FAQ

50 shares equal 1 hour.

• 1 field stream share is $1.15

• 1 garden stream share is $1.25

• 1 rental share from Pioneer Irrigation is $1.50Description text goes here

$125

You can bring a check into the office at 823 E Springerville AZ 85938 or you can mail a check to Pioneer Irrigation Company at PO Box 520 Eagar AZ 85925.

Checks, money order, cashier checks are accepted at this time. No cash or credit card payments can be accepted at this time.

Yes, whether you use your irrigation water or not, your assessment is due every year.

There is a late fee per year, which will be due and payable before any irrigation water will be issued. It will continue to accumulate year after year. After 3 years of nonpayment Pioner Irrigation will revoke the Shareholders water shares and they will no longer have any irrigation rights.

Yes, shareholders may rent out their water to someone that is on their same ditch so long as the shareholders assessment has a $0 balance along with a completed and approved rental agreement from Pioneer Irrigation. The rental agreement can be found in the forms section of the website. If approved, Pioneer Irrigation will contact you with acceptance. It is the shareholders responsibility to collect payment from the renter. The renter must provide themselves access with a system/structure that can be turned on and off, and the property they intend to irrigate must be able to hold the full amount of water rented.

Once on the schedule, you must take your turn. You may find someone to irrigate for you as long as you have taught them beforehand how to do so, so please plan ahead.

Or you may find someone on your ditch to take and use your water on their property, but it must be at the same time you are scheduled so as to not change the schedule for the rest of the ditch.

You must contact the scheduler with a contact name and phone number and any changes you want made to the schedule.

It is the shareholders responsibility to clean and maintain their entire ditch from the headgate to the end of the ditch to ensure that water can properly flow and clogs are at a minimum.  Please work with your neighbors, all the shareholders on your ditch and the ditch rider assigned to your ditch to make sure the entire ditch is cleaned especially the areas where shareholders do not live or long stretches where no one occupies.

Please prepare early and before your turn to verify where the water is and where it will be coming from when it is your turn. If you do not have water, follow your ditch from your property to the headgate and ensure that someone else is not taking your water or it is not clogged somewhere. If it is clogged, it is your responsibility to unclog it and ensure that you can get the water to your property.

Provide access to my property with a system that can be turned on and off. Help clean my entire ditch to ensure water is free flowing and can be accessed by all shareholders on our ditch. Ensuring the water during my scheduled time is not only staying on my property, but from the headgate and the entire length of the ditch to my property as to not flood anyone during my scheduled time, and relieve any clogs along the way to enable to shareholder to get their full stream.

If you intend to make any changes to the ditch such as placing a culvert, building a headgate, adding a fence, etc… you must fill out a new project application form and send it in to Pioneer Irrigation for board approval before any work is performed. The new project application form can be found in the forms section of the website. If your new project is approved by the board, there is a $100 fee that must be paid before any work is started.

In order to sale your Pioneer Irrigation shares you must complete the back of the certificate and have it notarized. You must also complete a sale/transfer shares form and return them both to Pioneer Irrigation with the $100 sale of shares fee.

You can fill out the lost certificate affidavit form found in the forms section and return it to Pioneer Irrigation for a replacement certificate. There is a fee to do so.

Please fill out the sale/transfer shares form in the forms section along with completing the back of the certificate with notarization and returning both to Pioneer Irrigation. There is a fee to do so.

Legal Foundation for Prescriptive Easement for Pioneer Irrigation Company Delivery System

The Mining Act of July 26, 1866 , § 9, codified at 43 U.S.C. § 661) recognizes and confirms rights-of-way primarily for construction of ditches and canals on public lands, in connection with vested water rights under prior appropriation (initially for mining, later extended to agriculture and other uses). It also provides that subsequent land patents are subject to these existing vested water rights and ditch rights-of-way. While it does not explicitly provide easements for cleaning, operating, or maintaining irrigation canals or ditches, the Act of March 3, 1891, granted broader rights-of-way (up to 50 feet on each side) specifically including land "necessary for the proper operation and maintenance" of irrigation facilities.

The Reclamation Act of 1902 (43 U.S.C. Chapter 12) authorized the Bureau of Reclamation to develop large-scale federal irrigation projects, which often involve acquiring or reserving easements for delivery systems. However, the general statutory basis for rights-of-way across public lands for private or district irrigation ditches and canals, including maintenance access, traces primarily to the 1891 era law now at § 946.

The Norviel Decree refers to a 1918 final decree issued by the Superior Court of Arizona in Apache County in the case The St. John's Irrigation Company and the Meadows Reservoir Irrigation Company, et al. v. Round Valley Water Storage & Ditch Company, Eagar Irrigation Company, Springerville Water Right and Ditch Company, et al. This decree adjudicated and established priorities for certain vested surface water rights on the Upper Little Colorado River watershed, dating back to the late 19th century. It has been recognized in subsequent Arizona case law (e.g., St. Johns Irrigation & Ditch Co. v. Arizona Water Comm'n, 1980) as fully appropriating the available surface water in that area, with priorities often not fully satisfied beyond the top 10–15 rights in many years.

There is no specific Arizona statute that expressly creates or provides prescriptive easements dedicated to cleaning and maintaining irrigation canals and ditches. Arizona recognizes prescriptive easements under common law principles, similar to adverse possession but for use rights rather than title. To establish a prescriptive easement, the use must be:

• Open and notorious

• Continuous and uninterrupted

• Hostile (without permission)

• Under a claim of right for at least 10 years (derived from analogous statutes like A.R.S. § 12-526 for adverse possession)

This general doctrine applies to irrigation ditches and canals. Arizona courts have long recognized prescriptive easements for the existence and use of irrigation ditches themselves (e.g., Stamatis v. Johnson, 71 Ariz. 134, 224 P.2d 201 (1950), where long-term use of an open ditch established a prescriptive easement for conveying irrigation water).