Shane Leonard, Roosevelt Water Conservation District
Irrigation Leader: How has the COVID‑19 pandemic affected your operations?
RWCD's main canal.
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he Roosevelt Water Conservation District (RWCD) has been serving farmers, urban irrigators, and other water users in the Phoenix, Arizona, region for almost a century. The district’s current service area is approximately 40,000 acres. As an essential business, RWCD has had to find new ways to operate during the COVID‑19 pandemic. In this interview, RWCD General Manager Shane Leonard tells Irrigation Leader about the challenges the agency has had to face and how it has changed its operations to overcome them.
Shane Leonard: I am the general manager of RWCD, which is located
58 | IRRIGATION LEADER | JUNE 2020 - COVID-19 SPECIAL ISSUE
IRRIGATIONLEADERMAGAZINE.COM
PHOTO COURTESY OF RWCD.
Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about yourself and about RWCD.
in eastern Maricopa County, in the great state of Arizona. I am the fourth generation of my family working at the district. I received my degree from Arizona State University’s Morrison School of Agribusiness and Resource Management, majoring in finance and minoring in finite resource management. RWCD is approximately 40,000 acres in size, 10,000 acres of which is still irrigated, either in large-scale agricultural production or in municipal, industrial, and smaller-acreage backyard subdivisions. We currently have 50 employees. We produce approximately 70,000 acre-feet of water per year for delivery. Right now, we’re finishing moving into a brand-new facility, the first built in 100 years.
Shane Leonard: From a water delivery and operational standpoint, it hasn’t affected us directly, because we are an essential business and are required to make deliveries. What it has changed is how shift changes work for our employees. Our zanjeros work for 7 days in a row and then have 7 days off. Their shift changes are at 5:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. At those times, they used to come to their offices and update their partners on the day’s activities. Now, however, we’ve instituted a separation requirement and a disinfecting protocol. The zanjero who is coming off shift will go into the office, lay down the paperwork, disinfect everything, leave the office, and stand outside; the guy coming on shift will go into the office, grab the paperwork, make sure he understands what’s going on, and then come outside and talk with his partner about what tasks need immediate attention. Often, when the guy going off shift gets home, he’ll call in to make sure that everything is going well. From that point of view, we’ve had to make changes to ensure that we’re keeping our distance from one another and are disinfecting common areas, vehicles, and equipment. On the administrative side, the pandemic has caused more problems because of the need to follow social distancing. We’ve had to reduce our office staff to a skeleton crew. Basically, we have only one person from each area come in at a time. For example,
