CARLSBORG – Al Bruck’s last-ditch efforts have won the 82-year-old Carlsborg man the Special Service Award of the Washington Association of Conservation Districts.

Bruck persuaded feuding irrigation companies to combine their main canals into a single pipeline and to convert 13 miles of open ditches to buried pipes in the bargain, said Clallam Conservation District Manager Joe Holtrop.

The six-year effort means more water for irrigators and for salmon, plus cleaner water flowing into the Dungeness River and Dungeness Bay, he said.

Bruck, a member of the board of the Clallam Ditch Co., convinced his colleagues to convert four miles of open ditch to pipes both to conserve water and protect its quality.

He also convinced his company and the Cline Irrigation District to cooperate and combine a network of irrigation ditches that once crossed one another four times, Holtrop said.