Irrigation Leader January 2014

Volume 5 Issue 1

January 2014

Adapting to Urbanization: A Conversation With San Benito County Water District Manager Jeff Cattaneo

A Great Example

By Kris Polly Ron Bishop, former manager of the Central Platte Natural Resources District (CPNRD) in Grand Island, Nebraska, passed away on January 13. Ron served as manager of the CPNRD since its creation in 1972 until he retired this past year. He was instrumental in the development of Nebraska’s natural resources districts system. Always an innovator, Ron had that rare gift to see solutions where others can only see problems. Some of the accomplishments that took place under his leadership include the development of a groundwater quality program to help farmers manage their fertilizer costs while protecting drinking water sources, the implementation of an endangered species management program that preserves water rights, and the completion of the Wood River flood control project. Just one of those accomplishments would be enough for a successful career, but Ron had a way of bringing people together to solve difficult problems. His quiet, respectful manner engaged others and built trust.

In over 20 years, I never heard him raise his voice or say an unkind word. In every conversation we had, Ron never failed to ask, “How is your family doing?” He cared deeply about his own family and about the people who worked for him and with him. Though the list of his awards and honors was pages long, he was a modest man and quick to give credit to others. He was a great example of the kind of person we should strive to be. Everyone who knew Ron will miss him.

Ron Bishop, general manager of the Central Platte Natural Resources District, presenting at a water conference in Nebraska.

Kris Polly is editor-in-chief of Irrigation Leader magazine and president of Water Strategies LLC, a government relations firm he began in February 2009 for the purpose of representing and guiding water, power, and agricultural entities in their dealings with Congress, the Bureau of Reclamation, and other federal government agencies. He may be contacted at Kris.Polly@waterstrategies.com.

The Water and Power Report www.WaterAndPowerReport.com The Water and Power Report is the one-stop aggregate news site for water and power issues in the 17 western states. Sign up for the free “Daily” service to receive e-mail notice of the top headlines and press releases each business day.

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Irrigation Leader

JANUAry 2014

C O N T E N T S 2

A Great Example

By Kris Polly

Volume 5

Issue 1

Irrigation Leader is published 10 times a year with combined issues for November/December and July/August by: Water Strategies LLC P.O. Box 100576 Arlington, VA 22210 Staff: Kris Polly, Editor-in-Chief John Crotty, Senior Writer Robin Pursley, Graphic Designer Capital Copyediting LLC, Copyeditor SUBMISSIONS: Irrigation Leader welcomes manuscript, photography, and art submissions. However, the right to edit or deny publishing submissions is reserved. Submissions are returned only upon request.

ADVERTISING: Irrigation Leader accepts one-quarter, half-page, and full-page ads. For more information on rates and placement, please contact Kris Polly at (703) 517-3962 or Irrigation.Leader@waterstrategies.com.

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Adapting to Urbanization: A Conversation With San Benito County Water District Manager Jeff Cattaneo 0 Defending and Enhancing Western 1 Irrigated Agriculture

By Dan Keppen

4 Landsat Thermal Infrared Imagery 1 and Western Water Management

By Tony Willardson

8 Developing Hydropower Equity and 1 Jobs–H.R. 1963

By Representative Steve Daines

District Focus

CIRCULATION: Irrigation Leader is distributed to irrigation district managers and boards of directors in the 17 western states, Bureau of Reclamation officials, members of Congress and committee staff, and advertising sponsors. For address corrections or additions, please contact our office at Irrigation.Leader@waterstrategies.com.

4 Urbanization in Kennewick Irrigation 2 District

Copyright Š 2014 Water Strategies LLC. Irrigation Leader relies upon the excellent contributions of a variety of natural resources professionals who provide content for the magazine. However, the views and opinions expressed by these contributors are solely those of the original contributor and do not necessarily represent or reflect the policies or positions of Irrigation Leader magazine, its editors, or Water Strategies LLC. The acceptance and use of advertisements in Irrigation Leader do not constitute a representation or warranty by Water Strategies LLC or Irrigation Leader magazine regarding the products, services, claims, or companies advertised.

6 Shane Leonard, Roosevelt Water 2 Conservation District

COVER PHOTO: Jeff Cattaneo, manager of the San Benito Water District. Photo by district staff.

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By Chuck Freeman and Jason McShane

MANAGERPROFILE

THE Innovators 2 AMCi: Telemetry Solutions for Water 3 Resources Monitoring and Control

37 CLASSIFIED LISTINGS

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Adapting to Urbanization:

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A Conversation With San Benito County Water District Manager Jeff Cattaneo

he Hollister Urban Area Water Project (HUAWP) is a collaborative effort by the San Benito County Water District (SBCWD), Sunnyslope County Water District (SSCWD), and the City of Hollister to improve the water quality and supply for the area surrounding Hollister, California. Key to increasing the area’s quality surface water is an upgrade of the Lessalt Water Treatment Plant (WTP) and the construction of the West Hills WTP, which, when fully built out, will produce 9 million gallons a day. HUAWP is the fulfillment of a 30-year-old vision that started when Central Valley Project (CVP) water was first brought to the region.

SBCWD is a California Special District formed in 1953 by the San Benito County Water Conservation and Flood Control Act. SBCWD encompasses 47,000 acres of San Benito County and delivers water to approximately 32,000 acres of agricultural lands. SBCWD’s water infrastructure consists of San Justo Reservoir and 158 miles of a closed and pressurized pipe distribution system, serving 250 small parcel accounts— including SSCWD and Hollister—and 1,100 agricultural accounts.

Area agencies started working on HUAWP in 2004 with a focus on demineralization and moved to surface water treatment in 2008. That move changed a $100 million capital project to a $30 million one. Jeff Cattaneo, SBCWD district manager and engineer, has been instrumental in shaping HUAWP and ensuring that both agricultural and urban water users benefit from the project. Irrigation Leader’s editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, spoke with Jeff about the project, the challenge of urbanization in agricultural districts, and the development of regional solutions to water issues.

Kris Polly: For most irrigation districts, urbanization has been a major challenge.

Jeff Cattaneo: It took a lot of work to get to where we are now. We are partners with SSCWD on the federal project. We share facilities. SBCWD boundaries run the length of the county. We operate under “zones of benefit.”

When we enter into a project, we employ different funding mechanisms—assessments, land taxes, and/or fees and charges—so all project benefits go to the zone. The federal project is our largest zone, and SBCWD employs all of those mechanisms to fund it. We still owe the federal government $100 million for the construction of the project, which was completed in 1987.

Kris Polly: How much water do you divert?

Jeff Cattaneo: We have a contract with the Bureau of Reclamation for 35,550 acre-feet of agricultural water and 8,250 of municipal and industrial (M&I). Like many in the CVP south of the [Sacramento River] delta, we have not been receiving anything near full contract entitlement.

That was one of the drivers that got us looking at alternatives to our prior business model.

Before this project came online, SBCWD was exclusively an irrigation district with that federal contract.

We sold some of our M&I contract to the City of Hollister and its partner in the contract, SSCWD. On average, we would use about 40 percent of our contract entitlement, and that would be a good year.

San Benito County Water District 12” farm delivery pipe for imported Central Valley Project water.

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Irrigation Leader

Project water cycle flow chart demonstrating how water moves through all the phases of the project, including reclamation.

With the reduction of water from the federal project, more and more of our fixed overhead had to be applied to fewer and fewer acre-feet of water. In addition, we had a growing urban population that needed service. Over the course of a number of years and discussions with the board, we realized that we needed to grow. It took us about 10 years to get here. It started out as a memorandum of understanding (MOU) among Hollister, the county, and this water district to engage in a process to look at water resources on a regional level.

Hollister had a wastewater plant with major nitrate and salt discharge issues. It was primarily a secondary treatment facility, percolating the groundwater back into the basin.

We have a naturally salty basin—it is one of the reasons that the project was built. SBCWD took a hard line on the city’s wastewater disposal practices because it was contaminating the basin. Out of that, we began to address water and wastewater issues collaboratively rather than individually.

The first piece of the MOU was the construction of a new $100 million wastewater treatment facility by Hollister. The facility uses a membrane bioreactor as a Irrigation Leader

treatment process and produces disinfected title 22 water.

[Title 22 of the California code governs reclaimed water treatment and use.] That treated water, however, is high in total dissolved solids (TDS).

