Award of a $40,900 contract for construction of 20 deep-pit-type circular charcos (earthen stock water tanks) in the Sells and Gu Achi Districts of the Papago Indian Reservation in southern Arizona to L. P. McCrite & Son, Gilbert, Arizona, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.
The McCrite bid was the lowest of 18 bids received. The others ranged from $41,600 to $193,700.
Construction of the charcos is being carried out as part of the Indian Bureau’s long-range program for developing the resources of the Papago Reservation. When completed, it will permit a better distribution of livestock and a more uniform utilization of forage than is possible with the range water facilities now available.
The contract provides for removal of an estimated 280,000 cubic yards of earthen material from the pit areas and additional borrow areas and the placement of this material in pit embankments and collection dikes adjacent to and extending from the pit. It also involves the placement of 2,000 feet of corrugated steel pipe in the collection dikes to provide for passage of the floodwaters from the collection area to the excavated pit.
