05/08/2026
The Bureau of Reclamation will stop water deliveries into our canal system this afternoon.
If you live in an area served by a pond, we encourage you to limit water use during the shutdown. Conserving water can help extend the available supply and may reduce the number of days your area experiences an outage.
Some areas, including those served by the Columbia Irrigation District Canal, will not be affected by the planned shutdown.
Once the shutdown begins, you can visit kid.org to check whether your specific area is affected.
We understand this shutdown is inconvenient, however, both pumps will be necessary in order to meet summer demand.
FAQ:
1. Why don't we receive a discount for this outage? Your assessment pays for the infrastructure (pumps, canals, pipes, etc.), power, fuel, and manpower it takes to deliver water from the canal to your property. It is not a pay by use system. Similar to a property tax, the assessment sticks with the property and supports the shared systems that moves water through a desert environment.
2. Why couldn't they do this in the off-season? Every winter, the Bureau of Reclamation conducts routine maintenance on the Chandler Pumping Plant. Some of these activities take most of the off-season. As they were putting things back together in preparation for the upcoming irrigation season , an issue was discovered with the pump. These pumps are the size of a garage and take custom built parts and pieces to assemble. We coordinated with the Bureau of Reclamation to find the best possible time (there is no good time, but definitely before summer temps) for them to make the repair so that both pumps could be utilized to meet demand. Had we waited till the upcoming off-season, one pump would have been sufficient in the spring, but is not strong enough provide enough water to our district over the summer.
We appreciate your patience as the Bureau of Reclamation makes the repair. Once completed, it will take several days to refill our canal system. It is our hope that the repair takes less than the planned 10 days and we will update you accordingly.
