Volume 7 Issue 8
September 2016
Greater Wenatchee Irrigation District: Efficient Water Delivery for the Apple Capital
Always Wave By Kris Polly
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ouring the Greater Wenatchee Irrigation District with General Manager Mike Miller was a great experience for many reasons. The scenery is beautiful, the climate is perfect, and the people are some of the nicest you could ever meet. As someone who grew up on a farm in southwestern Nebraska, it is always surprising to me how crowded a Washington State apple tree can be with apples. The apples are so thick, one wonders how the trees can support the weight. However, the real surprise is just how much better the flavor of an apple fresh off the tree can be. If the general population were fully aware of the scenery and all the Apple Capital had to offer, the roads would be jammed with vacationers and tourists. As it turned out, most of the roads had light traffic, and we were often the only vehicle on the road in many of the places we went. Whenever we met an oncoming driver, Mike would wave. I commented to Mike that we always waved to other drivers in Nebraska, too. “I tell my guys to always wave to the farmers and everyone they meet on the road,” Mike said. “It is a simple courtesy that really helps
Irrigation Leader magazine will sponsor an Irrigation Leader Educational Tour of irrigation and irrigation related infrastructure in New Zealand. The dates of the tour are February 18-25, 2017. Please note that we will award an additional door prize prize-credit (in the form of reimbursement) to be applied to the Irrigation Leader Educational Tour of New Zealand—at our annual Operations and Management Workshop at the Crown Plaza Phoenix Airport Hotel, Arizona, on February 1 and 2, 2017.
with our customer relationships and keeps things friendly.” Mike told the story about a state patrolman who was always parked at a certain point on Mike’s daily commute. One day, there was a bit of an emergency at one of the district’s pump plants. Mike was driving to pump plant faster than he should have been and was pulled over by the patrolman. Mike apologized for speeding and explained he was thinking about the problem at the pump plant and not paying attention to his speedometer. The patrolman said, “I figured something was wrong because you always wave to me, but you didn’t this morning.” The patrolman let Mike go with a warning and wished him luck with the pump plant. Mike laughed when he told the story and said, “So the moral of the story is to always wave.” 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 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and other federal government agencies. He may be contacted at Kris.Polly@waterstrategies.com.
2017 New Zealand Water Leader Educational Tour
The cost of the tour is $2,000.00 per person and provides hotel accommodations, meals, and ground transport, but not airfare. Individuals wishing to participate must register and pay their tour fee by December 1, 2016. Our tour space is limited to 20 participants. For more information and to register, please see our web site at www.WaterStrategies.com. Companies that have expressed interest in participating and sponsoring the tour include: • Alligare • Rubicon Water • WaterTronics Should you be interested in receiving information about the tour as a potential participant or your company is interested in being a sponsor, please e-mail Kris Polly at Kris.Polly@WaterStrategies.com and we will add you to our information list.
C O N T E N T S
SEPTEMBER 2016
2 Always Wave VOLUME 7
ISSUE 8
Irrigation Leader is published 10 times a year with combined issues for July/August and November/December by Water Strategies LLC 4 E Street SE Washington, DC 20003 STAFF: Kris Polly, Editor-in-Chief John Crotty, Senior Writer Robin Pursley, Graphic Designer Capital Copyediting LLC, Copyeditor SUBMISSIONS: Irrigation Leader welcomes manuscript, photography, and art submissions. However, the right to edit or deny publishing submissions is reserved. Submissions are returned only upon request. For more information, please contact John Crotty at (202) 698-0690 or john.crotty@waterstrategies.com. 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 office at Irrigation.Leader@waterstrategies.com. Copyright Š 2016 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.
COVER PHOTO: Mike Miller, general manager of the Greater Wenatchee Irrigation District.
Irrigation Leader
By Kris Polly
4
Greater Wenatchee Irrigation District: Efficient Water Delivery for the Apple Capital
10
Coldwater Refugia: Irrigating a Cooler Path for Fish in the Lower Yakima
12
Letting the Water Flow: The Opening of East Columbia Basin Irrigation District’s Lind Coulee Siphon Complex
By Craig Simpson
16
Tributary Enhancement: Supplementing System Capacity and Species Resilience in the Yakima Basin
By Urban Eberhardt
DISTRICT FOCUS
18
Wapato Irrigation Project
By Larry Nelson
ASSOCIATION PROFILE
22
The Western Growers Association: A Conversation With Hank Giclas About Nurturing Ag Technology
INTERNATIONAL
26
Water Markets in Australia
By David Atkinson Bouchard
INNOVATORS
32
Moving Dirt By Storm: The Hurricane Ditcher
SECURITY
36
Security For Irrigation Districts
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Greater Wenatchee Irrigation District:
Efficient Water Delivery for the Apple Capital
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cross dramatic vistas of the Columbia River and Lake Chelan and the pastoral settings of the region’s orchards, the Greater Wenatchee Irrigation District (GWID) delivers water to 10,000 acres in central Washington. Constructed back in 1962 as part of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Chief Joseph Project, GWID’s fully pressurized delivery system has enabled its growers to produce high-quality apples, pears, and cherries on lands accustomed to only a foot of rain per year. Over the past 20 years, General Manager Mike Miller, Board President Mike Brownfield, and Board Vice-President Mike Clayton have helped shape the district’s policies and management to embrace technology and adapt to the needs of its agricultural base and growing sector of residential customers. Mike Miller has been with the district for more than 25 years. A former member of the U.S. Navy, Mr. Miller started his career with GWID as its electrician and worked his way up to become general manager in 2007. He leads a team of four. Mike Brownfield was elected to the GWID board in 1998 and has served as its president since 2004. The fourthgeneration apple grower can trace his roots in the area back to his great-grandfather, Oliver Brownfield, who began farming in the Wenatchee Valley at the turn of the last century. Mr. Brownfield currently grows apples, pears, cherries, peaches, nectarines, and apricots.
