Uintah Water Conservancy District – Steinaker Service Canal Enclosure

Uintah Water Conservancy District (UWCD) in Vernal, Utah, owns and operates the Steinaker Service Canal, a 12-mile irrigation channel built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 1961. The canal carries roughly 120 cubic feet per second of water from Steinaker Reservoir to farms and landowners across the Ashley Valley. Like many open channels of its era, the canal lost nearly a quarter of its water to seepage and evaporation before it ever reached the people who depended on it. With drought conditions placing growing pressure on the region’s water supply, UWCD moved forward with the Vernal Unit Efficiency Project, a long-term plan to enclose the canal in a pressurized HDPE pipeline.

UWCD completed the first phase of the project in 2017, enclosing roughly three miles of the canal’s southern end. Construction resumed in fall 2022 with Reaches II and IIIA, extending the enclosed section by another 2.82 miles. For this phase of the project, contractor BHI installed 15,500 feet of 78-inch DR 26 AGRU HDPE pipe, marking the largest diameter HDPE pressure pipe installation in the country. Each section of pipe weighed roughly 16,500 pounds, so crews relied on two McElroy Talon fusion machines to lift and maneuver the pipe.

HDPE’s leak free, fully fused joints gave UWCD a way to stop water loss almost entirely, something most pipe materials could not guarantee at this scale. Its flexibility and resistance to corrosion also protect the pipeline from the region’s shifting soils and freeze thaw cycles, extending its service life well beyond traditional concrete or steel alternatives.

By enclosing the canal, UWCD is reclaiming water once lost to evaporation and seepage, improving water quality by keeping out external contaminants, and adding redundancy to the area’s drinking water supply. As UWCD works toward enclosing the canal’s full length, this project shows that HDPE can meet the demands of even the largest water conveyance systems in the country.

Image: Uintah Water Conservancy District (UWCD), 2022