afford any time lost . That winter , Soldier Canyon worked with the North Poudre Irrigation Company , which owns the ditch , to line the ditch with bentonite clay . During this process , the irrigation company found a large sinkhole , roughly 10 feet by 5 feet , Kempton said . The water was literally going down the drain .
“ The problem is that the whole area the ditch runs through was built on jumbled rock from the excavation of the tunnel at the base of the canal ,” Kempton said . Back in the early 1950s when the tunnel was excavated , all the rock went into the ditch . “ So the area under the ditch is full of voids , which explains the sinkhole .”
Now that the problematic area has been lined with impermeable clay , Kempton is hopeful they were able to stop the dramatic water loss .
“ Now we ’ re in the process of verifying that the clay lining project worked and loss is down to something more like a normal 2 to 3 %,” he said .
Although initial review shows the lining is working , Ayres now is conducting a second round of measurements to verify the results , with an official report expected before the end of 2023 .
Small project yields significant savings
Kempton estimates the clay lining project cost Soldier Canyon around $ 75,000 .
“ I think that ’ s a pretty good rate of return ,” he said . “ We spent roughly $ 75,000 to save millions of dollars of water . I think that ’ s kind of a no-brainer .”
Although this is a small-scale canal project , what others can learn from this work is much bigger , Kempton said . The new technology saved time and money and delivered more accurate results ,
which is something other water entities can see as a model going forward .
“ The overall message is not to always assume your ditch is working . It ’ s good practice to verify your numbers and check your flow meters , especially when it comes to water loss , because the cost of not doing that is very , very expensive ,” he said . “ When you compare what we spent on this project to the cost of losing water , it ’ s actually relatively cheap .”
6 | TRENDS Ingenuity , Integrity , and Intelligence .