Water Diversion on Sespe Creek

Fillmore Irrigation Company Engineering, 2009-10

Liaison(s): Barbara Filkins ’75
Advisor(s): Mary Cardenas
Students(s): Mobashwir Khan, Katherine Maddalena (S), Megan Pham, Erin Powers (S), Benjamin Ryan (F), Dorian Scrima (TL), Victoria Wu (F)

The Fillmore Irrigation Company in Fillmore, CA, has the legal right to divert surface water from the Sespe Creek, a habitat of the endangered steelhead trout. Previous methods of diverting water, such as the annual reconstruction of an earthen dam, have proven insufficient from multiple perspectives. Thus, the goal of the project was to design a water diversion system that would help FIC maintain its water right and provide enough water to augment its current supply, while minimizing environmental impacts.