Irrigation Leader January 2020

VOLUME 11 ISSUE 1

january 2020

THE MANAGERS ISSUE

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CONTENTS JANUARY 2020 Volume 11 Issue 1

Irrigation Leader is published 10 times a year with combined issues for July/August and November/December by

an American company established in 2009.

STAFF: Kris Polly, Editor-in-Chief Joshua Dill, Managing Editor Tyler Young, Writer Stephanie Biddle, Graphic Designer Eliza Moreno, Web Designer

5 T he Managers Issue

By Kris Polly 6 B rian Betcher

Maricopa-Stanfield Irrigation & Drainage District

7 Mike

Britton

North Unit Irrigation District

8 Devin

Brundage

Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District

10 T om Davis

Yuma County Water Users’ Association

11 B rad Edgerton

Frenchman-Cambridge Irrigation District

14 M ike Hamman

Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District

15 Alan

Hansten

North Side Canal Company

18 R usty Jardine

Truckee-Carson Irrigation District

19 B rett Jones

Murrumbidgee Irrigation

22 S onia Lambert

Cameron County Irrigation District #2 and Cameron County Drainage District #3

23 M att Lukasiewicz

Loup Basin Reclamation District, Farwell Irrigation District, and Sargent Irrigation District.

26 Jeevan

Muhar

Arvin-Edison Water Storage District

27 T rent Reed

Shoshone Irrigation District

30 J esús Reyes

El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1

31 Á ngela Rojas Escudero

Río Choapa Joint Board of Control

34 D an Temple

A&B Irrigation District

35 M urray Turner

Waitaki Irrigation Management Ltd.

36 M ark Zirschky

Pioneer Irrigation District

38 CLASSIFIEDS

20 S teve Knell

Oakdale Irrigation District

Do you have a story idea for an upcoming issue? Contact our editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

4 | IRRIGATION LEADER

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.

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 managing editor, Joshua Dill, at joshua.dill@waterstrategies.com.

Copyright © 2019 Water Strategies LLC. Irrigation Leader relies on 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. /IrrigationLeader

@IrrigationLeadr

irrigationleadermagazine.com

COVER PHOTO:

The 19 managers featured in this issue. Each photo was provided by the manager interviewed. The photo on the back page is courtesy of Sam Beebe.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SAM BEEBE.

Coming soon in Irrigation Leader: February: Water/Electric Consolidation March: Groundwater

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.

For more information, please contact our office at (202) 698-0690 or irrigation.leader@waterstrategies.com.

The Managers Issue

By Kris Polly

T

he irrigation that makes agriculture in the West so productive could not exist without irrigation districts.

And no irrigation district could function without the presence of a manager.

Irrigation district managers must understand everything from 100-year-old concrete infrastructure to cutting-edge supervisory control and data acquisition systems. They must manage relationships with boards of directors, customers, employees, and regulators. They must look ahead to discern the kinds of training their employees need to become the leaders of the future. And they must adapt, adjust, and learn every day. With such a universal role, a good manager is the key to an irrigation district’s success.

With that crucial role in mind, we are ushering in the 2020 year of Irrigation Leader magazine with a special managers issue. In this issue, we speak with 23 managers about their work, their top issues, their preparations for the future, their training programs, and what they’ve learned from their work. Each of them also tells us the top skills needed to be a strong manager.

The managers we speak to come from across the West— including Arizona, California, Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming—as well as countries abroad, including Australia, Chile, and New Zealand. They deal with a wide variety of environmental conditions, old and new infrastructure, hiring challenges, and training needs. All, however, are concerned with the future of the irrigation districts and the water users they serve.

Whether your district’s challenges are similar to those of these managers or different, you are sure to find some new ideas about management, hiring, and training in this broad collection of interviews. Each of the managers in this issue brings their own special talents to their work. I hope you find their words interesting, helpful, and informative. IL Kris Polly is editor-in-chief of Irrigation Leader magazine and president and CEO 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.

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Brian Betcher Maricopa-Stanfield Irrigation & Drainage District Maricopa, Arizona

Years working in irrigation: 31 Years as manager: 11 Number of employees: 42 Size of service area in acres: 70,000 Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 260,000–270,000 Main crops irrigated: Alfalfa, cotton, corn silage, feed grains, melons Predominant irrigation methods: Level basin with ports, subsurface drip, center-pivot sprinkler

Irrigation Leader: What is the top issue facing your irrigation district today?

Brian Betcher: The district delivers a combination of groundwater and surface water from the Colorado River.

The Colorado River system in Arizona has been going through a 25-year drought, which has put pressure on our surface water supplies. We are headed toward using a higher percentage of groundwater than in the past.

Irrigation Leader: What future issues are you preparing for?

Brian Betcher: Back in 1989, when our canal system was completed, we acquired operational control of all the ag wells in the district, which were just delivering to individual farms. Over the years, we have connected those wells into the canal system. We’ve also done a lot of rehab work on district wells and currently have some funding to build new well infrastructure. Expanding that groundwater system is going to be our focus over the next 5 years.

Irrigation Leader: What are your top issues regarding personnel?

6 | IRRIGATION LEADER

Irrigation Leader: What training do you currently provide your employees?

Brian Betcher: When it comes to water operators, field training is most important. When we bring new hires on, we have them spend a portion of the day with every one of our departments, even departments that they’re not going to be working for, so that they get a better understanding of how they interface. We also provide safety training. We have a safety committee that meets on a regular basis, and periodically, we hold safety seminars. We have an active certification program for employees who operate heavy equipment, and we support those seeking to get their commercial driver’s licenses.

Irrigation Leader: How much do you spend on training for your employees each year?

Brian Betcher: $10,000–$15,000.

Irrigation Leader: What is the most important thing you have learned as manager?

Brian Betcher: How to work and communicate effectively with a board of directors. I’ve had the benefit of a fairly steady board for a number of years. Most of its members are active in production agriculture, so they are affected by the policies they develop. Another area is working with employees in order to cultivate a desire to work hard and to stay at a district for the long term. You need to treat them with respect, listen to them, and compensate them well so that they are invested in what the district does.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills needed to be a successful manager?

Brian Betcher: You have to be able to listen well, communicate well, and work hard to understand the messages that are being delivered to you. Make sure that when you’re trying to communicate with an employee or a board member, the message being received is the real message being sent.

Listen and communicate while being respectful of what your employees contribute. Try not to be the guy that knows everything. IL Brian Betcher is general manager of Maricopa-Stanfield Irrigation and Drainage District in Maricopa, Arizona.

He can be contacted at brian@msidd.com.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIAN BETCHER.

Brian Betcher: We have equipment for installing and removing equipment from our wells, and we do a lot of well repair in house. One of the challenges has been finding employees with

the right experience to operate that equipment. We’ve also had some challenges retaining the water operators (zanjeros) who deliver water through the canal system. The overall economy has been good in Arizona, so there is more competition for those employees.

Mike Britton

North Unit Irrigation District Madras, Oregon

Years working in irrigation: 16 Years as manager: 14½ Number of employees: 28 Size of service area: 58,880 acres Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 200,000 Main crops irrigated: Hay, seed crops, carrot seed, grass seed, onion, garlic

PHOTO COURTESY OF MIKE BRITTON.

Predominant irrigation methods: Sprinkler (hand lines, wheel lines, linear, center pivot), drip Irrigation Leader: What is the top issue facing your irrigation district today?

Irrigation Leader: What are your top issues regarding personnel?

employees to replace retiring members of our workforce.

Mike Britton: The demands of the Endangered Species Act and other regulations, specifically those related to the threatened Oregon spotted frog (OSF). As a result of lawsuits filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and WaterWatch of Oregon aimed at the Bureau of Reclamation and operators of upper basin reservoirs, North Unit Irrigation District (NUID) and other basin districts are required to provide increased winter and early spring river flows for the frog; we also have to do a modified ramp down.

Mike Britton: It is difficult to attract new talent as our aging workforce retires, especially because of our rural setting and lifestyle. The institutional knowledge of retiring employees is hard to replace. In addition, it’s becoming difficult to find talent that wants to step into senior management roles, which have become increasingly political, and as such, conflict prone and unappealing.

Irrigation Leader: What is the most important thing you have learned as manager?

Irrigation Leader: What future issues are you preparing for?

Mike Britton: Operations personnel receive training on equipment operation, trench safety, welding safety, personal protective equipment, and dam tending, as appropriate. Our board of directors and staff training includes state and federally mandated training as well as district-specific training relating to topics including geographic information systems, accounting software, and new automation systems.