Kris Polly: So that wastewater plant created another source of water for SBCWD. Jeff Cattaneo: It created another source of water for us that would augment our agricultural water supplies, but it was ultimately not suitable because of the salt content.

It was even saltier than the groundwater, which is about 800–900 TDS—on the border of being suitable for growing. After urban residents use the groundwater, it comes out of the treatment plant at about 1,200 TDS. Our plan with this project is to get dual benefits from the water supply. The residents of Hollister needed betterquality water to drink, and SBCWD needed better-quality water coming out of the wastewater plant to use for irrigation. With HUAWP, we will be delivering treated surface water to the residents of Hollister and receiving water at 600–700 TDS for irrigation.

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Historically, we have received, on average, 15,000– 20,000 acre-feet on our Reclamation contract. This project will get us about 2,000 acre-feet extra of agricultural water—a 10 percent increase in supply. Because we do not have the necessary storage facilities, treated water in the winter will be used to replenish the groundwater basin.

It will make a significant difference in the quality of the groundwater over time.

The reclaimed water will first be available in 2016. We are just starting with the first phase with the upgrade of the smaller treatment plant. We are constructing a new, larger treatment plant starting in late 2014/early 2015.

We originally had scheduled to start construction on both plants at the same time, but we ran into problems with the endangered California tiger salamander and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Unfortunately, the endangered species issues have delayed the start of the second treatment plant.

Kris Polly: Tell us about how the project is being financed.

Jeff Cattaneo: The project is 100 percent financed with local funds. Our repayment contract with Reclamation is a step contract divided into 10‑year increments: $1.6 million a year for the first 10 years, $1.9 million a year for the next 10 years, and then $7 million a year for years 21 through 30. SBCWD has been putting money aside to make those large payments for the final 10 years and had about $40 million set aside in low-yield government bonds. We decided to take that $40 million and invest it in the project, which has saved the project $3 million to $5 million over time.

It has also lowered the costs of the project to ratepayers.

In addition to the set-aside funds, SBCWD is putting up $10 million for the capital contribution; SSCWD and Hollister are putting up the remaining 50 percent of the capital costs. By funding internally, and not going out and selling bonds, rates decreased because they didn’t need the same expense coverage ratio. You save a lot in interest.

Kris Polly: What other steps is SBCWD taking to develop its water resources?

Jeff Cattaneo: SBCWD was not fully utilizing its M&I contract with Reclamation. The CVP Improvement Act sets Reclamation’s shortage policy for M&I contractors. In years when an agricultural user receives below 75 percent of its contracted delivery, M&I users take a 25 percent reduction in their historic use looking at the last three years from receiving 100 percent entitlement.

We had a good water year in 2011 and took 100 percent of our entitlement for M&I. So now, our historic use is about 25 percent higher than it had been previously. The 6

District surface water membrane treatment facility, which treats imported CVP water for potable use.

bottom line is that now we are getting more water.

We are also working with Reclamation through its M&I shortage policy to increase our M&I use to full contract amount. Users get a credit for nonproject water used in years of 100 percent allocation.

There is one area in our district that has high-quality water and is geologically different from the main part of the basin. In that area, we are looking to operate our own groundwater bank. In years when we have additional water supply over and above our annual demand, we’ll be delivering water and percolating it into the basin. In addition, we will deliver surface water to users in lieu of groundwater pumping, which will allow us to put well fields in that area. In years of shortage, we can draw water out of the basin and put it back in our system. On average, that will provide us with an added 2,000 acre-feet of water a year.

We also have developed an arrangement with Santa Clara Valley Water District, in which the district is allowing us to use some of its storage in the Semitropic Groundwater Storage Bank in Kern County.

Irrigation Leader

Kris Polly: How would you characterize your working relationship with the City of Hollister?

Kris Polly: What do your farmers think about the project?

Jeff Cattaneo: Excellent. Our relationship is better than it has been in the last 30 or 40 years, but it has taken a lot of effort to get to this point. Previous efforts to get something like this off the ground failed because of turf wars. Nobody wanted to give up what they already had; there was no common ground that allowed each party to get something out of the project.

The project arrangement is such that SBCWD is going to own the water treatment plant and sell the water wholesale, while Hollister will sell the water retail.

Previously, SSCWD was a partner with Hollister on the smaller water treatment facility that we are currently upgrading. SSCWD operated the plant.

In our project discussions, SSCWD expressed concerns about job losses due to relinquishing its position as operator of the smaller treatment facility. So, as part of the project deal, we agreed that SSCWD would not only continue to operate the smaller facility, but it would also operate the larger facility. That way, the project partners could use SSCWD’s existing expertise in treatment operations. SSCWD is a customer of SBCWD, so it has a vested interest in keeping costs reasonable.

Hollister has a lot going on in the city—infrastructure and revenue related. This agreement allows the city to just be a customer and not have to worry about constructing and operating a large treatment plant. The city also has waste discharge orders that it has to meet with the regional water quality control board. Those orders are set to change, and the city will go out of compliance due to the use of water softeners to treat hard water. The improved water quality provided by the treatment facilities will allow it to meet those orders and avoid $30 million worth of treatment.

There were lots of public meetings on the matter as far back as seven or eight years ago. The public wanted regional solutions.

Jeff Cattaneo: Initially, growers were concerned that a large urban water project was going to take water away from them. It took us a while to convince them otherwise.

The fact was, however, that we could not do that unless the district changed its contract with Reclamation. Minds began to change when we starting showing growers project benefits—a guaranteed 10 percent increase in agricultural water per year and financial strength through diversified revenue streams. A larger customer base would help cover overhead, particularly in water-short years.

The education and outreach process on the project was as much one on one as at board meetings.

Kris Polly: Describe the role that contractors play in SBCWD’s project implementation and operations.

Jeff Cattaneo: As a small but complex district, we rely on that specialized experience for these kinds of projects.

We wouldn’t be where we are today without HDR. The firm is extremely professional and good at managing multiple agencies.

TruePoint Solutions software enables us to run all of our deliveries and billing for both urban and agricultural water users out of one small office building. It has been instrumental in ensuring that our automated system is fully utilized. When we were seeking software solutions to run our system, we were unable to find companies that could deal with allotments. We thought we would have to do the database on our own. TruePoint not only spoke our language, it spoke our dialect.

San Justo reservoir, which provides 10,000 acre-feet of off-stream storage for imported CVP water.

Irrigation Leader

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Defending and Enhancing Western Irrigated Agriculture

By Dan Keppen

L

ast year marked the 150th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln and other Washington officials taking action in four critical areas. These actions directly contributed to the state of the American West today. First, in May 1862 Congress agreed to establish the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Days later, President Lincoln signed into law the nation’s first Homestead Act. This legislation set into motion a new process for privatizing land, created a unique system for production agriculture, and established a unique integration of production on private and public lands. One month after the Homestead Act was signed into law, Congress passed the Morrill Act, which provided for grants of federal land to states willing to establish a public university with a focus on agriculture. Known as “Land-Grant” institutions, these new centers of research now work in all 50 states.

And finally, in July 1862, President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act, which led to the creation of the first transcontinental railroad. This system enabled travelers to journey from coast to coast in a week’s time, making it markedly easier to travel west in search of land for settlement. The railroad owners wanted to quickly repay their loans, so they encouraged settlers to grow and sell cash crops. Thus, railroads led to the dramatic increase in settlements by new immigrants and the westward migration of native-born Americans.

These four visionary government initiatives catalyzed the development of western family farms and ranches, research centers, and extension services, as well as a reliable cadre of educated graduates and specialists. These forward-looking political actions transformed America and hold promise today as a model of international

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development and hunger alleviation for the 21st century.

A century and a half later, our decisionmakers have become very good at quantifying the benefits associated with growth, environmental proposals, and energy development. However, they often fail to apply a similar methodology that leads to quantifying the value of food production. For example, the Colorado River Basin Study, released last December by the Bureau of Reclamation, assumes that certain environmental flow targets, population growth, and energy development will occur over the next 50 years. Reclamation and other water planners continue to assume that future projected urban growth and power needs are going to happen and can simply be assessed, while the “resulting impact” ends up being a loss of irrigated acreage. The public needs to understand the ramifications of this mindset and truly understand what life would be like without open space and healthy food.

