Water delivery has resumed to irrigation users on the East Low Canal after an Aug. 5 break near Moses Lake, Wash.

“We started getting it going on Saturday, we delivered a lot more yesterday and we’ll finish up priming everything and getting deliveries out today,” East Columbia Basin Irrigation District secretary-manager Craig Simpson told the Capital Press the morning of Aug. 12. “I’m really proud of our guys. I think we did as good as we could to get the water back as soon as we could.”

The irrigation district board declared an emergency Aug. 7.

“I’m glad we’re getting water back to folks,” Simpson said. “It’s hot and the crops need it.”

Simpson estimates 100,000 acres were impacted by the service shutoff.

“We took out the lower third of our system,” he said. “The first 23 miles has plenty of deliveries on it, but there’s more to the south.”

A few users in the South Columbia Basin Irrigation District, which draw from the canal, were also impacted.

Cause remains unknown

The cause of the break is unknown, Simpson said.

Officials first suspected the undershot might have been damaged.

“It was near one, but it wasn’t the undershot,” Simpson said. “Those typically are rodent-type or burrowing animal problems. There was some evidence of some old settlement in the area, but there’s nothing there to be able to tell for sure. I don’t know. It’s all speculation.”

Cost estimate

It will take a while to determine the cost to repair the break, Simpson said.

“It won’t be inexpensive,” he said. “We worked 24-7 for four and a half days.”

Next steps

Some site work remains to be cleaned up as services are restored to landowners and another check along the canal.

“We do inspections all the time, it’s not like we can change a whole lot, but we’ll focus a little bit more on some of those more problematic areas,” Simpson said. “It’s a repair. If we did our job properly, it’s better than it was before. Now it’s just ‘Keep an eye out,’ and … checking to make sure we find things before they occur.”

Simpson has a message to water users.

“Thank you for your patience and support,” he said. “They’ve been really good to us through this. We appreciate them cooperating with us.”