The End of Another Season

Post date: Oct 26, 2011 8:2:23 PM

We shut the Main Canal gates at 9:00 AM Tuesday, October 25th, after 194 days of natural flow. That is the first time we have run continuously on natural flow in the history of the Company. Because of this, we ended the season with virtually all of our storage in carryover. How much of that we will actually get next year depends upon the reservoirs completely refilling. The Bureau of Reclamation is currently spilling water past Milner to draw down the reservoirs to their winter minimums, and will probably continue to spill for most of the winter.

This season we diverted a total of 339,534 AF, delivered 112,519 AF, and spilled 69,439 AF; which leaves a calculated loss of 157,576 AF. In percentages, we delivered 33%, spilled 20%, and lost 47%. This loss is significantly less than our 'normal', and likely due to the high silt load we saw with the extended flood flows. We also accomplished 24,000 AF of intentional recharge for the Idaho Water Resources Board and the Surface Water Coalition.

The Board of Directors will meet on Thursday, October 27th to set next year's assessment, and we will send out Notices the second week of November.

I'd like to give a big pat on the back to our employees for another successful irrigation season. Thanks everybody!