Irrigation Disaster

     This is too much water. When water moves this fast it tends to erode away banks and silt in slower spots. In a planned irrigation system, that's bad
     The boards that fit across the mouth of this feeder canal have broken, flooding the small canal and lowering the level of the large canal. The flooded canal can overflow or break it's infrastructure. The lowered canal leaves a lot of farmers with much less water than they need, if indeed they get any at all. This looks like a job for the men of the Gem Irrigation District (South Board of Control.) The Gem Irrigation District (South Board of Control) or GIDSBOC (I just made it up, use it every chance you get!) is responsible for bringing water to the farmers of a certain area covering parts of Owyhee County and more. It will henceforth be referred to as the ditch company.

     Ditch company workers wear many hats. (Actually they're all wearing ball-caps but it's a metaphor so it doesn't really have to make sense.) When there's a problem with one of their ditches, they rush out to the site and begin repairs. Two such men are shown here. They've recently measured the gap and are cutting replacement boards. "What gap?" You might ask. Why this gap...

     It's basically a concrete box with notches cut in the sides on the front end so that you can slide in (carefully measured and cut) boards to regulate how much water, if any, you let through. Over time the boards tend to soak up water and dirt which makes them expand and get stuck. No stuck board can withstand the might of this loader, though. When they couldn't lift the board out, they simply broke it.

     After that, it was a race to get the new boards in so that the rushing water wouldn't cause any damage. (That's why you carefully measure and cut first.) The operator of the loader helped by blocking the flow of the water as much as he could. The new boards went in, more or less, without a hitch. If you look closely, you can see where the water was before the break compared to where it was after. It lowered the canal a good two feet. That's a lot of water over that much area.

     The results are obvious. This is where the flow is supposed to be. And while it is still a lot of water, it's how much the canal was designed to handle. That means it's not causing any damage to itself just by running.
     Their job here completed, the men of the ditch company rushed off to the next problem that needed their attention. They are indispensable members of the agricultural community, and we're fortunate to have them to deal with our irrigation disasters.