Mike Clayton joined the GWID board in 1998, taking over from his father, who moved to the Wenatchee Valley after a career in the U.S. Air Force. Mr. Clayton grows 145 acres of organic apples and cherries on the family farm. Irrigation Leader’s editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, spoke with to Mr. Miller, Mr. Brownfield, and Mr. Clayton about GWID’s changes, challenges, and future. Kris Polly: The GWID system is a highly efficient water delivery system. What kinds of changes has irrigation water brought to the Wenatchee Valley and to GWID operations? Mike Brownfield: Here in the Wenatchee Valley, and in the apple industry as a whole, there has been a modernization of tree planting systems. The industry has moved to densely packed, narrow canopies that are easily worked by hand labor or machines for pruning and thinning. Europe was ahead of us in this regard because its labor situation was much more tenuous than ours. Ours is becoming more difficult; our supply of migrants from the south is not as abundant as it used to be. Mexico has a lot more jobs to offer, and young people are less inclined to come up here to work on the farm. They would rather
Surge tank off of GWID’s “C” lateral pipeline in the Bray’s Landing unit. Laterals at higher elevations are susceptible to the formation of vacuums as water rushes downhill. The surge tank dumps water back into the pipeline during emergency shutdowns to keep the pipe from collapsing in on itself.
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Irrigation Leader
GWID Board President Mike Brownfield (left) and GWID Board Vice President Mike Clayton.
go work at a Chrysler factory down there. Over the last five years, we have seen an aging population of migrant workers. As a result, farmers have adopted more laborsaving technologies to use on their orchards. We are also adopting more technology in our on-farm irrigation systems, using drip irrigation and automated valves and timers for overhead cooling systems. What growers have discovered is that a saturated root system promotes the growth and quality of the crop, so they will employ three different types of systems: overhead cooling, drip, and undertree. Overhead cooling systems often run at about half the volume of what you would normally use for irrigation (40 gallons per minute per acre). Kicking in at about 85 degrees Fahrenheit as a rule of thumb, overhead systems will run 20 minutes on and 40 minutes off just to keep some moisture out there and keep temperatures down. Drip systems are cycled depending on your soil type. When the root zones of young trees are nice and wet, tree growth is likely to be very consistent. You end up growing the trees faster. Now, growers are trying to get fruit by a tree’s third leaf. Undertree sprinkler system—generally mircosprinklers on stakes—are used for general irrigating. You might do a 6- or 12-hour set once a week. That keeps the row middles from drying out. We put in an overhead cooling system a couple of years ago and have seen a marked improvement, especially in varieties like Honeycrisp that generally don’t like 100‑degree temperatures in the summer. Mike Clayton: The main changes I have seen, especially since I was young, is the move from Red and Golden Delicious apples to the multitude of varieties— Braeburn, Fuji, Honeycrisp—that we see today. My dad started planting those varieties in the late 1980s, and now, most of this area has replanted with virtually no Red Delicious left. Irrigation Leader
My father used to plant 181 trees per acre, 20-foot rows with 12 feet between the trees. Now, we plant anywhere from 1,500 to 3,000 trees per acre. It is a different kind of orchard with densely packed trees. These changes came with changes in the market. Red Delicious became less profitable; the new varieties were starting to take off. We adopted some growing techniques from Europe that incorporated dwarfing and higherdensity plantings to get more production out of each acre. My father was one of the first in the area to experiment with overhead cooling. Having that water available to us has been tremendously important in that effort. Some varieties suffer from a lot of sunburn, and we developed overhead cooling systems that really take a lot of stress off of the tree. We use electric valves and irrigation controllers to run sets all night long. After adopting drip irrigation or microsprinklers or a combination of both, our water use has gone down 10–20 percent. Mike Miller: Our district was put together really well from the beginning—it was piped and metered. From a management perspective, the biggest changes that I have seen since I have been here have been mechanical—things like adopting SCADA and moving from the use of mechanical contactors to computer control. We started the move to SCADA about 15 years ago and have put a couple of million dollars into it so far. Prior to the adoption of SCADA, everything ran off a telemetry cable; now everything is radioed. That move solved a lot of problems, one being the preference of our local hunters to wait until doves landed on those telemetry cables for shooting. One BB in a 10-mile cable could short the entire system. I really am most proud of the technology that we have adopted over the years to help the people we serve. Kris Polly: GWID faces many of the challenges that many districts face, particularly urbanization and aging 5
