Coho Water Resources
Integrated Water Resource Management
Water Spreading, Sundale Orchards
Sundale’s apple and cherry orchard was established in Klickitat County in the 1950s. The irrigation system is being converted from impact sprinklers to high-efficiency “micro” sprinklers.
Coho conducted an internal audit of the water right assets and evaluated the feasibility of applying the water saved from increased irrigation efficiency to the irrigation of additional acreage (i.e., "water spreading").
The water rights package contained seven individual water rights, administrative errors, replacement of water rights that had been appurtenant to lands flooded by Lake Umatilla created by the John Day Dam on the Columbia River in 1971, and water rights in various stages of development.
Coho prepared change applications, technical analysis, made presentations to the Klickitat County Water Conservancy Board, drafted the Reports of Examination, and bird-dogged the applications through the complete process. Acceptance and approvals were received at every step on the first submittal. Sundale Orchards is now approved to expand irrigation from 106 to 151 acres of orchard - approximately 50% expansion based on irrigation efficiency alone.
