A major, if often overlooked, function of county government is flood control.
Over the decades, Pima County Flood Control has installed riverbank protections to prevent washes from eroding into private property, erected levees to keep monsoon floodwaters from overtaking neighborhoods, and built channels and drainageways to keep streets from running with rainwater after every storm.
On Nov. 3, Pima County voters will be asked to approve a $16.9 million question among the bond package to fund wash and drainage improvements. On ballots the measure is listed as Prop. 431: Flood Control and Drainage.
“Half of the town of Marana wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for flood control bonds,” said Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry.
Past flood-control measures helped remove much of present-day Marana from Santa Cruz River flood plains, Huckelberry said.
The same is true for the town of Oro Valley.
“We used bonds to build a flood-control levee and on top of it now stands the Cañada del Oro Riverfront Park,” Huckelberry said.
Taxpayers Against Pima Bonds spokesman Joe Boogaart said he agrees the county should provide flood control services, but differs on how it should be paid for.
“I do think that’s a proper function of government,” Boogaart said, but he added that the county already has a 31.3-cent secondary property tax to pay for flood control.
He said the county could use the money already available or adjust the secondary rate if more funds are needed.
Huckelberry said relying solely on the flood control district secondary tax is an option, but he said he thinks that poses the possibility of tax inequities.
That’s because the flood control district taxes real property or land and buildings, and not personal property.
Primarily it’s businesses that pay personal property taxes, which refers to capital items other than real property such as vehicles or manufacturing equipment.
The $16.9 million bond proposal includes $1.9 million in drainage improvements on Pascua Yaqui tribal lands, $2 million in similar improvements on Tohono O’odham tribal lands and $5 million for acquiring flood-prone and riparian lands.
The most expensive item is a $7 million flood control improvement project at the confluence of the Santa Cruz River and Cañada del Oro Wash, west of Interstate 10 and Orange Grove Road.
The work includes riverbank protections, environmental mitigation and river park enhancements.
The plan also includes improvements to a 615-acre property at the site of a former gravel pit between Ina Road and Camino del Cerro the county bought from CalPortland Cement in 2013 for $4 million.
County officials have proposed using the area, called the Orange Grove Pit Environmental Restoration project, as a groundwater recharge reservoir and recreational lake.
Since 1979, county voters have approved more than $84 million in flood control bonds.
After the devastating floods of 1983, county voters approved a $63.8 million general obligation bond program.
Projects included fixing or replacing 13 bridges damaged in the flood, purchases of flood-prone land, numerous wash bank stabilization projects and relocation of hundreds of residents whose properties were damaged in the historic flood.
“It was huge, massive,” Huckelberry said of the damage the floods caused throughout the region.
The floods claimed the lives of 14 people. Another 221 people were injured and nearly 6,000 residents were forced into emergency shelters.
At least 154 homes were destroyed in the flooding and hundreds more were damaged. Dozens of businesses also were damaged.
Voters also approved $20.6 million in flood control bonds in 1979, which funded bridges and drainage improvements.
