ABOUT US
As the largest irrigation district in the Sacramento Valley, Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District (GCID) is committed to providing a dependable water supply for landowners and water users while responsibly managing water resources and protecting the environment. As part of these efforts, we conduct ecological projects that preserve the environment and sustain critical wildlife habitat. As a regional leader in sustainability, partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies are key to our mission.
With California’s water landscape constantly shifting, we are dedicated to stewardship and continuing to serve landowners and water users effectively and efficiently. GCID has a long history of serving farmers and the agricultural community, and we remain focused on improving our delivery system, maintaining responsible policies, and staying devoted to environmental and economic viability.
GCID operates and maintains a main pump station near Hamilton City, our only diversion from the Sacramento River. GCID’s 65-mile long Main Canal conveys water into a complex system of nearly 1,000 miles of canals, laterals and drains, much of which was constructed in the early 1900s.
MISSION: Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District (GCID) is dedicated to providing reliable, affordable water supplies to its landowners and water users, while ensuring the environmental and economic viability of the region.
HISTORY
In 1883, Will S. Green, a surveyor, newspaperman, public official, and pioneer irrigator, posted a filing on a tree on the Sacramento River, marking the beginning of the District’s first appropriative water rights. Green’s first claim, for 500,000 miner’s inches under four inches of pressure, 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 1920–1921 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. During this period, the U.S. government purchased lands within GCID, which would later become three federal refuges totaling approximately 21,000 acres.
Over the years, GCID has maintained a deep commitment to sustainable practices – both in managing the water supply and preserving and protecting the environment, fish and wildlife in the region. The District completes numerous projects to ensure minimal impact of water diversion on fish and wildlife and deliver water to maintain critical wildlife habitats.
Today, GCID is the largest irrigation district in the Sacramento Valley, governed by a five-member Board of Directors overseeing an annual budget of $15 million.
WHERE WATER IS KING
SERVICE AREA
GCID’s boundaries span approximately 175,000 acres, 140,000 of which are farmland. We serve 1,076 landowners and an additional 200 tenant water users within our service area. GCID also 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 is based in Willows, the county seat of Glenn County, approximately 90 miles north of Sacramento on Interstate 5.