We also send employees to conferences held by organizations like the Special Districts Association, the Oregon Water Resource Congress, and the National Water Resources Association.

Mike Britton: We’re preparing to undertake large-scale conservation projects in an effort to compensate for water lost to the OSF. We’ve been able to secure significant federal funding for conservation projects that will generate new water that can be transferred between districts. We’ve partnered with Central Oregon Irrigation District (COID), which is a senior water right holder and has better opportunities to develop and conserve water. For each cubic foot per second of water conserved in COID, a commensurate amount would be released in the winter from Wickiup Reservoir, the 200,000 acrefoot storage reservoir that provides 70 percent of NUID supply. In exchange, NUID will pick up portions of COID’s senior natural flow in the summer.

Irrigation Leader: What training do you currently provide your employees?

Irrigation Leader: How much do you spend on training for your employees each year?

Mike Britton: About $20,000. I see that increasing as we hire new

Mike Britton: When I started managing the districts, my role was more operational. I spent more time out in the field with our work crews, farmers, and patrons. Since the OSF issue and the need for large-scale funding for projects emerged, my role has become more politicized. I spend more time educating the general public about irrigation districts and how improvements to our systems benefit all.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills needed to be a successful manager?

Mike Britton: Patience, keeping a level head, and common sense. The ability to get along with people, be a good judge of character, and manage and respond to uncomfortable situations are important. You need to be able to address complex and controversial issues carefully, tactfully, and thoughtfully.

A work life–home life balance is key, as these jobs can be all consuming— particularly in basins where conflict and controversy abound. IL Mike Britton is manager of the North Unit Irrigation District in Madras, Oregon. He can be contacted at mbritton@northunitid.com.

IRRIGATIONLEADERMAGAZINE.COM

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Devin Brundage Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District Holdrege, Nebraska

Years working in irrigation: 28 Years as manager: 1 Number of employees: around 100 Size of service area in acres: 107,849 Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 150,000 Main crops irrigated: Corn, soybeans Predominant irrigation methods: Center pivot, gravity

Irrigation Leader: What is the top issue facing your irrigation district today?

Devin Brundage: The rapidly changing business model of our irrigation delivery and hydroelectric generation systems presents challenges to our vision of using our invaluable water resources in a responsible manner for the benefit of our stakeholders, our region, and our state. The term sustainability surfaces often. Continuing to operate and maintain our facilities to accomplish our mission long into the future is the challenge. Identifying opportunities and partnerships and executing on the right ones is essential to meeting that challenge.

Irrigation Leader: What future issues are you preparing for?

Devin Brundage: Our aging infrastructure is always at the forefront. As we work to ensure that the infrastructure that allows us to store and deliver water and produce power is maintained and ready for the challenges of next year, we must look at those plans and decisions with a 10-, 50-, and 100-year lens as well.

we are always looking for ways—new and proven—to retain our superb staff and attract new talent to continue our mission. Providing opportunities to continue to learn and excel at Central is a part of that.

Irrigation Leader: What training do you currently provide to your employees?

Devin Brundage: The district uses many approaches to add to our employees' toolboxes. Technical training from various organizations is an important part of that. That may be vendor training from a supervisory control and data acquisition system provider, civil engineering training from the dam safety association, an employee providing internal safety training, or customer service training for our front-line irrigation service specialists. Participating in regional organizations is also valuable. Central is an active member of groups that provide educational and networking opportunities such as the Water Leaders Academy, the Nebraska State Irrigation Association, the Four States Irrigation Council, and the Family Farm Alliance.

Irrigation Leader: How much do you spend on training for your employees each year?

Devin Brundage: In rural Nebraska, it is often a challenge to find and retain qualified professional and technical staff. We have a great company and

Devin Brundage: Though there is a budgeted amount of around $50,000– $100,000, depending on whether an employee’s time is included. That

8 | IRRIGATION LEADER

Irrigation Leader: What is the most important thing you have learned as manager?

Devin Brundage: To tell our story.

When everyone understands what we do and what it can mean to our area and our state, we will do incredible things. We can never stop trying to improve. We must keep asking ourselves, “What we can do better?” and “What other value can we bring?”

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills needed to be a successful manager?

Devin Brundage: Listening. Listen to those invested in the success and future of your project. Surround yourself with talented people who surround themselves with other talented people. Then make sure they are supported and can develop their future within our vision. Build and rebuild that vision for the future and equip that team to work together to make that vision a reality. IL Devin Brundage is general manager of the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District in Holdrege, Nebraska.

He can be contacted at dbrundage@cnppid.com.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DEVIN BRUNDAGE.

Irrigation Leader: What are your top issues regarding personnel?

really only covers the classroom training component. As we have discussed, learning and training come in many forms.

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Tom Davis

Yuma County Water Users’ Association Somerton, Arizona

Years working in irrigation: 33 Years as manager: 33 Number of employees: 69 Size of service area in acres: 50,000 Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 365,000 Main crops irrigated: Cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, bok choy, kale, celery, desert durum wheat, dates, melons, cotton Predominant irrigation methods: Sprinkler, furrow, flat surface, drip

Irrigation Leader: What is the top issue facing your irrigation district today?

Tom Davis: We’re the last, but most senior, diverters on the Colorado River system in the United States, and we’re protective of our water rights, which are coveted by upstream junior water users.

Maricopa County, in central Arizona, is the fastest-growing county in the United States, so keeping up with its demand for water is challenging.

Irrigation Leader: What future issues are you preparing for?

10 | IRRIGATION LEADER

Tom Davis: Employers everywhere are looking for employees who are motivated, loyal, trainable, and capable. Like all irrigation projects, we can’t pay wages that are competitive with what employees can make in other fields of work. We also have an aging workforce.

Irrigation Leader: What training do you currently provide to your employees?

Tom Davis: We have different training for heavy equipment operators, truck drivers, welders, fabricators, and concrete construction crews. All employees have safety training once a year or more frequently if necessary.

Our information technology and computer-assisted design folks keep current in their fields.

Irrigation Leader: How much do you spend on training for your employees each year?

Tom Davis: In addition to their annual salary, an employee probably costs another 60 percent in insurance and retirement benefits, uniforms, vehicles, worker’s comp, and on-the-job training. I estimate that 8 percent of employee cost is in training.

Irrigation Leader: What is the most important thing you have learned as manager?

Tom Davis: You have to communicate with and have the trust of both the board of directors and your employees.

You must have the best interests of your employees in mind at the same time as you operate an efficient organization in accordance with the board’s direction. A manager must consider the personalities of the staff and make sure employees are treated properly while ensuring that they give a day’s work for a day’s pay.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills needed to be a successful manager?

Tom Davis: I think most of it is personality and lots of energy. You have to be patient and decisive; at the same time, you must have a sense of urgency about getting things done. Oftentimes, board members only understand a narrow part of an issue. A manager has to understand and communicate the big picture. Being a capable manager requires integrity, communication, education, skills, understanding, and caring. IL Tom Davis is general manager of the Yuma County Water Users’ Association.

He can be contacted at tdavis@ycwua.org or (928) 581-1882.

PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM DAVIS.

Tom Davis: We were one of the first districts to be commissioned by Congress and built by the Bureau of Reclamation after the Reclamation Act. We have facilities that are over 100 years old, and parts of our delivery system need to be totally replaced. We’re a relatively small district acrewise, so it’s difficult to generate enough capital just through peracre assessments to finance the necessary capital improvements.

The increasing food safety requirements of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are another growing expense and concern. Not only are we concerned with water quality, particularly with reference to E. coli and salmonella, we’re very careful with all our cultural practices around our delivery system, our power plants, and so forth.

Irrigation Leader: What are your top issues regarding personnel?

Brad Edgerton

Frenchman-Cambridge Irrigation District Cambridge, Nebraska

Years working in irrigation: 11 Years as manager: 11 Number of employees: 11 Size of service area in acres: 45,669 Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 60,000 Main crops irrigated: Corn, soybeans Predominant irrigation methods: Center pivot

Irrigation Leader: What is the top issue facing your irrigation district today?

are doing our best to conserve it. We continue to look at new technology to improve water management.

Brad Edgerton: Limited water supply is our biggest issue. The Republican basin is water short. We’re seeing less streamflow into our reservoirs and less streamflow available for diversion during the irrigation season. We are spending a lot of money to conserve water and hopefully maintain our 8-inch-per-acre allocation for many more years.

