Saskatchewan will spend at least $20 million over the next 10 years to fix 100 kilometres of deteriorating pipe in two irrigation districts.
Pipes in the Riverhurst and Lucky Lake districts have deteriorated far sooner than expected because of a high, salty water table, said John Babcock, director of Saskatchewan Agriculture’s irrigation development branch.
The government recently passed an order-in-council that authorized spending $480,000 for consulting engineering services over the next three years. It needs help rehabilitating or replacing the prestressed and pretensioned concrete cylinder pipe known as PCCP.
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The total cost of the engineering fees until 2018 is estimated at $1.96 million. The repair work is expected to cost $18 million.
Babcock said the pipe was installed between 1987 and 1990 and should have lasted at least 50 years. Problems have mainly occurred at the pipe joints.
“The grouting that was put in … is failing, particularly in areas of high water table and high salt concentration,” he said.
Officials hadn’t anticipated such high levels of salinity in the soil, he added. It is eating through the grout and into the metal, causing leaks.
PCCP is made of layers of concrete, steel and heavy-gauge tensile strength wire, finished off with a layer of cement coating.
The pipe is one to six metres underground, depending on the terrain, to make it as level as possible. It is about 1.2 metres in diameter and withstands pressure of 60 to 90 kilograms when the tap is turned on.
Babcock said the rehabilitation plan calls for increasing cathodic protection to control corrosion. In some cases, pipes may have to be replaced.
The two districts each include about 9,000 irrigated acres.
Work has to be done in early spring and fall so that the irrigators can use the system.
Roger Pederson, chair of the Saskatchewan Irrigation Projects Association (SIPA), said the preliminary work hasn’t affected productivity or cropping, and he doesn’t anticipate problems in the future.
The province is also planning work on the M1 Main Canal, which runs below Gardiner Dam from the East Side pumping station 27 kilometres north to Broderick reservoir. It has issued a request for proposals to develop an asset management plan for the infrastructure, which is more than 40 years old.
Babcock said this is part of a major water supply system that also services mining and recreational customers.
Pederson said enlarging the M1 is necessary because it physically can’t handle enough water anymore.
He likes the idea of moving to a system that pressures a number of pivots from one pump station on a canal.
He draws water from the Outlook irrigation district through a canal system that delivers water to each quarter. A pump at each quarter supplies the pivots, but this type of system experiences evaporation and water loss.
Within the next few weeks SIPA will release its economic benefit study of irrigation.
“It’s not a study that’s going to bring anything new to light,” Pederson said. Rather, it will summarize several studies looking at the practice.
The SIPA board plans to meet with agriculture minister Bob Bjornerud in June to discuss the study and plan for the future.
The March budget for this fiscal year did not contain expansion money for irrigation.
Pederson is willing to cut the new government some slack but said the industry will be “tremendously disappointed” if there is no money or plan in the 2009 budget.
Pederson said construction of infrastructure takes a long time and it could be years before some areas that want irrigation see the water. As well, climate change is placing increased emphasis on water supplies.
“We need to be ready,” he said.
