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Irrigation reps explain share-based delivery: snowpack, CFS and per-share math
Summary
Irrigation representatives described how they compute deliverable water from snowpack and reservoir levels, convert flows to shares and gallons per minute, and use pond-level metering to ensure equitable distribution among shareholders.
Irrigation representatives used the work session to explain how delivery is calculated and why year-to-year variability complicates exact planning. A representative summarized the approach: total flow at the headgate divided by the number of shares gives per-share delivery, and that figure changes with snowpack and reservoir conditions.
Speakers offered concrete conversion examples so council members could understand scale: if total deliverable flow at the canal head is X CFS divided by roughly 30,000 shares, per-share flow can be computed and converted into gallons per minute. One participant explained a working rule of thumb for a typical yard on the system: "If you had two shares... that's about 11.2 gallons per minute per 100 shares," and used other examples to illustrate weekly watering allowances for small residential lawns versus multi-acre hay fields.
Why it matters: the measurement and allocation system underpins any fair metering or assessment scheme. Irrigation representatives recommended pond-level or main-metering plus a small number of residential feeder meters as a practical way to measure resident consumption and infer farm usage without installing dozens of individual meters immediately.