Irrigation Leader: What are your top issues regarding personnel?

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRAD EDGERTON.

Irrigation Leader: What future issues are you preparing for?

Brad Edgerton: Water shortage has been the main issue for the last couple of decades, and I don’t see that changing. Less streamflow makes complying with the Republican River Compact more difficult. In 2013 and 2014, Frenchman-Cambridge Irrigation District water users and the Bureau of Reclamation were required to bypass flows through our federal reservoirs and diversion dams to meet a forecasted Republican River Compact shortfall. That water administration was costly for our water users at a time when we had record-high commodity prices. We know the value of water and

Brad Edgerton: Half our employees have been with the district for 40 years or more, and as they retire, it is a challenge to find good, quality workers who are willing to stick with the job for that kind of timespan.

Unemployment is very low in Nebraska, so it’s hard to find people to do this kind of work.

Irrigation Leader: What training do you currently provide to your employees?

Brad Edgerton: The employees who have been here for a long time have learned what needs to be done on the job over the years. As technology changes, new employees are going to need additional skill sets. We haven’t sent our current employees to many workshops and conferences, but going forward, I’m sure that’ll be something that we’ll need to do.

Irrigation Leader: How much do you spend on training for your employees each year?

Brad Edgerton: Not too much.

Longstanding employees train the new guys. The people who are here now have attended Reclamation workshops in the past.

Irrigation Leader: What is the most important thing you have learned as manager?

Brad Edgerton: Get good people around you, give them the tools and the resources they need, and let them do their jobs.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills needed to be a successful manager?

Brad Edgerton: Communication is important, which includes being a good listener. I try to lead by example.

I’m a manager who likes to get my hands dirty and be involved in projects in the field. You really get to know your people when you’re working beside them. IL Brad Edgerton is manager of the Frenchman-Cambridge Irrigation District in Cambridge, Nebraska.

He can be contacted at bradley.edgerton@gmail.com or (308) 697-4535.

IRRIGATIONLEADERMAGAZINE.COM

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Mike Hamman Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Years working in irrigation: 23 Years as manager: 16 Number of employees: 220 Size of service area in acres: 270,000 benefitted; 60,000 directly serviced Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 300,000 Main crops irrigated: Alfalfa, pasture, forage crops, corn, oats Predominant irrigation methods: Flood, drip

Irrigation Leader: What are your top issues regarding personnel?

Mike Hamman: The preservation of agricultural land. We’re in the highly urbanized metro area of Albuquerque.

New Mexico requires that junior groundwater pumping serving municipalities and industrial uses must acquire senior surface water rights to offset the direct and indirect effects on the flow of the Rio Grande. We have lost 15,000–20,000 acres of highly productive agricultural land to water rights transfers, and the district is actively trying to minimize disruption to agriculture while supporting regional development.

Mike Hamman: Number 1 is hiring and retaining qualified staff. We have a fairly high rate of turnover, with operational staff requiring higher pay and benefits to be competitive with the improving job market. Many irrigation district managers and staff are approaching retirement, myself included, so it is critically important to actively develop a plan of succession to encourage younger people to pursue this interesting career path.

Irrigation Leader: What future issues are you preparing for?

Mike Hamman: The district has an array of training programs. We have employees who are required to maintain their Professional Engineer licenses and other certifications with ongoing requirements in safety and equipment operations. The district is also rolling out a comprehensive performance management plan that will include point-in-time training for staff as they progress along their career paths and as identified in their performance plans. Our administrative and management staff also need work-order and financialmanagement-system training for dayto-day operations.

Mike Hamman: The district needs to engage in a reasonable water planning process to explore how parties in the region can collaborate in preserving agricultural operations. We also need to prepare for a more variable water supply situation. We have noticed since the mid-1980s that we are facing a long-term reduction in the amount of dependable snowmelt runoff. We are also looking at the management and recapture of monsoonal storm events, which have become higher in intensity, causing flooding problems and property damage. Overall, we’re looking at an array of options to prepare for climatic changes, including increases in temperatures.

14 | IRRIGATION LEADER

Irrigation Leader: What training do you currently provide your employees?

Irrigation Leader: How much do you spend on training for your employees each year?

Mike Hamman: Of our $22 million annual budget, we set aside roughly $200,000 annually for training and certifications.

Irrigation Leader: What is the most important thing you have learned as manager?

Mike Hamman: The district is a quasigovernmental agency under the state, so it is a public entity. There is a lot of overlap with what other federal, state, and local governments are doing, so transparency, communication, and networking at all levels are important for managing an entity of our size and mission.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills needed to be a successful manager?

Mike Hamman: They include having a strong awareness of the diversity of the staff and the views they hold, engaging in positive team building, and reinforcing the desired traits and goals needed to accomplish the organization’s mission. It is important to resist the tendency to micromanage processes. Trust your team to perform.

Even if mistakes are made, people can learn and adjust. Strive to keep people informed and do the utmost to plan for the future in a detailed manner. IL Mike Hamman is chief executive officer and chief engineer of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more about the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, please visit www.mrgcd.com.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MIKE HAMMAN.

Irrigation Leader: What’s the top issue facing your irrigation district today?

Alan Hansten North Side Canal Company Jerome, Idaho

Years working in irrigation: 10 Years as manager: 6 Number of employees: 58 Size of service area in acres: 160,000 Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 1,000,000 Main crops irrigated: Silage corn, potatoes, sugar beets, alfalfa hay, barley, winter and spring wheat, beans Predominant irrigation methods: Center pivot, sprinkler

Irrigation Leader: What is the top issue facing your irrigation district today?

Alan Hansten: I would say keeping up with ever-changing federal and state laws. The irrigation business interfaces with so many agencies associated with the environment, transportation, and employment that it is a real challenge to stay compliant with all the relevant rules.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ALAN HANSTEN.

Irrigation Leader: What future issues are you preparing for?

Alan Hansten: Many of our concrete structures date back to the original construction of our system in the early 1900s, and some have degraded to the point that they need to be replaced. In addition, the Eastern Snake Plain aquifer in southern Idaho, which interfaces with the Snake River, has been declining for the past 60 years. The state and water users have been working together to decrease demand and develop recharge projects to reverse the downward trend. We have a real interest in improving the aquifer to help sustain spring flows on the river that contribute to the company’s water supply. The company also wheels rented surface water to lands that have historically been irrigated with well water and works with the state and others by using the existing canal system to recharge the aquifer.

Irrigation Leader: What are your top issues regarding personnel?

Alan Hansten: The current unemployment rate in southern Idaho is 3 percent. We are seeing growth in the food-processing sector and in other commercial businesses in the area.

All this makes it challenging to find employees with agricultural skills and a desire to work in the irrigation business.

Irrigation Leader: What training do you currently provide to your employees?

Alan Hansten: We provide commercial driver's license training to employees so that they can operate 10-wheel dump trucks and heavy equipment haulers. We also provide training for pesticide application, job safety, explosives, heavy equipment operation, high-density polyethylene pipe fusing, Bureau of Reclamation canal operation, and ditch riding.

Irrigation Leader: How much do you spend on training for your employees each year?

Alan Hansten: $6,500.

Irrigation Leader: What is the most important thing you have learned as manager?

Alan Hansten: I thought when I became general manager that my

business and engineering background would greatly help me in handling many of the issues that were to come my way. I soon found out that I would need all that and much more. The irrigation business interfaces with so many public and private entities that there seems to be no end to the issues that come up. Every day, a new challenge presents itself that forces me to shut up, read, listen, think, and learn to make wise decisions. It’s impossible to ever know it all.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills needed to be a successful manager?

Alan Hansten: A background in dayto-day business operations; a general understanding of civil engineering principles related to earthwork, hydraulics, and construction; a general understanding of legal matters related to the irrigation business; and peopleempowerment skills. I can say from personal experience that it is important to recognize when to be a teacher and when to be a student; when to be a leader and when to be a follower.

Managers have to be able to listen; make educated decisions while recognizing risks; negotiate effectively with people; maintain a positive attitude; and, above all, remain as calm as possible. IL Alan Hansten is general manager of North Side Canal Company. He can be contacted at awh@northsidecanal.com or (208) 324-2319.

IRRIGATIONLEADERMAGAZINE.COM

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Rusty Jardine

Truckee-Carson Irrigation District Fallon, Nevada

Years working in irrigation: 20 Years as manager: 10 Number of employees: 44 Size of service area in acres: 60,000 Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 300,000 Main crops irrigated: Alfalfa, corn Predominant irrigation methods: Flood

Irrigation Leader: What is the top issue facing your irrigation district today?

