Medina Water Quality Project
DSWCD used the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) Grant to fund the Medina Water Quality Project, which converted flood irrigation to sprinkler system. The 17 acres of flood irrigated pasture is grazed by alpacas and sheep, which led to nutrient runoff from manure and fertilizer of the field. Whenever there was excess irrigation water, the nutrient runoff would enter the Central Oregon Irrigation District (COID) main canal. The main goal was to address the water quality problem to COID canal by eliminating the current method of flood irrigation by installing a sprinkler system and improving irrigation water management (IWM).
To achieve this goal, a vault with an inline pump replaced the divertion gate entering the property. The on-farm open ditch was replaced by an underground 6 inch 165psi class PVC pipe. A wheel line was also installed, replacing the current flood irrigation method. Estimated water savings for the conversion is 37% which is 1.5 ac-in/ac (570,200 gal/yr). With the adoption of an IWM plan, it is estimated that an additional 3% water savings will be achieved (.1 ac – in/ac (38,013 gal/yr).
