Posted on November 20, 2024
CHANDLER, Ariz. — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers joined the Gila River Indian Community Nov. 14 just outside Phoenix to break ground on one of the first solar-over-canal projects in the Western Hemisphere.
The purpose of the project is to conserve water and generate renewable energy for the community’s tribal irrigation facilities using the installation of solar panels over portions of the community’s canals to accomplish both functions.
It was about a year ago that Col. Andrew Baker, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District commander, joined Gila River Indian Community Governor Stephen Roe Lewis to sign the project partnership agreement for Phase 1 of the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project Renewal Energy Pilot Project, which is the Army’s first nontraditional Tribal Partnership Program project using new guidance from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works.
Now, with the Nov. 14 groundbreaking, USACE and the Gila River Indian Community are another step closer to project completion.
“Our strategic vision for the South Pacific Division is delivering bold solutions to serve and strengthen all communities, and this solar-over-canal project is an outstanding example of the kind of bold solutions we are looking for to help protect the community’s natural resources,” said Col. James Handura, commander of USACE South Pacific Division, which covers 10 western states and four districts — including the Los Angeles District. “This is an innovative and environmentally friendly approach to meet resource challenges and provide renewable energy solutions.”
Handura also mentioned this is the first LA District Tribal Partnership Program project to reach active construction, which he said “is especially meaningful” to be able to celebrate during National Indian American Heritage Month.
“The South Pacific Division holds deep respect for the more than 180 federally recognized tribes within our region, and we’re committed to working together through the USACE Tribal Partnership Program on projects like the one we’re going to celebrate today,” Handura said.
The estimated cost of this project, dubbed Phase 1, is $6.7 million. It is expected to produce about 1,000 kilowatts of renewable energy to offset energy needs and costs for tribal farmers.
Phase 1 is designed to cover about 1,000 feet of canal, with the goal of expanding the project to include additional miles of the community’s irrigation system — one of the most comprehensive irrigation systems in the state.
Although this project was initially intended to be the first in a series of solar-over-canal projects for the Gila River Indian Community, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation-funded “Phase 2” project, located about 25 miles southeast on the Casa Blanca Canal, was completed first, said David DeJong, director of the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project.
“We understand there is a process that the Corps follows, and I believe we fulfilled that process,” said DeJong, who oversees all planning, design and construction of the P-MIP system, including the solar projects. “We are so very appreciative of the community being part of the first-ever (Tribal Partnership Program) project, which, in and of itself, is quite an accomplishment.
“As importantly, this agreement is a reflection of the federal government’s trust responsibility with tribal nations and that the U.S. is taking a whole-of-government approach to working with tribal communities on such important climate change issues as are being addressed by this project. Equally important, this project is enhancing the federal-Indian relationship but enabling tribal nations to be fully self-sufficient.”
DeJong said the groundbreaking is yet another milestone in helping the Gila River Indian Community become carbon neutral with respect to their irrigation project, which he said uses about 20,000 kilowatt hours of power. Once all four projects are up and running, DeJong anticipates the system will be able to generate 70 percent of that power in the form of clean, renewable energy.
“These goals of solar energy fit well with the community’s core cultural values (or ‘himdag’) of being good stewards of its resources and reducing the impacts of climate change,” DeJong said. “We believe there are ancillary effects that benefit everyone, including conserving water from evaporative losses.”
While current projections suggest a reduction in evaporation losses of about 50-60 percent (totaling about 7-acre feet on Casa Blanca Canal and about 5-acre feet on the one in Chandler) over the 25-year life expectancy of the projects, the amount of conserved water is potentially in the thousands of acre feet, DeJong said.
Stephen Roe Lewis, governor of the Gila River Indian Community, said he can trace the beginnings of the project back to November 2021 when he attended President Joseph Biden’s Tribal Nations Summit in Washington D.C. and was challenged with the question of how tribal nations are helping address climate change.
“I wanted to think big,” said Lewis, who, during one sleepless night at the height of the COVID pandemic, remembered an article he read about solar-covered canals in India. “I thought to myself, ‘We have a lot of canals here at the Gila River Indian Community’ and, ‘We lose so much of our water in those canals due to evaporation and system loss,’ and, at the time, we were facing the worst drought in more than 1,200 years. So, water conservation is not just important; it’s a part of our survival moving forward.”
Lewis added that as the community shifts away from a reliance on the Colorado River and toward pumped water sources, electricity became their biggest costs. From there, the idea just “seemed to be common sense,” he said.
“I had no idea then what that one idea might launch,” Lewis said.
“We could never have made this progress without our strong federal partners,” Lewis said. “Those partnerships are so key and critical, especially when we’re doing things in such an innovative fashion. Now, while our project today is not the first one to launch, we would not have launched at all if we had not started with the Corps. Our agreement with you, signed back in November 2023, truly gave us the momentum to move forward to get to where we are today.”
Col. James Handura, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers South Pacific Division, speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony Nov. 14, 2024, for a solar-over-canal project for the Gila River Indian Community in Chandler, Arizona. The project, one of the first in the Western Hemisphere, is designed to conserve water and generate renewable energy for the community’s tribal irrigation facilities.
Partners with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Gila River Indian Community attend a groundbreaking ceremony Nov. 14, 2024, for a solar-over-canal project for the Gila River Indian Community in Chandler, Arizona.
David DeJong, director of the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project for the Gila River Indian Community, speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony Nov. 14, 2024, for a solar-over-canal project for the Gila River Indian Community in Chandler, Arizona. The project, one of the first in the Western Hemisphere, is designed to conserve water and generate renewable energy for the community’s tribal irrigation facilities.
Col. James Handura, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers South Pacific Division, speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony Nov. 14, 2024, for a solar-over-canal project for the Gila River Indian Community in Chandler, Arizona. The project, one of the first in the Western Hemisphere, is designed to conserve water and generate renewable energy for the community’s tribal irrigation facilities.
Stephen Roe Lewis, Gila River Indian Community governor, speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony Nov. 14, 2024, for a solar-over-canal project in Chandler, Arizona. The project, one of the first in the Western Hemisphere, is designed to conserve water and generate renewable energy for the community’s tribal irrigation facilities.
From left to right, Lt. Col. Stephen Brooks, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District deputy commander; Stephen Roe Lewis, Gila River Indian Community governor; and Col. James Handura, USACE South Pacific Division commander, stand together for a photo at a groundbreaking ceremony Nov. 14, 2024, for a solar-over-canal project for the Gila River Indian Community in Chandler, Arizona.