Rusty Jardine: The Truckee-Carson Irrigation District operates and maintains the Newlands Federal Reclamation Project, one of the oldest in the nation. Most every facility in our project, including Lahontan and Derby Dams, is over 100 years old. We have some big maintenance challenges looming before us! Years ago, almost 600 homes were flooded as a result of a catastrophic breach of the embankment of the Truckee Canal in Fernley, Nevada. The canal remains an invaluable feature of the project, and we must ensure that it is operated safely and efficiently.

We are planning to line the canal with concrete, which will cost tens of millions of dollars. The financial challenges associated with that are daunting. We raise money by assessing our approximately 2,500 water users by acre. Our annual budget hovers a little under $7 million annually.

Irrigation Leader: What future issues are you preparing for?

18 | IRRIGATION LEADER

Irrigation Leader: What are your top issues regarding personnel?

Rusty Jardine: The district is blessed with many people who have served us long and well. They are good, dedicated, and hardworking, but just like our infrastructure, they are aging.

Many will soon retire—the silver tsunami! The challenge is to bring on new people and get them properly trained in order to sustain the mission of the district.

Irrigation Leader: What training do you currently provide to your employees?

Rusty Jardine: We regularly have outside entities, including the Bureau of Reclamation and other contractors, provide us with training, often without expense to the district. For example, NV Energy, the primary electrical services provider in our state, provided safety training to our staff. We rely upon the staff of the Irrigation Training and Research

Center at California Polytechnic State University, which specializes in irrigation practices, to provide us with water measurement training. We provide in-house training as well.

Irrigation Leader: How much do you spend on training for your employees each year?

Rusty Jardine: We expend approximately $25,000 annually for training provided through outside sources.

Irrigation Leader: What is the most important thing you have learned as manager?

Rusty Jardine: The most important thing is to protect water rights and provide policies for water usage.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills needed to be a successful manager?

Rusty Jardine: You need to have some understanding of many different disciplines and topic areas, including applicable regulations and decrees; engineering; hydrology; law; construction; human resources; public finance; and, of course, customer service! IL Rusty Jardine is general manager of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District in Fallon, Nevada. For more about the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District, visit tcid.org.

PHOTO COURTESY OF RUSTY JARDINE.

Rusty Jardine: We have entered contract negotiations with the United States for a new contract. Among other concerns, we are being pressed to measure 100 percent of the water that is delivered in an open channel system.

Paying for the necessary measurement devices is a challenge. Do we pass

on the cost of the device and site work—up to $30,000 each—to our water users? With over 1,600 takeouts in the project, the cost of such a measurement program would near $50 million—seven times our annual budget! Since 1999, we have installed 141 measurement devices, many of which are equipped with satellite telemetry, but we are being asked to do much more in the next contract.

Brett Jones Murrumbidgee Irrigation

Hanwood, New South Wales, Australia

Years working in irrigation: 4 Years as manager: 22 Number of employees: 160 Size of service area in acres: 939,000 Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 243,000–730,000 Main crops irrigated: Rice, cotton, wine grapes, almonds, walnuts, citrus, prunes Predominant irrigation methods: Drip, flood

Irrigation Leader: What is the top issue facing your irrigation district today?

Brett Jones: The two issues that we’re facing are drought and water reform.

This is our second year of severe drought, and we’re seeing record-low rainfalls. Our water is divided between high-security water, which people get first and is used for horticulture, and general-security water, which is the additional water available when it rains and which is used for annual cropping. There’s been very little annual cropping during the past 2 years due to low water allocation for general security. Deliveries 3–4 years ago were at the 900 gigaliter (GL) mark (730,000 acre-feet); last year, they dropped to about 450 GL (365,000 acre-feet); and this year, they’ll drop to less than 300 GL (243,000 acre-feet).

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRETT JONES.

Irrigation Leader: What issues are you preparing for in the future?

Brett Jones: We are experiencing harsher and more frequent dry sequences due to shifting weather patterns, which results in changes in water requirements. Traditionally, rice was our most common crop; now we’re transitioning to high-value nut trees and cotton. Those crops require different watering methods: Cotton requires a high flow rate in the field, whereas once a rice paddy is flooded, it requires only top-up flows. We need

to do everything we can to reduce losses from our system, whether through evaporation, seepage, or operational hiccups.

Irrigation Leader: What are your top issues regarding personnel?

Brett Jones: As in most regional areas in Australia, recruitment is a challenge.

We’re 7 hours away from Sydney and 5 hours from Melbourne. We are in a town of about 25,000 people. Getting professionals out to rural areas is always a problem in Australia. When you lose people out here, it’s not that they go somewhere else for a while and come back; they generally leave for good.

Irrigation Leader: What training do you currently provide your employees?

Brett Jones: We provide wide-ranging safety training, internal and external leadership training, training in change management and business awareness, training for certificates in trades, and apprenticeships. We put a lot of effort into leadership development, training, and skill development.

We send our managers to external training programs, including directors’ courses to help them work with our board and stakeholders. Our leadership development courses have been running for about 3 years now using an external provider, a group called People Mastery, and involve in-house leadership programs for all

our team leaders, junior managers, and managers, focusing on values and behaviors. I’m a big believer in the idea that culture starts from the top and leadership is the key to success. You must get leadership right before you try to get the culture right.

Irrigation Leader: How much do you spend on training for your employees each year?

Brett Jones: We spend approximately A$275,000 (US$186,780) per year on training, which works out to around 1.5 percent of total labor costs.

Irrigation Leader: What is the most important thing you have learned as manager?

Brett Jones: You work for your people.

Your role is to ensure that everyone has everything they need—training, tools, culture, resources, etc.—to successfully undertake their duties in the right way.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills needed to be a successful manager?

Brett Jones: An enquiring and challenging mind, curiosity, the ability to listen to many and then make decisions, and people management skills. IL Brett Jones is managing director at Murrumbidgee Irrigation in Hanwood, New South Wales, Australia. He can be contacted at info@mirrigation.com.au.

IRRIGATIONLEADERMAGAZINE.COM

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Steve Knell

Oakdale Irrigation District Oakdale, California

Years working in irrigation: 43 Years as manager: 18 Number of employees: 76 Size of service area in acres: 81,000 Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 225,000 Main crops irrigated: Almonds, walnuts, pasture, corn, oats Predominant irrigation methods: Flood, microsprinkler

Irrigation Leader: What is the top issue facing your irrigation district today?

Steve Knell: One issue is the California Water Resources Control Board’s Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan, which involves the release of 40 percent of the unimpaired flow, from February through June, of the tributaries of the San Joaquin River for delta fisheries and habitat protection.

The plan would cause significant economic and social disruption to the Central Valley’s agricultural economy.

We irrigation districts vehemently oppose the plan and are in negotiations with the state, challenging its science, reasoning, and judgment, in hopes of finding common ground.

The other issue of concern is California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014. This act requires critically overdrafted basins and basins of concern to have Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) in place by January 2020 and 2022, respectively, identifying the measures to be taken to achieve groundwater sustainability. We are working to develop our basin GSPs with the help of local stakeholders and water users.

20 | IRRIGATION LEADER

school and improve their trade skills or further their education. We also have train-the-trainer programs.

Irrigation Leader: What are your top issues regarding personnel?

Steve Knell: We’ve budgeted $125,000 for 2020.

Steve Knell: The top issue with personnel is keeping them. We’re surrounded by some large irrigation districts that are also power utilities. They can afford somewhat better pay and benefits than we can, so competition for skilled workers is tough.

As a smaller district, though, OID can offer a quality work environment that other larger utilities can’t.

Irrigation Leader: What is the most important thing you have learned as manager?

Irrigation Leader: What training do you currently provide your employees?

Steve Knell: Our highest priority at OID is safety, and routine safety training is the foundation of a safe work environment. We also send newly hired ditchtenders to California Polytechnic State University for a week to take a course in water measurement and delivery. Upon their return, they spend a month in a truck with a seasoned ditchtender learning their divisions before being cut loose on the system. The same is true of our supervisory control and data acquisition hires. In addition, OID offers an education incentive program for those who want to go to night

Irrigation Leader: How much do you spend on training for your employees each year?