infrastructure. However, GWID has wrestled with a unique problem: how its vision for its own future differs from the vision the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has for the district. Please describe those challenges as well as how the district can move forward. Mike Brownfield: We are looking at replacing aging infrastructure. Some of our oldest infrastructure was established in the 1960s. Our entire system is a pressurized, closed system. In terms of water conservation, there aren’t a whole lot of things that we can do at the district level outside of encouraging our growers to do more on‑farm water conservation. We are currently upgrading our meters and telemetry to reduce labor costs and increase accuracy. Mike [Miller] has done a good job using technology to become more efficient through the upgraded telemetry system and GIS mapping. Ultimately, the district would like to be able to take advantage of opportunities to grow in a timely manner. For example, we would like to pursue water storage projects, but Reclamation has not been on the same page with our vision there. So we are interested in transferring title to the district from the Reclamation. Mike Clayton: Urbanization has definitely been a real challenge for the board as a whole. Instead of having a
base of farmers within the district, we now have a lot of residential areas that are customers. Developers are really aggressive in crossing our boundaries. Mike Miller: The East Wenatchee Unit used to be entirely agricultural. A lot of people from the Seattle area come here to retire because homes are relatively inexpensive. Due to their arrival, the East Unit’s urban growth boundary has expanded—most recently, one section further east. It opened up half the lands in the East Unit to subdivision. As soon that happened, we had four big subdivisions come in, and they are taking up around 180 acres. Agriculture is the area’s biggest industry. If the urban growth boundary keeps expanding, agriculture will move south, and with that will go the packing sheds and agriculture-related businesses. In terms of management, the issue with urbanization is that GWID’s easements, rights-of-way, and infrastructure are owned by Reclamation. While GWID works with the county hand-in-hand on requirements for developers, Reclamation doesn’t get involved in the process. That leads to problems when developers start acting without input from Reclamation on any of their rights and responsibilities on the land. We also have had several opportunities to bring more
Red Delicious apples grown at Mar D Orchards in GWID’s Bray’s Landing Unit.
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Irrigation Leader
lands—some 4,000 acres—into the district but we have not shared the same vision and received the necessary cooperation from Reclamation to do so. I just talked about how we are losing land to residential areas—these opportunities would have helped offset that. Kris Polly: What is your vision for GWID over the next 5–10 years? Mike Brownfield: I would like to see the district in a more nimble position to undertake big projects. Mike [Miller] has a dream of a big pumped storage project that would require that kind of flexibility. As we have talked about, there is a lot of subdivision going on the East Wenatchee Unit. Currently, it is very difficult to work with developers in a timely way on crossing agreements and easements for pipelines. I would like to see us better address those timelines in a more efficient manner.
Kris Polly: What has irrigation meant for the Wenatchee Valley? Mike Brownfield: It has provided a tremendous economic boost to this area, especially jobs in the food industry—those growing young trees, the fruit packers, the packing sheds. This area averages a foot of rain a year, so there is no real way to grow anything without irrigation. Mike Clayton: The area where I farm was originally dryland wheat. Reclamation built GWID in the 1960s, and the landowners were allowed to petition for water. All that dryland wheat has become beautiful, lush, green apple orchards that overlook the Columbia River.
Mike Clayton: Last week, I had an organic buyer inquire about the water quality of our overhead cooling system and whether I had a sample. He claimed that his customers would want to know that the water I use for cooling my apples is safe water. While I don’t think that any customer is really evaluating that level of water quality, it was very interesting that it came up and that it was important to him. I have never had anyone ask that of me before. We are at a great advantage here in GWID because our water comes from wells as well as the river. Because our system is piped and under pressure, we see ourselves as being in a position to set the standard for water testing for food safety down the road. Our district will be in a good position to keep it clean to implement the Food Safety and Modernization Act requirements without a huge commitment. Mike Miller: Power costs are an increasing expense for us, and I don’t see them going down. The Bonneville Power Administration manages our balancing authority. Our power bill has almost doubled in the last two years due to wheeling charges. So we are looking at ways to lessen that burden. I am looking at a solar project in the Howard Flats area [of the district] along with a pumped storage or battery storage component, or both. We own our own power lines, so we have some of the infrastructure needed to get these projects done, potentially covering our costs and selling some of that power back on the market. In the long run, that means we can keep the cost of power down for our irrigators.
Irrigation Leader
Mike Miller in the GWID pump house.
