By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
The water is not flowing down
Salt Creek for a reason, concrete is being laid at the end
of the creek to the west of Nephi.
"Water and concrete just don't
mix," said Leo Osborne, watermaster for the Nephi Irrigation
Company.
At the end of the creek's journey
through Nephi, concrete pads are being poured near the old
IFA mill which is located next to the creek and the railroad
tracks.
Those pads are being laid so that
debris can be more easily cleaned from the water at the end
of the creek's trip through town.
"The concrete pad will give us a
chance to clean out the creek," said Osborne.
"We discussed our plans with the
city and they are aware of what we are doing," he
said.
Osborne said he was not making an
issue of the things found in the water because the majority
of the items cleaned out were limbs and leaves, or naturally
occurring debris. However, there is trash in the water as
well, empty cups and other junk.
The company has wanted to put in
the concrete pads to make the removal of the debris easier
to accomplish and are doing that this year.
They are also putting new
cleaners in at the structure located in the creek by the
city golf course at the mouth of Salt Creek
Canyon.
The screens keep out items coming
from the canyon.
Irrigation water from open
sources carries trash that blows in, grows in, washes in,
and collects in the waterways. The trash plugs up siphon
tubes, gated pipe gates, and sprinkler nozzles. Plugged
tubes, gates, and nozzles cause skips and poor water
distribution, and force irrigators to recheck their water
sets often.
Weed seeds from upstream
waterways, fields and ditch banks also spread with the water
across fields.
"I'm hoping that the new
equipment will arrive from California by the 10th (of
April)," said Osborne.
The new cleaners coming from
California will be installed by the golf course. The
screening equipment by the golf course had worn out and was
in need of replacement and updating.
After the work is done at both
locations, said Osborne, the water will be turned back into
Salt Creek. That should be done by mid-April.
As for fish in the stream being
killed by water being turned out of the creek, there should
be no fish, he said.
"There are no naturally occurring
or agency-planted fish in Salt Creek," said
Osborne.
The fish cannot get past the
screens at the head of the creek because they are kept out
by the screens. No agency plants fish in the creek because
the flow is usually off for a period of time each year while
various jobs are done by the Nephi Irrigation
Company.
Fish are never found in the Old
Hollow for the same reasons, he said. In addition, water in
the Old Hollow is off much of the year.
Water was out of the creek for a
month last winter and no fish could have survived
that.
If there are fish, it is because
someone other than an agency has planted them there, he
said.
"No agency would plant fish in
water that would be turned off for a period of time each
year," he said "and they cannot come from the canyon because
they cannot get through our screens."
A watermaster is a person who has
specific responsibilities to carry out irrigation company or
government decisions pertaining to a river system or
watershed. Osborne has had that responsibility for the Nephi
Irrigation Company for the past seven years.
In 2002, the East Juab Water
Efficiency Project (EJWEP), converted some of Salt Creek's
open irrigation to an enclosed pipe system.
The project improved irrigation
efficiency on approximately 5,300 acres located west of
Nephi of the approximately 7,800 acres of land in the Nephi
Irrigation Company that receive water from Salt
Creek.
This area represents
approximately 68 percent of the area irrigated by the Nephi
Irrigation Company with water from Salt Creek and
wells.
The Nephi Irrigation Company is
located within the boundaries of the East Juab County Water
Conservancy District.
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