Irrigation project looking up under new management
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PABLO — In August, project manager Gordon Wind compared the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project to a rusty Titanic headed for an iceberg. Formerly managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Flathead Reservation’s 100-year-old system of canals, ditches and dams was turned over to a cooperative management entity composed of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the Flathead Joint Board of Control last April — an unprecedented move in water management on a reservation, JBC Chairman Walt Shock noted.
“We made history,” he said, explaining that all other Indian irrigation projects are BIA-run.
Thirty years or so of neglected maintenance on the project meant Wind found himself at the helm of a sinking ship. But after nearly a year of ditchriders cleaning out waterways and repairing structures, things are at least better than they’ve been in decades, Wind and several board members explained at the FIIP annual spring water meeting last week in Ronan.
“Gordon (Wind) did a great job. He has a good staff; they got a lot of work done this past year,” CME Chairman Steve Hughes said. “So we had a banner year last year as compared to previous years.”
With 128,000 acres, 17 dams/reservoirs and 1,300 miles of canals and laterals to maintain, much of which is greatly deteriorated, the 22 FIIP irrigation system operators have their work cut out for them. From April to December 2010, workers logged more than 1,000 hours on each of the project’s three excavators, cleaned more than 100 miles of laterals, replaced 20 turnouts and several under-drains, sprayed 20 miles of waterways for weeds and completed several miles of tree and brush removal, Wind said.
“We’re kind of overgrown and overrun (with weeds and brush),” Wind said. “Right away we went out and started cleaning some of these ditches wherever we could go.”
Wind commended his ditchriders for excellent work removing trees and brush over the winter. Three crews focused on clearing trees along the most-clogged waterways and obstructed right-of-ways around the reservation, and while the new maintenance push might have been surprising for some landowners, Wind said crews tried to avoid clear-cutting.
“We tried to work with the landowners and leave a few (trees),” he said.
For landowners requesting maintenance on waterways through their land, Wind explained that maintaining main supply canals is top priority, followed by work on laterals that are in jeopardy or extreme disrepair, then turnouts and checks, ditch cleaning, seepage and water loss and lastly, weed control.
“If we can’t get the water to you at all (via a main canal), it doesn’t matter if our turnout leaks,” he said.
Unobstructed waterways provide the best service, Wind said, so landowners should be motivated to do what they can to maintain the irrigation system. People can help by keeping trees, brush and weeds from growing in canals, ditches and right-of-ways, burning and spraying for weeds and keeping open access along waterways by installing cattle guards and keeping gates open.
“The more that you can do in your own back yard, the better off it’s gonna be for everybody,” Wind said.
The project also needs fill dirt, and Wind said his crews would be glad to take any unwanted fill dirt or clay.
With all the talk of spring flooding of late, water users won’t be surprised to learn that the irrigation forecast calls for plenty of water.
As of March 1, the Flathead Basin’s snowpack was 127 percent of average and 175 percent of what it was last year.
“At this time last year the forecast was pretty bleak ... but this year we’re looking really good,” FIIP’s Pete Plant said. “We’re looking really great for snowpack.”
The Mission Valley’s March 1 snowpack was about 138 percent of average, he added.
