The project addresses dual objectives, providing both irrigation improvements and restoration. The primary purposes of the project are to reconstruct the Crow Pump Diversion and related irrigation infrastructure to improve operational flexibility, add redundancy, increase the facility’s capacity to divert and pump water, improve passage for a wide variety of fish species and life stages in Crow Creek, and to accommodate aquatic and terrestrial habitat restoration and enhancements in the diversion area.

The current Crow Pump Diversion structure is not operational; however, when the diversion structure was functioning, the FIIP used it to divert water from Crow Creek into a pumping plant that lifts it into the Crow Pump Canal. Water in the Crow Pump Canal could either be delivered for storage in the Ninepipe Reservoir or used to supplement flows in the Post A Canal.

The configuration and location of the existing Crow Pump Diversion result in sediment deposition downstream of the diversion structure and in the Crow Pump Canal. There are currently 12-inches of silty sediment in the existing pump intake. There is currently no accommodation for upstream fish passage at the Crow Pump Diversion, and the current configuration does not allow fish species at varying life stages to pass through the diversion safely.