A long-dry second pond at Agua Caliente Park has been renovated so it can serve as a holding facility for water while the popular park’s main Pond 1 is fitted with a liner.
The heavy-duty plastic liner will provide a seal on the bottom of the pond and significantly reduce water losses through seepage, said officials of Pima County, which oversees the park northeast of Tucson. The renovated Pond 2, covering about two acres, was fitted with a similar liner and now holds some water.
A public dedication ceremony for Pond 2 will be held at 9 a.m. on Friday, April 7, at the park, 12325 E. Roger Road.
“Pond 2 will provide another water amenity for folks while Pond 1 is being renovated with a liner,” said Colby Fryar, civil engineering manager with the Regional Flood Control District and project manager for the pond renovation.
Fryar said the $500,000 renovation project also included asphalt paving along the pond perimeter, a decomposed granite path in another area of the site and landscaping.
An exact time frame for work on the three-acre Pond 1 hasn’t been set. But Chris Cawein, director of natural resources for Pima County Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation, said the renovation project could begin by late 2018.
WATER WOES
Pond 1, which had all but dried up several years ago because of drought and the failure of the spring that once fed it, has been restored to near-normal levels with water pumped from a well.
That well water has been sufficient only to maintain water levels in Pond 1 because so much seepage occurs without pond liners. County officials said it’s possible that the new liners and an easing of drought conditions might make it feasible to keep both ponds online at least part of the year in the future.
REBUILDING A POND
Fryar said it took lots of planning, permitting and earthmoving to prepare Pond 2 for installation of a liner.
“It was in the planning stages for a few years,” he said. “For the last year and a half or two years, we worked on getting it permitted. Then it took some time for design, with a lot of meetings and a lot of planning. It was probably a three- to six-month effort just to get the design on paper.”
Construction started in July 2016 and was completed in the fall, Fryar said.
“There was a lot of preliminary work — not just to clean it out but also to provide a suitable grade so people could get close to the water,” he said. “It’s a sort of finesse work to flatten out grades and remove obstructions so the liner doesn’t get punctured.”
The work is expected to pay off — not only for the more than 150,000 people who visit the park every year but also for groundwater supplies and wildlife.
“The ultimate goal is pumping less groundwater, and this will help,” said Cawein. “We also keep in mind that it’s not only for people but also for wildlife,” including waterfowl and other birds.
