US Army Corps of Engineers Flood Control Project
The US Army Corps of Engineers Flood Project will put the Rio into a 2-mile-long concrete tube. Although Friends of the Rio wants to control floods, we oppose controlling floods by burying the Rio in a 2-mile tube. After losing our 20-year battle against the 2-mile tube, Friends of the Rio is now working to improve it.
The Rio de Flag, which runs downtown from Bonito Street to Route 66, is a unique and valuable natural resource, an asset, and an amenity to the City of Flagstaff and the surrounding community.
Friends of the Rio de Flag recognizes the need and offers its support for flood control along this reach if the normal, seasonal (non-flood) flow of water on the surface is maintained for the conservation, preservation, and enhancement of riparian and aquatic habitats.
In particular, we support solutions that enhance recreational and educational opportunities, including the incorporation of the Rio de Flag Greenbelt and the Flagstaff Urban Trail System (FUTS).
Flooding on the South side of Flagstaff that undergoes severe flooding damage during monsoons
We offer active support for an open, inclusive process that invites residents, stakeholders, government entities, environmental groups, and local businesses to participate in the planning of flood prevention and/or preparation activities.
The Friends of the Rio de Flag was formed in 2009 to oppose the proposed Army Corps of Engineers’ plan to put the Rio de Flag in a 2-mile-long concrete tube and 1-mile-long V-channel with rip-rap sides and no public access. These artificial channels will run from Frances Short Pond to Warner’s Nursery. Friends of the Rio de Flag supports flood control 100%.
In 1990, Flagstaff’s preferred plan for flood control was to build a detention basin in Thorpe Park baseball fields. This would have reduced the severity of an epic 100-year flood to that of a 25-year flood, and the cost to Flagstaff would have been modest, even with no federal funds. But in 1999-2000 the proposal to build the Thorpe Park detention basin was torpedoed in favor of the 2-mile concrete tomb. The main reason was that people near Thorpe Park raised legitimate concerns about the pine trees that would indeed be killed by creating a detention basin, and legitimate concerns about the ability of the detention basin to withstand a flood. Those concerns are important, but the City could have fixed them. Sadly, since 1999, the City and Army Corps have not considered better alternatives. In those same decades, many US cities, including Prescott Arizona, and Payson Arizona, are ripping out the concrete tombs that buried their waterways and are daylighting those waterways. For a 3-minute overview, see our 2019 testimony to City Council.
Scott and Don Perry kayaking the Rio de Flag north of Meade Lane in Spring of 1993. (photo courtesy of Don Perry)
The Friends of the Rio de Flag did improve the plan. At our insistence, the City has agreed to build a lovely artificial channel with native plants and streamside parks above the mile of the concrete tube downtown (but no improvements in the Southside). We are pleased that the plan has added these improvements, but we predict that after a few decades, Flagstaff will pay even more money to rip out the concrete tomb, as Prescott and Payson have done.
Meanwhile, the Friends of the Rio de Flag is pleased to move forward with two significant improvements, namely Creating Southside’s first park (see in the take action tab), and Creating part-time flow in Sinclair Wash (see in the take action tab) for people and nature.