The unique nature of western agriculture—the challenges associated with a strong federal presence, the arid climate, the burgeoning population, and energy development—must be reflected by our elected decisionmakers and used to develop unique solutions that help the West best contribute to overall national agricultural production and conservation.

Good policies will drive the programs and activities that lead to great public investments. These will pay for themselves over and over and demonstrate positive longterm impacts.

For over two decades, the Family Farm Alliance has stood up for western family farmers and ranchers and defended irrigated agriculture. The alliance was founded in the mid-1980s by a small group of family farmers in the central San Joaquin Valley in California who were concerned about acreage “reform” proposals being crafted

by Rep. George Miller. The belief was that farmers could best explain to Washington, DC, policymakers the impact these types of regulations have on their own

Irrigation Leader

operations. This was the genesis of the “farmer lobbyist” concept.

The alliance then extended its membership into Arizona, which eventually spread to over a dozen other western states. The leaders of this organization have continued to build it into an effective, low-cost, grass-roots group that can get the job done. The belief in representing a diverse and distinguished group of agricultural businessmen and businesswomen is a key component that led to our foundation. It still drives every decision we make today.

Our founders’ commitment to the Family Farm Alliance is manifest today. They continue to build our organization to carry their vision forward—a vision that is now embraced by members in 17 western states.

We think the Family Farm Alliance gives our contributors a huge bang for their buck. All staff work is done under contract, so we maintain flexibility and low overhead. And we have a proven track record of success that includes 40 invitations to appear before Congress since 2005.

The past year was a busy one for the alliance, as we sought to advocate for eased permitting of low-head hydropower for farmers and ranchers, establish and broaden our involvement with powerful coalitions, continue our reputation as the go-to organization on western water policy matters, and properly check the expansion of new federal regulations and programs.

In September 2013, the alliance and the Irrigation Association jointly released a white paper, The Economic Impacts of Western Irrigated Agriculture. According to the study, the annual direct household income derived from the irrigated agriculture industry is estimated at $64 billion in the western United States. After further analysis of the total direct, indirect, and deduced impacts, researchers determined the total household income impact to be an estimated $156 billion annually. This report, which was peer reviewed by the Farm Foundation, is being used in forums around the country to help policymakers recognize that there are “silent opportunity costs,” or foregone benefit impacts, surrounding decisions affecting western irrigated agriculture and the U.S. economy.

Everyone talks about the need to find ways to generate clean, environmentally friendly power. Unfortunately, government regulation can hamper farmers’ and ranchers’ efforts to develop clean, low-head, low-impact hydropower in existing water delivery systems. In 2011, the alliance enlisted the support of Congress to begin to tee up the common-sense solutions we are looking to achieve. This year, the alliance was one of the leading organizations that helped advocate for two bills that were signed into law by President Obama last summer. These bills and the advocacy to move them were driven by significant input from the alliance, including invitations to testify at Irrigation Leader

congressional hearings when the bills were introduced.

Hydropower, as the largest source of renewable electricity generation in the United States, must continue to be a major part of our energy solution. These bills will help remove roadblocks and advance our country’s conventional and small conduit hydropower.

We continue to build coalitions and create powerful alliances to advocate for irrigated agriculture, and we are a lead partner in the AGree advisory committee, a new national, high-profile initiative to transform food and agriculture policy. The alliance is represented on the board of directors for the Clean Water America Alliance and was represented on the board of the Irrigation Association for the previous three years.

On an everyday basis, we strive to facilitate the delivery of accurate and timely information to Congress, regulatory agencies, the media, and our members on issues that impact western irrigators. Western water users are becoming increasingly concerned about the number of environmental policies that are currently being rewritten by federal agencies. The alliance has closely monitored these regulatory actions and has developed relevant, credible public statements to address them.

Finally, a slowly developing proposed national levee safety program driven by the Corps of Engineers has been sliding under the public radar for the past few years. This program would assert control of safety over all irrigation canals in the United States, despite the existence of other safety plans already in place. The alliance succeeded in convincing Congress to insert language in a 2011 appropriation act to deny Corps jurisdiction over irrigation canals. We are applying similar efforts as the current Water Resources Development Act moves through both houses of Congress, in an effort to help prevent federal adoption of new federal levee standards that are duplicative, risky, and potentially hugely expensive to operators of western irrigation delivery systems.

With global population now exceeding 7 billion people, the need to provide food to our country and the world has never been more pressing. Our food production capability really is a national asset and worthy of protecting. In the West, water is an essential component of that capability.

Grass-roots support is vital to our membership. To find out for yourself what the Family Farm Alliance is all about, come join us at our 26th Annual Meeting and Conference, scheduled for February 20–21, 2014, at the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

For more information on the Family Farm Alliance, please visit its website at http://www.familyfarmalliance.org or contact Executive Director Dan Keppen at (541) 892‑6244.

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Landsat Thermal Infrared Imagery and Western Water Management

By Tony Willardson

G

iven the increasing importance of Landsat thermal data to measuring and monitoring consumptive water uses in the West, the Western States Water Council (WSWC) has been an active advocate for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission. Its thermalinfrared (TIR) sensor is an essential tool for states to conduct water resources monitoring and management applications, and it is the only operational satellite system with a spatial resolution fine enough to map use field by field. Uncertainty regarding future funding and TIR data availability has been an obstacle to expanding the number of operational water resources planning, monitoring, and management programs that are beginning to flourish.

Western water managers and water rights administrators are increasingly using Landsat-derived maps to monitor and manage water rights, evaluate beneficial consumptive use, administer negotiated interstate agreements and monitor interstate compacts, determine allocations for agriculture and urban use, estimate water use by invasive species, monitor water and food sustainability and security, and provide information to help forecast and moderate commodity market fluctuations.

None of these applications would be possible without Landsat as it is presently configured, providing both thermal and reflected imagery from the same platform, which ensures the accuracy of evapotranspiration (ET) determinations. Using separate platforms on separate satellites to record reflected and thermal imagery would degrade the quality of ET evaluations when wetting events occur; during periods of rapid vegetation growth; at the onset of senescence and stress; and when crops are harvested or killed by frost, disease, or pests. These are precisely the types of localized conditions that Landsat is uniquely well suited to monitor.

State agencies using Landsat data as an element of their water planning and management programs and water rights administration processes include the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), the Idaho DWR, the Nevada DWR, the Colorado Division of Water Resources; the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer (OSE), the Wyoming OSE, the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, and the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, as well as the North Platte Decree Committee and a

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growing number of water conservation and irrigation districts. These data are also used extensively by federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the U.S. Department of Justice.

WSWC worked hard over several years to secure a place for the TIR imager onto the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), which was successfully launched on February 11, 2013. LDCM operational responsibility has transferred from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to the U.S. Geological Survey, and it has been renamed Landsat 8. The U.S. Department of the Interior–National Aeronautics and Space Administration partnership that led to the success of LDCM is expected to continue, and the president’s fiscal year 2014 budget request includes funding for LDCM operations as well as funding to explore appropriate next steps toward a permanent, operational, federal land-imaging program.

Landsat imagery in general, and TIR data in particular, provide the nation and the world with continuous, consistent monitoring of critically important global resources, including water use information. However, the value of Landsat imagery is difficult to estimate as it is at present primarily used by academic and noncommercial entities and governments. The U.S. Department of the Interior recently requested that the Landsat Advisory Group of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC) provide advice to the department “concerning the economic benefits of Landsat data.” (NGAC Landsat Advisory Group Update, April 2012.)

A white paper prepared by the advisory group provided estimates of the economic value of 10 uses of Landsat data and also summarized recent estimates of the economic value of Landsat data from two large-scale surveys.

Both approaches clearly show that the annual economic value of Landsat data far exceeds the cost of building, launching, and managing Landsat satellites and sensors.

The 10 Landsat applications alone produced estimated savings of $180 million to over $266 million per year for the federal and state governments.

Landsat’s TIR imagery can be used to measure and monitor consumptive outdoor water uses. These data are used in hydrologic modeling, water planning, comparing water use when cropland is converted to urban uses, measuring agricultural water use, monitoring aquifer depletion, administering water rights (legal findings of Irrigation Leader

fact, ensuring compliance with administrative orders, court decrees, and interstate compacts, as well as water right buy-back programs), endangered species, and Indian water rights settlements. The Idaho Department of Water Resources (IDWR) and the University of Idaho have partnered to pioneer TIR data uses, including the adjudication, measurement, and monitoring of consumptive irrigation use by wells on the Snake River Plain Aquifer.

