Thursday, October 15th marks the end of another irrigation season for the vast majority of the residential and business customers served by the City of Yakima’s irrigation system. That’s the day that the system operated by the City’s Water/Irrigation Division will be shut off until next spring.
The few other irrigation systems in the area that operate independently from City systems will also be shutting down over the next few weeks.
“It’s a good idea for people to spend some time now preparing for the shutdown,” said Irrigation Supervisor Rich Sanislo. “If they need to do some final watering, they should get that done this weekend. People should also go through the process of winterizing their own irrigation systems after the water stops flowing on October 15th,” said Sanislo.
The City of Yakima has operated irrigation systems since the early 1900s. The system that now exists to deliver water to customers in Yakima actually consists of 66 individual, smaller systems that were consolidated almost 20 years ago into a single utility. Through that utility, the City currently provides water to about 11,000 customers.