Please help us solve the issue with the flood water on Pomerene Road! We, Least Ag LLC, own the farm west of Pomerene Road with approximately 4000 feet of frontage. We have met with Cochise County engineers and department heads at our farm on multiple occasions to discuss remedies to the flood water flow and back up on Pomerene Road. These meetings have fallen on deaf ears and no actual remedy has been reached. We believe that solving this is very important for the safety of our community!

There have been suggestions of “taking out the ditch” to let the flood water run onto our farm. This concept of taking out our irrigation ditch to prevent the water from backing up on Pomerene Road can not and will not happen. The Pomerene Canal was built in 1908 as a means of using river water to irrigate, long before Pomerene Road was established. Our ditch was installed for that purpose. Cochise County knows the ditch outdates their road, so they or nobody else can force us to remove the ditch. We still use the ditch to irrigate portions of our farm. If that ditch was removed our fields would be ruined by the flood water.

The utilities between our ditch and Pomerene Road (mainly gas and water lines) are very shallow. There were concerns raised by the utility companies at our meetings that if our ditch was removed it would expose those lines.

Little history on Pomerene Road...  Around 1968 Pomerene Road was changed to State HWY 76 and was slated to be paved through to Redington. The route would have been a shorter alternative for trucks to get to the mines from Apache Powder. The idea was scrapped and Cochise County took back ownership of the Pomerene Road and Cascabel Road, respectively. So, this is no doubt a Cochise County obligation to maintain. It is becoming even more apparent recently, as we are seeing more and more people move to our community. Cochise County needs to make this a priority. Also, to our knowledge the clearing of the property across the street from us (the east side of the road) has no bearing either way on the flood water. It has flooded like this for years.

Our proposal, and reason for this petition, is to supply, not give or sell, a 20 foot wide strip of land along the entire frontage of our farm (north and south). This would allow enough room to build a drainage canal below the current grade. Only then, would we agree to takeout our old irrigation ditch so the flood water would run across Pomerene Road and fall directly into the new canal. The canal would carry the water south and then west to the San Pedro River. The entire canal would have to be concrete, to prevent erosion of the buried utilities which would be very costly. This was a concern of County employees at the meetings. At this point, with the amount of traffic that is on Pomerene Road, this needs be a necessity. A few years ago, 4 teenagers in an SUV hit the flood water at road speed, spun out of control and the vehicle rolled multiple times through our fence and into our field. Fortunately no one was hurt, but they were very lucky. 

This solution would mean flood water on Pomerene Road would never “back up” and would only be inches deep, as opposed to feet deep, until the flood is over. It wouldn't back up for days like it currently does. Our fields would also be protected from flood water and our ditch could be removed. We would have to install a new underground pipeline to transfer water to our fields that the old ditch currently handles. That pipeline would also be an expense that would need to be considered. We would sign a contract with Cochise County, that we would clean this new canal as needed with our equipment so the weeds and silt doesn’t get built up and restrict the flow. We feel, supplying our land, time, and maintaining the project on private property is more than enough to give Cochise County, so they in turn can help thousands of people safely use Pomerene Road.

County Supervisor Peggy Judd has been at all the meetings and very helpful trying to get this accomplished. We don't believe contacting her or other county officials is going to help push this through. It seems as though there has to be more of a public outrage and initiative to get the Floodplain Department to make this project a priority. 

If you feel this is a viable solution to the problem please sign our petition and help us solve this permanently. Not only could someone get hurt driving through the flood water, but if there is an emergency on the other side of the water and emergency vehicles can not get through, this could lead to a terrible situation. Our County has a responsibility to keep roads that they maintain safe. Thank you.