Spring 2004
This is an archived article. Facts and links are current as of publication date.

Photo by John Roberts

Fort Huachuca workers spread mulch on an erosion-control basin to slow runoff.

Contract vehicles began loading and hauling soil from Woodcutter Basin on Fort Huachuca, Ariz., to Copper Sky Subdivision in Sierra Vista Jan. 12, in a move designed to help recharge the San Pedro aquifer.

According to Mike Shaughnessey, Fort Huachuca Directorate of Installation Support realty specialist, the city of Sierra Vista has been conducting similar soil removal activities from Woodcutter Basin and other fort locations three to five times a year for approximately 20 years, under a real estate agreement between the city and the fort.

Past cooperative efforts between the city and Fort Huachuca have focused on developing detention and retention basins both on and off the installation. Completed projects include a drainage basin near Seventh Street in Coyote Wash, Summit detention basin south of Avenida Cochise, and Busby Retention Basin near Busby Drive.

When the Woodcutter detention basin was started about 20 years ago, only a fraction of the fill material was initially removed, Shaughnessey explained. More material has been removed over the years, and the plan is to keep removing material until the recharged basin reaches the water retention capacity and dimensions in the original design plan.

Alan Humphrey serves as the senior engineer for the City of Sierra Vista.

"The excavation of Woodcutter Detention Basin will help the post, the city and the environment," Humphrey said. "Removing material increases the detention capacity of the basin, which increases the potential recharge of the aquifer. Increasing the detention capacity of the basin also increases the level of flood protection to residents downstream. The material being removed is being put to beneficial use as well."

Fort Huachuca has identified another potential detention basin project in South Garden Wash between Country Club and Woodcutter's Basins. The development of this basin will be another cooperative effort between the city and the fort, Humphrey stated. The city is working on and will turn over its project design to the Fort Huachuca personnel who will be involved in the construction process.

In the near future, the city will remove about 25,000 yards of dirt from Woodcutters Detention Basin to create another detention basin on Country Club Wash on Fort Huachuca north and opposite the Country Club housing subdivision. Some of the funding will come from a grant from the Upper San Pedro Partnership, a consortium of 20 agencies that have banded together in a concerted effort to protect and revitalize the San Pedro River.

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