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Farmers Irrigation District's On-Farm Irrigation Improvement Project

County or Counties: Hood River

Primary Resource Concern Addressed:

  • Source water depletion - Inefficient irrigation water use
  • Source water depletion - Surface water depletion

Project Description
This project will focus on the Farmers Irrigation District (FID) and Parkertown Water Users service areas served by diversions off of tributaries to the West Fork and mainstem Hood River, as well as a diversion off of the mainstem Hood River. This project will help to improve flows in the West Fork and mainstem Hood River by upgrading on-farm irrigation systems on approximately 285 acres still using impact sprinklers or wheel lines. Systems will be upgraded to low-flow and micro-sprinkler systems, which will result in a cumulative water savings of approximately 382 acre-feet/year. Conserved instream flow resulting from this project will benefit threatened summer and winter steelhead, spring and fall Chinook, coho, and resident aquatic species in the Hood River through increased fish habitat quantity. Water conserved will be measured using flow meters that will be installed on-farm as well as through existing measuring devices deployed throughout the FID system.

Conservation Practices Offered

  • Irrigation System, Microirrigation (441)
  • Sprinkler System (442)
  • Irrigation Pipeline (430)
  • Irrigation Water Management (449)

Project Partners

  • NRCS Oregon
  • Hood River Soil and Water Conservation Service
  • Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board
  • Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs
  • Hood River Watershed Group
  • OSU Extension Service
  • Private Landowners

Application Questions
NRCS uses prioritization questions to evaluate applications for this initiative. See the list of workload prioritization questions on the Oregon EQIP page. Ranking questions below will also apply.

Ranking Questions

  1. Will the contract be completed in 3 years or less?
  2. Is the proposed project within the Parkertown, Upper or Middle Farmer's Irrigation service area?
  3. Will the irrigation efficiency improvement gained by the proposed project show a gain using the NRCS Irrigation Water Saving Estimator? 
  4. Is the applicant willing to work to adopt a higher than "basic" level of Irrigation Water Management (requires 3 year IWM plan and record keeping)?
  5. Has the applicant previously done any irrigation system upgrades to property within the project boundary which resulted in a water saving of 15 ac/in/acre or more? 
  6. ill this project show the greatest water savings by upgrading all of the eligible irrigation systems in the agricultural operation to efficient irrigation systems?