Irrigation Leader May 2012

Volume 3 Issue 5

May 2012

Tom Davis: Yuma County Water Users’ Association Supports Year-Round Farming, Addresses Unique Maintenance Challenges

Farming the Desert

By Kris Polly

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raveling the southwest of the United States, one is struck by the vastness of the desert and the seemingly inhospitable nature of the land toward anything but the most hardy of desert plants.

Rainfall in the Yuma, Arizona, area is just over 3 inches a year. However, with irrigation the area has some of the most productive cropland in the United States. The Yuma Project, authorized by Congress in 1904, directed the Bureau of Reclamation to improve upon work done by previous private ditch companies and to construct Laguna Dam, the Yuma Main Canal in California, and an inverted siphon to cross under the Colorado River.

Additionally, Reclamation was contracted to build an irrigation distribution system to provide water to 14,676 acres in California and 53,415 acres in Arizona. Today, some 45,000 of the original project acres in Arizona are still being farmed. Elevations ranging from 90 to 140 feet

above sea level allow for a wide range of crops year round.

Winter and spring vegetables are the highest value crops grown. Nearly 90 percent of all the leafy vegetables grown in the United States between November and March are grown in the Yuma area. According to the Yuma County Extension Office, the value of agriculture production in Yuma County was $2.2 billion in 2007. Though those figures are somewhat dated, they underscore the ability of irrigation to create economic engines that, in addition to providing food and fiber for our country provide a constant source of jobs and value to our economy.

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 by e-mailing Kris.Polly@waterstrategies.com.

C O N T E N T S

MAY 2012

2 Farming the Desert

Volume 3

Issue 5

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 Chisholm, Senior Writer Robin Pursley, Graphic Designer Capital Copyediting, LLC, Copy Editor 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 by phoning (703) 517-3962 or by e-mailing 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 office by e-mailing Irrigation.Leader@waterstrategies.com.

COVER PHOTO: Tom Davis, General Manager of the Yuma County Water Users' Association.

Irrigation Leader

By Kris Polly

4 Yuma County Water Users’ Association Supports Year-Round Farming, Addresses Unique Maintenance Challenges 10 Project Completion Ceremony Held for the Delta-Mendota Canal/California Aqueduct Intertie 12 Colorado’s Southern Delivery System Offers Promise of Water Availability to Match Population Growth District Focus:

14 Supporting Agriculture through Conservation

By Randy Ray

Water Law:

18

Can States Evade Their Obligations under Interstate Water Compacts by Adopting Protectionist Laws Embargoing Water Exports? The U.S. Supreme Court Should Decide

By Jim Oliver

International:

22 An Uphill Climb: Modernizing an Antiquated Irrigation System in the Wake of a Natural Disaster The Innovators:

26 Rain Bird Traces Roots to Farmer’s Search for a Better Sprinkler 3

Yuma County Water Users’ Association

Supports Year-Round Farming, Addresses Unique Maintenance Challenges

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he area surrounding Yuma, Arizona, represents some of the highest value farmland in the country. The warm climate allows for year-round farming and many of the farm-to-table crops that arrive in grocery stores during the winter originate in the region.

However, year-round farming presents special challenges when operating an irrigation system. Specifically, district managers cannot simply wait until irrigation season ends to perform maintenance, as water deliveries must continue throughout the year. The Yuma County Water Users’ Association (YCWUA) has developed unique procedures to cope with this disadvantage in order to avoid shutting off water to area growers. Additionally, YCWUA avoids significant use of herbicides and mechanical weed control efforts through the introduction of grass carp that control aquatic weed growth. The association has also made significant efforts to modernize its delivery infrastructure, which allows for greater efficiency in district operations.

Irrigation Leader Editor-in-Chief Kris Polly discussed these and other issues with YCWUA Manager Tom Davis on May 14, 2012.

Kris Polly: What are the top challenges of maintaining an irrigation system that delivers water year round?

Tom Davis: It is getting time to do major rehabilitation and maintenance on the system. Before the calendar year begins, generally in the month of October, our board will approve certain days in the upcoming calendar year that we will have water out of the canal system. This means we are diverting only a minimum amount of water into the system to keep our grass carp alive, and we have all the check gates checked up to actually pool the water in the system to help keep these fish alive. Typically, we have a total water-out only three days per year in the main canal. Then we have an additional three days during the year in our two other large canals. They are not the same three days.

Kris Polly: Is three days sufficient turnaround to complete all of the necessary maintenance?

Tom Davis: Three days is not very long. By the time you get things dried out enough to work and get your job done, it is a

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pretty hurried process.

Because we have crops growing year round, that is about the only way we have found to be able to do primary maintenance. We have developed the ability to use temporary coffer dams to ensure water is still available for area farmers. For instance, we could replace an outlet gate on the main canal where water is turned out into one of our primary laterals. We can replace that lateral outlet with water from the main canal because we have built these prefab metal coffer dams so that the canal is going to be able to continue to deliver water while we remove that gate and install a new one. Typically, the temporary coffer Morales Dam in Los Algodones, Baja California, Mexico is the diversion point dams are reusable. for the Alamo Canal waters which flow west to Mexicali.

