Agua Caliente Spring is flowing once again

The spring at popular Agua Caliente Park — which had dried up in recent years, leaving the park’s main pond all but empty — is once more running.

The renewed spring flow, along with large quantities of water pumped from a well, has helped the pond recover to nearly its normal 3.5-acre size.

Officials with Pima County, which manages the park, say snowmelt from the mountains might have brought new life to the spring — but at a limited rate of flow.

“It’s not welling out water the way it used to” before drought and other factors caused the spring to dry up, said Kerry Baldwin, manager of the county’s Natural Resources Division. “But we are seeing a bit of flow from the spring. … The water is making it all the way down to the park’s main pond.”

Other county officials were also cheered.

“It’s definitely good news,” said Mark Brosseau, parks manager for Tucson Mountain Park. “Last fall there was nothing coming out of the spring. In the last few weeks it’s been flowing on its own.”

That flow and the revitalized pond are likely to please park visitors, who value the site for its oasis-like setting, aquatic wildlife, walking paths and diverse bird population.

SPRING SOURCE

“We don’t know the particulars of exactly where that water in the spring is sourcing from,” Baldwin said. “But there is something happening below the surface. There is some additional water coming back into that system.”

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One possibility is that melting snow from the Catalina Mountains has helped revive the spring.

“Some of the water that has been tested in the spring is very old water. More than likely, that’s water coming off the Catalinas. It takes time for the water to percolate all the way down there,” Baldwin said.

While water flowing from the spring has been of some help in refilling the park’s main pond, it’s the pumping of well water into the pond that has largely driven the recovery.

“About 47,000 gallons a day is being pumped” from the well, Baldwin said.

DRAMATIC GAINS

“On March 25, 2014, we were 34 and one-eighth inches below capacity in the main pond” — reflecting the effects of prolonged drought, Baldwin said. “Today, we’re only an inch and a half or 2 inches low.”

He said today’s slight depth deficit isn’t enough to significantly impact the pond’s surface area.

“At full size, it’s about 3.5 acres,” Baldwin said. “And it’s right there now.”

He said plans call for renovation work to begin in late April or May on the park’s currently dry Pond 2. The work — installing a plastic liner to cut water loss and reducing the pond’s size — could eventually make it possible to keep the pond filled for at least part of each year.