All American Canal set to open April 30

  After almost two years of work lining the All American Canal with concrete, the canal will be opened on April 30.

 The 23-mile canal will be put in operation that day, but the project itself will not be completed until next year, said Kevin Kelly, spokesperson for the Imperial Irrigation District, which is the agency leading the project.

 “The main aspects of construction are finished but it will be a year from now, give or take a few months, when the project will be completely finished,” said Kelly.

 “Close to $285 million have been invested on the project,” said Kelly, who added the district has already run water through the canal to test it and there have been no problems in its operation.

 He pointed out the importance of the project - it will save close to 69,600 acre-feet of water each year, which is currently lost to seepage.

 To explain the benefit, he said, you have to understand that an acre-foot is the amount of water that can fill 1 acre up to 1 foot in height. “That’s enough water for a whole family during one year.”

 “The concrete lining of the All American Canal is an ambitious project, not only in terms of investment but its scale, too,” he said.

 The All American Canal begins at the Imperial Dam 20 miles northeast of Yuma and serves nine communities in California, irrigating close to 500,000 acres of agricultural land.

 A good section of the concrete-lined canal runs parallel and close to the border.

 Authorities and organizations south of the border in Baja California tried to prevent the canal from being lined by going through litigation. Opponents argue that by not allowing the seepage of the All American Canal it would damage ecosystems and the agriculture in a vast area of the Mexicali valley.

 Last year a federal court ruled in favor of the project, ending a bi-national judicial process lasting close to two years.

 The opening ceremony for the project will be at Gordon’s Well south of Interstate 8.

 Kelly said government officials have been invited and they have confirmed the attendance of the former commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamations, Robert Jones.

 Along with the Imperial Irrigation District, the San Diego County Water Authority, and the California Department of Hydraulic Resources, the Bureau of Reclamation also participated in the project.