The WSWC and the IDWR collaborated in estimating the value of using TIR imagery to measure and monitor consumptive use of agricultural wells. IDWR had previously used a power consumption coefficient measurement method to estimate extraction and water use at an annual cost of about $500,000 for 5,000 Snake Plain wells, or about $100 per well. After beginning to use Landsat TIR data through a process called METRIC (Mapping EvapoTranspiration with High Resolution and Internalized Calibration) to measure actual crop evapotranspiration on a field-by-field base, IDWR’s annual costs dropped to approximately $53,500 per year for the same 5,000 wells, or less than $11 per well. These two options have also been compared with requiring installation of flow meters on each and every well at a capital cost of several hundred to over a thousand dollars per well.

Irrigation Leader

Extrapolating the cost of using the power consumption coefficient method or installing flow meters on unmetered irrigation wells in the 17 western waters, the potential annual cost savings range from $20 million to more than $73 million annually. These figures represent a conservative estimate using unpublished IDWR cost figures and West-wide unmetered irrigation well numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2002 Census of Agriculture.

As water becomes an increasingly valuable commodity, the use of which will be subject to greater public scrutiny, the innovative use of Landsat TIR data to measure and monitor consumptive water use will help further revolutionize water management and state water rights administration, leading to greater efficiency and better planning and decisionmaking.

Tony Willardson is executive director of the Western States Water Council, representing the governors of 18 western states on water policy issues. You can reach Tony at (801) 685‑2555 or twillardson@wswc.utah.gov.

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Developing Hydropower Equity and Jobs—H.R. 1963

By Representative Steve Daines

L

ike many western states, Montana is home to abundant and diverse energy resources. From our rich oil deposits and coal reserves to wind, hydro, and biomass, Montana is setting an example of what an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy can look like.

As we continue working toward new and innovative ways to power our nation, it’s also critical that we examine ways to better utilize our existing resources and infrastructure.

Montana and other western states have an incredible opportunity to produce clean, renewable energy by encouraging hydropower production on existing irrigation canals, ditches, pipelines, and other forms of water infrastructure.

That’s why I introduced H.R. 1963, the Bureau of Reclamation Conduit Hydropower Development Equity and Jobs Act, which removes outdated federal statutes that currently prevent irrigation districts and other nonfederal developers in Montana and other western states from developing hydropower on some Bureau of Reclamation canals, ditches, and pipes.

Irrigation infrastructure throughout the West holds the potential to develop hydropower, but an outdated federal law hinders the development of these small hydropower projects, driving up planning costs significantly and sometimes rendering them economically unfeasible.

This outdated law—the Water Conservation and Utilization Act of 1939—prohibits third parties like the irrigation districts that manage these facilities from installing hydropower and disallows these potential developers from collecting any revenues from the hydropower. Since the federal government has stated that it has no plans to develop this hydropower, it’s time that it steps out of the way and allows private investment to move forward on these clean energy projects.

H.R. 1963 updates antiquated federal law to remove these statutory barriers and streamline the permitting processes.

By cutting senseless barriers to hydropower development, this common-sense legislation will immediately put people back to work in rural communities developing clean, renewable hydropower while helping lower energy costs for Montanans and families throughout the West—all at no cost to the American taxpayer.

This is common-sense policy that has already received strong support and consensus from irrigation districts, ag groups, and water and power user organizations from across the nation.

This is a good bill for Montana and the West. Indeed, in testimony submitted at a recent congressional hearing, Mike Carlson, manager of the Buffalo Rapids Irrigation Project in eastern Montana, stated that my bill “provides an important opportunity for small irrigation producers to provide clean energy to our communities and receive some support for us to continue and improve our services to our farmers.” This bill has also received strong support from across the aisle. At the same hearing, the Obama administration expressed its support of H.R. 1963.

There are 11 projects nationwide that would be immediately impacted by my bill, 4 of which are in Montana. And in combination with another recently enacted bill, H.R. 678, my legislation could lead to development of at least 32 conduit hydropower sites on federal conduits in Montana.

In Montana, balancing energy development with responsible stewardship of our resources is the way we do business.

A diverse energy portfolio helps keep electricity prices low for Montana families and creates good-paying jobs. Hydropower is an important part of that puzzle. The House recently passed my bill without objection, which is a significant step toward making this a reality.

Representative Steve Daines is a fifth-generation Montanan, sportsman, and father of four serving the people of Montana in the U.S. House of Representatives. He serves on the House Committees on Natural Resources, Transportation & Infrastructure, and Homeland Security.

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NAME____________________________________________________________________________________________________ AFFILIATION _____________________________________________________________________________________________ ADDRESS ________________________________________________________________________________________________ CITY/STATE/ZIP ___________________________________________________________________________________________ TELEPHONE _______________________________________ E-MAIL _______________________________________________ IRRIGATION LEADER magazine is sponsoring the 2nd Annual Operations and Management Workshop with a theme of “Self-Reliance and Efficiency.� The purpose of the workshop is to provide an opportunity for general managers and directors of irrigation districts to discuss and exchange information on a variety of district operational and managementrelated issues, build out-of-state working relationships, and learn from their peers. The issues and topics will be selected by general managers and board directors and will pertain directly to the management and improvement of irrigation districts. Discussions will feature case studies with general managers sharing their experiences alongside product or service vendors who were directly involved.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE WEDNESDAY, February 12 8:00 am

10:15 am 10:30 am

12:00 pm 1:00 pm

3:00 pm 3:15 pm

5:00 pm

THURSDAY, February 13

Litigation Prevention 8:00 am -The Texas Solution 9:00 am -New Reclamation Contracting Provisions Break 10:15 am Negotiation Skills for 10:30 am Contracting, Labor, Insurance Lunch provided 12:00 pm Media Training 1:00 pm -Developing a Plan 2:00 pm Break 3:00 pm Open Forum 3:15 pm -Gathering & Sharing GIS Data With Reclamation Hosted reception 5:00 pm

Office Management Efficiencies New Fixes for Old Infrastructure -Canal and Pipe Repairs Break Urbanization: What to Avoid, How to Make It Work for Your District Lunch provided Reducing Costs on Canal Weed Control What Every Board Member Should Know Break Developing Low-Head Hydro for Revenue Hosted reception

Your suggestion for additional panel and open forum topics: ___________________________________________________ REGISTRATION FEE: $300.00

METHOD OF PAYMENT (Please check applicable payment method.)

____ Enclosed is a check made payable to Water Strategies LLC.

____ Please charge my credit card.

VISA AMEX MASTERCARD Name on Card _________________________________________ Expiration Date _____________________________________ Account Number _______________________________________ Signature __________________________________________ Fax completed form to 1-770-424-9468 or mail to: Irrigation Leader c/o Travel Worldwide Network, 1810 Wynthrop Manor Drive, Marietta, GA 30064 or e-mail to travwwnet@gmail.com.

HOTEL RESERVATIONS: We have reserved a block of rooms at the Phoenix Airport Plaza Hotel (soon to be renamed the Crowne Plaza Phoenix Airport Hotel) located at 4300 East Washington Street, Phoenix, AZ 85034, at the rate of $133 per night plus tax of 12.27%. This includes full buffet breakfast, complimentary airport shuttle service, complimentary Internet service, and free parking. To make your reservations, please call 602-286-1117 or 1-855-586-8475 no later than Friday, January 10. Please tell the agent that you are attending the Irrigation Leader Workshop to obtain this special rate.

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District Focus

Urbanization in Kennewick Irrigation District

By Chuck Freeman and Jason McShane

T

he Kennewick Irrigation District (KID) was initially built to serve the agricultural community in the Tri-Cities area of Washington State. The modern KID incorporated in 1956 and has been urbanizing since day one.

Some of our first deliveries were to residences. Today, the majority of KID ratepayers live in residential developments, and the change from farmland to urbanization is expected to continue into the foreseeable future.

