 4 reasons:

--Most homes had no indoor plumbing and there were very few gardens.

--There were fewer leaks because the distribution pipes were newer.

--There were many more water storage tanks to capture the heavy flows during the heavy rainfall periods.

--Tourism was not a major industry. Even though we only have 400 or so residents we sometimes have a daily influx of several thousand tourists.

Over the past 20 years some new houses have been built. (about 25) . This growth will likely continue as existing lots are built on. Because of zoning changes enacted in 1978, lots have to be much larger then in mining days so there are only about 100 lots that could have new homes. Our system should be able to support this increase if :

---Water conservation is practiced. This may require charging higher fees for those who have high usage. It’s a fact that Jerome is one of the only places in the West that doesn’t charge based on the amount of water used. This is a luxury those of us with gardens will greatly miss. We will be forced to grow low water use plants, use drip irrigation, install low flow fixtures in our houses and cut back on lawns.

---Leaks are fixed. We don’t know how much water is leaking from our pipes but we know it’s a significant problem. Some of these pipes are 100 years old. Every time you see a cottonwood tree you know there is probably a leak somewhere.. A large problem also exists on the mining company properties where miles of lines were left active even when buildings were torn down. A flow meter shows 30 gallons per minute is going to the Phelps Dodge mining property. It is likely that at most of this is from leaks. There are also many leaks around Town that need to be found and fixed. This can be very expensive because the leak may flow into cracks and tunnels and never be noticed.

----New tanks are built. Our current storage is only about 1 days’ supply. We need much more then that. What if the incoming lines break? What if there is a massive fire? Just ask Joe Lazaro.

New developments must be discouraged. There is a great deal of property within the Town limits that is owned by the mining companies or bought from them in large chunks. If they were to build subdivisions with 100’s of houses our water supply would be quickly overextended. We cannot allow such developments to be built and this should not be a problem since Arizona law requires an assured water supply. A developer must show a proven 100 year supply. We must fight any new subdivisions. We may need to change some provisions of our subdivision code. The time to do this is now, not when an application is made.

NEW TANKS

One  of our immediate needs is for new storage tanks. The fire protection factor alone justifies them. The two major problems are where to put them and how to pay for them. I hope that the new council will seriously examine the options and take action to get more water storage.

Money can be gotten through grants, loans, and user fees. We currently charge new houses $5,000 for a connection fee to the water system. Perhaps we could increase this amount and put it towards tanks. If we had to we could get a loan and use hook-up fees to make the payments.

Where to put the tanks involves both engineering and ownership issues. Phelps Dodge owns the land where our tanks now sit. They would have to give permission to add new ones. Also keep in mind that PD claims the water rights for our springs. We provide them with water at no charge and they have a very large influence on any decisions we make. Because of an old agreement with the Verde Extension mine (now called Verde Exploration) we also provide water at no charge to the “Little Daisy” and 5 houses, and mining buildings by the Jerome State Park. With help from us they maintain the lines in this area. Verde Exploration is considering a new line directly from Town to solve the leak problems and provide greater flow.

The engineering for the tanks is complicated because if we put them below the existing tanks we change the whole pressure equation of the system. Currently we have a series of pressure reducing valves to manage the high pressure from the 1,000 feet of fall in our system. A new tank at a lower elevation would mean water would have to be re-pressurized to match the pressure at that elevation. That would mean pumps and complication. Also, you may have noticed that Jerome doesn’t have much flat ground such as that needed for a tank and what there is would be very expensive.

There were tanks on Phelps Dodge property that served the mine and residents of Sunshine Hill. These tanks could be rebuilt but would only help that section of Town because they would be lower. Again we are talking about pumps.

Another option is at Walnut Springs where we already have a tank. The problem there is that the water from Allen Springs line doesn’t go there unless we build a direct line. This could cost more then the tanks.

The best solution from a perspective of plugging right into the system would be to add tanks adjacent to the 2 that we now have up by the “J”. The difficulty there is getting materials to the site and preparing a flat area. It would have to be done by helicopter or construction of an extremely steep road.

CONCLUSIONS

I prepared this report as I am about to become a member of the Jerome Town Council. One of the reasons I ran for office is because I believe there are important decisions to be made regarding our water supply. I know that the rest of the council  and the Towns citizens share this concern. Jane Moore has been a tireless campaigner for preserving the water for not only Jerome but the entire Verde Valley. Decisions made now can affect lives many years from now. We need to educate ourselves on these issues and make the right decisions.

We are blessed in Jerome to have a good source of clean water. This supply is adequate for the immediate future, but many forces, both natural and man-made, can cause a great deal of difficulty in our lives. It is critical to examine the various issues and take action before there is a larger problem.