TID might expand water-saving project near Hilmar

The Turlock Irrigation District might expand a small reservoir near Hilmar that was created last year to catch excess canal flows.

Its board Tuesday will consider enlarging the 7-acre reservoir to 25.5 acres. It would capture up to about 9,000 acre-feet of water over an irrigation season, up from about 2,500 now.

The 9,000 acre-feet is only about 2 percent of TID’s average annual deliveries, but the savings matter in years like 2015, when drought cut supplies by about 60 percent.

TID delivers Tuolumne River water to the Hilmar area via the Highline Canal, which sometimes has more than farmers can take and spills into the Merced River. The reservoir had been part of a treatment plant for the Hilmar County Water District, then abandoned. TID bought it and refurbished it last winter.

The water can be held in the reservoir and then released to Laterals 7 and 8, which branch off the Highline Canal. They serve the south portion of TID and were improved themselves last winter with water-conserving controls.

The board last year approved $2.16 million for the reservoir project. The expansion would take place before the start of the 2016 irrigation season.

TID had looked at such a project in 1998 but found it was not worth pursuing. The current board revived the idea because of the severe drought and the likelihood of state and federal increases in Tuolumne flows for fish, which would reduce farm supplies.

The Modesto Irrigation District, which draws from this river, has considered small reservoirs too. The Oakdale and South San Joaquin districts on the Stanislaus River have built some.

This story was originally published November 22, 2015 at 8:56 PM with the headline "TID might expand water-saving project near Hilmar."