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COLDWATER REFUGIA: Irrigating a Cooler Path for Fish in the Lower Yakima
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nitiated in 2009, the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan (YBIP) has served as a platform for relationship building and partnerships among a variety of agencies and entities within the Yakima River basin. In addition to addressing the water supply needs of irrigators, the plan has created momentum to address long-needed habitat issues in the basin, including salmon restoration. Prior to the erection of dams and reservoirs in the Yakima River, sockeye salmon runs were strong: Some 200,000 would return upriver to spawn in river’s four headwater lakes. Today, according to Tom Ring, hydrogeologist for the Yakama Nation, the salmon runs are a small fraction of those historic run sizes due to river temperatures, fish barriers, and other factors that have altered the river system. Over the last 10 years, there have been efforts through the YBIP to reintroduce the sockeye by adding passage, particularly at Cle Elum Dam, and fostering conditions favorable to migration.
reach 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Last year in July and August, the evening temperature cooled to an average low of 72 degrees and heated up to an average daily high of 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Those conditions prompted the Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Project (YRBWEP) Workgroup and the Yakima Basin Joint Board, which represents irrigation entities dependent on the waters of the Yakima River basin, to turn their attentions to the lower basin to help address salmon and steelhead trout passage. One way to accomplish that is to develop cool water pools within the Yakima River to give the salmon and steelhead trout refugia—areas where special environmental circumstances enable a species or a community of species to survive after extinction in surrounding areas—as they make their way upriver. These thermal refugia have the potential to provide safe havens for salmon and trout in warm summer months as they buy time for cooler river temperatures.
A Focus on the Lower Basin
Thermal Refugia
Much of the work coming out of the YBIP has been in the upper basin, where salmon and trout spawn and many of the water supply challenges reside. Last year, however, the combination of an increase in ambient river temperatures and a decrease in river flows caused water temperatures in the Columbia and Yakima Rivers to become excessively warm. Those increased river temperatures and low flows created issues for the lower basin in terms of fish passage and water supply. According to Joel Hubble, a fish biologist at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Yakima area office, sockeye salmon were having problems as soon as they came over Bonneville Dam, and few made it up to the Yakima River. Of all salmon species, sockeye are the most temperature sensitive. Studies have shown that water temperatures ranging from 64 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit or higher result in a higher mortality rate. As a rule of thumb, sockeye migration upriver ceases when the water temperatures
The creation of thermal refugia to promote fish migration is not a new idea. Mr. Ring traces it back to the mid-1990s. Professor Jack Stanford, who worked at the Flathead Lake Biological Station at the University of Montana, published several papers on the hyporheic zone. The hyporheic zone is the underflow zone of a river; the component of a stream’s flow that travels through the gravel in a streambed and the adjacent floodplain. According to Mr. Ring, it is in this zone that surface water down wells into the shallow aquifer system and then comes back to the surface somewhere downstream. Mr. Ring noted that the hyporheic zone is essential to the health of a river’s ecology. Water temperatures in the zone tend to be much more moderate in temperature than surface water, which quickly moves toward equilibrium with air temperature. The hyporheic zone provides the right environment for the growth of macroinvertebrates, which fish rely on for food.
A sockeye taking refuge in a cool spot near the Amon Wasteway, which empties into the Yakima River.
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Irrigation Leader
When high springtime flows go into the ground cold, they stay cool relative to the river as spring turns into summer. So where this cooler groundwater discharges to the surface in the hyporheic zone, a cool pocket in the river is formed. Over the course of a summer day, the surface water temperature of the lower Yakima River may rise as much as 20 degrees. Those cool pockets also help to dampen potentially extreme fluctuations in surface water temperatures. And on those hot days, it is in those cool seeps that Mr. Ring, quoting Professor Stanford, says, “You see fish stacked up like cordwood.”
Prior Restoration Efforts
The Yakama Nation has been working on thermal refugia projects since the late 1990s. The focus of those projects has been on the development of side channels to restore some of the complexity and breadth of the Yakima River’s floodplain. Mr. Ring recounted when General George McClellan came through the area as a surveyor for the U.S. Army, he noted that the Yakima River was “miles wide” during the wet season. The side channels would flood during the winter, recharge the aquifers, and then, in the summer, discharge cool water into the main river. Over the years, as side channels were eliminated, the river became a single threaded system, and the benefits of the complex floodplain were lost. Thermal cooling and the presence of low velocity, shallow, cool places gave way to higher water temperatures and faster flows. Now, juvenile fish get stuck in the main channel, and, according to Mr. Ring, “When it heats up, there is a high mortality rate.” The Yakama Nation’s water resources team, in conjunction with surrounding counties, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and other entities, started working with landowners to restore those side channels. At the tributary level, the team put woody debris in streams to create channels that fill back up with sediment, flood their floodplains, and restore thermal benefits and habitat for small fish in the newly created wetlands. According to Mr. Ring, “When we put the integrated plan together, we were asked by [Washington State Department of ] Ecology to enumerate the things that needed to be done in the Yakima basin to solve its problems. The emphasis on habitat in the degraded floodplain reaches was one of the obvious projects. . . . Where we can let nature do the work, we are trying to do that. However, where we actually need to use agriculture’s plumbing system to artificially create those habitats to make up for the ones we have lost, that is where entities like Kennewick Irrigation District (KID) come in.”
