By RAELYNN RICARTE
News staff writer
August 8, 2007

East Fork Irrigation District of Odell has netted another federal grant for the valley’s largest-ever conservation project.

The agency was one of 44 in 11 states to qualify for a share of $9.2 million in funding. East Fork received $300,000 from the Water 2025 Challenge Grant channeled through the Bureau of Reclamation.

“Grant funding is one of the main sources for getting this project completed. Otherwise we’d have a real struggle,” said John Buckley, district manager.

To date, East Fork has obtained almost $7 million in grants to enclose about five miles of its central canal. The agency has qualified for another $3.1 million in low-interest loans.

The recent monetary award will be used by East Fork to complete the final phase of an almost $11 million project. The current work involves piping 1.7 miles of central canal that delivers water to 984 customers and 9,850 acres.

The agency is also installing pipe under the lower reaches of Neal Creek to reduce water turbidity and temperature fluctuations.

“This project is going to improve East Fork’s efficiency, largely to the benefit of Coho and Winter Steelhead runs,” said Steve Stampfli, coordinator of the Hood River Watershed Group.

He wrote East Fork’s successful grant application. Stampfli said the mission of HRWG is to support East Fork and other area agency efforts to perpetuate clean water, open space, productive fisheries and a healthy human economy.

East Fork began piping its main ditches in 2002 and will wind up the project within two years. Officials from the agency estimate that almost 2 cubic feet per second of water leakage will be stopped by the conversion.

Stampfli said an outdated fish screen on Neal Creek can also be eliminated by use of the pipeline.

For the past century, East Fork has routed water from the Hood River into the creek and then out into service ditches. According to reports, about 3,700 tons of glacial sediment is dumped each year from the Hood River into Neal Creek. Fish biologists estimate that fish habitat is negatively affected by the mud and debris about 7.5 miles up the tributary.

Stampfli said fish will also gain from increased water flows in the Hood River once the pipeline is fully operational. He said an additional benefit is that piped water will be less exposed to pesticides used by fruit tree growers.