BRID pipelines stretching  further by the year

By Cal Braid
Taber Times
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

On Aug. 22, Bow River Irrigation District GM Richard Phillips talked about the pipeline projects the District has undertaken to improve the efficiency of its water delivery system.

  New pipelines will replace a number of open canals in the district, reducing spill and conserving water. Every open canal receives water at the top, and if it’s not drawn out along the way as it runs downhill, it spills out at the bottom into the river. Phillips explained that by replacing an open canal with a closed pipeline, nothing spills out at the bottom.

  The pipelines–-BK-1, BK-2, BK-2-2 and BK-3–are geographically somewhat midway between Vauxhall and Lost Lake. BK-2-2 is right beside Lost Lake and BK-3 is a little closer to Lost Lake than to Vauxhall, north of the main canal.

  “We brought on a new little pipeline (BK-2-2) for this spring, that pumps water straight out of Lost Lake to supply about 10 quarter sections or so, and that became functional this year,” Phillips said. “That was the only new pipeline that was functional this year that is part of this monster pipeline project. That project involves three really big pipelines and the big ones are all fed off our main canal by gravity. The little one is pumped off Lost Lake.”

  The ‘little one’ became operational this year, and Phillips said that it’s worked great. Last winter, the District did a lot of work on the second of the large pipelines, BK-2. He said they’re doing the pipelines in reverse numerical order from east to central to west. BK-3 has been operational since 2024.

  The BK-2 pipeline is scheduled to be completed this coming winter and operational by next spring. BK-1, the final stretch of the system, will also begin construction over the winter and Phillips doesn’t think it will reach the halfway complete point this year.

  “We’re going to do a lot of work on it this winter, and then we will finish it in the winter of 2026-27 so it’ll be operational spring ‘27 and then that entire new pipeline project will be operational,” he explained.

“That replaces our last big block of open canal in the district. I mean, of course, we’ll still have our big main canals, but that’s the area that had a lot of open pipeline to serve a lot of irrigation. We got some open pipeline still up north that we’ll be doing in the coming years, but this is a really big project. We’re happy to have the completion in sight now.“