Irrigation Leader
At the Junction of Agricultural and Environmental Flows
Located near the confluence of the Columbia and Yakima Rivers, KID is a key partner in the effort to enhance thermal refugia in the Yakima’s lower basin. The district, in conjunction with the Yakima Basin Joint Board, the Benton County Conservation District, the Yakama Nation, and other YRBWEP partners, is in the initial stages of using its irrigation system to help create thermal refugia. KID Land and Water Resources Manager Seth Defoe explained, “The sockeye run up the river during peak irrigation time in July, when river water temperatures are not ideal for fish. And although we irrigators still have to make the deliveries we need to make, we can help by enhancing coldwater refugia while the fish wait for cooler water temperatures that come with cooler weather systems.” Many thermal refugia sites have already been identified in and around the river within KID’s jurisdiction. Scientists from the Benton County Conservation District floated out on the river with a thermograph attached to a GPS device to monitor temperatures and determine where water was cooler. According to Mr. Defoe, “They found dips in temperature near where water entered the [Yakima River] through drains.” Based on those findings, a collaborative group of stakeholders, including KID, the Yakama Nation, and the Department of Ecology, has identified a couple of sites that run adjacent to the Yakima River near drain outlets that look promising for recharge. The pilot plan, according to Mr. Defoe, would be to divert winter high flows into the canal system, apply them to the ground in those adjacent areas, let the water soak in, and let the cooler water find its way back to the river. “KID is still working with our partners on what the project should look like, what data should be collected, and what other actions should be taken to enhance the springs. . . . However, we are hoping to put some water on the ground for the aquifer recharge component this offseason, as well as conduct some monitoring. We want to know how well it is working and how to make it better.” The lower Yakima River thermal refugia project began in the YRBWEP Workgroup’s Lower River Subcommittee. Mr. Defoe explained, “That committee approved it and bumped it up to the habitat committee, which represents most of the fisheries managers in the basin. They blessed it and bumped it into their overall budget request. The $150,000 request would pay for monitoring equipment, some staff time, and some perforated PVC pipe to spread the water out on an area we want to recharge. While it is not a lot of money, there is potential for big benefits.” Mr. Defoe is enthusiastic about the project’s prospects. “I don’t think there are any real downsides. When everyone is on the same page, there is a lot of upside. This project builds on all the other efforts among the irrigation districts, the Yakama Nation, and fisheries managers to help improve fish populations.” 11
LETTING THE WATER FLOW: The Opening of East Columbia Basin Irrigation District’s Lind Coulee Siphon Complex By Craig Simpson
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his past July, representatives of the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District (ECBID), the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology), and the Columbia Basin Development League came together to celebrate the completion of the Lind Coulee Siphon Complex. The opening of the $14.6 million siphon complex marked the next stage in the ongoing Odessa Groundwater Replacement Program (OGWRP), which seeks to bring Columbia Basin Project surface water supplies to ECBID farmers whose groundwater supplies are in critical decline.
Construction Old and New
The original siphons were built during the original construction of the irrigation district back in the 1950s. The facilities were not initially built to ultimate capacity, creating a fundamental issue with the Lind Coulee Siphon locations. They were functioning as a bottleneck for the expansion of the expanding delivery system. ECBID could not push any more water through the existing siphons to take advantage of the district-widened East Low Canal. The new siphons run parallel to the existing siphons and are big: each are 14 feet, 8 inches in interior diameter with 17-inch walls of steel-reinforced concrete, together running a total of 4,500 feet. The spacious new siphons create the extra capacity needed to deliver to the 87,700 acres of farmland that previously relied on groundwater, 17,700 acres of those lands currently authorized under the district’s master water service contract with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Raising the Lind Coulee Siphon Radial Gate now only requires the push of a button. From left to right: Ecology’s Office of the Columbia River Director Tom Tebb, Washington State Senator Judy Warnick, Washington State Representative Tom Dent, Representative Mary Dye, Reclamation’s Pacific Northwest Regional Director Lorri Lee, Washington State Department of Agriculture Director Derek Sandison, and Ecology Director Maia Bellon.
The exciting conclusion to the celebration involved legislators and officials pressing a button to raise the radial gate, allowing water to pass through the siphon barrel. It was a great moment born from the partnership of various private, state, and federal entities that have been working to implement the OGWRP over the last 10 years. Moreover, Washington State legislators have invested
The Ceremony
The ceremony brought together more than 50 project supporters and stakeholders. Keynote speakers included OGWRP supporters and partners Washington State Senator Judy Warnick, Reclamation Northwest Regional Director Lorri Lee, Ecology Director Maia Bellon, Washington State Department of Agriculture Director Derek Sandison, and Office of Columbia River Operations Director Tom Tebb. It was held at the inlet of the Lind Coulee Siphon One, home to a new check structure and radial gate.
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State Senator Judy Warnick addressing the crowd.
in the success of the program and have been supportive. Over the years, state legislators have appropriated more than $70 million of the state budget for OGWRP implementation. The Lind Coulee Siphons were partially funded by a $26 million Ecology grant issued to ECBID back in 2013. The completion of the siphon project brings ECBID landowners south of Interstate 90 one step closer to surface water supplies. The goal of the OGWRP is to serve a full 70,000 acres with groundwater replacement water, much of which is downstream of the Lind Coulee Siphon Complex. In fact, our director, Columbia Basin Development League President Orman Johnson, spoke at the celebration.
What’s Next
ECBID General Manager Craig Simpson providing some perspective on the size of the siphons.
