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Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District (GCID) is an irrigation district that supplies agricultural and wildlife habitat water for Glenn and Colusa County in Northern California's Sacramento Valley. GCID's appropriative water rights began on the Sacramento River with an 1883 filing posted on a tree by Will S. Green, surveyor, newspaperman, public official, and pioneer irrigator. His first claim was for 500,000 miner’s inches under 4 inches of pressure and was one of the earliest and largest water rights on the Sacramento River.

GCID was organized in 1920, after several private companies failed financially, and a group of landowners reorganized and refinanced the irrigation district, retaining claim to Green’s historic water right. The disastrous rice crop failure of 1920–21 nearly destroyed the district at its inception, and the “great depression” took a further toll, making it necessary for the district to refinance in the 1930s. Additionally, the United States purchased lands within GCID during this period, which would later become the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex, Delevan National Wildlife Refuge and Colusa National Wildlife Refuge totaling approximately 21,000 acres.

Today, GCID is the largest irrigation district in the Sacramento Valley. The district boundaries cover approximately 175,000 acres; of which approximately 140,000 farmed. There are 1,076 landowners in the District and an additional 200 tenant water users. Additionally, GCID services 1,200 acres of private habitat land and 21,000 acres of protected federal wildlife refuges. Winter water supplied by GCID to thousands of acres of rice land provides valuable habitat for migrating waterfowl during the winter months.

GCID’s main pump station, its only diversion from the Sacramento River, is located near Hamilton City. The District’s 65-mile long Main Canal conveys water into a complex system of nearly 1,000 miles of canals, laterals and drains, much of it constructed in the early 1900s.

The District headquarters are located in Willows, the county seat of Glenn County, approximately 90 miles north of Sacramento on Interstate 5. A five-member board of directors governs the District. The annual budget is $15 million.

Current water supplies are diverted under the “Settlement Water Contracts” with the Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau). The first Settlement Contracts were established in 1964 to allow the Bureau to operate and divert water for the newly constructed Central Valley Project. The contract was renewed for another 40-year term in 2005. The contract provides GCID with water supply for the months of April through October for 720,000 acre-feet of base supply, and 105,000 acre-feet of Central Valley Project water that is purchased during the months of July and August. During a designated critical year when natural inflow to Shasta Reservoir is less than 3.2 million acre-feet, GCID’s total supply is reduced by 25%, to a total of 618,000 acre-feet.

Additionally, the District has rights under a State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) permit to “winter water.” These rights run from November 1 through March 31 at a 1,200 cubic feet per second (cfs) diversion rate. This water supply is used for rice straw decomposition and waterfowl habitat.

Board of Directors
GCID is led by an elected five-member board of directors who represent divisions in the water service area.

Mission
Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District is dedicated to providing reliable, affordable water supplies to its landowners and water users, while ensuring the environmental and economic viability of the region.

Sustainability Projects
GCID and the Sacramento Valley water users have completed dozens of projects in recent years to benefit fish. From restoration of spawning habitat to fish screens to fish food, water districts and agencies have been focused on implementing innovative and comprehensive projects.

North Cypress Bridge Project
As part of ongoing efforts to address all stages of the fish life cycle on the Sacramento River, Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District was part of a collaborative group of local, state and federal agencies that completed a project to restore side channel rearing habitat in the Sacramento River, immediately upstream of the Cypress Avenue Bridge on the east side of the river, in Redding.

Market Street Salmon Spawning Habitat Restoration Project
In partnership with local, state and federal agencies, Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District (GCID) constructed the Market Street Bridge gravel project in Redding, CA to restore salmon spawning habitat. The project was completed in March 2016. The project, carried out over several weeks, placed salmonid spawning gravel in the Sacramento River, immediately below the Anderson Cottonwood Irrigation District Diversion Dam and Market Street Bridge in Redding.

Painter’s Riffle Anadromous Fish Habitat Enhancement Project
As part of ongoing efforts to protect fisheries, GCID was part of a unique partnership that developed and designed the Painter’s Riffle Anadromous Fish Habitat Enhancement Project to enhance salmon habitat that was obstructed by a major storm. The restoration project was designed to reopen Painter’s Riffle, a historic salmonid spawning side channel on the Upper Sacramento River, downstream of the Highway 44/299 Bridge.

GCID Fish Screen Improvement Project
Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District (GClD) has historical water rights on the Sacramento River dating back to 1883, and was one of the first large-scale agricultural water users. The District conveys Sacramento River water through irrigation canals to approximately 141,000 acres of valuable, productive agricultural land. In addition, GClD delivers water to 20,000 acres of critical wildlife habitat comprising the Sacramento, Delevan, and Colusa National Wildlife Refuges.

Sacramento River Channel Gradient Restoration Facility
A major flood in January 1970 significantly changed the shape and flow of the Sacramento River downstream of the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District (GClD) intake channel. Approximately 4 miles north of Hamilton City, a meander was cut off, which reduced the river reach by approximately 2 .5 miles (RM 202.5 to RM 205). The riverbed gradient within this reach continued to degrade with seasonal flood events. The degraded river gradient decreased water surface elevations by 3 feet at the GClD diversion, leaving much of the fish screen out of the water. The lower water elevations contributed to unacceptable fishery losses at the existing drum screen facility.

Habitat Restoration and Mitigation Project
The fish screen and gradient restoration facility were designed and constructed to benefit fish, particularly protected species of anadromous (i .e. migratory) fish, such as Chinook salmon and steelhead trout. These facilities enable GClD to divert its full entitlement of water with minimal impact to fish. This benefits people by helping farmers to grow the food that feeds our country and keeping the Sacramento Valley economy vibrant. The facilities also allow GClD to deliver a reliable water supply to three national wildlife refuges to maintain and enhance critical habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife.