Icicle-Peshastin Needs

Here's an interesting fact. Most of the canal systems in Washington State are close to, if not one hundred years old. Tony Jantzer with the Icicle-Peshastin Irrigation District recently talked about those two canal systems and the needs for improvements.

JANTZER: The Icicle Irrigation District Canal was started in 1910 and the Peshastin canal system was started in the late 1800's so they're getting really old.Most of our major facilities are beyond their lifecycle history and we're needing to replace and repair those types of things.

Jantzer says that some of the siphons that still exist are wood-lined with a lot of them newer steel replacements.

JANTZER: Unfortunately those steel pipes were put in back in the 60's, 70's and 80's. We have about 12 miles of pipe and we have over 30 miles of cement lining in our canal system, so what we're doing is we're removing about 1500 to 2500 linear feet of canal lining every year and replacing that.

He says in many places the steel pipes have rusted to almost nothing and the same for many of the cement lined canals where the cement has worn away. Jantzen says one thing is for sure in the future, there will be more droughts.

JANTZER: Whether you believe in climate change or not, we've had droughts and will continue to have droughts.

That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.