From the Lind Coulee Siphon Complex, there are another 31 miles of canal ending in the Scootney Wasteway. Conveyance of additional amounts of water downstream of Lind Coulee is restricted, until all of the system facilities are completely improved. The East Low Canal has to move the additional demands and be able to handle extra water if, for example, a pumping plant went down. With the completion of the siphon complex, the system bottleneck has moved from the Lind Coulee Siphons further downstream to the Warden Siphons, which are similar in nature to the Lind Coulee Siphons but smaller in diameter and shorter in length. ECBID the rehab of the Warden Siphons to Rotschy, Inc, the contractor that successfully performed the construction of the Lind Coulee
Irrigation Leader
Siphons. The rehab will be undertaken this winter. The district continues to search for funding for two more siphons, control structures, and county road bridges. As money becomes available, ECBID will continue to build out irrigation facilities with the local counties so it can make full deliveries downstream and ensure surface supplies for groundwater users in need. Craig Simpson is the secretary\manager of the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District.
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TRIBUTARY ENHANCEMENT: Supplementing System Capacity and Species Resilience in the Yakima Basin By Urban Eberhardt
T
he 2015 snowpack drought was unprecedented in the Yakima River basin. While we had a normal winter in terms of the amount of precipitation, that precipitation came as rain, not snow. It rained all winter. So while the Yakima River basin had full reservoirs, it did not have snowpack to melt and meet early season water supply needs. Normally melting snowpack provides for both irrigation needs and for the recharge of tributaries that run between the Kittitas Reclamation District (KRD) canals and the river in the upper Yakima basin. Ultimately, we ended up with a 47Â percent proratable water supply for the year. That proved challenging for both irrigators and threatened fish species. Fortunately, with the support of the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan (YBIP) partners, KRD was able to implement an emergency tributary supplementation program to help ensure that growers had water later in the growing season, its infrastructure remained viable, and threatened or endangered fish species had a chance to survive. KRD delivers water to 60,000Â acres through 330Â miles of canals and laterals in the upper Yakima River basin that begin up in the Cascade Mountains and run down through the Kittitas Valley of central Washington. KRD diverts water from the Yakima River into its main canal by a diversion dam near the town of Easton on the way to Snoqualmie Pass. Built in the 1920s, the canal intersects Yakima River tributaries at the base of the mountain range. The water comes out of the mountains into gravel-based alluvial fans. If there is not enough surface flow, the water starts going subsurface, stranding fish species in pools and leaving them susceptible to predators.
A Lack of Snowpack
Because of the relationships that KRD has developed through the YBIP process, we were able to quickly respond to the 2015 snowpack drought in the Cascades. We were able to get an agreement from downstream irrigation users, as well as other interests in the basin, to divert Yakima project water up high in the system, put it into our canals, and drop it off into multiple tributaries that otherwise would have been dry from June through the first week of November. We were quickly responding to threatened species stranded in pools with no surface water in sight. Scientists
16
documented three different life stages of steelhead trout at risk. Our rapid response consisted of putting PVC straws in the canal to move water to the ailing tributaries. KRD crews glued the pipe together, moved it over access roads and fields (with permission from our landowners), and placed it into the tributaries. We then siphoned the water from the laterals into the tributaries that needed it most. KRD ran out of water the first week of August 2015 and had to suspend deliveries to our landowners, which normally runs until October 15. Despite that, and despite the fact that fall rains came a month and a half late, we were able to keep those tributaries running through November. We found that transporting the project water through the KRD system and dropping it off into the tributaries has infrastructure and environmental benefits. We kept the concretelined section of our main canal watered up, preventing it from cracking under the heat and the early shut off. Our canals are not designed to be dry during the Irrigation Leader
The first tributary enhancement project out of the YBIP was on Manastash Creek, which increased stream flows to aid aquatic life. The project provided the project partners with a path forward toward enhancing tributaries in the upper Yakima River.
hot summer months. Promoting tributary baseflows has also helped to keep the trees and plants alive in and around those tributaries, as well as contributing to the amount of insects making it into the main stem of the Yakima River.
Operational Flexibility and Rapid Response
This year, while the Cascades did receive some late snowpack, by late March, temperatures were running 25–30 degrees above normal for a sustained period of time. Our snowpack flashed off, and by the time we got to June 1, the tributaries were acting as they did last year when it rained all winter. Fortunately, fresh off the experience of 2015, we were able to take a quick look and plot a course of action. We took a hard look at our operations and turned our main canal on three weeks earlier than we normally do. The goal was to take advantage of whatever water was flashing off downriver that we could. We grabbed it in rapid response. The results were significant: We were able to capture 14,000 acre-feet of water—water that would otherwise have flowed out of the basin—and apply it to our growers’ lands, soaking it into the ground. Those actions led to positive flows in the river later on in the year. By increasing the amount of water used per acre on a bare allotments starting earlier in the year, we ultimately saved water. It seems counterintuitive, but it worked.
Whole Cloth Conservation
KRD is heading up a significant water conservation program to get more waterefficient deliveries out to our landowners to help them continue to thrive during years of low snowpack or little precipitation. One component of that program is the increase of system capacity using existing infrastructure. KRD is working with its YBIP partners to drum up funds to line canals and put open laterals into pipe to save water. By creating capacity, we will be able to make room to carry the water to parts of the system that need it most.
