The flow of theYakima Tieton Irrigation District's main canal is shut down for three days so workers can make emergency repairs and remove debris from theRetreat Fire.
The temporary shutdown began Monday, according to a bulletin from district manager Travis Okelberry. The district will make essential repairs to the main canal, begin recharging the system on Thursday evening and restart on a rolling schedule early Friday morning.
"We have a window to get in, make the repairs that we need to make, remove the boulders and the trees and anything else that we need to deal with in the canal,"Okelberry said."And then we will be starting up operations again and continuing on a limited basis with a similar schedule to what we were running before, until we can permanently make mitigation efforts to remove additional trees and other hazards that are threatening our canal."
The irrigation district moved to a rolling shutdown after the Retreat Fire started 11 miles east of Rimrock Lake on July 23. The fire started near the district’s river diversion upstream of Rimrock Retreat and has been moving west down the Tieton Canyon alongside the 114-year-old main canal.
District board members met Monday and approved the three-day shutdown of the entire system, Okelberry said. Workers will have access into the canal through the support of the fire's incident command team, he said.
Getting a look at the damage
Over the weekend, irrigation district staff assessed damage in sections of its route scorched by the fire, Okelberry said. Escorted by firefighters, they walked the upper six miles on Saturday and the lower six miles on Sunday, he said in an interview.
Amid aghostly gray-brown landscape they saw charred and burning trees and trees that collapsed over the road and across the concrete canal. Along with debris and boulders on the road, a substantial boulder had fallen into the canal and there was alarge hole in the sides of another section, Okelberry said.
The irrigation district is navigating "unprecedented challenges" due to the wildfire, Okelberry saidin a letter shared onyakimatietonirrigation.com. District officials have posted updates on the websiteand the district'sFacebook page.
The immediate plan is to remove the boulder, patch up the canal and make other repairs.
"This debris can plug the canal, overtop the water, wash out the base, and potentially lead to a complete loss of the canal, resulting in no water supply for our system," Okelberrywrote.
Even after emergency repairs, ramping up to full canal operation isn't in the best interests of the district as it works to minimize the risk of catastrophic failure, he wrote.
"We understand the challenges this will pose and appreciate your ongoing support as we navigate through these important repairs," the bulletin to customers said. "Please continue to conserve water as you have been doing."
The district delivers irrigation water to 27,900 acres in the upper Yakima Valley, according to general information on its Facebook page.
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Rolling shutdown
The rolling shutdown has been necessary "given the severity of the situation," Okelberry wrote. "This is necessary to reduce the flow in our main canal and prevent catastrophic damage to our infrastructure, as well as to protect the local ecosystem and environment surrounding the canal."
Anticipating fallen trees and unstable boulders, officials decided soon after the fire began to cut the flow nearly in half, Okelberry said Monday.
A calendar on the website notes which systems will be off on which days. There are seven systems in the irrigation district, with System 1 divided into north and south sections.
When a system is turned on again, it may take up to 12 hours for the system to fully charge, it says.
"We're working really hard to get good messaging out to water users and patrons. We're trying to keep the public up to date on what we're doing," Okelberry said.
The irrigation district has 23 employees, he said. Now that they've been able to assess the canal, staff have been crafting a plan to make the needed repairs. That includes microblasting boulders in the canal, which is eight feet deep, so workers can remove the smaller pieces.
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"We're going to have to patch the side panels," he said. "We're trying to minimize our potential risks. There are still trees that are falling down, have burned."
The fire's incident management team has been "great to work with" and irrigation district staff "are very grateful and appreciative of the community's support and their understanding," Okelberry said.
"We've had very positive feedback from our customers. These are just unprecedented times for us," he added.