r e i r u o C s a m a C the
12 0 2 , 9 2 August
couriernews.webs.com
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36 Volume 35 Number News from the Heart of Idaho: Camas, Lincoln, and Gooding County
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Trinity Ridge Gooding To Eliminate Flood Irrigation Fire Update: 2 miles NW of Featherville Personnel: 1,456 Size: 132,663 acres 10% contained Firefighters have contained a six mile stretch through Featherville and south toward Pine. The 10% containment runs from Cayuse and 3 Forks Creek junction south to Fairview Creek. Crews and a dozer completed a line between Wagontown and Green Creeks on Monday. Firefighters planned a burnout on Tuesday from that line east to Pine-Featherville Road as conditions allow and will continue into early Wednesday morning. The fireline has pumps, hoses and water storage tanks to support the burnout work. On the north flanks crews will continue a slow burnout operation along the ridge between the North Fork and Middle Fork Boise River. Monday the fire was quite active in the Sheep Mountain area and fire managers are developing a strategy on how to best work on that section. Eight of the ten small fires ignited north of the main fire by Sunday's lightning storm have been contained. The remaining two fires are less than one acre and are being staffed today by firefighters from the Trinity Ridge fire. The Elmore County Sheriff is allowing Pine and Featherville residents' limited access to their homes, but the evacuation order continues from Featherville to the Paradise area due to thick smoke and reduced visibility.
Water... even when there is plenty of it, there can be problems. One of the biggest problems is maintaining the system that delivers that water safely and efficiently to your home. Some cities have two water systems - one for drinking and other household uses, and one for irrigation. In Gooding, there is an irrigation system that distributes canal water throughout the city. Using pipe and concrete ditches, residents of Gooding can flood irrigate their lawns and other place they want to keep green. When this system was first installed, people understood how to use flood irrigation and had the time to take care of it. Today, many home have been sold or rented to people who have no idea how to use this system. On top of all of this, the Gooding Irrigation System is at or past its useful lifetime. Metal pipes are rusting away and concrete ditches are crumbling.
Consequently, as many as 30 to 40 percent of the residents don’t or can’t use this system, even though they have to pay a yearly fee for it. According to Keller Associates (the engineers working for the city) the cost of repairing the flood irrigation system is between $12 and $14 million. The City of Gooding has a problem with the drinking water system as well. Due to population growth and federal/state regulations regarding potable (drinking) water, that system will soon be too small to supply the required flow of water. Currently, there are several parts of the city that do not have enough flow (pressure and volume) for adequate fire protection. New buildings, such as the new Valley Country Store at the south end of Gooding, have fire suppression systems that require consistent pressure in order to work. The solution to this problem is to drill additional wells and to replace undersized pipe in parts of the city. The cost of doing this project is about $9 to $10 million. Clearly, the combined cost of repairing/upgrading both systems ($21 to $24 million) is prohibitive. Because of this, the Gooding City Council has decided to abandon the flood irrigation system. This will have three benefits: First, only one system will have to be maintained; Second, it will eliminate the cost of replacing a system that many people don’t know how to use; and Third, if the water rights associated with the flood irrigation continued on page 3.....