Daren Coon: Insights From a Career at NMID
The Ridenbaugh Canal diversion check structure on the Boise River.
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ampa & Meridian Irrigation District (NMID) is the largest irrigation district in Idaho, covering 69,000 acres and serving 100,000 water users. Over recent decades, its area has undergone a dramatic process of urbanization, necessitating the construction of a pressure urban irrigation system. It also went through the title transfer process with the Bureau of Reclamation during the 1980s and 1990s, acquiring title to its infrastructure and helping to shape the title transfer process along the way. In this interview, outgoing NMID Secretary-Treasurer and Secretary of the Board Daren Coon takes a look back at his long career at the district and provides us with the insights he has gained along the way. Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
6 | IRRIGATION LEADER
Daren Coon: The district’s predecessors were a series of canal companies that weren’t successful in gaining financial supporters from the East. Every time a new canal company, person, or corporation would purchase the canals in the hopes of bringing irrigation water to the valley, they would suffer under the volatility of the economy and go broke. The folks who were living in the valley at the time recognized the need for an irrigation district that could secure financing for the O&M and expansion of the system. The local residents seized the moment in 1904 and purchased the canal system and the water rights for the irrigation district. Its primary water right in the beginning was a riparian, or river, right. Subsequently, by contract with the U.S. Reclamation Service, Arrowrock Dam was built in 1915. Anderson Ranch Dam and Reservoir were completed in the late 1940s. They stored water to complement the district’s natural flow. Irrigation Leader: Is the district still primarily served by surface water? Daren Coon: All the district’s water rights are surface rights; it has no groundwater rights. Typically, there’s a sufficient amount of water each year—not a generous amount, but enough to deliver to the water users for an adequate
PHOTOS COURTESY OF NMID.
Daren Coon: I was born and raised on a small farm near one of the irrigation districts’ operation and maintenance (O&M) facilities. I was educated in Idaho, except for a short period of time in Portland, Oregon. I studied physics, political science, and psychology. In Portland, I spent some time in law school. I came back to Idaho looking for work and ended up with a job at the irrigation district in 1976. I held various positions within the district’s offices until 1989, when I was appointed to the positions of secretary-treasurer and secretary of the board.
Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about NMID’s history.