KID diverts water from the Yakima River at Prosser Dam. The water travels 11 miles down a diversion canal to a set of large hydraulic pumps that send the water under the river up to the head of the main canal. Our delivery system comprises a variety of pipes—steel, PVC, ductal iron, asbestos, concrete, and even electrical conduit. We serve 20,201 acres and run just shy of 23,000 accounts—20,000 high-density urban, 2,000 rural residential, and 450 agricultural.

Our service area includes 7,000 acres of orchards, vineyards, and alfalfa.

Channeling Development Through the District

KID has learned that the single most important thing in addressing urbanization is setting standards.

We do not want a scenario in which we are serving customers utilizing the same irrigation system on land that was once an old orchard. Washington law enables irrigation districts to require new residential subdivisions to install systems that comply with district standards.

So, in 2008 KID created a policy and procedures that began a master planning process to address new and existing development. Now, developers must come to KID and meet our development guidelines to receive project water. In turn, KID coordinates with the Cities of Kennewick and Richland, working within their review processes. We run our operation very much like a city public works department—planning, engineering, and operations. KID has a planning department that has experienced urban planning staff, and the district manager was a city manager as well as a public works director. Our planning, operations, and engineering staff meet every Wednesday with the district manager to review every application at various

The interplay of agriculture and urban development in KID.

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Irrigation Leader

stages in the land division, permitting, and construction process.

Some developers initially had an issue with going through our process, but most have adjusted. KID’s board of directors adopted the Washington Department of Transportation’s Standard Specifications for Road, Bridge, and Municipal Construction along with the district’s Standard Specification policy and procedure to govern the process. The board’s support is essential to dealing with developers. Staff does not have the luxury of not enforcing the board’s standards.

The district’s procedures and guidelines ultimately ensure that we have an efficient, well-constructed system using current American Water Works standards for pipe material and associated appurtenances, as well as meeting the Washington Department of Transportation construction standards. The end result is that new systems will last many decades and not be prone to breaks and problems or be a burden to our ratepayers.

We have over 200 pressurized service areas, which use the publicly owned system. We also have private line areas, roughly 7,000 parcels (included prior to KID setting our standards), which tend to be freehold and lack records.

The district is still strategizing about how to approach the private lines and their modernization. One step we have taken is to require KID inspections on repairs done on private lines as a requisite for accessing project water following a break in the private system. In addition, the board passed new guidelines for homebuilders in urban areas requiring pressurized, not private line, service.

The Impact on Operations

KID has a 25-man operations crew that spends most of its time working on the district’s urbanized area. Because our system is a hodgepodge of varied pipes from over the years, the crew often is chasing down broken pipelines and working to ensure that there won’t be any in the future. Farmers have to order water, while urban areas are on demand. Often, we are using our canal system as a reservoir. At peak demand, urban customers will drain a section of the canal, which causes problems for the farmer at the end of that canal.

farmers, one developer, and one urban ratepayer on the board. By and large, our customers think the board is doing a great job, as evidenced by the lack of concern we hear from people.

Striking a Balance to Succeed

KID’s Cherry Creek project is a prime example of a development success story. A local developer sought to subdivide the last 40 acres of orchard in that region of the city of Kennewick. That area was characterized by a group of satellite delivery systems that been constructed independently over the years. KID looked at the proposed development as an opportunity to combine all of those deliveries through one facility.

KID teamed up with the developer to construct the system as a regional facility—a 10-acre-foot reservoir with a 10‑cubic-feet-per-second pump station that will serve upward of 1,500 homes. That developer liked the process so much that it talked another interested developer into contributing to the project. We’ve been able to leverage our public funds with development funds to create regional facilities for KID that will reduce our longterm costs to make water available for everyone. The end result is that we are now better able to manage our water on that reach of canal and reduce total peak diversions off the canal to make more water available to farmers downstream.

Chuck Freeman is KID’s district manager, and Jason McShane is KID’s operations and engineering manager. You can reach Chuck or Jason at (509) 586‑9111.

Chuck Freeman

Jason McShane

Board Representation

Our board of directors has five at-large positions, and each year a spot is up for election. There are two votes for every 5 acres of ownership in the district. As with all Washington irrigation districts, land ownership within the district is a critical requirement for voting eligibility.

Generally, there is not a lot of participation from our urban customers, so in effect, our agricultural customers exercise a controlling interest. Currently, we have three

Irrigation Leader

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Manager Profile

Shane Leonard, Roosevelt Water Conservation District

R

oosevelt Water Conservation District (RWCD) covers about 40,000 acres in the East Valley of central Arizona. RWCD has provided irrigation water to its landowners since 1920. RWCD has been at the forefront of urbanization. Located at the eastern edge of the Phoenix metropolitan area, RWCD’s service area overlaps with the cities of Mesa and Chandler and the town of Gilbert, one of the fastest-growing municipalities in the United States over the last 10 years.

RWCD operates and maintains a complex infrastructure to deliver water to a myriad of users, including farms, ranches, and residential homes, as well as industrial and municipal users. RWCD is a fully lined and closed system with two concrete-lined canals—a 21‑mile Main Canal and a 5‑mile Extension Canal—that feed a 100‑mile system of underground pipelines and lined ditches to deliver water to landowners.

RWCD’s Main Pumping Plant pumps surface water from the Salt River Project’s South Canal to the head of RWCD’s Main Canal. RWCD has also constructed a 3.5‑mile underground pipeline from the Central Arizona Project Canal to RWCD’s Main Canal. RWCD has approximately 50 wells that have a capacity to pump in excess of 85,000 acre-feet of groundwater each year. In addition, RWCD uses industrial effluent.

Overseeing the operations and maintenance of this infrastructure is General Manager Shane Leonard. Shane leads a team of 40 in delivering water to 40,000 acres of a rapidly changing, multiuse district. Irrigation Leader’s senior writer, John Crotty, spoke to Shane about urbanization, its impacts on an irrigation district, and how to address a new and growing customer base.

John Crotty: How did you get your start in the water business, and what brought you to RWCD? Shane Leonard: Well, you might say I was born [into the district]. I am actually the fourth generation of my family working for RWCD. While other kids were playing ball, I was learning how to deliver water and repair tractors. My first memory of working for the district—I was 7 or 8—is of handing out tensioner rods to the guys who repaired barbed wire fence around some of the district parcels. My first paying job for the district was mowing lawns at 14 or

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Shane Leonard, general manager of the Roosevelt Water Conservation District

15. RWCD has been a family affair going on about 100 years. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the current employee roster includes my brother, Andrew, who supervises our Main Pumping Plant and well field operations.

As of this December, I’ve worked a total of 23 years for the district in a paid position: 21 full time and 2 part time. I started out mowing lawns with the Facility Maintenance Crew and moved up from there. I moved on to work in our Zanjero Department, delivering water, and then to our river pumping facility, and finally into the administration and management of district operations. [These experiences] provide an extreme level of familiarity with the district and an inherent understanding of where things are happening and where they will happen. They also make it a personal endeavor. I have a connection to the district that I wouldn’t have had without the roles my father and grandfather had prior to my experience with the district.

John Crotty: Please describe your day-to-day work as the general manager of RWCD. Shane Leonard: It is a different job every day. It is a very humbling job—one day I could be talking to someone from a Fortune 500 company or from the office of the secretary of the Interior or the state legislature, and the next day I could be on a backhoe or dump truck helping put dirt back up for a washout.

Being the general manager of RWCD involves a lot of planning, communication, decisionmaking, and a dedication that goes beyond the typical 8-to-5 workday.

Irrigation Leader

John Crotty: What challenges has urbanization posed to RWCD? Shane Leonard: From the standpoint of urbanization, our biggest challenge has been dealing with land that transitions from agriculture to some other type of use; dovetailing with that is the difficulty addressing overlapping service jurisdictions with three municipalities—the City of Mesa, the City of Chandler, and the Town of Gilbert. They have their own ideas about the way things should happen, both from a water resources perspective and from a development perspective.

There was so much growth in the decade spanning 2000 to 2010, it is hard to fathom in many aspects. In 2000, we had somewhere around 32,000 acres dedicated to agriculture—food, fiber, or livestock production. Over that 10‑year period, it is estimated we lost close to 15,000 of those agricultural acres. There was a rapid transition. And in most cases, much of this transition was to residential use.

