Colorado River Indian Tribes seek irrigation supervisor in Poston

The Colorado River Indian Tribes were seeking a supervisory irrigation system operator in Poston for work that reaches far beyond a routine federal opening. The job sits at the center of how reservation water is moved, measured, recorded and protected, with the supervisor overseeing lead irrigation system operators and irrigation system operators while handling water orders, daily measurements, delivery records, reservoir inflow and outflow, and instream flow tracking.

For La Paz County, the significance is practical. The Bureau of Indian Affairs says the Colorado River Indian Irrigation Project provides water for agricultural uses on the Colorado River Indian Tribes Reservation, which lies in the western part of the county along 48 miles of the Colorado River and extends into parts of San Bernardino County and Riverside County in California. BIA materials describe the project as an 80,000-acre irrigation system near Poston, with water diverted at Headgate Rock Dam and the main canal serving about 60,000 acres of irrigated land.

The duties attached to the Poston post show how much rides on the person who fills it. The operator would distribute water from storage reservoirs, diversions and canals, operate canal gates, dam gates and checks, maintain records for water delivery and reservoir inflow, and keep constant watch over reservoirs, dams, canals, structures, recorder stations and related facilities. The announcement also said the work was open to current federal employees in competitive and excepted service, career-transition candidates, land and base management employees, veterans, military spouses, people with disabilities, and Native Americans or Alaska Natives with tribal affiliation. Qualified Indian candidates receive preference under the Indian Preference Act, and applicants claiming that status must submit BIA Form 4432.

Poston adds another layer to the story. The wartime Poston War Relocation Center was established in 1942 on the Colorado River Indian Reservation, and historical accounts note that Japanese American detainees there helped build infrastructure, including an irrigation system later intended to serve Native communities. In that sense, the land around Poston has long been tied to waterworks, labor, and the question of who benefits from development.

The modern water politics are just as consequential. On April 26, 2024, Arizona, the federal government and CRIT signed documents implementing an agreement that allows the tribes to market portions of their Colorado River allocation off-reservation. CRIT has said it holds the first-priority decreed right to divert 662,402 acre-feet per year in Arizona, and that by the end of 2022 it had contributed enough water to Lake Mead to raise the lake’s elevation by almost three feet. The tribe also said it made 50,000 acre-feet a year available for system conservation under a prior agreement. In that context, the Poston supervisor is not just keeping canals running. The job helps determine whether water moves cleanly, records hold up, and CRIT’s agricultural and legal water position stays sound in a county where every acre-foot matters.