Steve Knell: You have to hire good people who are competent and selfmotivated to do quality work. I don’t micromanage—I work with our board of directors to set the goals and direction for my management team.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills needed to be a successful manager?

Steve Knell: You need to be able to connect with people at all levels. As a manager, you work with a lot of people with different needs. It takes a lot of coordination, understanding, and connection with those specific needs to make it all flow together, to keep folks happy, and to keep things running in the right direction to meet common goals. IL Steven Knell is general manager of Oakdale Irrigation District in Oakdale, California. He can be contacted at sknell@oakdaleirrigation.com.

PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE KNELL.

Irrigation Leader: What future issues are you preparing for?

Steve Knell: About 12 years ago, Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) committed to rebuilding and modernizing its 110-year-old water delivery system. Every year since then,

we’ve been investing $4-6 million in such improvements. OID adopted the Rubicon Total Channel Control System for our district as the means to provide highly managed water delivery service to farmers. A good portion of our district now gets water on demand.

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Sonia Lambert

Cameron County Irrigation District #2 and Cameron County Drainage District #3 San Benito, Texas

Years working in irrigation: 42 Years as manager: 20 Number of employees: CCID #2: 45; CCID #3: 48 Size of service area in acres: 58,000 Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 100,000 Main crops irrigated: Sugar cane, corn, cotton, grain, orchards Predominant irrigation methods: Flood

Irrigation Leader: What is the top issue facing your irrigation district today?

Sonia Lambert: Our aging infrastructure. Cameron County Irrigation District #2 was created in 1916. Rehabilitating our infrastructure has been an ongoing process. Most of our main canals remain open earthen canals. We’re in the process of piping the lateral canals that are small enough to be piped and attempting to line the main canals with a geocomposite liner and 3 inches of concrete. We also have wooden gates that are being replaced with Rubicon automated gates powered with solar panels.

Although this district has done a substantial amount of rehabilitation to its infrastructure, acquiring funding to completely upgrade the system remains the top issue.

Irrigation Leader: What future issues are you preparing for?

22 | IRRIGATION LEADER

Sonia Lambert: I can’t say that I have any serious issues with personnel.

I’ve been blessed with good staff at both Cameron County Irrigation District #2 and Cameron County Drainage District #3. Most, if not all, employees end up adapting well to our environment—and sometimes we are the ones to change in order to improve our systems, customer service, or technology!

Irrigation Leader: What training do you currently provide your employees?

Sonia Lambert: It is mainly on-thejob training for the maintenance department where crew leaders instruct new staff. Office personnel normally need experience in the field they are applying for, but they also are provided with on-the-job training. In addition, they attend seminars provided by the Texas Water Conservation Association Risk Management Fund in different areas of interest, which has proven to be valuable to both staff and the districts.

Irrigation Leader: How much do you spend on training for your employees each year?

Sonia Lambert: On average, we give them about 3 months’ training, so I would say one quarter of new hires’ annual salary is spent on training.

Irrigation Leader: What is the most important thing you have learned as manager?

Sonia Lambert: Learning how to delegate was difficult. When I first became manager, I tried to do everything myself because I was of the mentality that if you wanted it done correctly, you might as well do it yourself. Learning how to delegate and trust my employees has truly made for an easier job. Being open to new ideas has also been very beneficial.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills needed to be a successful manager?

Sonia Lambert: I always believed that you’re either a born leader or not, and that born leaders made the best managers. Although some of that may still hold true, acquiring the skills of delegation, communication, and problem solving is essential. IL Sonia Lambert is general manager of Cameron County Irrigation District #2 and Cameron County Drainage District #3 in San Benito, Texas. She can be contacted at ccid2@swbell.net.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SONIA LAMBERT.

Sonia Lambert: As property gets urbanized, water rights are being converted from irrigation to municipal. We want to make the best use of what we have left to continue to provide water for crops, so upgrading our system to conserve our resource is of the utmost importance.

Irrigation Leader: What are your top issues regarding personnel?

Matt Lukasiewicz

Loup Basin Reclamation District, Farwell Irrigation District, Sargent Irrigation District Farwell, Nebraska

Years working in irrigation: 9 Years as manager: 9 Number of employees: 20 Size of service area in acres: 68,381 Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 85,000 Main crops irrigated: Corn, soybeans Predominant irrigation methods: Gravity, center pivot

Irrigation Leader: What are the top issues facing your irrigation district today?

Matt Lukasiewicz: The biggest challenge today is keeping up with automation and the constant changes in technology. Some farmers use advanced technology and some don’t, so we also need to find a happy medium at which we’re continually advancing but, at the same time, not making it too difficult for some farmers.

Irrigation Leader: What future issues are you preparing for?

Matt Lukasiewicz: While 2019 was one of those really wet years in which we had to battle flooding, we are still focused on preparing for the next drought year.

We are always looking at what could potentially harm us as a district, and drought is one of the top issues. We are looking at ways to conserve water and be more efficient in our operations.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MATT LUKASIEWICZ.

Irrigation Leader: What are your top issues regarding personnel?

Matt Lukasiewicz: One of the top issues is finding people with some background experience in irrigation.

I also continually find that work ethic can be a challenge. I don’t know if it has anything to do with a generational change. It sometimes seems that millennials are more tech savvy than shovel ready. We need good, honest

workers who are willing to work the long hours and 7-day weeks that irrigation districts demand.

Irrigation Leader: What kind of training do you currently provide your employees?

Matt Lukasiewicz: As a manager, I’m not in the field as much as others, so I find employees who I feel are trustworthy and dependable and have proven that they know what they’re doing, and then delegate the training process to them. If it’s something in the office, I do the training myself.

When it comes to equipment and spraying applications, I’ve brought in manufacturer personnel from companies like John Deere or Caterpillar.

Irrigation Leader: How much do you spend on training for your employees each year?

Matt Lukasiewicz: It depends. We try to give them the basics and then let them go out and figure stuff out on their own. For example, I’ve found that no two ditch riders run water the same way. That means that you can’t necessarily train them to do exactly what you want. You have to let them figure some stuff out on their own and figure out what works for them and then guide them along the way.

Irrigation Leader: What is the most important thing you have learned as manager?

Matt Lukasiewicz: Managing employees is definitely the toughest part of the job. You’re dealing with a lot of personalities and a lot of different families. We’re family oriented, and a main focus of our board of directors is taking care of our employees. The other thing I’ve learned is not to take the stresses of management home, so that I can live to fight another day.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills needed to be a successful manager?

Matt Lukasiewicz: Communication is the most important thing. When a chain of command includes a general manager, a project manager, and a foreman, employees sometimes start getting conflicting orders from three different people.

Just as no two ditch riders run water the same way, no two managers manage the same way. I think you have to find your own groove, depending on your irrigation district, the personalities of your employees, and the issues within your district. IL Matt Lukasiewicz is general manager of the Loup Basin Reclamation District, the Farwell Irrigation District, and the Sargent Irrigation District. He can be contacted at mluk@qwestoffice.net or at (308) 336-3341.

IRRIGATIONLEADERMAGAZINE.COM

| 23

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Jeevan Muhar Arvin-Edison Water Storage District Arvin, California

Years working in irrigation: 18 Years as manager: 2½ Number of employees: 50–55 Size of service area in acres: 131,600 Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 140,000 Main crops irrigated: Vineyards, citrus, almonds, carrots, potatoes, onions Predominant irrigation methods: Sprinkler, drip/micro

Irrigation Leader: What are the top issues facing your irrigation district today?

Jeevan Muhar: I’d say it is compliance with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), a 2014 California law that mandates that public agencies reconsider groundwater operations in order to avoid undesirable results with respect to lowering of groundwater levels, groundwater quality, subsidence, groundwater storage, surface/groundwater interactions, and seawater intrusion. In addition, since a majority of our district was built in the 1960s, aging infrastructure is becoming an issue. We’ve got 45 miles of canal, over 200 pumps and motors, and over 170 miles of pipeline.

Irrigation Leader: What future issues are you preparing for?

26 | IRRIGATION LEADER

Irrigation Leader: How much do you spend on training for your employees each year?

Irrigation Leader: What are your top issues regarding personnel?

Jeevan Muhar: It’s a small fraction of our overall budget. Due to our membership in other organizations, several trainings cost nothing other than normal per diem or hotel charges.

Jeevan Muhar: We’ve had several employees reach their 30-year anniversaries, and while they have done a great job, they are not going to work forever. We’ve got to start training employees to do as admirable a job as our experienced employees.