We also precast all of the concrete bases for our aluminum gates in our yard. That way, we Tom Davis: We use a variety of methods. The primary are not doing so much forming up and pouring on the method in our delivery system, particularly in our major job site. We can actually put our coffer dam in, do an canals and in some of our larger laterals, is the use of excavation, set our precast, tie it all in, compact the dirt Chinese grass carp. This is a non-native carp fish that only around it, bolt the gate on, and we’re in business. It is feeds on vegetation. These fish are sterile, so they do not practically like a do-it-yourself kit. When we arrive on the reproduce. We buy these fish individually from specialized scene, we have all of the parts and pieces already premade hatcheries that raise them, but our biggest job is containing and ready for assembly. We very seldom build anything those fish in our system. We cannot let them escape into on site. Everything is already prefabricated. It takes a the Colorado River or any other body of water. It requires lot of planning. We are making adjustments on site, but us to have a lot of grates on some of our outlets so that nevertheless that is the only way we can do that in the time these fish can’t escape. typically that we have to get things done.

We typically get these grass carp at about 10–12 inches Everything we construct has a concrete base to it. We long and about 1.5 inches wide. We make our grate precast everything and then just bolt the gates on it and set system’s spacing about 1.25 inches wide so the fish cannot it in place. The thing that makes it work for us is that we get through and are contained in our canal system. These have done it so long now that we know what equipment fish live for 20 or 30 years. Obviously we don’t know for we need, and we have the best crew in the world. These sure because we have not tried to monitor that, but they guys know exactly how to go about it and what to do. They can reach lengths of 2.5 feet. take everything down to the job site at one time, they have The only problem that we have from time to time is that all the proper equipment and tools, everything is there, our water is so clear that we have bow hunters that walk ready to go, and we just hit it wide open. We have lights; along our main canals and try to shoot our carp with their we can work overnight if we need to. bows. We also have native carp in our waters that have Some of these gates are pretty large. It takes a pretty lived in there for years, but if you have a trained eye, you good-sized crane to load them from the precast site. can see the difference. A guy with a bow, he’s just trying Generally it takes a tractor trailer rig to move them to the to get a fish. That’s the only mortality that I know of on location to install them. It takes a lot of special equipment, these carp. You do not catch them on bait. We have a lot of but our crews have done it so often, they know exactly fishermen in our canals, and they catch native carp; these what they need, and there is very little wasted motion. vegetation carp won’t eat minnows and worms. In other words, you cannot catch them. They only eat moss and Kris Polly: Since you have such a warm climate and aquatic vegetation. We don’t have any problem with people warmer water temperatures, how do you control aquatic who are fishing catching them, but bow hunters take them weed growth? sometimes. We haven’t restocked any of our carp in the

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last five years, just because our canals are kept so clean there is no reason to continue to add fish under our permit system.

Kris Polly: Do you also use the grass carp in the part of your canal system in California?

Tom Davis: We have about 3.5 miles of canal in California. We do not have grass carp in California because we have not been able to construct the proper features to satisfy California Game and Fish that we can contain the fish in the canal without Yuma County Water User's Association project drain next to border fence. them escaping into the river. I am Water collected in the drain will be delivered to Mexico as part of the annual in the process of getting approval 1.5 million acre feet as required by the 1944 treaty. from California Game and Fish for additional construction. see no aquatic vegetation growing in the canal, and I have I will then go through the permit process and purchase seen them feeding on aquatic vegetation that was actually the fish. The permit alone costs about $6 per fish. Then the floating on the water. I have seen them in the evenings fish themselves cost about $7 each. We are looking at $13 reach out of the water and grab bites of the Bermuda grass per fish by the time they are in the canal, but they are well that grows on our ditch banks. They graze it just like cows. worth it because we grow a lot of crops that are directly brought from the field to the table, which makes it difficult Kris Polly: Besides the grass carp and herbicides, what for us to use herbicides in our delivery water. other means do you use to keep your canals clean?

Our drain water is a little different. We keep those drains open by using aquatic herbicides that have been Tom Davis: In addition to what I mentioned, we approved to be applied over water in addition to the grass use a variety of mechanical means in the main canal in carp. Otherwise, those drains in this warm environment California because we have not been able to get approval would completely clog up with cattails and other aquatic for the permit to use the fish there. We grab anchor chains, vegetation. The water just would not flow at all, which and we also have choppers that we drag by cable with a would be a tremendous problem for us. skidder tractor on either side of the canal. That canal is in the neighborhood of 6–8 feet deep, but the water is so clear Kris Polly: How do you determine the number of grass that the aquatics grow all the way from the bottom up, carp you need for the size of your canals? and they can take up a lot of capacity. In the summer, we have some pretty high orders. We are running a lot of our Tom Davis: We typically look at it in terms of surface water, and we also deliver a lot of Mexico’s water through acreage. We usually start out with about two to three our system in California, so we probably use mechanical fish per surface acre. Then we have some flexibility in treatment over there once every 10 days. It is a pretty our permit to replace should there be some moralities. expensive operation, so that is why I am trying to get these There seems to be mortality the first year you stock the grass carp approved and in place there. In the course of fish. It is just a matter of the fish adapting. It seems like a couple years, we could probably forego any mechanical after they have lived in our system for a year, there is treatment at all. very little mortality unless they are taken by a person.

The fear that I have is that because of increased Otherwise, once they adapt to our system there is very low regulation and increased hype over different types of mortality, but we have the ability after the first two years to pesticides, the day is coming that we are going to be pretty determine a percent of mortality and order additional fish well handcuffed in being able to use aquatic herbicides. under our permit. Our permit limits us to a certain number They really got us screwed down pretty tight right now of fish, but we are able to maintain that number. in our flexibility to use them, but we are a little more We have probably put in about 2,500 fish over the last bound here probably because of the type of crops that we 15 years. These carp seem to be pretty hardy. I have seen raise—field-to-table crops. We have to be very, very careful them when the water would be so clean that you could because of food safety. I guess the fish work so well for 6

Irrigation Leader

Tom Davis in front of box culvert wasteway to Mexico that is sometimes used as an illegal border crossing. A "Normandy" fence can be seen on other side of railroad tracks with the Colorado River and Mexico beyond.

us because it is a warm climate. They can feed year round because there are aquatics growing year round here. Some months of the year they are growing faster than others.

