UPDATE (March 2009):  GFID will complete the design subcontract and provide ongoing assistance with legal review of easements and landowner coordination.  GFID will hand off the design and spec package to WWCD, who will take over work to purchase materials and install the pipe.  $290,028 will be deobligated from contract 40082.

This contract is the first phase of a project designed to ultimately pipe water in an existing open ditch, thereby saving as much as 5 cfs to be protected instream.  This phase involves developing a final design and specs for the piping work and pore-acquiring some of the necessary pipe.  The project will replace approximately 29,000 feet of open-channel conveyance and outdated leaky piping with new polyvinylchloride (PVC) piping on the Gardena Farms south lateral.  The project provide a new diversion at the Hilltop bifurcation, replace much of the main south lateral, provide turnouts and piping to pump stations and retrofit pump stations to operate on a closed system with metered flow.  When completed, operational spill that is currently required on the south lateral and pump stations to compensate for fluctuations in the system will no longer be needed. The goal of this project is to return approximately 4.5 to 5 cubic feet per second in the Walla Walla River at the Gardena diversion.

Fish populations in the Walla Walla Subbasin have historically suffered due to poor passage and flow conditions.  Spring Chinook salmon were extirpated early in the twentieth century and summer steelhead and bull trout populations dwindled to the point of being placed on the Endangered Species list in 1998 and 1999.  New passage facilities, flow restoration efforts, and a Chinook salmon reintroduction program are working in concert to help restore fish to the Walla Walla River.

The Walla Walla Watershed Plan, Walla Walla Subbasin Plan, GFID Comprehensive Irrigation District Management Plan (CIDMP), Walla Walla Habitat Conservation Plan, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers/Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Walla Walla Basin Feasibility Study, and the Washington Conservation Commission’s Walla Walla Limiting Factors Analysis all identify flow as a critical limiting factor for fish habitat in the Walla Walla Basin.  GFID currently has a trust water right agreement (Agreement No. Co500260) with Washington State Department of Ecology (WDOE) to maintain a minimum flow past their diversion on the Walla Walla River at approximately RM 36.5.  GFID has agreed to bypass 19 cubic feet per second (cfs) until June 30 of each year and then 18 cfs for the remainder of each year until 2007.  This project would begin to address providing additional flow enhancement through piping of a portion of the open-channel GFID canal system.  GFID has been working with an engineering firm to develop design of pipe sizing for the south lateral and, with current PVC pipe prices, has arrived at a preliminary cost-level design for each reach of the lateral.  GFID proposes to replace up to 29,000 feet of open-channel canal with PVC pipe.  

GFID operates approximately 25 miles of open channel and piped conveyance which supplies irrigation water to GFID patrons.  Most of the system was constructed between 1892 and 1904 and there have been few modifications made since.  The main canal bifurcates into north and south laterals in Section 12, Township 6 North and Range 33 East. The south lateral meanders across sections 13, 14, and 15 to its termination, an operational spill to Gardena Creek, in Section 17, Township 6 North and Range 33 East.  Several diversions on the south lateral must also incorporate operational spill to compensate for fluctuations in the canal.

GFID and contractor staff measured losses in the north and south laterals in November of 2003 for the GFID Comprehensive Irrigation District Management Plan as part of the Walla Walla Habitat Conservation Plan.  These loss studies arrived at an average loss of 0.92 cfs per mile for the canal which would total about 5 cfs of conserved flow.  GFID is currently awaiting a decision on funding from Washington Department of Ecology in the amount of $250,000.00 for a Water Infrastructure grant and the Walla Walla County Conservation District has committed up to $312,500.00 in Irrigation Efficiency Program funding for the first phase of this project.  This irrigation efficiency measure would serve as the second phase of a plan to pipe the entire south lateral system and update on-farm deliveries as well.  Pipe availability and construction timing may delay or quicken the pace for installation of piping for this proposal.  Construction tasks are intended to be performed by GFID personnel, but contractor staff may be used as well.      
  
Inadequate flow has been a primary contributing factor to habitat and fish passage deficiencies in the Walla Walla Subbasin.  Inadequate flow conditions persist at certain times of the year despite efforts to restore flow through bypass agreements, trust water rights and other methods of flow restoration. Improvement of flow conditions has been identified in the Subbasin Plan and other Walla Walla Basin planning documents, as a critical component in the restoration of steelhead and salmon by ensuring that passage and habitat conditions are no longer a limiting factor. The goal of the project is directly related to the goals and objectives stated in the Subbasin Plan for increased juvenile and adult steelhead and salmon populations through increased flow for the Walla Walla Subbasin.  

In Section 3.2 Selection of Focal Species of the Walla Walla Subbasin Plan, bull trout and summer steelhead/rainbow trout are listed as being on the Endangered Species list with spring Chinook salmon having been extirpated.  Spring Chinook have been reintroduced by the CTUIR in both the Walla Walla and Mill Creek systems.  All three species have been identified in the Walla Walla River from near Lowden, WA at McDonald Road to the headwaters of Mill Creek and the North and South Forks of the Walla Walla River.  Gardena diversion is below the mouth of Yellowhawk Creek, a major pathway to the Mill Creek system, and is on the mainstem Walla Walla River below the Oregon-Washington border.   Increased flow at the Gardena diversion would improve upstream and downstream migration for a major portion of the basin and fish in the rearing life stages should benefit as well.

Section 7.3 Aquatic Strategies of the Walla Walla Subbasin Plan discusses imminent threats.  Subsection 7.3.1 Imminent Threats and Passage Barriers lists imminent threats as “passage obstructions, fish screens and reaches of the stream that seasonally go dry.”  Under the subheading Dry Stream Reaches the Plan states “Anthropogenic causes can be water diversions or vegetation removal, which reduces infiltration of water in the watershed.  While this plan does not advocate the implementation of resources for introducing water to a section of the stream at a time of year when water historically was not present; every effort should be made to return water to areas that are de-watered due to the causes mentioned above.”      

BPA funded Project 200107500 Increase Instream Flows to Dewatered Stream Reaches in the Walla Walla Basin to help restore instream flows to the Walla Walla River.  One result of this project was placing approximately 2.12 miles of open channel and leaky piped conveyance in PVC pipe.  Water loss studies were conducted by placing ramp flumes at the beginning and end points of canal reaches for accurate measurement.  Losses totaled 635 gallons per minute or approximately 1.4 cfs.  GFID has worked with Washington Department of Ecology to protect this flow through a trust water right.  This trust water right for 1.4 cfs, when approved, will be additive to the up to 14 cfs placed in trust in 2005.  If all of the water conserved in this proposal is eligible for trust this could bring the total of water protected instream at the Gardena diversion to approximately 20 cfs.  

Gardena Farms Irrigation District would replace approximately 29,000 feet of open-channel delivery, reconfigure pumping stations and replace outdated or inadequate piped supply. The goal of this project is to return approximately 4.5 to 5 cubic feet per second in the Walla Walla River at the Gardena diversion.