2024 Wildfire Damaged Irrigation Canal Serving Yakima Valley WA, The Most Valuable Farming Region In The State

NACHES, Wash. – The Yakima-Tieton Irrigation Canal, a small-scale engineering wonder cut into the face of soaring basalt cliffs in central Washington, is a precarious and endangered 12-mile channel that supplies irrigation water to some of the state’s most valuable farmland.

The water it carries from the Tieton River nurtures orchards across 35,000 acres of the western Yakima Valley, which is to Washington as the Central Valley is to California – a region of high-value tree fruit and multibillion-dollar harvests that is an agricultural powerhouse only because of ready access to irrigation. Without supplemental water, this arid land of apples and cherries, pears and apricots would revert to its natural sagebrush and grassland ecosystem and the economies of its small farm towns would wither. The farmland bounty enabled by the Yakima-Tieton canal has been at risk of failure for more than a year following the Retreat Fire, which burned 45,601 acres of primarily state and federal land in Yakima County in July 2024.

The fire, the second largest in Washington last year, torched the steep slopes and rocky drainages above the Yakima-Tieton canal. After the flames were extinguished, the land came unglued. Boulders the size of garbage cans tumbled down the hillsides, gouging holes in the canal and cracking its mortar lining. Dead trees, some 20 feet in length or more, were uprooted and fell onto it. The fire’s extreme heat compromised the canal’s concrete core. To date, technicians with the Yakima-Tieton Irrigation District have documented over 2,000 spots where the canal is leaking at its seams. “The lifeblood of this community is on the line and it’s coming apart right now,” said Travis Okelberry, manager of the Yakima-Tieton Irrigation District.

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In the interim, smaller fixes have been necessary. Twice this year, the district has shut down the canal to patch leaks. In the event that larger sections need to be replaced, the district has already purchased lengths of pipeline. These are similar to “pipe bridges” that are in place in four sections where the canal washed out in the 1980s and 1990s. If emergency repairs are needed during the irrigation season, workers must act quickly to shut off water to the canal and restore it. “The work has to be done in three weeks because the orchards will die,” Okelberry said. Not only that, the canal provides water for fire suppression in the towns of Tieton and Cowiche. A malfunctioning or inoperable canal is a risk to their safety. Okelberry hopes that a weakened federal government that is being riven by budget and staff cuts will still be able to muster support for his canal. The entire Washington congressional delegation has signed a letter endorsing the $240 million replacement project, which will be part open channel, part tunnel.

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https://www.circleofblue.org/2025/agriculture/after-wildfire-unstable-earth-pummels-irrigation-systems-in-american-west/