USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service will take comments through Feb. 18 on a plan to modernize Owyhee Irrigation District infrastructure in southeast Oregon.

Comments will be considered as part of a plan to prepare a draft Environmental Impact Statement that details project alternatives including taking no action, according to a Federal Register notice. NRCS is coordinating with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the district’s infrastructure including Owyhee Reservoir.

Likely use of federal funds and the ability to incorporate multiple environmental studies into a single process make the comprehensive EIS approach preferable to the simpler Environmental Assessment, Owyhee Irrigation District manager Clancy Flynn said. Multiple EAs could be required otherwise.

District and agency leaders will review and address concerns, “and the input we get will help to guide which projects to include,” he said.

“The hope is that we get a lot of pipeline projects done … and add pressurized deliveries where available so that we can protect against drought and all of the changing conditions,” Flynn said.

Pipeline projects would replace open canals and in turn reduce seepage, spillage and evaporation losses, he said. Increasing pressurized delivery could cut pumping costs.

Other projects would address aging infrastructure and the addition of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition technology to automate monitoring and system control, Flynn said. Much of the work would involve smaller delivery canals rather than the primary canal that comes off the reservoir.

“Saving water means more water for later, staying in the reservoir,” he said.

OID since 1932 has supplied irrigation water around Adrian, Ontario and Nyssa, where it is based. Most of the water comes from the reservoir, which can hold enough to supply up to two irrigation seasons. Part of the supply is pumped from the Snake River.

The district has around 1,800 accounts, “and about 1,500 of them are what we consider larger ag producers,” Flynn said. The agriculture sector produces “a lot of products used throughout the nation and internationally,” and if these commodities can’t be grown in the district’s service area, “they will have to be grown somewhere else, and we don’t want that.”

The district has more than 500 miles of canals and laterals including the 73-mile main canal and more than 100 miles of existing pipelines. Some of the canals traverse hilly terrain.

In the arid region, supply shortages are expected to worsen in the coming decades due to rising temperatures and decreasing snowpack, according to the Federal Register notice by NRCS, which said the estimated federal contribution to construction cost would exceed $25 million.

Canal lining, siphon upgrades, and headgate and diversion improvements are among other possible elements of the modernization project.

NRCS is requesting comments to identify significant issues, potential alternatives, information, and analyses from all interested individuals, federal and state agencies, and tribes.