When the housing market went bad, something happened that I never thought I would see: Concrete poured in anticipation of building homes on land taken out of cultivation was ripped out, and the land was returned to agricultural use. Ultimately, we did gain back about 1,500 acres. It was a real endeavor because of Arizona’s strict groundwater use regulations for agricultural purposes.

To transition from agricultural to urban use in an Active Management Area (AMA) in the state, agricultural water rights need to be retired. RWCD, among others, went to the Arizona Department of Water Resources to show that this land wasn’t serving anyone’s purpose lying fallow, and we worked to bring those water rights out of retirement.

Putting the land back into cultivation not only brought revenue back to the state but also addressed some the dust issues that arose when these lands were retired from agricultural use but never developed. In a number of cases, we had large tracts of land that failed to develop, growing nothing but weeds and dust.

John Crotty: Did retired farmers come back to reclaim some of their sold land?

Shane Leonard: The folks that sold property typically didn’t come back and won’t come back. It is not a hard economic lesson to determine why that is. You’re making in a very best case maybe $5,000 an acre, and a developer shows up to offer you, particularly during the housing boom, upward of $300,000 to $350,000 an acre.

Those developers who bought land at the end of the boom were left with land they didn’t know what to do with. For the district, there’s a benefit because it brings land back into cultivation. It presents difficulties because a lot of district land is under lease. It is rare that we can actually talk to property owners when they are leasing their land, particularly when it comes to issues of overuse of water. There are a number of out-of-state corporation landowners that have no clue about how the State of Arizona operates from the standpoint of water use laws. They really have no understanding about how the irrigation district is providing the water, and that causes problems from a communication standpoint as well as an operational one.

Most of the water we’re delivering right now is going to leased farms. We do have a number of homesteading families that are still in the area. The Morrison family, the Dobson family, and a number of other families have been here since the inception of the district. They are doing some interesting things. The Morrisons are managing all of the development that occurs on their land. One of the real neat projects in Gilbert is the Agritopia project.

The Johnston family, a farming family from back in the 1950s, decided to sell and develop its property. However, in doing so the family required that a good percentage of its land remain agricultural and turned it into a agritainment and residential venue, with restaurants that use fruits and vegetables grown on the former Johnston farming property.

Downstream picture of the Main Canal with radial gate control structure.

Irrigation Leader

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John Crotty: How has this kind urbanization impacted the day-to-day operations of the district?

Shane Leonard: From an employee standpoint, the amount of work and work-hours has gone up. With urbanization, we have picked up a lot of residential irrigation as a number of developers have seen our supply as a low-cost alternative to municipal water. In some cases, use of district water was a must in certain character areas created by Mesa, Chandler, and Gilbert.

For example, the citrus corridor in northeast Mesa requires maintaining a certain percentage of viable citrus with nonagricultural use development. As such, new deliveries are created to the developed property to maintain the citrus.

This has the effect of maintaining a viable citrus feel to the area, but it increases our customer base dramatically.

Our largest nonagricultural user is a masterplanned community, Spectrum at Val Vista in Gilbert. We provide all of the nonpotable water for its landscaping and common-space areas.

We’re busier now than we were 15 to 20 years ago. Quite simply, if you deliver water to farmers, they will hang on to it for a week or two weeks at a time; now, we are moving the same amount of water to two or three communities in the same amount of time and to hundreds of different users.

We’ve really worked to acknowledge that the landowner is the landowner—it doesn’t matter whether you are growing a crop, a cow, a house, or a family. If you are a landowner in the district or are receiving water from the district, we owe you the same duty of response and customer service that we have provided since we were formed 100 years ago.

From a manager’s standpoint, it comes down to the logistics of how we are managing our system, our water supplies, and how we are interacting with our municipal sister agencies.

We have had some difficult and demanding challenges over the last few years. By way of example, in Arizona if you are a municipal entity within an AMA providing potable water, you are required to use renewable resources. We had a municipality try to do some things within the last decade that would have stripped water rights from associated lands within the overlapping service area with the district. We ended up appealing to the legislature to clarify Arizona law, 28

A predevelopment well: Aboveground electrical equipment, aerial power supply, and 6’ + 1 chain link/barbed-wire fence.

A postdevelopment well: Enlarged site, brick wall, underground power feed, and ground set equipment.

Irrigation Leader

which eventually led to a trip to court.

My job is ensure that we maintain the same level of service and water supply customers are accustomed to, while managing what has become essentially a dual system of delivery. We only have one system in place, but it is now used to deliver water to large agricultural customers and backyard irrigators, among others. The dual system doesn’t always work as efficiently as desired given the disparate users at the end of the system. For example, we have a minimum order time of 30 minutes. A lot of new residents to the district initially don’t understand why there can’t be 15‑minute increments. The system simply isn’t designed that way. The 15 minutes of water will only wet the system, and that’s about it.

RWCD, as with many water providers in the state, has been behind the curve on communicating water and scarcity issues to all of the new folks moving into the district and the state from other parts of the country.

Gilbert’s population increased by nearly 90 percent over the last 10 years. Many of those new residents became RWCD customers. And it is quickly evident in discussions with them there is a distinct lack of understanding about where their water comes from and how it is delivered.

John Crotty: What role does media management play in addressing these impacts?

Shane Leonard: Unfortunately, media management doesn’t play a large role with respect to what we do as an organization. The only time it does come into play is when we have to address a tragedy in a canal or other facility. The last few times the district has had to address the media were related to drownings and, most recently, a car accident involving four teenagers. Fortunately, these incidents are rare; the last three incidents I am aware of involving RWCD’s facilities happened over the last 20 years. By and large, our experience is usually a negative one when it comes to the media, which is unfortunate considering all of the good things RWCD has done to maintain its system and supplies of water over the last century.

Water is a complicated subject, and you usually can’t get express what a district does in a 10- or 15‑second sound bite. However, we have tried to reach out. For example, 10 years ago, the idea of a district webpage was unheard of. Now we have one. As I have explained to my board of directors and others, most irrigation districts are slowly dragging themselves into the 20th century from a technology standpoint. Most folks take for granted the ability to pay for services using anything other than a credit/debit card. We are hoping to have a system in place to enable our customers to place water orders and pay for water in the office and online with a credit or debit card in Irrigation Leader

RWCD’s Main Pumping Plant, which lifts Salt and Verde River supplies approximately 55’ into the Main Canal.

the next 12 to 18 months.

On the whole, I believe RWCD and many other state providers have done a wonderful job managing our limited water resources. However, I also believe that as a collective, we have failed miserably at communicating the good work and planning we’ve done to a new and emerging populace.

I like to go out and speak to my kid’s classes, as well as to local colleges, about water. It is disappointing when I ask, “where does your water come from,” and someone responds, “the faucet” or “the hose.”

John Crotty: Given the influx of new residents to the East Valley, and new water uses associated with that population change, have you seen an accompanying change in the makeup of RWCD’s board?

Shane Leonard: The board’s makeup remains largely agricultural, but those agricultural representatives are extremely savvy when it comes to urbanized land because they are the ones who have facilitated the development of that land. We have seen a transition from board members who would have vast tracts of land to members who represent “mini-farms.” They don’t have 500 acres; they have 5 or 10.

Three years ago, we changed the way elections occur in the district. We are a municipal corporation with a ninemember board of directors. The landowners of the district elect them. Prior to the change, you had to own 2 or more acres of land in the district, under some type of agricultural production, to participate in board elections.

As a district, we talked about how urbanization was affecting the overall makeup of the district and the potential for changing the voting structure to better represent the new reality. However, any changes to the voting process required 51 percent of the vote of the member lands. I can guarantee that 51 percent of my district lands did not vote in the last presidential election.

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So we ended up going to the legislature to amend the statute governing district elections. This amendment to statute allowed my board to pass a resolution modifying the voting requirements such that now, if you simply own property in the district, you can vote and be elected to the board. Anyone impacted by district activities can now be as involved as they want to be.

The longstanding agricultural customers of the district like the idea of doing what we can to communicate who we are and what we do to the newer generation of folks moving into the area. However, there are areas of conflict that arise. And very often, things arise that are beyond our direct control.

John Crotty: What are you most proud of as manager of RWCD? Shane Leonard: From a personal standpoint, it has been the ability to continue the Leonard name with the district.