Kris Polly: How have you implemented SCADA technology to improve irrigation system operations?

Tom Davis: We are pretty proud of our SCADA system. We have spent a lot of money and time asking folks to adapt to new methods and achieve accuracy over the last three years. We have built and implemented quite a system, and we really refined that so that we could look on the screen in the dispatcher’s office to see a gate opening and monitor the cfs going out that gate. We now have confidence that it is pretty accurate. We have ensured that accuracy by taking our time and taking a tremendous number of measurements both by remote sensing equipment and with hand-held flow meters. We have developed a rating curve for these gate openings at low flows, intermediate flows, mid flows, and high flows.

Our SCADA system is very functional for us right now, and we have been able to reduce our number of ditchrider districts from eight to three. All the orders for water are placed with the dispatcher and our ditchriders have a computer in their vehicle that talks real-time with the dispatcher and his computer, so there is an instant knowledge transfer if a ditchrider gets certain information that a dispatcher needs to know. Orders are transmitted from the dispatcher to the ditchrider as they are received on the computer. Both computers track delivery amounts, times, and rates. It saves a lot of driving. It saves a lot of Irrigation Leader

wear-and-tear on vehicles and ditchriders, and it keeps orders a lot more organized.

We have a better record not only of our orders but of the amount of water flowing in different parts of our system at all times. We have devices that look at the water elevation level, so we are not only looking at the water coming through the gates, but we are looking at the elevation of water above and below those gates. If we have a ditch break, we can prove that it was not water overflows and that there was some other reason. We can have a good tight control of our system. We have alarms set up so that if water elevations reach a certain high range, an alarm goes off to the dispatcher and flashes the particular location of the problem. He can switch his computer to that gate and automatically move that gate at will. It has taken a long time and a lot of frustration, but we are reaping the dividends now, and it is really paying off.

Kris Polly: I know that you are thinking about developing some additional hydropower capacity. What is the motivation for that?

Tom Davis: The motivation for that is revenue. Because of our location and agreements made as a result of the 1944 compact to deliver water to Mexico, we are able to generate power not only with the water that we use for our district, but also the water that the United States is obligated to deliver to Mexico. We deliver a big portion of that through our system, and we generate power on that water. Mexico is not required to be responsible for any operation and maintenance of Imperial Dam, which is the 7

diversion dam on the Colorado River that services not only all of the Yuma Valley, but Imperial Valley, other Arizona and California districts, and Mexico’s 1.5 million acre-feet diversion.

We pay Mexico’s operation and maintenance share and, in turn, we get to bring their water down our system and generate electrical power. Then, we dump it into the Colorado River and it goes down to their diversion, which is only about 3 miles downstream from our canal system.

At that diversion, where we divert Mexico’s water out of our main canal system into the Colorado River, we have about a 15-foot difference in elevation there, and that could accommodate a small hydropower unit.

Our main hydropower unit is a 31-foot drop where we take water out of the All-American Canal. We also share with Imperial Irrigation District another hydropower unit that has a 60-foot drop, and when Mexico’s orders reach a certain amount, they go to that unit. That unit is operated and maintained by Imperial Irrigation District, but we receive revenues on it.

The small hydropower unit that I am looking at is where we dump water into our canal system for Mexico.

The reason we have not done anything before is that the flows are fairly erratic there. Because the drop is only 15 feet, it was not economically feasible until recently. In recent years, there have been new methods that evolved that we are now looking at. We are hoping that we can do some initial feasibility, but for right now we are seeing if we can make that initial investment.

Kris Polly: What issues do you encounter working near the border?

Tom Davis: We have about 25 miles of our district that borders with Mexico. The international boundary is actually in the center of the Colorado River, and that precludes much control of that border. For decades, it was not a problem, but in the last 25 years, because of the drug situation and the associated crime, it became a very dangerous place. Our ditchriders and our maintenance people are down there 24 hours a day. It was a pretty dangerous place, and when I moved here, the National Guard was posted along the levee. Now we have the fence.

It is a pretty well-built barrier, and it has worked pretty well.

We have some interaction with the border patrol. They obviously patrol that fence area, but that fence made all the difference in the world to our employees’ safety. At times, we have a couple of places we are able to dump water from our canal system through the levee into the river.

The border patrol will ask us sometimes to activate those dumps because smugglers have hidden drugs or weapons in those outlets to try to get across the border at nighttime.

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Project Completion Ceremony Held for the Delta-Mendota Canal/California Aqueduct Intertie

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he Bureau of Reclamation, in partnership with the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority (SLDMWA) and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), today celebrated the completion of the Delta-Mendota Canal/ California Aqueduct Intertie Project (Intertie). The celebration was held at 10 a.m. on May 2 at the site of the newly completed Intertie, located approximately 5 miles west of the city of Tracy, California.

Speakers at the celebration included Reclamation Commissioner Michael Connor; Congressman Jim Costa; Ameen Khan on behalf of Senator Barbara Boxer; Gary Prost on behalf of Congressman Jerry McNerney, in whose congressional district the Intertie is located; and DWR Director Mark Cowin. The master of ceremonies, Dan Nelson, SLDMWA’s executive director, then led the group in a “flipping of the switch” ceremony to symbolically activate the Intertie’s pumping plant. The Intertie will be fully operational this summer.

