Provided by John West, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
This undated photo shows an egret in the Lake Havasu City area.
Monday, February 5, 2024 | 2am
Temporary pumps will deliver 5,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water to critical wetland habitat between Arizona and California, while the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will build an $8 million pumping station to keep water levels constant over time. constructed, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said.
Topok Wetland, a 4,000-acre wetland, is a popular spot for boating, fishing, birding, and hunting. It is located along the Colorado River in Arizona's Havasu National Wildlife Refuge.
Located between the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, it is part of a major migratory route and home to 318 species of birds, including the endangered Yuma crapper rail.
“The need for a permanent pump station to pump river water to the Topok Wetlands dates back several years,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a statement. “A permanent pump station will provide a more reliable means of supplying water to Topok Wetland when river flows are low.”
Temporary pumps will supply water to the entrance to the fire canal until February.
The elevation of the wetland varies between approximately 451 feet during the winter and approximately 455 feet during the summer.
Once the pumping station is completed, the wetland will remain at a height of 456 feet, said Tim Dewar, a department spokesman. He said the wetland's gravity feed in the Firebreak Canal will only work if river levels are high enough.
The agency will begin designing the $2 million pumping station in 2022, with construction expected to be completed in January 2026.
Topock Swamp was formed a few years after the Bureau of Reclamation built Parker Dam in the 1930s to create Lake Havasu. It is located upstream from the lake, along the east bank of the Colorado River near Needles, California.
President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order in 1941 declaring the area a National Wildlife Refuge and placing it under the protection of the newly created U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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