ECBID Tackling Several Construction Projects

Last week, the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District broke ground on the EL 80.6 delivery system, outside of Othello. That is one of several construction projects the district is addressing right now.

ECBID President Duaine Anderson said at the same time, they are construction a sister canal, the EL 84.7 which is slated to come on-line in 2027.

“And it is a $40.4 million project and about 7000 [7,138] acres, and it's a pressurized system.”

In addition to Odessa Groundwater Replacement Program projects, Anderson noted the District is also focused on a host of conservation efforts.

“There's a lot of behind the scenes activity that are being done all the time with these conservation pipelines that we put in," Anderson said. "We're trying to conserve water. So if we replace a lateral and buried pipe, then what the district does is we cut water loss in the pipe or in the lateral and replace it with a buried pipe, which we don't have any water loss. But the maintenance goes down considerably because we're not maintaining an open channel flow. With that, we save water. With that water, we save that we're allowed to put that in a bank, so to speak, and use that other places where we can put water on land that is available.”

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