The Department of the Interior committed $15.8 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to complete the Intertie. CALFED funding was $8.8 million. The remaining funding came from contributed funds and Reclamation’s budget. The total project cost was $29 million.

The Intertie connects the federal Delta-Mendota Canal (DMC) and the California Aqueduct through two 108-inchdiameter pipes and a pumping plant with a pumping capacity of 467 cubic feet per second. This new connection between the federal Central Valley Project (CVP) and the State Water Project (SWP) will help address certain DMC water conveyance limitations, enhance flexibility of water deliveries, and allow for infrastructure maintenance and repairs without disrupting water deliveries. The Intertie will also address DMC conveyance conditions that presently restrict use of the CVP’s Jones Pumping Plant to less than its design capacity, potentially restoring as much as 35,000 acre-feet of average annual deliveries to the CVP. For additional information on the project, please visit http://www.usbr.gov/mp/intertie/index.html.

Article provided courtesy of the Bureau of Reclamation.

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Colorado’s Southern Delivery System Offers Promise of Water Availability to Match Population Growth

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eginning in the late 1980s, Colorado Springs Utilities began contemplating a new water delivery system to match forecasts of sustained population growth in the area. By 1996, Colorado Springs Utilities and its partner districts in Fountain, Security, and Pueblo West envisioned a more fully developed concept through their water resources planning effort.

As part of the planning effort, the Southern Delivery System (SDS) was conceived. “It’s a regional project; it’s not just to serve Colorado Springs,” said SDS Public Involvement Manager Janet Rummel. “Rather than have communities build separate projects, multiple communities came together.”

Design and permitting began in 2002, and National Environmental Policy Act compliance activities began the next year. This permitting process took nearly six years and $17 million to complete, and construction did not ultimately begin until 2010.

Project construction will be completed in two phases. At an estimated $1 billion, SDS Phase I involves piping Arkansas River water stored in the Pueblo Reservoir to Colorado Springs via a nearly 60-mile pipeline consisting of polyurethane-coated and cement-mortar-lined AWWA steel water transmission pipe. Project components include a connection to Pueblo Dam that will act as a straw to pump water from the reservoir, as well as three pumping stations and a water treatment plant.

Operating pressures of the pipeline are in excess of 500 psi near the dam. SDS Phase I is scheduled to be completed by 2016.

SDS Phase II could begin as early as 2020 and involves the construction of two new reservoirs that will allow for more efficient water use in the region. The Williams Creek Reservoir will have a 28,500 acre-foot capacity and the Upper Williams Creek Reservoir will have a 30,500 acre-foot capacity.

The goal of SDS Phase II is to limit the necessity of importing water from the West Slope.

“Our project has been designed to maximize existing transmountain diversions and, by 12

Irrigation Leader

improving the efficiency of our exchanges with agriculture [water users], we won’t need to bring additional water from the West Slope,” said Keith Riley, the SDS deputy program director.

In 2011, nearly 37,000 acre-feet of water are imported from the West Slope, though the annual amount of imports varies. Completion of SDS Phase II will ultimately limit the need for these transfers as the new reservoirs will provide greater water delivery flexibility.

“Today, we have reusable return flows flowing down the creek,” said Riley. “In the future, if we can take that out of the creek and store it, we will be more efficient in our use.”

As scheduled, SDS Phase II will be completed by 2025. In addition to reservoir construction, it will include expanding the capacity of the water treatment plant constructed as part of SDS Phase I, as well as that of the pumping stations. The project is contributing millions of dollars to the local economy. To date, more than $350 million in construction contracts have been awarded.

SDS construction is anticipated to employ an average of up to 780 workers per year.

For more information on the Southern Delivery System, visit its website at www.sdswater.org.

66" diameter polyurethane coated and cement-mortar-lined steel water pipe produced to AWWA standards from American steel by the Northwest Pipe Company for the SDS project.

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District Focus Supporting Agriculture through

Conservation

By Randy Ray

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he Central Colorado Water Conservancy District (CCWCD) manages and protects water resources for the people and farmlands of the Colorado Piedmont within its boundaries. The district covers the lands surrounding the South Platte River, traversing north from the outskirts of Denver to Greeley, then east to Fort Morgan. District members engage in several common irrigation methods—while center pivot is dominant, some small farms continue to furrow irrigate and others have converted to drip irrigation. With elevations ranging from 4,600 to 5,000 feet, and a climate characterized by semiarid conditions and large seasonal temperature variations, the CCWCD oversees the administration of over 1,100 irrigation wells, ensuring access to vital water resources for the region.

The District

From its humble beginnings in 1965, when district operations were led by two staffers, the CCWCD has

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grown substantially and now employs 15 people. We build and maintain water storage facilities, test water quality, provide water education outreach, and help protect water rights. The main district assesses a mill levy on property owners within its boundaries for these services. The district has carriage agreements to deliver water to off-ditch storage and recharge sites.

Under these agreements, we provide the funds for irrigation companies to perform the vast majority of canal administration and maintenance. In addition to the main district, two well subdistricts currently make up the CCWCD: the Groundwater Management Subdistrict (GMS), created in 1973, and the Well Augmentation Subdistrict (WAS), created in 2004.

The GMS was born out of 1969 Colorado legislation that required wells that pumped out of priority to replace river depletions to ensure supplies for senior rights holders. Under a court-approved augmentation plan, the GMS protects existing water rights by replacing water used in new projects. The subdistrict built water storage and augmentation facilities to help achieve these ends. With the aid Irrigation Leader

of flow meters to monitor pumping, we facilitate quota trading, prevent over-pumping, and study farm efficiency.

