IID moving forward with $727,400 canal lining project

EL CENTRO — The Imperial Irrigation District is moving forward with plans to line the Mesquite Lateral canal with cement in order to control cost increases associated with the operation and maintenance of the water delivery channel.

The project, at a cost of about $727,400, is slated to begin in earlyto mid-September along an area of the Mesquite Lateral canal located east of the city of Brawley along Farr Road, and east of Irvine Road.

This earthen section of the Mesquite Lateral from delivery gate 6 to delivery gate 8 currently has excessive maintenance costs, including vegetation and sediment removal, and erosion control.

The concrete lining is estimated to have a lifespan of about 40 years and will reduce the estimated maintenance cost of keeping the waterway operational from $11,207 annually to $940 every two years. The lining also will reduce an estimated 9.83-acre-feet of water from seeping into the surrounding soil each year.

One acre-foot equals about 326,000 gallons, or enough water to cover an acre of land – about the size of a football field — under one foot of water, according to the water education foundation. In this case, that amounts to a football field under nearly 10 feet of water.

Implementation of the project also will help mitigate the growth of vegetation and weeds along the presently earthen waterway. Water flow capacity is expected to increase as a consequence of vegetation control.

Last December, the IID Board of Directors directed the water department to use funding from a water supply payment from Ormesa, LLC, for canal concrete-lining projects within the IID service area. A total of $632,064 from the Ormesa payment, in conjunction with $95,336 from the 2018 IID water system capital plan fund, will be used to fund the project, according to IID documents.

The project was approved by the board of directors during its regular meeting on July 25.

The project will line about 2,578 feet of the channel with concrete, and is designed to carry a maximum flow of 50-cubic-feet of water per second, enough to irrigate about 2,006 acres of farmland. The new concrete-lined section will have a bottom two-feetwide and will be 38-inches-deep.

The project is part of a long-term goal to conserve water as part of the IID Water Conservation and Transfer Project and Habitat Conservation Plan, which was certified in 2002 and amended in 2003.