CRJ-900 RETURNS TO DEP ARPT DUE TO MALFUNCTIONING FUEL TRANSFER SHUT-OFF VALVES.

Narrative

AFTER ROTATION PRIOR TO GEAR RETRACTION; WE RECEIVED 'L XFER SHUTOFF VALVE' AMBER MESSAGE. WE CONTINUED CLB TO ABOUT 8000 FT; COMPLETED AFTER TKOF CHK; FOLLOWED BY EMER CHKLIST. THE XFER SHUTOFF VALVES WERE NOT IN INHIBIT MODE. THE CHKLIST EVENTUALLY BROUGHT US TO IF THE CTR FUEL TANK WAS DEPLETING NORMALLY. THE QUANTITY WAS ACTUALLY INCREASING SO WE FOLLOWED THE 'LAND IMMEDIATELY AT THE NEAREST SUITABLE ARPT.' WE THEN DECIDED TO RETURN TO ZZZ SINCE IT WAS THE CLOSEST ARPT. DSCNT AND APCH CHKS WERE COMPLETED AND ZZZ OPS WAS NOTIFIED. WE DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO SEND DISPATCH A MESSAGE. ABOUT 3 MINS PRIOR TO LNDG; THE AMBER MESSAGE DISAPPEARED; BUT I WAS COMMITTED TO THE RETURN AT THAT TIME. THE SINGLE POINT FUELING SYS HAD BEEN DEFERRED BECAUSE R TANK VALVE WOULDN'T OPEN CREATING A FUEL IMBAL THAT HAD TO BE FIXED BY OVERWING FUELING. I DECIDED TO DECLARE AN EMER DUE TO THE FUEL ISSUES BACK-TO-BACK. WE EVENTUALLY TAXIED BACK TO THE TERMINAL AND WROTE UP THE L XFER SHUTOFF VALVE. I THEN CALLED IN TO MAINT AND WAS TOLD TO EXPECT A DIFFERENT PLANE THAT HAD JUST COME FROM THE HANGAR.