More Than 40 Tempe Homes Have Gone Without Irrigation Water Since a Contractor Damaged a Pipe in March, and Some Now Pay $900 City Water Bills

One neighbor in Tempe’s Tally Ho Farms has already lost a large, mature tree, and others on the street are dying, according to the president of the neighborhood association. The cause, residents say, is a broken irrigation pipe that has left yards dry for months.

FOX 10 Phoenix reported on Oct. 26 that more than 40 homes on the same SRP irrigation network have gone without irrigation water since a contractor damaged a pipe in March. Some households that switched to city water now face bills of $900.

A Pipe Damaged During Shopping Center Work

Tally Ho Farms is a historic neighborhood of large parcels near Warner and Rural roads in Tempe. Homeowners told FOX 10 Phoenix that a contractor working for the developer Thompson Thrift damaged an irrigation pipe in the spring while excavating for a new shopping center across the street. Tally Ho Farms South is also affected.

FOX 10 first reported on the neighborhood’s trouble in July and returned in October to see what had changed. The October follow-up found the problem still unresolved.

Repair attempts have not fixed the problem. Chris Runion, a Tally Ho Farms resident, said the trouble has run continuously since March, and that little has changed since the station first covered it in July. In her telling, the story has only moved closer to her driveway.

Runion described ruts, mounds of dirt and buried chunks of concrete left in her yard. Her mower struck one of the chunks, she said, and has made unusual noises since.

$600 and $900 Water Bills on Large Lots

Residents of the neighborhood have two options: pay for city water or go without irrigation. Debbie Keller, president of the Tally Ho Farms Neighborhood Association, said residents are at their limit, and that parcels this large cannot go without water.

Keller reported that one neighbor’s water bill reached $600 and another reached $900, bills that residents who switched to city water say they now face.

For households that depend on the shared system, according to the FOX 10 report, the choice comes down to a bill that climbs into the hundreds of dollars or yards left to dry out.

The trees are the clearest sign of the cost. Keller said one neighbor lost a large mature tree. The FOX 10 report did not give an exact count of dead or dying trees.

How SRP Irrigation Reaches a Neighborhood

The Salt River Project explains on its page about how flood irrigation works that SRP brings water to the SRP delivery gate. On delivery day, an SRP ditch rider called a zanjero opens the gate to release water into the neighborhood.

After the gate, according to SRP, water moves through ditches, channels or pipelines that are owned, operated and maintained by homeowners and their neighbors. SRP adds that each system varies in design, material and maintenance. The page does not say which arrangement applies to the Tally Ho Farms line, and the FOX 10 report did not include a statement from SRP or from the City of Tempe.

SRP’s irrigation account page adds that SRP does not operate private systems, of which it counts more than 1,300 across the Valley. Private systems are typically not installed or maintained by SRP, the page says, and private system maps may be inaccurate, out of date or incomplete. Neighbors or hired contractors may have more accurate information, and for repairs SRP’s Water Contact Center at (602) 236-3333 can supply a list of irrigation repair contractors.

SRP also notes that homeowners are responsible for knowing their neighborhood’s delivery schedule, and that each winter it holds a dry-up season for canal maintenance and repairs, during which irrigation is unavailable.

Nearby, the City of Tempe runs its own flood irrigation service for 17 city parks and about 850 residential customers, and its flood irrigation page notes that water is not provided in November or December because of the Salt River Project’s annual dry-up. That page describes the city’s service, and the FOX 10 report did not say whether the same seasonal pause applies to the Tally Ho Farms network.

A December 1 Inspection and a Pending Reply

Runion said a complaint has been filed with the Arizona Registrar of Contractors, and a site inspection is scheduled for Dec. 1. The registrar’s complaint page says its Compliance Department investigates alleged violations of licensed and unlicensed contracting laws. For repairs and remodels, a complaint against a licensed contractor must be filed within two years of the date work was last performed. Complaints are filed through the registrar’s online portal, and the page says an investigator is assigned after submission and contacts the complainant within a couple of days to review the case.

Whether the registrar’s inspection can lead to repairs of the pipe, or only to action on the contractor’s license, was not addressed in the FOX 10 report. The report also did not say whether residents have left the damage in their yards untouched ahead of Dec. 1.

Thompson Thrift told FOX 10 in July that it was aware of the issue and takes residents’ concerns seriously. A follow-up inquiry went to the company before the October story, and its response was still pending when the report was published.

By the time the registrar’s inspector arrives, the problem will have run roughly nine months, since the pipe was damaged in March.

Until the pipe is repaired, the neighborhood association’s members are left weighing a water bill against the health of trees that, in Keller’s account, are already dying.

Contractor work next to a yard has caused trouble elsewhere too, as in the earlier story of how a contractor working next door uncovered something in the soil that explained a decade of problems in one garden.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: “File:Gillett-(A)-Gillett irrigation ditch.jpg” by Marine 69-71 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.