Irrigation Leader: What kind of training do you currently provide to your employees?

Jeevan Muhar: We request that employees cross train to the extent possible. A maintenance employee may fill in for operations, operations staff have learned pump shop duties, etc. This practice ensures that our employees are well rounded and familiar with the entire range of the district’s operations. We also send staff to workshops and seminars that are put on by others, for example the Irrigation Training and Research Center at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo or college or industry courses on issues like aquatic weed control, geographic information systems, and cathodic protection. Other training courses are available through our membership in other organizations, including courses dealing with asbestos pipelines, defensive driving, and harassment.

Irrigation Leader: What is the most important thing you have learned as manager?

Jeevan Muhar: Communication is critical. Sometimes I am at fault for not communicating enough. I believe more frequent communication can prevent problems from emerging in the first place.

Listen to your employees, understand their issues, and assist in providing the tools that they need to succeed.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills needed to be a successful manager?

Jeevan Muhar: You’ve got to be able to communicate and effectively present information. Be thorough and efficiently communicate the issues you’re dealing with in venues like board meetings or committees with fellow managers.

You also need to put yourself in others’ positions so that you understand their issues and opposite points of view. IL Jeevan Muhar is engineer-manager at Arvin-Edison Water Storage District in Arvin, California. He can be contacted at arvined@aewsd.org.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JEEVAN MUHAR.

Jeevan Muhar: Over the next 5 years, I expect we will have a better understanding of what SGMA management will entail and what investments will be necessary to attain sustainability. The first significant deadline is January 31, 2020, when all the basins in the state have to submit their plans to the California Department of Water Resources. While the district can make the argument that we’ve been sustainable for over 50 years, with the future uncertainties with groundwater, our surface water supplies (a portion of which have been devoted to a river settlement), and climate change, we expect to have a

deficit relative to historical surface water deliveries and groundwater recharge/ banking supplies.

Trent Reed Shoshone Irrigation District Powell, Wyoming

Years working in irrigation: 19½ Years as manager: 1½ Number of employees: 13 Size of service area in acres: 36,000 Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 145,000 Main crops irrigated: Malt, barley, sugar beets, alfalfa seed, corn, hay Predominant irrigation methods: Flood

Irrigation Leader: What is the top issue facing your irrigation district today?

Trent Reed: Our irrigation district is over 100 years old. We started delivering water in 1908. We’ve been proactive about replacing aging structures for the last 30-40 years now.

We do have some original structures, including the Corbett Tunnel, which is of special concern after the recent tunnel collapse in an irrigation district in the southern part of Wyoming. We are having ground-penetrating radar scans done on the tunnel this winter to assess its structural integrity.

Irrigation Leader: What future issues are you preparing for?

Irrigation Leader: What are your top issues regarding personnel?

Trent Reed: I’ve been lucky in finding good, qualified help and responsive ditch riders.

Irrigation Leader: What training do you currently provide your employees?

Trent Reed: We have training on dealing with people and various other topics every spring for employees, as well as regular safety trainings. As far as managerial training, we go to an annual state association meeting for irrigation and water. We’re also looking at going to some trade shows.

Trent Reed: Around $1,500.

Irrigation Leader: What is the most important thing you have learned as manager?

Trent Reed: Communication is the biggest thing. You need to be able to communicate with water users, landowners, and employees.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills needed to be a successful manager?

Trent Reed: Having a background in irrigation and water, having people skills, and being able to communicate. IL Trent Reed is general manager of the Shoshone Irrigation District in Powell, Wyoming. He can be contacted at shoshoneid@hotmail.com or (307) 754-5741.

Irrigation Leader: How much do you spend on training for your employees each year?

PHOTO COURTESY OF TRENT REED.

Trent Reed: Urban sprawl and urbanization are making agriculture tougher. People are subdividing land into smaller parcels, so we have more water users on the same acreage.

Instead of having, say, 1 person on an 80-acre irrigation unit, you’ll have 2–4 people. People may buy 10 or

so acres of land and run cows and horses on it, but they’re no longer dedicating the land to production agriculture. This affects our services because there are more people who want time with us.

IRRIGATIONLEADERMAGAZINE.COM

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Jesús Reyes

El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1 El Paso, Texas

Years working in irrigation: Lifelong Years as manager: 16 Number of employees: 108 Size of service area in acres: 69,010 Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 370,000 Main crops irrigated: Pima cotton, pecans, alfalfa, winter onions Predominant irrigation methods: Flood

Irrigation Leader: What is the top issue facing your irrigation district today?

Jesús Reyes: The top issue is that we’ve been in and out of drought since 2002. We have been trying to conserve water when we have plenty.

In 2008, we worked out an operating agreement with our sister irrigation district, Elephant Butte Irrigation District in New Mexico. The Bureau of Reclamation signed an operating agreement that allowed us to use any water we conserve during one irrigation season in the following season. Any water we conserve in El Paso is carried over and left at the dam.

We have that water as if in a savings account. I’ve also been lining canals with concrete to deliver water into our farmers’ ditches more efficiently and upgrading our headgates.

Irrigation Leader: What future issues are you preparing for?

Irrigation Leader: What are your top issues regarding personnel?

30 | IRRIGATION LEADER

Irrigation Leader: What kind of training do you currently provide your employees?

Jesús Reyes: I encourage staff—not just management staff, but people who work in telemetry, safety, and other fields—to go to seminars to get training and get ideas from different areas of the country. I cross train them as much as I can on different issues. And of course, I’m always reading Irrigation Leader. Sometimes I make copies of specific articles for management staff so that they see how managers in other irrigation districts throughout the country are operating.

Irrigation Leader: How much do you spend on training for your employees each year?

Jesús Reyes: We have an education and training budget of about $30,000.

Irrigation Leader: What is the most important thing you have learned as manager?

Jesús Reyes: The most important thing is to take care of your employees.

They’re the ones who are out there actually doing the grunt work and working in the heat and the elements.

I’m trying to teach my first line of management to take care of the employees underneath them, to make sure they have what they need to continue operating the district, and to treat everybody with respect.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills needed to be successful manager?

Jesús Reyes: Being open minded and trying different ideas. I don’t go to a lot of conferences, but I do target some, like the one Water Strategies hosts in Phoenix every year. I try to attend that one and take one of my assistants with me, usually my water master. I attend the National Water Resources Association conferences.

I target conferences where I can visit with other general managers and pick up different ideas. IL Jesús “Chuy” Reyes is general manager of El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1 in El Paso, Texas. He can be reached at jreyes@epcwid1.org.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JESÚS REYES.

Jesús Reyes: There are predictions that because of climate change, the Rio Grande valley will become even drier as the years progress. That’s concerning, because the El Paso area has always been a farming community.

We’re trying to do everything we can to conserve and to upgrade our system to make it more efficient.

Jesús Reyes: We’ve been lucky in that our board of directors has been supportive of our staff. For the past 10 years, the board has approved pay increases of 3.5 percent on an almost yearly basis and pays for health insurance for our employees. We have a great working relationship with our five board members and trust them greatly.

Ángela Rojas Escudero

Years working in irrigation: 20+ Years as manager: 6 Number of employees: 17 Size of service area in acres: 39,536 Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 62,873

Río Choapa Joint Board of Control Salamanca, Chile Irrigation Leader: What is the top issue facing your irrigation district today? Ángela Rojas: The board of control’s top objective is to distribute water to its users in accordance with their water rights, both in terms of quantity and quality. Because of the long drought that we have been dealing with for more than 10 years—which caused a 90 percent deficit of precipitation, both rain and snow, in 2019—this distribution is more and more complex. Our efforts are focused on water efficiency and storage and on the search for new sources of water.

The board of control is making use of groundwater to supply our irrigation canals, and local mining companies are developing desalination projects to supply water for industrial use.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ÁNGELA ROJAS.

Irrigation Leader: What future issues are you preparing for? Ángela Rojas: The palpable effects of climate change mean that the reduction of available water is the main future issue we need to face. In terms of water distribution and conveyance, we are investing more than 1.2 million pesos (US$1,500) a year in the improvement of on-farm irrigation. As for storage, our main project is the construction of a 62,425 acre-foot head reservoir.

We also support the construction of small reservoirs, both on farm and

Main crops irrigated: Pisco grapes, walnuts, avocados, citrus fruits, apricots, pasture Predominant irrigation methods: Drip, furrow

by water users’ associations and other similar bodies. We are implementing the integrated control of surface water and groundwater and constructing a set of wells so as to draw from the aquifer during periods of water scarcity and to recharge it during periods of abundance.