Irrigation Leader
Given our experience this year, and in preparation for the future, we are thinking about running our system a month or two earlier than we have in the past in order to get the flashed water not captured by the reservoirs out of the river as soon as possible and soak it into the ground. We will also be putting this water into surface storage sites using existing infrastructure to get it to them. That kind of groundwater storage will help to keep the alluvial fans charged up, maintain baseflows in the main stem of the Yakima River, and improve irrigation supplies. Of course, we are doing this in conjunction with plans to further develop our surface water storage. We are trying to meet 2.4 million acre-feet of demand with 1 million acre-feet of storage. The Yakima River basin is also looking at a 73 percent decrease in spring and summer flows in our system. That means we have to take advantage of the water that is being produced in the winter that is not coming in the form of snowpack. This is storage for all aspects of the basin’s interests—irrigation, municipalities, fish, wildlife— just to keep the system working.
A Model for the West
Together with our YBIP partners, we are building drought resiliency in in a way that benefits agriculture and does not infringe on existing water rights. We are merely sending Yakima River water downstream through the KRD system for project purposes, whether it is to meet our obligations to our downstream irrigators or to reach target environmental flows. We believe this effort, in conjunction with our other water-saving measures, can serve as an example for other river basins in the United States to address drought-related issues and changes in snowpack. Urban Eberhardt is the general manager of the Kittitas Reclamation District. You can reach him at (509) 925-6158. 17
District Focus
Wapato Irrigation Project By Larry Nelson
T
he largest irrigation project operated by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the Wapato Irrigation Project (WIP) delivers water to 136,000 assessable acres in Washington State’s Yakima Valley. The WIP has a long history. The project was born out of the Yakama Nation Treaty of 1855 between the Yakama Nation and the United States. Irrigation was first documented on the project in 1859, when members of the Yakama Nation are reported to have been irrigating in the Toppenish and Simcoe areas on the western side of the project.
The Numbers
In 1916, Congress appropriated $200,000 toward the construction of a diversion dam on the Yakima River, near the northeast corner of the reservation. The BIA constructed the dam, which diverts a maximum of 2,200 cubic feet per second, and portions of the 19mile main canal in 1917. Now more than 1,100 miles of canals, laterals, and drainage ditches facilitate water deliveries to the project’s three units: Wapato-Satus, Toppenish-Simcoe, and Ahtanum. The WIP serves just under 1,500 customers, from large farmers to families tending garden plots. The project is an economic driver of the area, providing water to arid lands that now bear a variety of crops, including tree fruit, grapes, mint, and hops. While pivots account for nearly half the irrigated lands in the project, furrow and drip systems are also employed.
Management
The WIP serves the Yakama Nation and its members. Ownership of the lands and water rights associated with the project are extended to either
Indian (mostly Yakama Nation) or private interests. The BIA is a trustee of the project, and the United States holds title to the Indian-owned land in trust for the individual Indian allotee and Yakama Nation. Because the project is managed and operated by the BIA, all 50 of its employees are federal employees. The WIP receives recommendations from advisory boards, such as the Yakima Reservation Irrigation District and various committees from the Yakama Nation. The WIP is one of the few projects in the BIA system that is considered to be a revenuegenerating project. That means water users are charged an assessment for operations and maintenance. The WIP does not receive appropriated dollars. For many years, this project has worked to keep assessments at a very affordable level.
Challenges
Staffing has been a challenge. The project should be staffed with 75 people. We are currently short on ditch Rows of hops along the WIP main canal.
18
Irrigation Leader
Work on Satus East Lateral E73. Before construction, the earthen lateral lacked meters. After putting the lateral into PVC pipe, flows are now controlled with valves and measured with meters.
riders (irrigation system operators), heavy equipment operators, and pump plant attendants. Much of this shortage is due to an aging and retiring workforce. When I became administrator in 2014, 10 people retired from the project. It has been hard to bring on new employees. This kind of work is not for your average person: Today, millennials are more computer oriented—they are not interested in pulling debris from various canals and lateral weed racks. We are also facing challenges due to climate change. The 2015 drought severely affected the amount of water available to the project: We were challenged to deliver 100 percent of our water ordered demands with approximately 50 percent of the water supply available. We do not have the ability to fall back on groundwater withdrawals. The Yakama Nation is mindful and cautious of groundwater levels and regulates extractions. The WIP continues to work with the Yakama Nation to address these concerns and needs. The WIP has aging and failing infrastructure. From 1916 forward, the system has put in a lot of years of service. We have been able to address some of those issues by fully engaging in the Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Project and the Yakima Basin Improvement Project. We engage in those projects through the Yakama Nation, which is in a position to negotiate with participating entities to get funding for some of the rehabilitation projects.
