Lockwood Irrigation District

Lockwood Irrigation District A Yellowstone County irrigation district established in 1907. Providing irrigation water to the Lockwood community since its first season in 1914.

To provide updated information to property owners/irrigation users within the boundaries of the Lockwood Irrigation District. Since 1913, water is pumped 60' (for the lower canal) and 100' (for the upper canal) above the pump station on the Yellowstone River. All property owners within the District are responsible for the maintenance of the distribution system- the lateral ditches as they run thro

ugh various properties. The District maintains the two main canals and property owners adjacent to the canal must provide for a 15' maintenance easement on either side of the canals. Board meetings are held the third Wednesday of the month at 7:00 PM at the LWSD Office, 1644 Old Hardin Road and are always open to the public. Past Board meeting minutes are available to the public and are posted on the Yellowstone County website.

07/23/2026

2026 Shut down of both canals for moss control for five full days beginning Sunday, August 2nd and back on Friday, August 7th.

Moss accumulation at 8:00 AM this morning (July 12th) on new pump station trash racks since cleaning at 8:00 PM Saturday...
07/12/2026

Moss accumulation at 8:00 AM this morning (July 12th) on new pump station trash racks since cleaning at 8:00 PM Saturday, July 11th. Moss can obstruct the intake water flow into the pump station wet well at the three 36" upper intake spillway gates and downstream at the racks and screens at the pump station and must be continually removed. Today the water level at the pump station is 72", down 2" from yesterday. At present, all three pumps continue to run for a total of 11,565 GPM. This compares to an estimated minus 10,000 GPM total for the two older pumps used the previous seasons. However, as the river levels drop, it will be necessary to run two pumps which together produce a flow of about 10,500 GPM.

Our new Watertronics Pump Station operating system uses WaterVision2 and has sensors for water levels in the start of bo...
07/11/2026

Our new Watertronics Pump Station operating system uses WaterVision2 and has sensors for water levels in the start of both canals and the pump station wet well, the 60' gate valve, PSI, Flow, Amps & Hz per each of the three pumps.
Sensor Alerts shut down the pumps on July 6th, 8th & 9th. The July 6th Alert shut down was at 12:35 PM due to a tripped breaker at the upper 100' water level sensor and pumps were restarted at 1:22 PM. The July 8th shut down was at 1:55 PM due to low water level in the Pump Station wet well and pumps were restarted at 2:35 PM. The July 9th shut down was at 12:43 AM also due to low water level in the Pump Station wet well and pumps were restarted at 6:39 AM.

Currently three pumps are running with a flow rate of 11,555 GPM, 171.3 Amps per pump, a frequency of 47.1 Hz on the VFD controlled Pump 1 and 60 Hz for Pumps 2 & 3.
The wet well water level is 74", red line level is 56" -which will activate the water level sensor alarm.

Our intake headgates at the spillway were blocked by driftwood debris and cleaned out on Thursday, July 9th by Askin Construction on just a day's notice. Additional removal of smaller driftwood and moss by hand was completed late morning of Friday, July 10th. I have never seen the amount of moss in the Yellowstone River especially this early and it will only get worse. The pump station trash racks & screens need to be cleaned at least two times daily and the intake gates at the spillway will need constant cleaning.
Photos are from last Thursday and Friday showing the intake gates.

07/11/2026

Pumps were restarted today at 8:00 PM.

07/11/2026

The large area Northwestern Energy Power Outage that started at about 5:00 PM also includes our Pump Station. No word as to time for restoring power. I will post when pumps are restarted.

06/11/2026

Recent headgate closures: Hillner Lane closed for Nightingale lateral flooding-maintenance completed, now open; Enfield east & west closed for pipe repair, now open; Becraft North supplies water to east side of Saddle Lane closed for sewer work on Driftwood, now open; west John Drive closed for sewer work on Driftwood, now open; east John Drive-west Barbara Drive closed for pipe repair, now open; east Barbara Drive-west Marie Drive closed for pipe repair-will post when open; east Kay Drive-west Kristin Drive closed until Friday (June 12) for sewer work on Driftwood.
100' Lift Canal berm buildup work scheduled today at Sunrise & Greenwood to address overtopping at higher water levels. The new pump station control program will be revised soon to correct output when using all three pumps.

2026 Pumping Season is scheduled to start the day after Memorial Day, May 26th. The new Pump Station will be tested and ...
03/22/2026

2026 Pumping Season is scheduled to start the day after Memorial Day, May 26th. The new Pump Station will be tested and commissioned the week prior-May 18th-22nd. A few items remain to be completed-two sections of safety railing on the original lower intake deck, final coating on the lift pipe as it leaves the new pump station and electrical connections in the main power breaker to the new station, and 60' canl actuator valve. Photos show the new Pump Station to the south of the original Pump House with the three 200 HP motors attached to submersible pumps below in the wet well. Electronics including the varible frequency drives are located in the metal cabnet to the east. A steel canopy & ventilated sides will be installed later this summer. The intake headgates will be opened soon to allow the intake to flush out before closing the south discharge gate to bring the intake water level at the pump station to about 8 feet.

Address

P. O. Box 3292
Billings, MT
59103

Telephone

671-4633

Website

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