Friday, October 13th marks the end of another irrigation season for 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 irrigation season in Yakima typically lasts from early April through mid-October. The last flows of irrigation water to City of Yakima customers will stop on October 13th. The Naches Cowiche Canal Company, which provides water to about half of the City’s irrigation system, will shut down operations for the year on October 1st. All other irrigation systems in the area that operate independently from the City system will close for the season by the end of October or early November.
The part of the system that will be affected by the October 1st shutdown by the Naches Cowiche Canal Company include Maclaren, North 29th Avenue, Englewood, Browne Avenue, Park Lane/Nob Hill, Capitol Hill, Buena Vista, Bracket Park, 28th & Clinton Way, 25th Avenue pump, 23rd Avenue and 24th Avenue pumps, Bonnie Doone, Hillcrest, Summitview to Nob Hill from 16th Ave to Landon Ave, approximately Summitview to Nob Hill, south 30th Avenue to 16th Avenue, and Arlington to Nob Hill, as well as Lincoln to Englewood from North 23rd Avenue to North 27th Avenue.
The City’s Water & Irrigation Division encourages customers to go through the process of winterizing their own irrigation systems before the water stops flowing.
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.