NEWS

ASHTON, Idaho, August 31, 2007—A massive cooperative conservation project is set to begin on the Marysville Irrigation Company’s pipelines early September to conserve energy and save water for one community, east of Ashton.

A group of 53 landowners and operators are utilizing the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), offered by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) for technical and financial assistance for a gravity pressurized pipeline project.  Once complete, 6,114 acres of irrigated cropland will receive water by way of three new pipelines, eliminating 25 miles of inefficient irrigation ditches.

Fritz Harrigfeld is one of the participating landowners. He has farmed on the Turkey Track, a tract of land near Ashton that is fed by one of the irrigation company’s canals. That canal will be put in a pipeline this fall and will provide gravity pressurized irrigation water in time for the 2008 irrigation season; two other major lines will be piped in the fall of 2008.

Harrigfeld has farmed on the Turkey Track all his life and remembers farmers talking about piping the canal in the 1940s. The idea has resurfaced periodically over the years but cost has always been a deciding factor against starting construction until recent help from EQIP.

Through EQIP, each producer received 50 percent cost-share for his or her portion of the pipeline project. Each landowner or operator is responsible for the remaining 50 percent of the cost.

Crews began flagging the 3.5-mile pipeline across the Turkey Track in late August.  There will be a total of 40,000 feet of pipe -- beginning with 30-inch pipe at the head of the canal and gradually constricting to 6-inch pipe. With over 200-feet of fall from the head of the project to the tail, most cooperators along the project will receive gravity pressurized irrigation water at their pumps. A few at the upper end will need booster pumps.

“I never thought this would ever happen,” Harrigfeld said of the project. He thinks the cost-share opportunity combined with rising power costs propelled the project forward. On his farm, his share of the project cost will be similar to his power bill, figured on a per-acre basis.

Forty-five semi-trailers will be needed to haul the pipe for the first project. Construction is expected to be completed before winter for phase one. When phase two of the project is completed in late 2008, approximately 20 miles of canals will be piped at a total cost of $3.3 million. Project engineers expect power usage to drop form 1,800 to 2,000 horsepower across the entire project area to just 350 to 400 hp after construction.

Bruce Sandoval, an NRCS engineer in Twin Falls, said the Marysville pipeline is not the first gravity pressurized system the agency has helped cooperators with, but it is one of the largest in Idaho.

Because the seed potato industry is so important to the Ashton economy, special construction specifications have been included in the project. For example, all construction equipment that enters the project area must be dirt-free, Sandoval said.

Not only will farmers see the power savings, the irrigation company will be able to better manage and deliver water to all their shareholders and the farmers will be able to push in the canals that have wound through their fields for more than 100 years. For every acre of canal pushed in, participating farmers have agreed to plant an acre of grass for wildlife habitat.  

For more information on the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), or other NRCS cost-share programs and services, visit your local USDA Service Center or the website at www.id.nrcs.usda.gov.

Photo Caption: The Turkey Track canal is the first portion of the Marysville Pipeline project. The canal system was laid out nearly 100 years ago and was dug by men and horses using slips. The original canal system follows the contours of the land and winds through fields. Not only will the pipeline provide gravity pressure to power irrigation systems, but it will allow farmers to straighten fields.