Irrigation Systems Shutting Down Soon

Yakima residents and businesses that depends on irrigation from the city have 10 days to prepare for the fall shutdown.

Systems operated by the city will be shutting down on Oct. 15. They will not be restarted until the spring melting season.

“It is a good idea for people to spend some time preparing for the shutdown,” said irrigation supervisor Alvie Maxey. “If they need to do some final watering, they should get that done. People should also winterize their own irrigation systems after the water stops flowing,” said Maxey.

There are systems that are run independent of the city, but those are also expected to be shut down by the end of October.

The city has operated an irrigation system since the early 1900s. The system that now exists to deliver water to irrigation customers in Yakima actually consists of 66 individual, smaller systems that were consolidated into a single utility in 1997. Through that utility the city currently provides irrigation water to about 11,000 customers.