Arnold Irrigation District is ending one of its best water seasons in years in a ‘challenging’ situation
Barney Lerten
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — The Arnold Irrigation District is wrapping up one of its best water seasons in years in a bit tricky fashion, as it works to balance the system of canals and pipelines while some patrons ask to stop water deliveries early.
In a letter sent this week to the district’s 600 or so patrons, mostly in southeast Bend, Board President Bob Schuur said they are “experiencing an unusual challenge we have not encountered in many years.”
“A significant number of patrons have requested to discontinue irrigation water delveries,” Schuur wrote. “While these requests are understandable, they have begun to affect our ability to effectively serve those who still require water.”
Schuur explained that the delivery system as configured “depends on a consistent flow to operate efficiently. When too many turnouts are closed, the system struggles to deliver the correct volume of water to remaining users.”
With lower needed volume or pressure, some patrons might receive less water than expected, or even none at all. But increasing water flow to ensure delivery risks flooding at the ends of the system where shutoffs have occurred, and Schuur said that “is a risk the district cannot take.”
Balancing it out “is becoming increasingly difficult,” he said, so they might have to conclude the irrigation season and halt water deliveries earlier than the originally scheduled end date of Friday, October 17th.
Schuur tells us they haven’t been in this situation since before 2020, because drought conditions meant “there wasn’t water to distribute” this late into the year.
But thanks to last winter’s healthy snowpack, “It’s a good year,” he said. “We’re really quite pleased with how things have gone this year.”
“When it starts to get cold, lots of farmers say, ‘Hey, I’m not going to get any growth, I’m going to shut my water off.” The system needs a certain amount of water(flowing through it) to function properly.”
“Our goal remains to run until the 17th,” Schuur said.
Meanwhile, the district is about halfway through its project to pipe 12 miles of its main canal.