My dad was the former general manager, my grandfather was the Main Pumping Plant supervisor for more than 30 years, and my great-grandfather helped construct the first canal and well systems for RWCD. From a business standpoint, this board and this organization has continued to maintain a readily available supply of water to all of its customers at relatively low costs. If you are a customer in the district, you are never going to have to worry about whether you are going to receive water.

This district has done a great job meeting its core responsibility, bringing our customers the amount of water they need at an affordable price to do the things they need to do on their property. In recent years, we’ve been able to do that without relying on groundwater. We’ve cultivated multiple sources and agreements to accomplish this goal.

Over the last decade, more than 80 percent of RWCD’s water supplies have been renewable—Colorado River water, Salt and Verde River water, and reclaimed water.

John Crotty: When it comes to urbanization, what advice would you share with other district managers?

Shane Leonard: Be proactive. Don’t wait for development and related problems to happen before you have a plan and procedure in place to deal with it. This can be as simple as designating someone to interface with developers and address the rights and service issues that may arise from a change in land use. Or it can be as complex as creating an entire development review process as RWCD did in 2000 to address the rapid growth we were experiencing.

Urbanization will certainly bring its host of issues.

Ultimately, it is the duty of irrigation managers like myself to address these issues in a fashion that meets the needs of the district as it redefines itself, while at the same time fulfilling the efforts and accomplishments of the past.

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The Innovators

AMCi: Telemetry Solutions for Water Resources Monitoring and Control

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MCi provides communication solutions for monitoring, tracking, and controlling water resources. Based in Golden, Colorado, AMCi employs 30 staff, including hardware and software engineers, production technicians, customer service and accounting staff, and sales and marketing professionals, to deliver a variety of products as well as a web-based application to facilitate the real-time monitoring and control of surface water, groundwater, and irrigation.

Since the late 1990s, AMCi has focused on remote telemetry for oil and gas. The revenue from that business stream has allowed the company to move into other markets. Chief Executive Officer Bruce Bacon saw the potential in the water market. “There haven’t been a lot of simple and reliable telemetry products for water. Many proprietary systems use expensive equipment. We’re working to bring affordable solutions to the market so that our customers can remotely access data and control equipment at their water sites from anywhere.”

AMCi’s core service is extracting real-time data from a field-sensing device—from pressure sensors down a water well to a complicated PLC running a pump—for operational needs or recordkeeping. The company is “sensor agnostic”; according to Bacon, AMCi has yet to find a sensor from which it is unable to bring data back to its servers.

How It Works

The company interfaces with a customer’s equipment and brings the data back from the field site via some kind of telemetry. AMCi’s specialty is lowcost satellite, but it also added cellular several years ago. If needed, AMCi will also implement local radio networks to keep down transaction costs by aggregating signals back to a single point in an area and then transmitting data by satellite or cell.

The other integral part of AMCi’s monitoring solution is hosting a web-based portal for the monitoring data. There is no software to buy or computer to maintain—AMCi’s customers can access all of their data on the website. And if the customer owns its own server, AMCi will work with that using techniques ranging from .CSV files to Web Services.

AMCi tries to support all the different mechanisms that people are using to transfer data.

Scope of Irrigation-Related Service

AMCi currently works with about 40 water and irrigation districts, providing services that address

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An AMCi “meter eye” at work.

everything from individual assets to entire systems.

On the one end of that range, for example, AMCi worked with a city in Colorado that has remote water assets located in the Rocky Mountains and that had no existing networks available to monitor water sources.

The city needed a couple of turbidity monitors installed, but its existing communications infrastructure was too limited to readily retrieve the information from those sites. AMCi added two monitors on satellite units and brought the data back to its web interface, from which the city incorporated the data into its SCADA system.

On the other end of AMCi’s service range is the full-on system. For example, AMCi installed 75 monitoring points off nearly every diversion on the Conejos River in southern Colorado. The agricultural area surrounding the river is now telemetered and transmitting readings every 15 minutes as required by the state. AMCi also automated four head gates along the system, so gate operators can now use their cell phone web browsers to adjust water levels and flow rates.

Customer-Centric Service and Support AMCi trains district staff members to deal with standard issues that may arise. However, if there are network performance or more technical issues, AMCi will address them. AMCi establishes ongoing

Irrigation Leader

relationships with its customers both on the equipment side and on the web-hosting and network side, removing the customer from much of the support work required to keep a telemetry system functioning well.

AMCi buys cellular data and satellite airtime in bulk and then resells it as a dealer. There is a small monthly fee for those networks, but customers get 24/7/365 technical support. AMCi charges month to month without a longterm contract, so districts that shut down for the winter will not have to pay a fee during that time. They can start up again when irrigation season begins. It saves them a fair amount of money.

Bruce Bacon related AMCi’s philosophy. “It is simple: We want to retain our customers based on the quality of our service, not on some contract. If customers are not satisfied, we’ll work hard to correct any problems, but we are not going to hold them to a contract or fight them about it.”

Simple Telemetry Solutions

In its water-related work, AMCi has found that some sensors are inherently challenging to telemetry. Mechanical water meters essentially function like a register, ticking up after a certain amount of water passes by the meter. They are not naturally suitable for telemetry. While retrofit kits are available for pulse outputs, they often necessitate regular corroboration between the telemetry data and the meter face, which costs money and staff time.

AMCi developed a product specifically to address the

issues posed by mechanical meters and other difficult-totelemeter meters. It is a weatherproof camera assembly that replaces the top cover of the meter. At whatever interval a customer wishes, the camera takes a picture of the face of the meter and sends it back over the telemetry network to AMCi servers, where the meter face is read and entered into the database. The customer then has the image and the data.

Affordable Water Solutions

Surface water professionals manage a dynamic environment. When there are calls on the river, managers must react by changing how much water they are pulling out of the river, potentially several times a day. Driving out to gates in those scenarios taxes a district’s time and money.

AMCi will automate a customer’s existing gate so the customer can react by smartphone, which makes operations more efficient. Bruce Bacon noted, “There are automated gates out there that are $30,000 to $50,000, but we want people to realize that we can automate their existing gates, often for under $10,000 and sometimes under $5,000.

Being able to remotely change gate settings reduces stress and hassle in the middle of the water season. Our aim is to be the lowest total cost provider of remote connectivity for reliable control and data gathering.”

For more information on AMCi, visit http://amc-wireless.com or call (303) 279‑2002.

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CLASSIFIED LISTINGS Burley Irrigation District Manager Position Description Burley Irrigation District is a political subdivision of the State of Idaho, irrigating about 48,000 acres of land from the Snake River with a staff of about 21full time employees. Burley Irrigation District is a Drug Free Work Place and an Equal Opportunity Employer. The Manager is responsible for day-to-day operations in accordance with State Law, Federal Law, District Contracts, Regulations and Policy. He must be able to hire, train and delegate authority to other capable employees. He is to submit to the Board of Director plans and future recommendations.

He will handle public relations, interaction with federal, state and other canal organizations. Be active in the local, state and federal political areas.

JOB REQUIREMENTS • Have an education in Business Management, engineering, hydrology, and agronomy. Preferably a bachelor degree.

• Have personnel management and/or supervisory skills, preferably with five years’ experience in a management or supervisory position related to irrigation operation and delivery systems.

• Have a working knowledge of irrigation delivery systems, their construction, operation and maintenance.

• Working knowledge of Idaho State law as it relates to water, labor, easements, irrigation districts, canal companies and water rights.

• Basic computer skills, i.e. word processing (Word), spreadsheet usage (Excel), data base programs (Access), GIS mapping programs (arc-view), internet usage, and e-mail.

• Have working knowledge of, or the ability to learn, automated control system software, i.e. Logger Net, Wonder ware.

• Have a working knowledge of construction equipment operation and repair.

• Have a working knowledge of heavy trucks preferably with a CDL. • Have the ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.

• Have math skills to perform calculations related to basic engineering and financial functions, i.e. water measurement calculations, accounting and budgeting processes, etc.

• Have skills or education of large electric motors and electrical systems.

• Have knowledge of weed and pest control, preferably with an Idaho state Chemical Applicator License.

Irrigation Leader

For information on posting to the Classified Listings, please e-mail Irrigation.Leader@waterstrategies.com

Benefits: Starting salary will be based on experience. Provided for the employee only is medical insurance, a health savings account, dental insurance, life insurance, holidays paid, one day per month accumulated vacation, one half day per month accumulated sick leave and Idaho State retirement (PERSI). Family members may get insurance at the employee’s expense.

