HomeMy Public PortalAboutValley County, Idaho: Water quality-VP Long 1/alZo y (67)/oc c�4f-c - /a�s� ylf
Tour demonstrates good ideas
to aid water quality
"This should help water quality as more water
infiltrates in the spring and winter," he said.
Kleint agreed that the practice should definitely
reduce the amount of water running off of the field
in the spring run-off, water that presently doesn't
infiltrate the hard -packed ground.
He estimated the cost of ripping an acre to be in
the neighborhood of $9 to $14, but could go up tc
$20 per acre depending on the time at which the rip-
ping takes place. The dryer and harder the ground,
the higher the cost.
Kleint said the implement needed to do the rip-
ping isn't cheap and would cost about $7,000.
From Kleint's the tour moved on the Jim and
Salley Smiley's pmperty on the south side of Donnelly
along Boulder Creek. There tour participants learned
about some of the challenges presented to landown-
ers regarding streambank erosion.
Smiley said the creek on Saturday had a flow of
about 4 times that of a month ago. He attributed that
to decreased demand for irrigation water, leaving
more in the creek. A month ago, he said the creek
was "lower than I've ever seen it before."
In the years that the Smileys have lived there, he
said some of the stream banks have moved 30 to 40
feet, causing significant erosion along some stretch-
es of the creek as it winds through their property.
Smiley has done some rip -rapping with rock in
some places to slow the erosion, and he's also learned
over the years that removing trees that fall across
the creek as soon as practical, which has been his
practice, might not be the best thing to do.
But leaving them there also creates the potential
for the stream to be re -directed, which could lead to
other potential erosion problems, he said. Worth told
those on the tour that the Bureau of Reclamation has
offered a source of rock that could be used for rip -
rapping.
Another aspect of the various projects addresses
runoff from eroding irrigation canals. One major
canal that the group stopped at — just northrof
Members of Saturday's tour of the Boulder and Willow Creek watersheds look at a water Rosebery and part of the Rosebeny Irrigation District
quality monitoring station on Farm to Market road. - had serious erosion problems due to cattle cross -
that runs on of irngatea news, a project Mat will ing it and accessing it directly for drinking water.
Mike Stewart eliminate cattle from the riparian area along a stream,A cooperative solution that is being looked at
Staff Writer and other measures to improve pasture and hayland includes extending the large culvert, which current -
management. ly carries the water under an old county road, out
DONNELLY — Water quality and some of With improved pasture and hayland conditions into the pasture. That would provide a place for cat -
the steps landowners can take to help improve it comes improved water quality, Dewey Worth, direc-tle to cross, Lance said.
were the focus of a tour of the Boulder and Willow for of DEQ's Cascade Reservoir project said on the Also, an off -ditch source of water for the cattle
creek drainages Saturday. tour. Several of those on the tour were members of would be developed — i.e. a stock tank that would
The tour was set up to provide an opportuni-theBoulder Creek/Willow Creek watershed groupbe filled from the ditch. That would keep the cattle
ty for citizens to tour areas south and east of that was set up to look at ways of reducing the nutri-out of the ditch, he said.
Donnelly and Lake Fork to see some of the mea-'ent load entering Cascade Reservoir from those Other projects the tour looked at included:
sures that been undertaken and are planned4rainages. • The site of a proposed irrigation water pump -
to improve water quality in Boulder and Willow
Pasture and hay ground owned by Donnelly ranch -back pond on Ivan Phelps' property further north of
creeks. er Paul Kleint was "ripped' in July. That process,Roseberry off of Farm -to -Market Road.
Among the projects visited was a demonstra- which is more readily seen that explained, involves • A sprinkler system installed in a pasture on the
tion of "ripping," which is a process that may dragging a farm implement with long knives behindBill, Hugh and Sara Willey Ranch off of the Finn
prove very effective at breaking up compacted a tractor to slice long thin trenches in the compact -Church Lane. Previously, the field had been ditched
hay and range lands, allowing better water infil- ed fields. Those cuts, which can extend to 18-20and was flood irrigated. 'That system has allowed
tration. inches deep, allow for better infiltration of water. ,the Willey to cut two crops of hay and alfalfa, while
Other projects ' ` d provided insights into While the jury is still out on the effectiveness ofbefore they could only cut one. The first cut yield -
"best management` ctices" that reduce the the practice, and under what field conditions theed 800 bales and the second cut 500, Lance said.
practice would be best done, Saturdays tour of the
ripped area versus unripped indicated some improve- • The final stop of the tour looked at streambank
ount of stream bank erosion in those two creeks.nent erosion near the Jack Jefferies property, also on Finn
d their tributaries, a site where a "tailwater pump- But scientists and ranchers on the tour Saturday Church Lane. Jefferies is, through a cooperative
ck" project would re -use flood irrigation water_taid that its benefits would be much more apparent effort with SCS, going to fence along Boulder Creek
next year. to keep grazing livestock out of the creek. Jefferies
"We'll monitor this over the -next few years," said:also suggested that the on -going efforts to reduce
Tom Lance, water quality resource conservationist sedimentation and run-off also look at that being
with Idaho Soil Conservation Commission, whdgenerated by subdivisions being built in the coun-
assists the Valley Soil & Water Conservation District. ty. _ _