Although the Imperial Irrigation District’s gravity-fed water delivery system has delivered water adequately during the past 100 years, officials are in the process of upgrading the system with electronic monitoring devices and gate controls to make the system more efficient.
“Eventually all zanjeros would have a computer in their vehicle,” said water department Manager Jesse Silva. “At the end of each lateral there would be a monitoring site that tells them how much water spills from the canal into the drain.”
If the system conservation measures work as designed, the district should be able to more accurately gauge the amount of water in its system, making deliveries more accurate. It should also make a zanjero’s job easier.
Construction of Highway 111 cut access that zanjeros have at the canal in its vicinity.
The district installed electronic gates on canal checks to give zanjeros enough time to get to the checks. Not all worked according to plan. IID Director Bruce Kuhn said some of the gates would stay open longer than required, flooding fields.
“In some places they worked and in other places they didn’t,” Silva said, acknowledging the problems and criticism against the electronic devices.
However, if the system conservation measures — once installed — work as designed, they will not only make the district’s water delivery more efficient, they will make it safer as well.
“Driving around at night is dangerous,” Silva said, noting the round-the-clock work of the IID’s team of zanjeros.
Staff Writer Antoine Abou-Diwan can be reached at 760-337-3454 or aabou-diwan@ivpressonline.com
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