Well-owner fees and property taxes cover the costs of implementing the augmentation plan and providing legal, engineering, and monitoring services to subdistrict members.

The CCWCD board of directors formed the WAS in 2004 to assist well owners of the former Groundwater Appropriators of the South Platte (GASP). When GASP disbanded in 2004, former members were left without an augmentation plan and a legal way to access ground water.

CCWCD stepped in and accepted hundreds of contracts for the new subdistrict. By 2008, the WAS was operating under a court-approved water augmentation plan.

Growing Success

Water has been the driving force behind agriculture in northeast Colorado. Much of the CCWCD falls within Weld County, Colorado, one of the largest agricultureproducing counties in the nation. Weld was—and is—the state leader in sugar beet production. Over 322,000 tons of sugar beets were produced in the county in 2010.

However, as livestock and dairy operations moved into the region, corn became the top crop. The region also produces spring and winter wheat, alfalfa, onions, and potatoes.

Dairy production in northeast Colorado is on the rise.

Weld currently accounts for over 50 percent of dairy cows in Colorado. As of this year, Leprino Foods has opened an enormous cheese plant in Greeley which, once at full capacity, will become the largest producer of mozzarella cheese in the world. Local dairies will need to step up production to help meet the needs of the plant. Dairy cows consume significant amounts of water, so CCWCD activities will support any efforts for increased production.

Putting In What You Pump Out

In 2010, the CCWCD stepped up its agricultural water conservation efforts by partnering with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), through the Service’s Agricultural Water Enhancement Program

Irrigation Leader

(AWEP), to facilitate the creation of water recharge ponds, meter telemetry monitoring, and other conservation initiatives on working lands. We hoped to achieve a few key conservation goals, including utilizing the CCWCD’s outreach program, the Colorado Agricultural Conservation Outreach, to provide financing for the installation of water-conserving irrigation equipment; constructing green reservoirs to utilize hydrological flows to maximize well water delivery; and installing Internet-based well water measuring structures. The AWEP agreement made over $2 million available for CCWCD water conservation projects over a four-year period. The AWEP agreement also leveraged federal funding though joint agreements between landowners and the CCWCD, and maximized cost efficiency with three contributing parties.

The structure of AWEP allows organizations like the CCWCD to identify local water issues and form solutions in partnership with NRCS technical staff. This is rare, as many federal programs provide blanket solutions that often neglect unique, local water resource problems. For the CCWCD, constructing infiltrating reservoirs was such an issue.

The CCWCD’s infiltration reservoirs provide high conservation benefits that boost system efficiency. The reservoirs reduce system waste though aquifer storage and also enable irrigators to acquire water credit (called quota) to be used or traded within a newly established peer-topeer water market. NRCS provided technical assistance to develop a conservation plan that properly constructs these small reservoirs and also appropriated funds to assist their development.

Randy Ray is the executive director of the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District in Greeley, Colorado. For more information on the CCWCD, visit its website at www.ccwcd.org.

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Water Law 18

Can States Evade Their Obligations under Interstate Water Compacts by Adopting Protectionist Laws Embargoing Water Exports?

The U.S. Supreme Court Should Decide

By Jim Oliver

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nsuring sufficient water supply is a paramount concern for every municipality throughout the arid West. The scarcity of water influences virtually every aspect of the vast region’s economy and environment. When shortages occur (and they do so with increasing frequency), zero-sum conflicts between competing water users often boil over.

In large measure to forestall such disputes, states throughout the South, West, and Midwest have entered into interstate agreements to govern the allocation and appropriation of water across mutual borders and shared water sources. The National Counsel for Interstate Compacts reports that there are at least 30 such compacts currently in force from Florida to North Dakota and Georgia to California.

Many of these agreements (which must be approved

by Congress, and thereby assume the status of federal law) have governed the nation’s waterways for more than 90 years, providing the stability and certainty that has been essential to economic development throughout the country.

One such interstate agreement is the Red River Compact, entered into among Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas, and approved by Congress in 1980. A major tributary to the Mississippi watershed, the Red River is the second-largest river basin in the southern Great Plains. It flows eastward from its origin in the northern Texas Panhandle, marking much of the border between Texas and Oklahoma before flowing through Arkansas and Louisiana and finally into the Gulf of Mexico. The compact—which was the product of nearly 30 years of negotiation— grants to each of the four signatory states “equal rights to the use” of all water flowing into the Red River (below certain major dam sites) at Texas’s borders with Oklahoma and Arkansas, so long as certain minimum downstream flow requirements are met.

Texas, the driest signatory state by far, must appropriate water from within Oklahoma to obtain its 25 percent share of Red River water. Wedged between the Red River to the south and the Arkansas River to the north and bisected by the Canadian River,

Oklahoma is blessed with an abundance of water resources. More than 30 million acre-feet (nearly 10 trillion gallons) of water flows out of Oklahoma each year, unused and ultimately bound for the Gulf of Mexico. Oklahoma nevertheless has adopted a policy forbidding the exportation of water from Oklahoma for use in any other state. To thwart Texas water users in particular, Oklahoma has enacted a host of statutes that impose highly restrictive permitting requirements which, taken together, categorically preclude the issuance of water-use permits to out-of-state water users.

From its four reservoirs and through its over 150 miles of pipeline, Tarrant Regional Water District provides water to nearly two million people in North Central Texas through its wholesale customers, which include numerous municipal governments in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. In cooperation with other North Texas water suppliers, Tarrant is charged with developing additional water resources to meet the current and future demands of the region.

