News

Slide shuts down Heart Mountain Canal

By Carole Cloudwalker

This document was published online on Thursday, June 05, 2008

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A major dirt slide along a hillside and an access road beside the Heart Mountain Irrigation District canal forced a shutdown of water this week, district officials said.

The slide occurred near The Nature Conservancy Ranch along the canal.

Repairs were being performed this week and water could once again flow through the canal by Monday, said Ric Rodriguez, president of the district.

He said a large quantity of dirt sluffed into the canal, moving the road about 20 feet along about 150-160 linear feet in the vicinity of the Buck Springs Siphon.

“That's a major tributary to our system,” and serves some 15,000 acres of farm ground, Rodriguez said.

Equipment owned by the Heart Mountain Irrigation District, Garland Irrigation District and a private contractor all was working day and night on the slide this week, Rodriguez said.

The cause of the slide is not known, nor is the exact time when it occurred. But Rodriguez said it's a good thing the slide was discovered and water was turned off Monday at the Buffalo Bill Dam or the siphon could have been damaged, requiring costly repairs.

“We were lucky it didn't slide all the way across the canal,” Rodriguez said.

There is a suspicion that recent wet weather was related to the slide, though that still was unclear Wednesday, he added.

He said the segment of the canal where the slide occurred usually is not patrolled, but district managers happened to be touring the area and discovered the slide Monday.

Water was turned into the canal in mid-April.

Rodriguez said it takes about six hours for water to stop flowing along the canal once it is turned off at the dam, so it was good that the slide was discovered and water shut off when it was.

Had the canal been completely blocked, water could have backed up and taken out the siphon, he said.

Rodriguez had no early estimate of the cost to repair the slide.

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