A historic GRIC groundbreaking for a ‘first-of-its-kind’ solar panel project stirs up a celebration
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The sound of an auger drilling along the Casa Blanca Canal, south of Phoenix, stirs up a celebration for the Gila River Indian Community on Friday. It signifies the start of a five-year pilot project to cover nearly 3,000 feet of that canal with more than 2,500 solar panels.
GRIC Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis returned to the Southwest following the White House Tribal Nations Summit for this historic groundbreaking.
“The first-of-its-kind project in the Western Hemisphere, breaking ground here, the heart of agriculture — and irrigation — and water conservation,” says Lewis. “And we’re proud to be leading the way again.”
“It’s a good day here at Gila River, because we say water is our life, that’s how we live it,” says GRIC Councilman Gordon Santos, Jr., of District 5, who came to pray before the drilling began. “All the workers here, have a blessed day and just be smiling every time you come into work.”
Among their seven districts, Lewis shared that Santos represents “one of the oldest agriculturally producing areas in our community.” So, the installation of solar panels atop 18.5 miles of this canal, off both sides of Interstate 10, can help Gila River farmers who have been grappling with an arid climate and persistent megadrought for generations now.
Alfalfa, cotton and olive oil are three main crops cultivated on the Gila River Indian Reservation. Saving precious canal water by cutting down evaporative loss is necessary for these Native producers to continue irrigating their fields.
Federal funding to the sum of $25 million stemming from the Inflation Reduction Act, was allocated to “design, study and implement projects to cover Reclamation-associated canals,” according to Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton.
Another nearly $6 million in funding has been set aside by President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda to construct these solar panels. These major capital investments are meant to be two-fold: generate renewable energy, but also improve water efficiency.
It’s a top priority for Arizona and the rest of the Southwest.
About 8.2 million acre-feet will be conserved each year over the 25-year lifecycle, enough water Touton says, to serve some 600 reservation homes. More than 2 million kilowatt-hours of electricity is estimated to be generated annually.
“This is a proof of concept for the Bureau of Reclamation. It helps us to understand what the impacts will be,” Touton added. “The Gila River Indian Community just shows time and time again, its willingness to lead and to be in front of the issues that matter to us.”
It’s also fitting that Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Michael Connor, of Taos Pueblo, the first Native ever confirmed to this post, is now helping coordinate this innovative solar project with an “all-government approach” between the tribal government and federal agencies.
“We’ve done a lot of historic infrastructure development, protecting communities, moving commerce, through this economy for the benefit of the country,” says Connor, “but we haven’t done a great job of working with historically disenfranchised, marginalized communities.”
But when Biden spoke earlier this week at the third annual summit, Connor felt he even locked eyes with the sitting commander-in-chief while standing behind his teleprompter.
“I swear to God, he was looking at me, saying, ‘You know, removing impediments — building efficiency — working in better partnership with tribes,’” Connor recalled. “We were already on that path, as demonstrated by this project.”
“Agreements are good. Groundbreakings are better. Ribbon cuttings are best of all,” says Connor. “We’re moving up from agreements here to groundbreakings and hopefully we will soon be at that ribbon cutting activity.”