Tarrant’s comprehensive long-term planning shows that by 2060, the population of Dallas-Fort Worth (the fourth-largest metropolis in the country) will have doubled, and its demand for water will have exceeded supply by more than 400,000 acre-feet per year. In addition to these long-range needs, Tarrant faces an immediate and serious water shortage as a result of drought. It has identified certain Red River tributary water within Oklahoma (located only a few miles from the Texas border) as by far the most Irrigation Leader

economically and environmentally favorable source.

Tarrant brought a legal challenge to Oklahoma’s water embargo, arguing that the Oklahoma laws are unconstitutional under the Supremacy Clause (which says that federal laws like the Red River Compact trump conflicting state laws like Oklahoma’s water embargo) and the Commerce Clause (which has been read by the Supreme Court to prevent undue burdens on interstate commerce).

This past September, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit rejected Tarrant’s constitutional claims. Pointing to boilerplate language in the compact (language that is ubiquitous in other interstate water compacts), the court illogically concluded that even though the compact allocates 25 percent of Red River water to Texas, it expressly authorized Oklahoma to prevent Texas from accessing that water.

The implications of the Tenth Circuit’s decision are enormous. The water supply to the nation’s fourthlargest metropolitan area hangs in the balance. Tarrant must take urgent action to address its immediate and long-term water deficits, and tremendous investments of time and money are required for water acquisition and transfer projects of the scale required. The consequences of being denied Texas’s share of the Red River are not just economic: Tarrant’s alternatives to appropriating water from within Oklahoma (including water flowing from reservoirs already authorized by federal law for supply to Texas) involve building new reservoirs and pumping water through pipelines over long distances and up substantial elevations. Because these alternatives involve substantial new infrastructure projects and consuming massive amounts of electricity to pump water up high elevations, they have larger environmental impacts.

The Tenth Circuit’s ruling also has far broader implications than the dispute between Texas and Oklahoma. Many waterways around the nation are governed by interstate compacts that contain language indistinguishable from the language that the Tenth Circuit said allows Oklahoma to adopt a protectionist water embargo. By the Tenth Circuit’s reasoning, states with compacts are free to enact protectionist water laws that would upend carefully balanced arrangements governing the allocation of water. What really hangs in the balance, therefore, is whether the West’s most vibrant metropolitan areas—from Denver to Phoenix, Houston to Las Vegas, and Salt Lake City to Southern California— have reliable access to water that they are entitled to, now and in the decades ahead. The concern is far from academic: already Wyoming, another state within the Tenth Circuit, is considering withholding Colorado River Irrigation Leader

water from downstream Colorado and Denver.

Tarrant has taken its case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has signaled its interest in the dispute by calling for the views of the United States government—in effect, asking the Obama administration whether it thinks the Supreme Court should consider Tarrant’s challenge. The federal government now faces a key decision: Will it countenance the Tenth Circuit’s activist rereading of the Red River Compact and invite a wave of protectionist water laws that will threaten to bring about a new era of economic balkanization among the states?

Or will it encourage the Court to reverse the Tenth Circuit’s mistaken decision and restore balance and certainty to the management of the nation’s most crucial waterways? We can only hope that the administration will give the Court the right advice.

Jim Oliver is the general manager of Tarrant Regional Water District in Fort Worth, Texas. For more information on TRWD, please visit www.trwd.com

Steven L. Hernandez attorney at law Specializing in

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Contracts and Western Water Law 21OO North Main Street Suite 1A P.O. Box 13108 Las Cruces, NM 88013

(575) 526-2101 Fax (575) 526-2506 Email:

slh@lclaw-nm.com 19

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International

An Uphill Climb:

Modernizing an Antiquated Irrigation System in the Wake of a Natural Disaster

O

n April 4, 2010, Easter Sunday, an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale rocked the Mexicali Valley in the Mexican state of Baja California. Although few lives were lost, the quake shattered the livelihoods of valley residents, as canals and irrigation channels bringing water to their crops were nearly destroyed. As farmers slowly work to reestablish their operations, Mexico is launching a plan that will not only rebuild the permanent irrigation infrastructure, but will also make it less vulnerable to future seismic damage. At the same time, engineers plan to make the system more modern, reliable, and flexible to meet the day-to-day needs of the region’s agricultural economy.

Dr. Charles Burt, chairman of the Irrigation Training and Research Center (ITRC) at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, California, is leading an ITRC consulting assignment on the reconstruction of the canal system servicing the most heavily damaged region of the Mexicali valley.

Dr. Burt characterizes the efforts to modernize the region’s irrigation as an “uphill battle” fought by local irrigation agency and federal government groups against a bureaucracy resistant to change and still chafing from a long history of failed automation schemes.

International Water Treaty, with the remainder entering as ground water from the United States.

Conjunctive use of ground and surface water is widespread in some areas of the valley, with ground water tapped by more than 700 deep wells. The national government of Mexico owns the water, which is administered by CONAGUA, the Mexican equivalent to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. An umbrella water user association, the Colorado River Irrigation District, maintains the major canals. The district is divided administratively into 22 modulos, or individual water user associations, each responsible for the operation and maintenance of smaller canals and direct deliveries to farms.

The Mexicali Valley Region

Choosing a New Path

The irrigation district encompassing the Mexicali Valley comprises approximately 500,000 acres of irrigable land. The valley’s climate is extremely arid, with rainfall rarely exceeding 3 inches per year. Virtually all of the 2 million acre-feet of water the district uses each year comes from the United States. About 80 percent of the water comes from the Colorado River based on the 1944 U.S.-Mexico

22

Earthquake Damage Concentrated in Southwest Region of Mexicali

The April 4 earthquake inflicted the most damage on three modulos in the Mexicali Valley, a zone of about 80,000 acres concentrated mainly in the southwestern region. Almost threequarters of the affected crops were wheat fields; alfalfa, cotton, and vegetable crops were also damaged.

