Release For Immediate Use
Contact: Roger Batt: (208) 412-5760 or (208) 888-0988

That canal or ditch next to your back yard is not a convenient trash disposal system as a place to dump your lawn clippings, old tires, household trash, or debris from landscaping.

That’s the message from Treasure Valley irrigation delivery entities that operate approximately 1,500 miles of canals, laterals and ditches that carry and deliver precious irrigation water to agricultural and residential water users.

“This issue continues to be a serious problem for our irrigation delivery folks every summer, and it has only gotten worse with the strong residential and commercial growth we have seen in the Valley,” noted Roger Batt, Executive Director of the Treasure Valley Water Users Association.

The safe and efficient delivery of irrigation water is so important that Idaho Statute (42-1209) specifically prohibits dumping any material into canals and ditches that can interfere with the delivery of irrigation water.

“For some, the canal behind their home is an ‘out-of-sight  out- of-mind’ place to get rid of lawn and garden litter, including limbs they have trimmed from their trees, even the reminents of building materials left by the homebuilder,” said Mack Myers of Settler’s Irrigation District whose system serves a large contingent of residential areas that is experiencing a growing problem with unlawful dumping in the system’s canals.

What happens is that out-of-sight debris floats down the canal and becomes someone elses problem.  The junk then builds up as it lodges against trash racks and creates a potential for serious flooding and damage to private property.  It can also reduce the amount of water available to downstream users who have paid for the use of their irrigation water.

The amount of residential landscaping waste being dumped into canals has been growing steadily with the population expansion in the Treasure Valley.

“Our ditch riders are checking the system every day just to keep the racks free of trash and it is consuming more and more of their time.  It is also a problem when people dump debris onto an easement or right-of-way (usually over a fence) that may be above or near a canal or ditch, and then the debris eventually ends up into the water,” said Clinton Pline, Chairman of the Board for the Nampa and Meridian Irrigation District and President of the Treasure Valley Water Users Association.

Debris in canals and ditches is also causing increasing problems for residents using pressurized irrigation systems that rely on pumping stations to supply water to their lawns, gardens and community park areas.  Trash in the water can easily plug the pumps, cutting off the subdivision’s irrigation water supply.  Irrigation delivery entities have seen loads of tree limbs and stumps dumped into canals during the night plugging main spillways.  Irrigation delivery officials have been alerted by alarms and their automated system, that detect rising water levels.  Absent these alarms and automation systems an entire canal can be lost by the early morning hours.

Lawn and garden waste dumped into canals can also create a potential enviromental hazard to users due to the products that are used to treat the grass and other vegetation.  That product that was applied to your lawn to kill bugs or weeds ends up on the clippings that were dumped into the canal.  The residue then mixes with the water which moves downstream where it can end up on someone else’s garden vegetables or flower beds.

“It really comes down to respect for your neighbor and respect for the law,” Batt added.  “Remember, it’s against the law to dump debris into a canal or a ditch and you also live upstream from someone else.”

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