FILE PHOTO: Idaho farming. Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash
PRESTON – Franklin County Commissioner Robert Swainston went to a recent Preston City Council meeting recently representing Consolidated Canal Company to ask if they could be involved in the building permit process.
“With all the vacant farmlands being sold to building developers, we are worried people will try to build a home over or too close to one of Consolidated’s piped and buried canals,” Swainston said. “We would like to have people check with us before they start building a house in the county.”
The pipes were put in the ground to conserve water. Open ditches loose about 30 percent of the water due to seepage and evaporation. Water from Mink Creek and Cub River not only powers a hydro-electric generator at the top of Glendale Reservoir but is also stored for irrigating crops throughout Franklin County.
The water in Glendale, Johnson and Lamont reservoirs are stored for irrigating approximately 40,000 acres in Franklin County, Idaho and Cache County, Utah.
Agriculture is a big part of Franklin County’s economy.
“It would be easier to check with the canal company than get to building a home too close to a piped canal then have to change it all because they are too close to a canal,” he said.
“Someone recently built a house next to a 30-inch pipe,” Swainston said. “Hitting a 30-inch water line with a backhoe would have been tragic. That’s a lot of water and not easy to fix.”
Another incident involved a line his family had installed. The Swainston family petitioned for an easement to string a private water pipe across someone else’s property. Years later a builder discovered the line as he was building a home.
“I let them move the pipe,” Swainston said. “I could have made them move their house.”
The builder put in some elbows and moved the line around the house, which cut down the water pressure.
“When you have a recoded easement builders should know ahead of time,” he said. “To prevent those kinds of problems from happening we would like people to check with us before they build.”
Brian Jensen, president of Consolidated Canal Company, echoed Swaintson’s concerns.
“It all worked out when we went to the City Council meeting, they agreed with us,” he said. “Preston City is a stockholder in our company.”
Jensen said they started putting pipe in the ground in 2000. In those 20 plus years there have been changes in city government.
“We just want to stay ahead of the problem,” Jensen said. “We are registered with Blue Stakes so if anyone digs and they check with them they should be fine.”
The process of piping of the canals started in a 1980 when a feasibility study was commissioned.