More than two years after a devastating wildfire that scorched much of the eastern flanks of the San Francisco Peaks, officials say they’ve nearly completed a massive flooding prevention project that will end up costing more than $100 million.
When the Pipeline Fire in the summer of 2022 roared across the Peaks, it burned 27,000 acres that had already burned just a dozen years before in the Schultz Fire. What followed was nearly 50 floods in a turbulent monsoon season that damaged homes, destroyed roads, and put some 1,500 houses and more than a billion dollars in ranching property real estate under years of threat.
Chris Dusza is with CivilTec engineering. The firm has contracted with Coconino County to create ways to safely return these ranchlands into usable country. In this case, the firm has set up a pipe-making operation that turns tightly coiled loops of metal into giant 10-foot diameter pipes.
"If we were to truck this out of the Valley, El Mirage or Albuquerque, two pieces of pipe per flatbed, 4,000, 4,500 linear feet of pipe. That’s a lot of truckloads coming up I-17, so it saves a whole lot of money," he said, his voice echoing in the massive metal tubes.
The Pipeline Fire ruined nine watersheds, those giant natural fans of soil, rock and plant life that form on the mountain slopes and slow the water down. These pipes are being used as conduits for underground storm drains.
Man-made sills of rock had to be pounded into the ground where those fans once stood, then the monsoon waters flow into giant channels and ultimately are piped out of the area into natural water channels like the Rio de Flag.
So yes, a lot of pipe. And rock. And funding.
Coconino County’s flood control district is spending about $8 million in local money. The Forest Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service are providing another $124 million in grants for these restorations.

"As you look at all the resources that we’re dealing with. As you look at plants, soil, water, animals, the human part of it is the most important aspect. And so how do we do this in a way that we’re minimally impacting all of those things but also be able to have folks live on that landscape and a lot of that is through proper planning," NRCS chief Terry Cosby said.
Former Arizona Congressman Tom O'Halleran now serves on the NRCS.
"How could we not be able to do it? People's homes were burnt down. Children were put at risk. Our infrastructure was burnt down," he said. "It's an investment into the future. We can't just look at it like 'well, we'll do these when necessary.' You have to say, just like a business runs, where do we want to place ourselves in the future?"
When fires hit the ponderosas of the Coconino National Forest, they can turn explosive quickly. The Tunnel Fire in early 2022 raced on 50 mile per hour winds into 32 homes. The Pipeline Fire two months later sparked to life after a camper burned his used toilet paper in the forest during a fire ban. So the possibility feels more like an inevitability.
"Well the plan is, with all the mitigation that’s going on upstream as well as closer in to town is that, we’re doing the treatment and the mitigation necessary so it can withstand additional post-wildfire flooding," said Flagstaff Mayor Becky Daggett. "And so we’ve got a look on all of the watersheds and making sure we’ve got mitigation in place to keep from flooding."
County Supervisor Patrice Horstman welcomes the work done but warns that ultimately forest restoration is needed.
"That’s going to be the key to getting us out of this catastrophic wildfire/post-wildfire flooding scenario," she said.
This project, with the massive pipes and sills and millions of dollars to hold back the mountain, she calls government at its best.
"This is what government is supposed to do. It’s supposed to be there for people. It’s supposed to help protect and deal with some of the safety concerns we have," she said.