In the immediate wake of the earthquake, the government moved to jerry-rig a primitive ditchbased irrigation system to restore water to urban and rural areas severed from their water supply.

Affected growers were allowed to sell their water rights, primarily to Tijuana and neighboring regions, to mitigate the earthquake’s economic impact. The United States and Mexico also reached an agreement to allow Mexico to defer about 17 percent of its annual water allotment until 2014 to give farmers time to repair the earthquake damage.

The longer-term earthquake response involved financing the rebuild or reconstruction of the destroyed permanent irrigation infrastructure for the region. While some central government planners lobbied to simply restore the original canal, regional government representatives, the local engineering firm (Ingenieria Dennis, S.A. de Cv), and the ITRC viewed the earthquake as an opportunity to modernize Irrigation Leader

In addition, high seepage loss from the original canal structures, combined with a high water table, resulted in saturation of the base and embankment of the canal.

This saturation made the canal’s foundation unstable and susceptible to damage from the earthquake.

The new canal will be lined with a concrete-covered damage-resistant geomembrane to prevent seepage from above. To prevent saturation from below, a tile drain will be installed below and to the side of the canal to lower the water table immediately beneath the canal.

A Different Standard for “Modernization”

and protect the system that delivers water to the Mexicali Valley. Their initial concern was the existing canal path, which was riddled with potential hazards. The damaged 15-mile Nuevo Delta Canal (with about 700 cfs capacity) traversed multiple fault lines, liquefaction zones (areas of unstable land), and zones of anticipated subsidence—land expected to sink in the coming years.

Ultimately, the engineers considered more than 30 different replacement routes, taking into account fault lines, subsidence, liquefaction, cost, ability to access to the right-of-way, residential relocation impacts, road crossings, topography, available pressure, and ability to enhance water delivery. As the red dotted line on the accompanying map illustrates, the final route for the new canal, named 4 de Abril after the date of the earthquake, balances each of these factors and charts the best course available to circumvent known hazards. The project team is also in the early stages of planning a reroute of the Reforma Canal (see green dotted map line) to avoid seismic problems and earthquake damage. The Reforma Canal supplies water to other parts of the Mexicali Valley and to the large pumping plant that sends water to the urban areas of Tecate and Tijuana.

Seismic-Proofing the New Infrastructure

The next step was to earthquake-proof the new canal.

With a surprising dearth of research available on building canals in seismic-prone regions, the engineering team instead focused on addressing the major failures observed in the Nueva Delta Canal during the April 4 earthquake.

One of the primary causes of failure was the canal’s embankment construction, which was largely composed of loosely packed dirt. The design for the new canal base calls for over-excavation of the base, to be refilled with compacted soil, and the new canal base cut into the compacted soil.

Irrigation Leader

While some equate state-of-the-art modernization to computerized automation, the new 4 de Abril canal is simple by design. The flow measurement of the new canal will be significantly improved by installing a broad-crested weir at the head, long-crested weirs for check structures, standardized orifice flow meters for turnouts, and two regulating reservoirs with pumps in and out to automatically maintain the adjacent canal pool water levels. No automation is planned except for the pumps that control water into and out of the reservoirs. While this is not new technology, Dr. Burt says it is new to the region. “The old canal had almost no ability to provide flexible service to modulos, relying on manual sluice gates and uncalibrated flow measurement devices.”

According to Dr. Burt, with the pervasive vandalism problems and historical challenges with automation in the Mexicali Valley, it made sense to opt for a simple approach instead of chasing the most sophisticated technology. “Just because you can build it doesn’t mean you should,” he advised. “A gizmo is just a gizmo. . . . In this case, really basic, simple things, with appropriate strategy and design, give very good control.”

Dr. Burt estimates the total cost of the reconstruction effort for the new main canal, plus canals, reservoirs, and structures within the modulos, at about US$160 million. The irrigation district’s insurance policy covered the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the main and secondary canals and drains, but the Mexican government invested another US$100 million to finance modernization and other on-farm upgrades. Construction has already begun in the modulos, and will begin on the main canal in May 2012. The first half of the project is expected to be done by fall 2012, and the final target completion date is April 2013, to coincide with the anniversary of the 2010 earthquake. Dr. Burt acknowledges that there are still risks to the project being completed as planned.

“There are many project milestones to reach,” he warns, and “not everyone has fully embraced the options for modernization.”

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The Innovators

Rain Bird Traces Roots to Farmer’s Search for a Better Sprinkler

T

he story of the Rain Bird impact sprinkler began in 1933 in Glendora, California, with a phone call by Orton Englehart to his friend and neighbor Clem LaFetra. Englehart had been tinkering in his workshop, trying to build a better sprinkler to water his citrus groves, and he believed he had finally developed a solution.

Described by LeFetra as the “funniest looking thing in the world,” Englehart had built the sprinkler using a bearing from another sprinkler, some old pieces of pipe and solder. The spring was the winding from an old broom handle and the arm utilized pieces of a tin can bent to serve as a spoon.

This original design became the basis for a patent granted in 1935, but Englehart became frustrated with low sales volume and wanted to

Clement and Mary LaFetra in 1958

return full time to his citrus growing business.

Sensing the possibility for growth, LeFetra offered to buy Englehart’s inventory and tools later that

Original Factory on Foothill in 1946.

