“Daly Ditches Launches New Siphon Project Near Hamilton”

RAVALLI COUNTY — The Daly Ditches Irrigation District serves water to more than 2,100 water users east of Hamilton

The $690,000 project installed metal pipes, called siphons, along Skalkaho Creek. The project replaced a wooden flume and trestle that was rotting away.

Daly Ditches manager Tim Meuchel said the siphon project was long overdue.

“It’s (the flume) lifespan was about 60 years at the max, and we went to about 100,” Meuchel said. “You can’t imagine the problems that would happen if this wasn’t running.”

The siphon project includes about a quarter-mile of pipe and joins a network of 83 miles of irrigation canals. Most of the water piped into the Bitterroot Valley is used for agriculture and the Hamilton Golf Course.

Meuchel said the new siphon has an expected lifespan of 100 years and any stoppage of water impacts customers.

“We’re only three days away from a drought any day of the week,” Meuchel said. “In three days, because the ground is so sandy and gravelly, so every time you’re down with a ditch, you got a lot of calls and a lot of people upset. They depend on it.”

James Dobson/MTN News

The project spent several years in the planning phase, and Meuchel said that after contractors’ bids were too expensive, his small crew did the work themselves.

Now, a team of five people keeps 14,841 acres irrigated. Meuchel said the public should spend more time learning about who makes the water flow.

“I think everybody should see where their water and aquifers come from and how important our aquifers are,” Meuchel said. “Even the city water. Water is the most important thing we have.”