Irrigation Leader: What are your top issues regarding personnel? Ángela Rojas: You need the right personnel to carry out the tasks— both technical and administrative— that are required for the efficient administration of the board of control.

It is important to comply with labor law, to respect workers’ rights, and to safeguard their security.

Irrigation Leader: What training do you currently provide your employees? Ángela Rojas: We give all our workers monthly training on various safety techniques so that they can carry out their activities in a more secure manner.

In addition, we have a yearly training plan that workers can make use of.

Irrigation Leader: How much do you spend on training for your employees each year? Ángela Rojas: We have a yearly training budget of 10 million pesos (US$12,727) as well as a yearly risk prevention budget of 10 million pesos

(US$12,727), which includes risk prevention training.

Irrigation Leader: What is the most important thing you have learned as manager? Ángela Rojas: In this job, you learn something every day, in the personal realm as well as the professional and technical realms. In the personal realm, it has been important to learn how to act as a nexus between the board of directors, the employees, and our users, recognizing their needs and giving them better technicaleconomic solutions.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills needed to be a successful manager? Ángela Rojas: The main thing a manager needs to keep in mind is to plan for their objectives and goals while considering the human and economic resources they have available. It is also important to have the ability to get and generate sources of resources, whether through private projects or governmentfunded ones. IL Ángela Rojas Escudero is general manager of the Río Choapa Joint Board of Control (Junta de Vigilancia Río Choapa y sus Afluentes) in Salamanca, Chile. For more about the Río Choapa Joint Board of Control, visit www.jvriochoapa.cl.

IRRIGATIONLEADERMAGAZINE.COM

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Irrigation Leader ad 3.pdf 1

2/21/19 10:51 AM

Dan Temple

A&B Irrigation District Rupert, Idaho

Years working in irrigation: 44 Years as manager: 22 Number of employees: 28 Size of service area in acres: 82,000 Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 210,000 Main crops irrigated: Malt barley, sugar beets, potatoes, alfalfa, corn, beans Predominant irrigation methods: Sprinkler

Irrigation Leader: What is the top issue facing your irrigation district today?

Dan Temple: The top issue for the past 30 years has been the declining water table on the Eastern Snake Plain aquifer (ESPA). We pump every gallon of water we deliver from either the Snake River, where we have two pumping plants, or out of the ESPA, where we operate and maintain 180 deep wells. The declining water table has kept district crews busy redesigning, removing, and installing new deep-well pumps to accommodate the deeper pumping depths, spending $20 million to do so. The district also owns its own well-drilling equipment to deepen or drill new replacement wells.

Irrigation Leader: What issues are you preparing for in the future?

34 | IRRIGATION LEADER

Dan Temple: The top issue is that 50 percent of the district’s employees will be retiring in the next 3 years.

We have been active in hiring and developing young, new leaders for the district. The second issue is finding labor. With the labor market the way it is, it’s hard to find people who want to work.

Irrigation Leader: What training do you currently provide to your employees?

Dan Temple: Because of the limited experienced workforce available, our approach is to place any new employees we hire out with seasoned employees to start training and learning their role, whether it is to deliver water, run equipment, or work in the office. We are also always willing to spend funds to send employees to local outside training sessions, when available. The Idaho Water Users Association is helpful in that they provide annual workshops on operations and maintenance and pesticide recertification.

Irrigation Leader: How much do you spend on training for your employees each year?

Dan Temple: Probably $4,000–$5,000.

Irrigation Leader: What is the most important thing you have learned as manager?

Dan Temple: You have to be able to communicate effectively with your board of directors, explaining the district’s needs and benefits, so that it can make informed budget decisions.

Also, it was important to learn that it is okay to rely on the advice and ideas of other people, such as fellow managers, and to learn from them.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills needed to be a successful manager?

Dan Temple: In addition to communicating with your directors, you have to be able to communicate with your staff and water users. Always respond to their concerns and questions, even if you can’t give them the answer or result they are seeking. IL Dan Temple is manager of A&B Irrigation District in Rupert, Idaho. He can be contacted at dtemple@abirrigation.org.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DAN TEMPLE.

Dan Temple: We’re planning and budgeting for routine infrastructure maintenance and gradually converting our open conveyance delivery systems to closed pipeline systems. We convert two or three deep well systems each year, eliminating 1–2 miles of laterals by installing pipelines. Three years ago, we constructed a second 100-cubicfoot-per-second river pumping station with 19 miles of buried pipeline at a cost of $12 million. That remains our biggest project to date.

Irrigation Leader: What are your top issues regarding personnel?

Murray Turner Waitaki Irrigation Management Ltd. Kurow, New Zealand

Years working in irrigation: 40 Years as manager: 7 Number of employees: 2 Size of service area in acres: 17,000 Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 21,100 Main crops irrigated: Pasture crops for dairy farming, horticulture, feed crops Predominant irrigation methods: Spray, flood

Irrigation Leader: What is the top issue facing your irrigation district today?

Murray Turner: Making a return on irrigation is probably the number 1 issue. Farmers pay NZ$500–800 (US$318–509) per hectare per year, which covers water and operational costs as well as scheme upgrades.

Efficiency in the cost of upgrades to the schemes is important to keep farmers' fees down.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MURRAY TURNER.

Irrigation Leader: What future issues are you preparing for?

Murray Turner: Keeping the cost of irrigation affordable. Everything goes up once you start getting into pumping with electricity. Profitability is always a challenge, whatever crops you’re growing. New Zealand is adopting a whole new set of national regulations concerning the efficient use of water. The biggest issue for farmers now is the regulation of the use of fertilizers. In particular, the national government and regional councils are concerned about the amount of nitrogen that is coming off the farms and are setting limits to what a farmer can apply. That adds a new set of challenges to profitability.

Irrigation Leader: What are your top issues regarding personnel?

Murray Turner: Health and safety is a major issue. There have been more stringent requirements in this country over the last few years regarding ensuring that your staff and workplace are safe and limiting liability. Repairs and maintenance will probably get easier as the schemes are piped, reducing the hazards that come with open channels. I don’t have too many problems with personnel because my employees have been with me for 30odd years. We work well together.

Irrigation Leader: What training do you currently provide to your employees?

Murray Turner: We do a lot of mandatory courses on health and safety; first aid; the Growsafe certification, which is the national qualification for buying, handling, and applying chemicals; and confined spaces training.

Irrigation Leader: How much do you spend on training for your employees each year?

Murray Turner: Around NZ$20,000 (US$12,728) a year total.

Irrigation Leader: What is the most important thing you have learned as manager?

Murray Turner: How to deal with the multitude of farmers, farm workers, and their families. You’ve got to be calm and collected because a lot can happen. It’s a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week job. I think that’s probably the hardest thing. Pumps and irrigation don’t stop at 5:00 at night or on the weekends. You’ve got to have people on call. It’s quite taxing. When we close those schemes down for 3 months a year, we don’t get the time off. Most of it is taken up by maintenance.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills needed to be a successful manager?

Murray Turner: You’ve got to be good at organization and coordination.

You have to be reasonably savvy with technology. All these new systems are running off supervisory control and data acquisition systems and programmable logic controllers. There is a lot of computer work. It is much different from the old days of open channels, when you were just piping out siphons manually. Now it’s high tech. You have to keep up-to-date with the industry. It’s a lot of work. IL Murray Turner is managing director at Waitaki Irrigation Management Ltd., which manages Kurow-Duntroon Irrigation Company and Maerewhenua District Water Resource Company. He can be contacted at murray@rivert.co.nz or +64 274500625.

IRRIGATIONLEADERMAGAZINE.COM

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Mark Zirschky

Pioneer Irrigation District Caldwell, Idaho

Years worked in irrigation: 27 Years as manager: 12 Number of employees: 16 Service size in acres: 34,000 Amount of water diverted for irrigation per year in acre-feet: 150,000 Main crops: Alfalfa hay, sugar beets, potatoes, onions, corn, grain, wheat, seed crops Irrigation methods: Gravity, drip

Irrigation Leader: What is the top issue facing your irrigation district today?

Mark Zirschky: Around 75 percent of the district is being affected by urbanization. We are experiencing a large increase in hours spent to cover our service area, due to delays caused by additional stop signs, traffic signals, an enormous increase in traffic, dust, pedestrians, and even feeding waterfowl. All this has been a real strain on our budget, as overtime has escalated drastically Irrigation Leader: What future issues are you preparing for?

