Wyoming Lifestyle Blog: Water in the Ditch

“A lot of people have it worse.”

Water is flowing once again through the Goshen Irrigation District Canal.  The GID canal is one of the major irrigation canal systems in our area.  Back in July, a tunnel in the canal systems collapsed and caused a massive canal breech.  It shut off water to all the farmers on the canal.  At the peak of summer, some 105,000 acres were left at the mercy of the weather because there was no way to water the crops.

I can’t even begin to imagine the stress and heartache the canal collapse placed on my friends and neighbors.  It was a devastating blow to those families individually and our community collectively.  We’re a farming community, after all.  A blow that big to the farmers themselves would hurt us all in big and small ways.

About six weeks after the initial collapse, water is flowing once again.  The GID hired a construction company to repair the collapsed tunnel and fix where the canal had breached.  Crews worked basically round the clock in a Herculean effort, moving dirt and shoring up the tunnel to get the canal in some working order.

So seeing the water run in the canal is a blessed site.  It’s too late for most of the corn crops, but sugar beets and hay might benefit from the boost of late-season water.  The soil too will be helped, improving it for next season’s crops.  But the symbolism of seeing water again is powerful in and of itself.

The costs for this fix is in the millions.  And it’s just a temporary fix.  The GID is looking for a more permanent, stable solution, and it’s going to be in the millions as well.  Federal emergency management grants will help cover part of the repair.  And crop insurance payments will help cover part of the losses to individual farmers.  But not everything.  No one is getting out of this scott free, as they say.

What struck me though, is the empathy these family families showed each other.  When I talked with my friends and neighbors on the canal, they all had one thing to say.

“A lot of people have it worse.”

They mentioned farmers in the midwest dealing with massive flooding that washed out roads, bridges and fields.  The talked about neighbors dealing with long-term drought conditions.  Just yesterday a friend talked about seeing the complete devastation of homes and buildings in the Bahamas from Hurricane Dorian.

“My God, did you see those pictures?  It’s been a hard summer.  God, it’s been awful.  But my kids are safe.  My family is safe.  We still have a house and equipment and fields and electricity and clean drinking water and a way to make money.  I look at those pictures of the Bahamas and it’s just smashed.  Gone.  They have nothing.”

As bad as this summer was, they say, it could have been so much worse.

My heart goes out to our farm families.  I know getting water flowing again doesn’t fix the problem, but it’s a step in the right direction.  And seeing water in the ditch is a great reminder to count my blessings, hug my kiddos and be grateful for our lives, our livelihood and our safety.