Blaine County is home to five established Irrigation Districts that serve our local farmers. The districts are a small part of a much larger project. To begin with water is managed through Fresno Reservoir by the St. Mary's Milk River Irrigation Project. The benefactors from the Milk River Irrigation project includes far more than just the farmers that pump water onto their fields for their crops. The City of Chinook as well as the City of Harlem is also directly served by the project.

The five districts that serve Blaine County include the Fort Belknap Irrigation District which runs from Lohman Damn to Lodge Creek. The Alfalfa Irrigation District is by far the smallest and runs from Lodge Creek to Battle Creek. Zurich Irrigation District then runs from the other side of Battle Creek to East of Harlem, ending at the McCann place.

The Fort Belknap Irrigation District is overseen by Commission Chair Dennis Kleinjan who is also the Ditchrider. Kleinjan also controls the water going to the Alfalfa and Zurich Irrigation Districts. Kleinjan controls the water diverted by a Damn into a canal near his place just north of Lohman. The other two Districts, Harlem and Paradise Valley pump their water into a canal using three pumps directly out of the Milk River.

In explaining how the districts work Kleinjan stated, "All irrigation districts are controlled by the Joint Board, every irrigator from Lohman Damn through Glasgow. Each irrigation district has one voting member on the joint board. Working with Bureau of Reclamation, the Joint Board gives the districts their recommendation for Water usage. From there, we discuss amongst ourselves and vote on our allotment that each district will receive."

The amount of water each District receives is exactly the same, based on acre feet. This year's allotment worked out to be 1.3 Acre feet of water/per acre. Each landowner then orders their water through their Districts Ditchrider. "The water is measured going into each District Canal with hydro meter," stated Kleinjan. "From that point on, nothing is then measured or adjudicated."

In protecting the district's water usage, Kleinjan stated, "In a dry year like this, what we try to do is give every landowner one irrigation, which the Ditchrider oversees. Then after the water has been delivered to the farmer, hopefully as a district we come under that 1.3 mark, and we can order part of a second irrigation."

The Ditchrider must be on top of things when things are as dry as they are now, "The Ditchrider has to be driving around, checking on things making sure water isn't being wasted and if we feel it is then we can shut them off and make them reorder in three days."

Among the responsibilities of the Ditchrider are ensuring that all farmers in their District receives the water they have requested. The Ditchrider needs to ensure all systems are working the ditches are clean and water can flow freely, and gates are operational and functioning properly.

When someone needs water, they call the Ditchrider and places an order three days in advance as that's the time it takes to get from Fresno to the landowner. The Ditchrider then oversees the irrigation to make sure only the allotted amount is provided.

The Commission Chair Zurich is Dean Baker, and the Ditchrider for this year is Kenny Pruttis. Larry Klingaman will take over as Ditchrider after Pruttis finishes the year. Commission Chair for Paradise Valley is Larry Dilulo. Commission Chair for the Alfalfa Irrigation District is Clayton Annis and their Ditchrider is Kenny Pelesky. Jeff Sather is the Commission Chair for the Harlem Irrigation District.

The complexity of the Irrigation District is vast, and in the future the Blaine County Journal looks to dive deeper into the subject and explore all that it entails. The Milk River Irrigation Project is vital to everyone living down stream of Fresno Reservoir to Glasgow. Upkeep and maintenance of all the drop zones and structures required to ensure operation of the St. Mary's project that supplies the water to Fresno is never ending. A significant portion of the operation and repair costs comes from government funding and grants, but a significant portion falls directly to the farmer pulling water to irrigate his crops. Yet the water being supplied to the municipalities carries a far less burden as their cost is established as a base.

We will look at day to day operations of each district, how is a landowner grievance filed or how is it determined that someone used more water than they were allotted. How are commissioner selected, ditchriders chosen? How do districts work jointly upstream to downstream to ensure everyone gets their fair share?