Background
In 2006 OWEB met with the Water Resources Department, watershed councils, SWCDs, Department of Agriculture, Oregon Water Trust, Natural Resources Conservation District, OSU, and Deschutes River Conservancy to discuss how to evaluate irrigation efficiency and water management projects. This first step helped OWEB move forward in the development of its irrigation efficiency/water management effectiveness monitoring program. Other steps identified at the meeting included:
- Clearly define what OWEB means by irrigation efficiency.
- Create a draft of OWEB’s irrigation efficiency restoration and monitoring objectives.
- Draft monitoring standards for irrigation efficiency effectiveness monitoring projects.
- Find existing data so as not to recreate it. (This was completed in Malheur Basin -- see below.)
OWEB has funded several irrigation improvement restoration projects with effectiveness monitoring components. Willow Creek Restoration (207-138) and Middle Deschutes Streamflow Restoration (207-096 and 207-319) conducted water quality and quantity effectiveness monitoring.
Irrigation system projects improved water conservation and quality:
- Canal lining or piping
- Conversion of gravity diversions to pumps or infiltration galleries
- Installation of soil moisture probes
- Irrigation system improvements (i.e. flood to sprinkler, sprinkler to drip)
- Installation of pump-back system
- Construction of settling ponds or wetlands to capture/filter irrigation runoff
- Irrigation system improvements (i.e. flood to sprinkler, sprinkler to drip)
Water leases or transfers protected instream flow.
Contact
Please direct questions or comments to
Ken Fetcho, Effectiveness Monitoring Coordinator, 971-345-7018.