Twin Lakes Canal Improvements –  Camas Soil and Water Conservation District
From IDAHO CAPITAL SUN Article

The Twin Lakes Canal Project is enhancing two sections of an aged and deteriorated canal in southern Idaho’s camas prairie. The Water Quality Program for Agriculture grant proposal was approved for $123,750 in state funds for the project, which benefits five producers in the local area. The project was completed this fall for a total projected cost of $161,250, with the local irrigation company providing $37,500 in cost-share funds.

The first phase involved repairing an elevated flume where the Twin Lakes canal flows over the top of Soldier Creek.

“This flume was in terrible shape with holes eroding the steel siding and the concrete crumbling in most sections,” said Jake Connelley, a water quality specialist for the Conservation Commission. “We contracted with Bridges Construction to replace the steel and some of the wood components.”

Phase two was to put a new shotcrete lining in the inlet and outlet of the flume, and to reline several hundred yards of the Twin Lakes canal from the Mormon Reservoir dam.

Camas Water Quality Program for Agriculture grant covered the costs of repairing the flume over Soldier Creek. (Jake Connelley/SWC)

The water savings from the flume improvements are estimated to be roughly 178 acre-feet of water over the 45-day irrigation season. The water savings from the canal lining are harder to estimate, but it should be “considerable,” Connelley said.

Large pools of water built up around the canal within a week of the water being turned on, he said. These projects affect five Twin Lakes canal shareholders, two of which use surface and groundwater irrigation.

“The water savings from these projects will be especially useful for these two shareholders,” Connelley said. “The shareholders will have more surface water that will be accessible to them, and as a result, they shouldn’t have to do as much groundwater pumping, benefitting the aquifer.”

Steve Miller, one of the producers involved in the project, said he’s happy with the improvements. “It’s a real good project for us. We’ve had a lot of water losses with the leaks in that old flume and the old concrete canal. We estimated we were losing nearly half of our water to the leaks and seepage through the cracks in the canal.”

The Camas Soil and Water Conservation District typically does not have the funds or manpower to do such projects, but with the assistance of the Water Quality Program for Agriculture grant, they were able to complete this project that is so vitally important for their water quality and conservation needs, officials said.

Miller, who serves in the House of Representatives in the Idaho Legislature, said he hopes that state funding for the Water Quality Program for Agriculture program will continue because of all the benefits it provides statewide.

“I think we’ll continue to fund the program as long as there are funds available,” he said.

For more information about the Water Quality Program for Agriculture grant program, contact Loretta Strickland, deputy director of the commission, at 208-810-0769 or loretta.strickland@swc.idaho.gov.

Steve Stuebner writes for Conservation the Idaho Way on a regular basis.