MVID diversion getting major overhaul

By Joyce Campbell

Modifications on the Methow Valley Irrigation District’s east diversion are in full swing, with cement trucks pumping concrete, excavators leveling for the twin intake pipeline and dump trucks moving tons of fill. 

For farmers, ranchers and other water users, it means improving the ability to get water during low-flow periods, according to Vaughn Jolley, MVID chairman. The irrigation district’s east diversion on the Methow River near the smokejumper base and west diversion on the Twisp River near Poorman Creek serve about 280 water users and 1,380 acres.

“With the old dam it was difficult to get enough water,” said Jolley. The log foundation dam had been constructed before the 1948 flood and was mostly removed during earlier phases of the diversion modification project.

Water users served by the ditch company will not notice much change in service, according to Jolley. Users include about 85 Twisp residents watering yards, some landowners with 20 to 40 acres and many landowners with just a few acres. Each diversion serves about half of the district’s water users.

He said not many property owners don’t have water available and some people are not using water for any number of reasons. Jolley uses the ditch water to irrigate his 20 acres of alfalfa on the west side of the valley.
 “Farmers have historically gotten their water from the west canal since 1917 and from the east canal since before the flood of 1948,” said Bunny Morgan, secretary for the district. “This is not going to affect water users. The primary reason is fish passage. The users have always had the water and they still have it.”

The project is intended to reduce impacts to endangered spring Chinook and threatened steelhead and bull trout by improving the fish bypass facility, protect fish screens from flooding and reduce the need for in-water excavation by the irrigation district.

“It should make life easier for them,” said Jennifer Molesworth, Methow sub-basin liaison for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. She said it will be easier for the district to get their water. Before this renovation, they had to push the riverbed up using bulldozers to trap water. “They’re trading a system of gates for bulldozers, using hydraulics instead of heavy equipment.”

The new sediment wasteway upriver from the headgate will manage the sediment problem for the irrigators, said Molesworth. A system of stop-log gates and mechanical shut-off gates will keep the rocks and cobble out of the twin 1,200-foot long intake canal pipes and sluice gates will open and flush sand and fine sediment back into the river. Workers have had to hand shovel sediment in front of the fish screens. “It was hard work and hard on the screens,” said Molesworth.

Construction on the wasteway is taking place four to five feet below the river’s surface, according to Scott Edson, who helped with a concrete pour on Thursday (Nov. 12). “It’s a challenge to keep the river out of the work area,” said Edson. The contractors are using generators to run pumps to de-water the area.

“Everybody that works on this job lives in this valley,” said Edson. “All the sub-contractors are local. We like that.” Lloyd Logging is the general contractor for the project and concrete, steel and fill materials have been locally sourced.

The renovation project began as an effort to restore fish passage during low water at the dam and allow natural river flows to resume. Construction on a new intake structure and canal and modification of the headgate and fish bypass facility is proceeding during November and December to take advantage of low river flows and the off-season for irrigators.

    The project includes replacing the existing headworks and slide gates with a new concrete bulkhead and two wing walls. The new slide gates will be five feet wide by three feet high with hand wheels, according to a press release from the Methow Salmon Recovery Foundation. The Foundation partnered with the MVID, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to design the three-phase project.

The project started in 2004 with fish screen improvements. In 2006 the earthen intake canal was reopened making the log-crib dam spanning the river unnecessary. In 2007, the dam that had created passage problems for federally listed fish species was partially removed.

The second phase began in 2008 when most of the remaining dam foundation was removed and the river was allowed to restore its natural function.   

The $1.5-million third phase is scheduled to be complete by Dec. 5, according to Paula Mackrow, outreach coordinator for the Methow Salmon Recovery Foundation. Funding was provided by the Bonneville Power Administration and the Washington State Salmon Recovery Funding Board. The Bureau of Reclamation provided technical assistance and design and the WDFW is providing project development and construction oversight.

“It should make life easier for the irrigators,” said Molesworth. “They will find that they will get all the water they’re entitled to.”

Photo by Joyce Campbell
Ryan Surface, left, and Doug Shrum lay thermal blankets on the fresh concrete floor for the new sediment sluiceway at the head works of the Methow Valley Irrigation District’s east diversion Thursday.