For the last nine years,
Russ Ingram
has called Metropolitan’s Copper Basin Reservoir home.
“It’s not for everyone – a lot of people would get scared because of the remoteness and all of the animals – but I like it,” the Maintenance and Operations Tech said.
Russ
is the sole resident of the reservoir, located five miles from Gene Camp in Parker, AZ. He maintains the reservoir and surrounding roads, patrols the area and is the point-of-contact for agencies such as the Division of Safety of Dams, Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Geological Survey. He also drives the pontoon boat for Metropolitan’s Colorado River Aqueduct inspection trips – making him the face of Copper Basin for many visitors.
“I like the variety of the work,” said
Russ
. “It’s a demanding job, but you get to see the return on what you’re doing.”
Hired in 1989,
Russ
was at Iron Mountain before coming to Gene Camp in 2010, and soon after moved to Copper Basin. In his career, he has learned many trades including HVAC, equipment operations, aqueduct and camp maintenance, construction and tele- and fiber-optics communications. He credits his versatility to his childhood growing up on farms in Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. “That’s what you did on the farm – if you needed to fix something, you had to figure it out.”
Three decades later, he is still figuring it out for Metropolitan.
“I don’t know where the time has gone. It feels like I just started yesterday,” he said.
