Ditch panel rejects pipeline plan

A request to pipe 920 feet of the Henningsen Ditch across three parcels off Wyatt Lane north of Riverview Drive was rejected by the Water Conveyance Advisory Committee on Monday.

Developer Robert Engelkirk said he was concerned that the ditch would pose a liability as it crosses the property.

Owners proposed installing the 3x4-foot pipeline to replace the ditch, something which irrigators Russell Scossa, Fred Stodieck and Frank Godecke said would affect downstream users.

“This is all well and good until you get mother nature acting like mother nature you’re going to be overwhelmed,” Scossa said in his motion to deny the request. “You’ve done a good job presenting what you can but there’s going to be things that happen that’s going to cause (downstream irrigators) problems that you can’t even foresee right now.”

The Engelkirks purchased the three parcels on the southeast side of the Carson River’s East Fork in 2019, according to the Douglas County Recorder’s Office.

Doug Engelkirk said the plan is to build six houses on 88 acres.

“The ditch represents a significant nuisance hazard and the design of the ditch itself doesn’t begin to meet what I think should be reasonable standards,” Robert Engelkirk told the committee at a December meeting where it was tabled pending re-design.

The pipeline would carry 40 cubic feet per second and have manholes for maintenance access. Covenants, codes and restrictions would identify a single point of contact to maintain the line.

A concern for Stodieck was that a bond to maintain and repair the pipeline only extended 20 years.

“They talk about these 100 year floods,” Stodieck said. “I must be a little over 400 years old, because I’ve seen four of them.”

In December, downstream user and rancher Don Frensdorff said he was concerned about the inlet to the pipe.

“With that size of pipe, you’re going to need some sort of a grate in front of that at the head to catch all the debris that comes down,” Frensdorff said. “The problem is going to be who is going to be responsible for cleaning out that debris because it is going to be a daily, if not two or three times a day occurrence during the early irrigation season.”

Heise Ranch owner Bill Heise said he agreed with Frensdorff.

“How are we going to get access to that to clear out in a jam?” he asked.

East Fork Deputy Federal Water Master Mike Rippee said during irrigation season he spends almost every day during irrigation season at the ditch.

“The beavers are working all the time, especially on that ditch and on that diversion because it’s a smaller gate,” Rippee said in December. “If you want someone to build something, you get a beaver because they do a good job.”

Rippee agreed that with the long pipe being proposed, cleaning is going to be a major issue.

Rancher Charlie Hone pointed out that the Flood of 1997 washed out the entire bank from the Cottonwood diversion for 200-300 yards and had to be reconstructed.

That flood affected neighboring Glenwood Drive and large swaths of Carson Valley.

Formed in 1991 to provide input from irrigators on the more than 500 mapped miles of water conveyances in Carson Valley, the committee advises the county. Members must be irrigators.