Irrigation district lays new pipelines
Mar 18, 2010 | 759 views | 0 
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A months-long job is in the works to expand the Patterson Irrigation District’s water pipeline.
Big blue pipes have been buried underground to form what will soon be a new pipeline extending from the district’s main pump. The pipeline will expand an older, smaller channel that has started to fall apart, according to Peter Rietkerk, the district’s general manager.
“We’re hoping to provide service to lands we formerly served in the past and to pursue other transfers,” Rietkerk said.
When completed, the pipeline will extend from the main pump on Highway 33 down Elfers Road and south on Ward Avenue, totaling about 2 miles. The pipeline will end at the Delta-Mendota Canal, so the water supply the district sends through those pipes will eventually become part of a conduit to which other districts along the canal will have easy access.
The action comes during a water crisis for many farmers and water districts in and around Patterson and the western Central Valley.
The United States Bureau of Reclamation’s Central Valley Project controls how much water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta some districts get each year. The Del Puerto Water District, for instance, will receive only 25 percent of its contracted surface water allocation this year, which is up from a 5 percent estimate given earlier this year.
“We’ve had a number of drought years. Allocation has been low in terms of federal water that the districts have been able to receive. Districts are hurting,” Rietkerk said.
That’s why districts like Del Puerto have had to rely on other districts to sell them water from their more abundant and less restricted supplies.
Rietkerk and PID don’t have the problems that result from federal control over water allocation. The district has pre-1914 water rights to draw surface water from the San Joaquin River — it doesn’t have to rely on the federal government to dole out its supply.
Del Puerto, on the other hand, is limited by its more junior water rights, as well as by federal restrictions that stem from the 1973 Endangered Species Act, which mandates that certain plants and animals must be protected. The decline of salmon and the protected Delta smelt, for instance, has been attributed to water exported from the Delta — water which then goes to the Bay Area and down the Delta-Mendota Canal. And that has led to restrictions on pumping to irrigation districts that need water, like Del Puerto.
“I’m glad to see the blue pipe going in,” said Bill Harrison, Del Puerto’s longtime general manager.
His district has bought water from PID and others in the past, and with the pipe improvements, the future looks a bit more promising.
“We’re hopeful that with some of their abilities, we’ll end up with a water supply from our good neighbors,” he said.
Big blue pipes have been buried underground to form what will soon be a new pipeline extending from the district’s main pump. The pipeline will expand an older, smaller channel that has started to fall apart, according to Peter Rietkerk, the district’s general manager.
“We’re hoping to provide service to lands we formerly served in the past and to pursue other transfers,” Rietkerk said.
When completed, the pipeline will extend from the main pump on Highway 33 down Elfers Road and south on Ward Avenue, totaling about 2 miles. The pipeline will end at the Delta-Mendota Canal, so the water supply the district sends through those pipes will eventually become part of a conduit to which other districts along the canal will have easy access.
The action comes during a water crisis for many farmers and water districts in and around Patterson and the western Central Valley.
The United States Bureau of Reclamation’s Central Valley Project controls how much water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta some districts get each year. The Del Puerto Water District, for instance, will receive only 25 percent of its contracted surface water allocation this year, which is up from a 5 percent estimate given earlier this year.
“We’ve had a number of drought years. Allocation has been low in terms of federal water that the districts have been able to receive. Districts are hurting,” Rietkerk said.
That’s why districts like Del Puerto have had to rely on other districts to sell them water from their more abundant and less restricted supplies.
Rietkerk and PID don’t have the problems that result from federal control over water allocation. The district has pre-1914 water rights to draw surface water from the San Joaquin River — it doesn’t have to rely on the federal government to dole out its supply.
Del Puerto, on the other hand, is limited by its more junior water rights, as well as by federal restrictions that stem from the 1973 Endangered Species Act, which mandates that certain plants and animals must be protected. The decline of salmon and the protected Delta smelt, for instance, has been attributed to water exported from the Delta — water which then goes to the Bay Area and down the Delta-Mendota Canal. And that has led to restrictions on pumping to irrigation districts that need water, like Del Puerto.
“I’m glad to see the blue pipe going in,” said Bill Harrison, Del Puerto’s longtime general manager.
His district has bought water from PID and others in the past, and with the pipe improvements, the future looks a bit more promising.
“We’re hopeful that with some of their abilities, we’ll end up with a water supply from our good neighbors,” he said.
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