To apply submit a Detailed Résumé by February 19, 2014 Burley Irrigation District 246 E. 100 S. Burley, Idaho 83318 For the complete text of the position announcement, please see the posting at www.WaterAndPowerReport. com. For additional information call (208) 678-2511.

Belle Fourche Irrigation District Project Manager Belle Fourche Irrigation District near the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota is accepting applications for a Project Manager.

The Project Manager (PM) administers and implements the policies and programs adopted by the Board of Directors.

The PM manages the activities of all Project employees, evaluates operational procedures, and coordinates all planning and development programs, including preparing grant applications. The PM develops specific program goals, policies, procedures and objectives. The PM keeps the Board apprised of the operations and needs of the Project, presents an annual budget to the Board, and prepares other reports as requested by the Board. The PM directs the distribution of the Project irrigation water supply to Project patrons.

PM must have excellent communication and interpersonal skills and be capable of sustaining productive working relationships with the Board of Directors, employees, water users and all other entities of the District.

College degree not required but would be desirable.

Management experience not necessary but would be looked at favorable. General agricultural knowledge is required. Benefits include medical, paid holidays, South Dakota Retirement, sick leave and vacation.

Please send resume to: Belle Fourche Irrigation District; Attn: Darron, Board Chairman, P.O. Box 225, Newell, SD 57760.

37

2014 Federal Water Issues

Conference

“You and Your Congress” The theme of this year’s National Water Resources Association (NWRA) Federal Water Issues Conference is “You and Your Congress.” The meeting is designed to provide NWRA members with helpful, important issue information and enhanced opportunities to meet and interact with their respective members of Congress, key congressional staff, and federal agency representatives. This change in format was made to support the Strategic Plan ratified by NWRA’s leadership. Please consult NWRA’s website, at nwra.org, for program updates and information on topics and speakers.

Sunday, March 30, 2014 5:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. NWRA Capitol Hill office open house (hosted by Water Strategies LLC)

NWRA members are welcome to visit and tour NWRA’s new office space, located at

4 E Street SE, Washington, DC 20003.

Monday, March 31, 2014 (Registration: 7:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.)

8:00 a.m.

“You and Your Congress” welcome breakfast

NWRA staff and members will discuss the status of NWRA priorities agreed upon at the recent

Leadership Forum and provide key talking points that members can use on their Hill visits.

9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. NWRA member congressional and federal agency visits 12:00 p.m.

State Executives Council luncheon 4:00 p.m.

NWRA congressional briefing (location on Hill TBA). NWRA’s Federal Affairs Committee will

conduct a briefing on NWRA’s priority issues for congressional staff members. All NWRA

members registered for the conference are encouraged to attend. This briefing and the

reception to follow is an excellent opportunity for NWRA members to further interact with key

players in Congress as part of NWRA’s “You and Your Congress” conference.

5:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. Hosted welcome reception on the Hill Tuesday, April 1, 2014 (Registration: 7:30 a.m.–9:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m.)

8:00 a.m.

Headliner breakfast

Lieutenant General Thomas P. Bostick (invited)

Commanding General and Chief of Engineers U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 9:00 a.m.

Municipal Caucus business meeting 9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. NWRA member congressional and federal agency visits 3:30 p.m.–5:00 p.m. NWRA Federal Affairs roundtable: NWRA’s Federal Affairs Committee will conduct an interactive

discussion of NWRA’s priority issues with key congressional committee staff members. All

NWRA registered attendees are invited to participate in this important dialogue.

5:30 p.m.–7:00 p.m. Hosted reception at Washington Court Hotel Tuesday, April 1, 2014 (Registration: 7:30 a.m.–9:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m.)

7:30 a.m.

Headliner Breakfast

Commissioner Connor (invited) U.S. Bureau of Reclamation 8:45 a.m.

Irrigation Caucus business meeting 9:00 a.m.

NWRA board of directors meeting 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. NWRA member congressional and federal agency visits 11:00 a.m.

NWRA Federal Affairs Committee meeting 5:00 p.m.

Adjourn 6:00 p.m.–8:30 p.m. “Pruning of the Vine” reception (hosted by Kris and Laura Polly)

2501 2nd Street South, Arlington, VA 22204

Transportation to be provided from the Washington Court Hotel 38

Irrigation Leader

2014 NWRA Federal Water Issues

Conference Please return completed form by March 24 to Dawn Moore via fax at 770-424-9468; mail to 1810 Wynthrop Manor Drive, Marietta, GA 30064; or e-mail at travwwnet@gmail.com. If you have any questions regarding registration, contact Dawn Moore at 770-424-8111 or travwwnet@gmail.com.

NAME ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ (Please indicate how you would like your name to read on your name badge)

ORGANIZATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ADDRESS ________________________________________________________________________________________________ CITY/STATE/ZIP ___________________________________________________________________________________________ TELEPHONE (______) ______-____________ E-MAIL ___________________________________________________________ REGISTRATION FEE: Includes all Breakfasts, all Receptions, and Conference Materials

NWRA Member _________ $450

Life Member _______$100

Additional Breakfast Ticket(s) - Monday, March 31 Additional Breakfast Ticket(s) - Tuesday, April 1 Additional Breakfast Ticket(s) - Wednesday, April 2 Additional Reception Ticket(s) - Monday, March 31 Additional Reception Ticket(s) - Tuesday, April 1

Non Member ________$495

Note # of Guest Tickets Requested Below _____ $50 ea = $________ _____ $50 ea = $________ _____ $50 ea = $________ _____ $50 ea = $________ _____ $50 ea = $________ TOTAL $________

Please indicate if you will be attending the “Pruning of the Vine Reception” at the Polly home on Wednesday evening, April 2, by checking “yes” or “no”. There is no charge for this event. Yes______ No_______ METHOD OF PAYMENT (Please print name and account # legibly and check applicable box.)

Attached is a check payable to NWRA. Please charge my (circle one):

American Express

MasterCard

Visa

Name (as it appears on card) _______________________________________ Expiration Date: __________________________ Acct. # ________________________________________________ Signature _________________________________________ HOTEL INFORMATION: NWRA has reserved a block of rooms at the Washington Court Hotel, 525 New Jersey Avenue, Washington, DC 20001, for the conference. Room rates are $334 single/$359 double plus 14.5% tax. Rooms must be reserved on or before Friday, February 28, 2014, by calling the hotel directly at 800-321-3010. Room cancellations must be made 24 hours prior to arrival to avoid a one night’s room and tax charge. The hotel imposes a $75 early departure fee if your departure changes 24 hours prior to arrival.

REFUND POLICY: A $150 administrative fee will be charged on all refund requests. Refunds will be processed thirty (30) days after the conference. There will be no refunds for cancellations received after March 24, 2014. All refund requests should be directed to Dawn Moore, using her contact information above.

Irrigation Leader

39

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2014 CALENDAR January 7–8 January 7–9 January 16 January 29–31 February 4–6 February 12–13 February 19–21 February 20–21 February 25–27 March 4–7

March 31–April 2

National Water Resources Assn., Leadership Forum, Las Vegas, NV Groundwater Management Districts Assn., Annual Conference, Biloxi, MS Idaho Irrigation Equipment Show & Conference, Burley, Idaho Colorado Water Congress, Annual Convention, Denver, CO Texas Water Conservation Assn, Texas Water Day, Washington, DC Irrigation Leader, Operations Workshop, Phoenix, AZ Family Farm Alliance, Annual Meeting & Conference, Las Vegas, NV Multi–State Salinity Coalition, Annual Salinity Summit, Las Vegas, NV Assn. of California Water Agencies, Washington Conference, Washington, DC U.S. Committee on Irrigation & Drainage, Water Management Conference, Sacramento, CA National Water Resources Assn., Federal Water Issues Conference, Washington, DC

For more information on advertising in Irrigation Leader magazine, or if you would like a water event listed here, please phone (703) 517-3962 or e-mail Irrigation.Leader@waterstrategies.com.

Submissions are due the first of each month preceding the next issue.

Past issues of Irrigation Leader are archived at

www.WaterAndPowerReport.com