Getting ready for water.

Post date: Mar 22, 2012 5:18:7 PM

Well, it's that time again. All of our employees are busy getting ready to bring the water in. At the time I'm writing this, my plan is to start diverting water for the State's Early Season Recharge Program on Satuday, March 25th. This is the earliest we've brought water into the canal in nearly 60 years, so we're working extra hours to get ready. Initially, I'll only divert a small amount (100 cfs) and slowly work the water down the system. By April 1st we should have water starting to fill our Big Fill Reservoir. As always I'll try to time fully charging the system until we actually have demand for the water, but the recharge effort will give us a head start. My 'best guess' is that we'll be ready to deliver to all headgates on the system by April 9th at the earliest. If there is little or no demand we may delay that time by a week. As we get closer, we'll have a more precise time-line. I encourage you to contact your ditchriders so we can time removal of fences across the canal. Also, I'll post here as the water moves down the canal and provide some estimates about when we expect water on each ride.

We completed the work on the Rockford Cut Gate project, and I'm quite pleased with the result.

We still have a couple of large projects to finish - the Q1 lateral siphon and the U1 lateral spill are just a few days from completion. We completed repairs to the Nash weir and installed a new weir on the Low Line at Big Fill. We've completed all of our headgate moves, and over the next few days the ditchriders will be preparing their rides.