In late 2019 the cities of Phoenix, Tempe, and Avondale joined forces to apply for a significant 2020 EPA grant to evaluate and clean-up brownfields (previously polluted or abandoned sites) along the Salt River. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) and private sector experts have partnered in the effort to leverage regional cooperation into multi-year funding. The cities have conducted inventories, secured technical support for priority sites, and formed a Brownfields Advisory Committee of community leaders to help inform future redevelopment of these sites. The City of Phoenix also pursued an EPA Revolving Loan Fund grant to provide funding for clean-up and reuse of strategic sites.

There is significant federal funding currently available for brownfields assessment and clean-up. Contact Cindi Ptak, our Rio Reimagined Ambassador to Urban Waters, to discuss these opportunities.

More information and resources:

City of Phoenix Office of Environmental Programs Brownfields Land Recycling Program

December 2020 Brownfields Webinar recording

In 2023, a 2-year Rio Reimagined grant was secured through the Society for Ecological Restoration Standard-based Restoration in Action program in collaboration with Microsoft, to build a riparian pollinator garden designed by ASU students at the Nina Mason Pulliam Rio Salado Audubon Center on the banks of the Salt River in Phoenix.  With strong in-kind support from the City of Phoenix and planting experience from Tiger Mountain Foundation, a 1 acre garden was restored to provide pollinator habitat, with interpretive signage and programming to educate visitors to the Center on the importance of riparian ecosystems.  Click Here for a video on the community planting day in March 2023. 

To learn more about this project and partners visit:

Audubon’s Newsletter Article:  English | Spanish 

Restoring Nature’s Buzz along the Salt River in Phoenix, Arizona, written by SER’s Standards-based Ecological Restoration in Action program in collaboration with Microsoft. 

Activities, events and resources abound at this jewel of a regional park along the Gila River in the west reach of Rio Reimagined.  EMRP is part of Maricopa County’s Parks Vision 2030 Plan, which identifies the traits of a high-quality regional system of parks, open spaces, and trails, and sets a goal of protection and restoration of river corridors for public recreation and ecosystem services.  From 2022-2023, the park was the site for a new pollinator garden funded by a Rio Reimagined grant from the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management. The project involved numerous national and local non-profit and private sector partners, resulting in the removal of acres of invasive plants and the installation of hundreds of pollinator shrubs and trees.

See also:
Maricopa County’s Natural Resource Plan 2024
A County guide to managing natural resources in their parks.

Over time, changes in water supply, land use and climate have created conditions that threaten the health of the urban riverine ecosystem of the Salt and Gila River.  Many public, non-profit and private sector partners are working together to address this massive challenge with project work in the western reach of Rio Reimagined, led by the coordinated efforts of the Lower Gila River Collaborative and the State Department of Forestry and Fire Management. 

The City of Phoenix is currently in the design stage for a project that will transform access to the Salt River and the neighborhoods north and south, through the construction of a bike/pedestrian bridge at 3rd Street.  This project, funded through a $25M U.S. Department of Transportation ‘Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity’ (RAISE) Grant, will be the city’s first and only dedicated bicycle and pedestrian bridge across the Rio Salado (Salt River).  

The riverbank trails along the southern bank will also be improved through the addition of low-emitting solar pedestrian-scale lighting and pathway amenities between Central Avenue and 40th Street.