How Do I Comply With Water Board Regulations? Part 1

Yesterday I met with some nice folks up in Hat Creek and Old Station.  A big question right now is, how do I comply with Water Board regulations?  Also, what exactly do I need to do for a measuring device?  And, where can I find out that what I do will be acceptable, so I don’t get dinged after I did what I was supposed to?

First: devices.  The most common, long-lasting, and cost effective devices for measurement of irrigation diversions are:  weirs, orifices, flumes, mag-meters, propeller meters, and acoustic Dopplers.

Weirs are the least expensive, long-lasting, accurate devices.  This weir was prefabricated and shipped from Briggs Manufacturing.  Installation takes a few hours, and with new 2″ lumber, accuracy is plus or minus 5 %.  That is better than the Water Board’s requirement of 10 % accuracy.

An orifice is often exactly the same as a weir, with the boards set as an orifice.  Instead of the water going over, it goes through an exactly-sized hole.  The accuracy is plus or minus 5 % if it is set up carefully.  The cost is the same as for installing and operating a weir.

Here is another kind of orifice – a headgate.  If it is a square headgate, or a new, round (Waterman) headgate, then the area of the opening can be determined with plus or minus 5% accuracy.  An older headgate or one with a less-than-perfect opening can still be 10% accurate, within the Boards’s standards.

This is a Parshall flume.  It uses no boards, so no debris can pile up.  It is nearly maintenance-free.  Flumes cost more to install, and if they settle and get out of level they lose accuracy.  However, you’ll see many of these in Northern California.  There are some prefabricated flumes just coming into production that will be easier to install and will include data collectors.

How do you know which one will work for a particular diversion?  Someone with expertise can check the ditch, grade, soil-type, flow range, and other information and tell you within a couple of days what will work best, with an engineering report and cost estimate.  Rights To Water Engineering does this for $300 to $500, and can install the device if you like, with an operations manual.

Filing Statements of Use with the Water Board is now all by computer through the Internet.  That’s one of the things Rights To Water Engineering, and some other folks do at a reasonable cost.  If that’s your worry then contact us and we can point you in the right direction or help you out with reporting.

This is the quick summary on compliance!  Contact me at (530) 526-0134 or RightsToWaterEng1@gmail.com, and read this blog for more detailed information.  Have a great weekend!