36 | IRRIGATION LEADER

dollars here and there for licensing when we get new employees.

Mark Zirschky: Employees are seeking other employment that allows them more time or better wages. There’s also been a push for better insurance benefits.

Irrigation Leader: What is the most important thing you have learned as manager?

Irrigation Leader: What training do you currently provide your employees?

Mark Zirschky: We provide them with the training and certification for their commercial driver’s license.

If it’s applicable to the employee, we provide them training in licensing for their professional applicator’s license.

We do safety training monthly, and if there’s any necessary certification for that, we provide it. We’re looking at implementing firearms training, medical training, and CPR training to keep them up to speed.

Irrigation Leader: How much do you spend on training for your employees each year?

Mark Zirschky: It varies depending on whether we have new employees or not. Most of the time, the training that we get for medical or safety stuff is free. Training doesn’t represent a great expense, other than a few hundred

Mark Zirschky: There’s more than one way to skin a cat. There isn’t always one right answer. There’s always a way to compromise and reach the end goal.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills needed to be a successful manager?

Mark Zirschky: Employees find comfort in being heard and feeling that their input matters, which it does. Taking the time to listen to them is important.

There’s always something to learn from engaging with them as well. Being a strong speaker and being comfortable in your ability to speak is important. It’s important to have a basic knowledge of water operations. You need to understand how the district operates, have the ability to listen, and have a fairly mellow attitude. IL Mark Zirschky is superintendent of Pioneer Irrigation District in Caldwell, Idaho. He can be contacted at mark@pioneerirrigation.com.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MARC ZIRSCHKY.

Mark Zirschky: Either our staff is going to have to grow or we’re going to have to see an increased budget for salaries to compensate for overtime.

To put it in perspective, the last year that I rode ditch was 2004. I rode ditch for employees that had left right before the end of the season. The amount of time that it takes to ride ditch has almost doubled between 2004 and now. I was amazed at the amount of time that it takes to cover the everyday duties of a ditch rider after the new development of the past 15 years.

Irrigation Leader: What are your top issues regarding personnel?

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CLASSIFIEDS

Does your irrigation district have a job listing you would like to advertise in our pages?

Irrigation Leader provides this service to irrigation districts free of charge.

For more information, please email Kris Polly at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

GENERAL MANAGER Kern County Water Agency Deadline: Open until filled Salary: Competitive salary, based on the candidate’s qualifications.

DESCRIPTION: + The general manager reports to a seven-member board of directors and oversees the agency’s 67 staff members and $365 million budget.

DUTIES: + Providing leadership and management in the development and implementation of agency strategies, policies, and programs. + Administering the annual budget and other financial functions. + Managing personnel matters and workforce operations. + Applying professional expertise to oversee water management and development. + Maintaining standards and protocols in the areas of treated water quality and public health. + Fostering positive working relationship with the agency’s member units and others by employing excellent communication and consensus building skills. + Serving as a representative and spokesperson of the agency with the media, elected policy makers and local, state, and federal agencies to protect and enhance the Agency’s interests. + Overseeing capital project management to include new and upgraded infrastructure.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Josh Jones or Jill Engelmann CPS HR Consulting Call (916)-263-1401

CONSERVATION OUTREACH SPECIALIST NORTH PLAINS GROUNDWATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT Deadline: Open until filled Salary: $30,000-$50,000, commensurate with experience.

DESCRIPTION: + This position is responsible for performing district communications and education duties and providing support for grants related to conservation programs.

QUALIFICATIONS: + Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience and training. + Valid Texas driver’s license and a good driving record are required.

38 | IRRIGATION LEADER

+ Event Planning, writing for publication, writing for broadcast, social media, hootsuite, public speaking, audio production, video production, as is Adobe Creative Cloud, Constant Contact, PowerPoint, clippings service, administrative/clerical and Microsoft Office. + Possess the ability to work with little direct supervision; must have the ability to work well with district staff and groups or individuals with diverse interests.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: To apply for this position, please send a resume and cover letter to Kirk Welch at kwelch@northplainsgcd.org.

PUBLIC RELATIONS COORDINATOR KENNEWICK IRRIGATION DISTRICT Deadline: Open until filled Salary: $48,537 to $63,349 full time, exempt, non barganing unit position, with benefits.

DESCRIPTION: + This position is responsible for planning, development, and implementation of social media communication; webpage design and content; employee and public relations; and community outreach activites. This position reports to the distric manager under supervision of the customer accounts supervisor, and coordinates with management on implementation of related functions, including providing insight in development and implementation of related materials and services, directing staff efforts on PR-related activities.

QUALIFICATIONS: + Bachelor’s degree in public relations, journalism, marketing, leadership, communication or related field + At least three years of related public relations experience in similar capacity + Public relations or journalism experience + Experience working with leadership and constituents FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit: http://kid.org/employment/

ACCOUNT MANAGER RUBICON Deadline: Open until filled Salary: Salary is competitive and DOE DESCRIPTION: + The role of account manager is diverse in nature; it requires both sales of Rubicon solutions throughout the Central Valley of California, while partnerting with management to execute sales strategy and new business development.

QUALIFICATIONS: + Agricultural, engineering, or related technical degree (Bachelor’s degree preferred). + Excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills. +Technical skills and understanding of hydraulics and basic engineering and construction principles. + Demonstrate exceptionsl time management, organizational, and relationship-building skills.

DUTIES: + Develop and maintain close customer relations to enhace the customer experience of key accounts while developing new accounts. + Develop a range of proposals to improve customers’ business performance in collaboration.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Email your resume to Alisa.Newton@rubiconwater.com

DISTRICT MANAGER POSITION TUALATIN VALLEY IRRIGATION DISTRICT Deadline: Open until filled Salary: $70,000 – $90,000 DESCRIPTION: + The Tualatin Valley Irrigation District (TVID) is served by a five-member board of directors, and is currently operating

on a 2019 budget of $1,180,000, with 7 FTEs, including the district manager. The district serves approximately 350 customers and irrigates 17,000 acres in Washington and Yamhill Counties. TVID operates Scoggins Dam, which impounds Hagg Lake, 2 pumping plants, and maintains over 120 miles of buried pressurized pipeline. Under the direction of the board of directors, the district manager assumes full management responsibilities for all district services and activities, including accounting, engineering, maintenance, purchasing and water operations.

QUALIFICATIONS: + A bachelor’s degree from a four-year college or university, or 7 to 10 years of related experience and/or training, is required. + Knowledge of Oregon Water Law and water rights, water right transfer process, and Oregon statutes related to irrigation districts is highly preferred. + The selected candidate must possess or be able to obtain a current Oregon driver’s license with a good driving record, and when required, possess Dam Tenders Certificate.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: For a complete position profile and to apply online, visit Prothman at www.prothman.com/, click on “Open Recruitments” and then click the position title.

For questions, call (206) 368-0050.

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Upcoming Events January 7–8 Leadership Forum, National Water Resources Association, Chandler, AZ January 8–10 67th Annual Meeting, Four States Irrigation Council, Fort Collins, CO January 12–15 Winter Conference, Groundwater Management Districts Association, Fort Lauderdale, FL January 16 Idaho Irrigation Equipment Show & Conference, Idaho Irrigation Equipment Association, Burley, ID January 20–25 83rd Annual Convention, Idaho Water Users Association, Riverside Hotel, Boise, ID January 25–30 Las Vegas to Phoenix Education and Trade Tour, Irrigation Leader January 28–29 Legislative Conference, Nebraska Natural Resources Districts, Lincoln, NE January 29–30 Annual Irrigation Leader Operations and Management Training Workshop, Phoenix, AZ January 29–31 Annual Convention, Colorado Water Congress, Westminster, CO February 4 Winter Meeting, Kansas Water Congress, Topeka, KS February 5–7 Annual Conference, Montana Water Resources Association, Anaconda, MT February 10–13 Annual Conference, Nevada Water Resources Association, Las Vegas, NV February 20–22 Annual Meeting and Conference, Family Farm Alliance, Reno, NV February 22–27 New Zealand Education and Trade Tour, Irrigation Leader February 25–27 Annual Washington, DC, Conference, Association of California Water Agencies, Washington, DC February 26–28 Annual Salinity Summit, Multi State Salinity Coalition, Las Vegas, NV

Past issues of Irrigation Leader are archived at irrigationleadermagazine.com @IrrigationLeader

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