26

Irrigation Leader

year and began to produce the sprinklers in the hayloft of his family’s barn.

Over nearly eight decades, the basic impact sprinkler design hasn’t changed much. “The elegance and simplicity of the impact sprinkler made it a global success that redefined the way people irrigate,” said Rain Bird spokesman Alex Nathanson. “Even though we’ve refined and improved it over the years, the fundamental design is still present in the impact sprinklers people use today.”

Rain Bird’s first commercial sale was made in 1934 to the Los Angeles Country Club.

Since then, the company has grown to become a world leader in irrigation product manufacturing. It operates globally and has established a considerable production and sales base.

“We have grown from what was originally just a sprinkler company to become a world-class provider in all areas of irrigation,” said Nathanson, noting Rain Bird’s innovation in areas such as irrigation control systems, high-efficiency nozzles, pump stations, and nonpotable systems, among others.

Today, Rain Bird markets its irrigation products to a diverse range of customers, including agriculture, residential, commercial, golf, and recreation markets.

The company continues its commitment to innovation and follows an overarching principle to find a better water to irrigate.

“Rain Bird has always had a strong commitment to quality and the intelligent use of water,” said Nathanson. “We do a lot of testing to make sure our products perform for our customers under the most demanding conditions in the field.”

Domestically, the company operates testing facilities in Arizona and California, which allows it to continue as a market leader in search of irrigation efficiency.

Efforts to place irrigation water more accurately and precisely have led Rain Bird into drip irrigation, among other new technologies.

“The company has never stopped innovating,” said Nathanson. “Rain Bird is constantly looking for new ways to help our customers irrigate efficiently and preserve the world’s most precious resource.”

For more information on Rain Bird, visit its website at www.rainbird.com.

Irrigation Leader

Original Rain Bird impact sprinkler

Rain Bird impact sprinkler Model 60 from 1934

Current Rain Bird impact sprinkler

27

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Reclamation Recruiting Young Farmers, Ranchers for Summer Internship Opportunities in Three States Internships available in Colorado, Idaho and Nevada

Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Michael L. Connor announced the establishment of a summer intern program for young people interested in ranching and farming.

Reclamation teamed with the Student Conservation Association and Family Farm Alliance to establish three summer intern opportunities for youth, 18-25, interested in ranching and farming.

“Reclamation’s relationships and activities in the West have always been intertwined with ranching and farming communities,” Commissioner Connor said. “These intern opportunities will help young men and women learn more about water conservation, better preparing them for a life in agriculture.”

These intern opportunities are located in Colorado, Idaho and Nevada and offer young people the chance to spend a summer working at Reclamation alongside hydrologists, engineers and other professionals who are on the cutting edge of water conservation in the west. The interns will be SCA volunteers. Housing will be provided along with a living allowance. Interns will be eligible for an education award of $1132-$1415, which can be used to repay qualified student loans (loans backed by the federal government), graduate or undergraduate tuition, or educational expenses for qualified enrichment courses. The intern program is a part of Reclamation’s support of President Obama’s youth initiative and creates opportunities for individuals who live in rural communities to better prepare for lifetime employment.

The Student Conservation Association’s mission is to build the next generation of conservation leaders and inspire lifelong stewardship of America’s environment and communities by engaging young people in hands-on service to the land.

The Family Farm Alliance is an organization that advocates for family farmers, ranchers, irrigation districts and allied industries in 17 western states. The Alliance is focused on one mission - To ensure the availability of reliable, affordable irrigation water supplies to western farmers and ranchers.

For more information on the program, or to apply, go to http://on.doi.gov/M27Xg4

Reclamation is the largest wholesale water supplier in the United States, and the nation's second largest producer of hydroelectric power. Its facilities also provide substantial flood control, recreation, and f ish and wildlife benef its. Visit our website at http://www.usbr.gov.

Family Farm

LLIANCE The Family

SM

Farm Alliance is a powerful advocate for family farmers, ranchers, irrigation

districts, and allied industries in seventeen Western states. The Alliance is focused on one mission To ensure the availability of reliable, affordable irrigation water supplies to Western farmers and ranchers.

As a 501(c)(6) tax exempt organization, our support comes exclusively from those who believe our mission is important enough to contribute. We believe the cause is important enough to ask for your support - Please join us by completing the web form at http://www.familyfarmalliance.org/ProspectiveContact.cfm.

For more information contact Dan Keppen by phone at (541) 892-6244, or by e-mail at dankeppen@charter.net

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Irrigation Leader

29

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“We have sold pipe to irrigation districts in each of the 17 western Reclamation states.

Our pipe has helped a lot of folks save a lot of water and cut their operation and maintenance costs. We would like to work with you and your board too.”

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2012 CALENDAR May 8–11

Assn. of California Water Agencies, Spring Conference & Exhibition, Monterey, CA

May 18

Agri-Business Council of Arizona, Annual Meeting, Phoenix, AZ

June 6–8

Groundwater Management Districts Assn., Summer Session, Nebraska City, NE

June 13–15

Texas Water Conservation Assn., Mid–Year Conference, Horseshoe Bay, TX

June 18–19

Idaho Water Users Assn., Summer Water Law Seminar & Workshop, Sun Valley, ID

Aug. 1–3

National Water Resources Assn., Western Water Seminar, Sun Valley, ID

Aug. 15–17

Colorado Water Congress, Summer Conference, Steamboat Springs, CO

Oct. 24–26

Texas Water Conservation Assn., Fall Meeting, San Antonio, TX

Oct. 31–Nov. 2 National Water Resources Assn., Annual Conference, San Diego, CA

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