The Path to System Modernization
Since 2012, we have had undertaken system improvement projects funded by water users through the Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Project process. The focus has been on putting laterals into PVC pipelines up to 30 inches in diameter. With the goal of getting as many laterals into pipe as possible to save as much water
Irrigation Leader
as possible, we plan on continuing to pipe our laterals for another five years, as long as the funding is available. The WIP is also looking to improve its telemetry capabilities—we have a total of 19 sites that we hope to get up and running in 2017 irrigation season. Our aim is to install gauging stations and water sites so that we can actually see how much water is being delivered to larger canals. We have also been installing meters on piped deliveries to continuously record how much water is used at the turnout level. Our goal is to improve customer service and the reliability of water service, which requires better water records and measurement. To do that, we need to modernize and automate our system. We are looking at the potential for adopting and implementing water ordering software, such as TruePoint Solutions, and hired a consultant. The WIP is looking at all options in regards to the water ordering arena. We have also hired Dr. Charles Burt from the Cal-Poly Irrigation Research and Training Center to help the WIP plan for modernization. He will provide us with a report within the next six months. With the right mix of funding and partnerships, we hope these efforts will put us on a path to a more efficient and effective system. Larry Nelson has served as the administrator of the Wapato Irrigation Project since 2014. Since beginning his career as a ditch rider on the San Carlos Irrigation Project, he has logged 24 years of federal experience. He is a Native American Indian and a member of the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona. You can reach Mr. Nelson at lawrence.nelson@bia.gov. 19
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A S S O C I A T I O N
P R O F I L E:
THE WESTERN GROWERS ASSOCIATION A Conversation With Hank Giclas About Nurturing Ag Technology
T
he Western Growers Association is a 90-year-old trade organization that represents growers and handlers of fresh fruits, nuts, and vegetables grown or shipped from the states of Arizona, California, and Colorado. Its mission is to provide services and products that enable its members to enhance profitability. Hank Giclas is the senior vice president of strategic planning, science, and technology for Western Growers. He has served the association in a variety of roles for the last 26 years. Born in Arizona, he studied arid land agriculture in college and began his career as a vocational agriculture instructor. After a few years, he moved over to Western Growers and has been there ever since, working in government and public affairs and now in science and technology. Irrigation Leader’s senior writer, John Crotty, spoke to Mr. Giclas about the association and its efforts to develop the latest in agricultural technology through its Center for Innovation and Technology. John Crotty: What distinguishes the Western Growers Association from other agricultural associations? Hank Giclas: We are a rather unique trade organization in that we have a lot of subsidiary companies. We do all the things a traditional trade association does, particularly policy and government relations, but our subsidiary companies provide services or products that are of value to our members and generate revenue for us. As a result, we do not rely on member dues as heavily as some of the other trade organizations, nor do we rely on an annual trade show. Western Growers runs a financial services company; a full‑service insurance brokerage; and for those who are large enough to self-insure, a third‑party administrative company to provide support for them. The association also has a transportation program in partnership with CH Robinson that addresses truck and trailer driver availability. There is no other organization like us in the country. John Crotty: What are the biggest challenges facing your membership right now? Hank Giclas: Our two major challenges are labor— having a reliable, legal supply of workers—and water, both quality and quantity. John Crotty: How is the association trying to meet those challenges? 22
Hank Giclas, Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning, Science & Technology, Western Growers
Hank Giclas: We work on those issues in a variety of ways. Western Growers is involved on the policy side, whether it is a working immigration program or addressing aging infrastructure in the water arena. There is also a practical angle to our work as well—our government affairs team engages in policy discussions on behalf of our members. We are fundamentally interested in developing, perfecting, and promoting those things that provide utility to the industry so they become more widely available. For example, we are trying to find new, innovative technologies that would improve irrigation precision to mechanize some of the operations that are labor dependent. John Crotty: Along those lines, Western Growers now operates a Center for Innovation and Technology. How did that get started? Hank Giclas: It started with a conversation the Western Growers board of directors had about three or four years ago. We were talking about measuring what was happening in the field—whether it was the amount of water used or the amount of fertilizer used. If you measure it, you can manage it better; you can be more precise and prescriptive within your own operations. You can gain Irrigation Leader
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efficiencies and optimize inputs. But also, measuring gives you hard, quantitative information that you can share—if you choose to—to demonstrate what you are actually doing on the farm. In the policy arena, we are constantly battling misperceptions about agriculture. So we wanted to encourage companies to look at this type of data as a tool to be used by the industry. That got us looking at a few companies working on sensors and data platforms. Many of our members were already doing their own research and development and innovation projects. Although some were having some success, most innovation projects end up in the boneyard after fits and starts and the allocation of money to them. Our senior leadership realized that innovation within a company silo is relatively short lived and that any effort would benefit from industry-wide collaboration. The board charged Western Growers with developing an initiative to coalesce the agriculture industry around some key efforts and to drive innovation into industry-wide problems.
technology is brought to bear in a real-world scenario so that it is not developed in a lab without consulting the agriculture industry. If you get it past that stage, then you have to figure out how to scale it and make it commercially available as rapidly as you can. We talk to our members about key problems that are divided into different technology buckets across the entire spectrum of industry issues and regulatory concerns. We are not just looking at labor and water, but also food safety, energy, and waste minimization. We look at companies working on those things and encourage them to come to the Center for Innovation and Technology, where we connect them with agriculture. They get real-world feedback from those connections, so they can perfect what they are working on in concert with the industry. We have attempted, through that process, to make some noise about those companies and stand them up in front of the investment community. It is a work in progress. We opened the doors in December 2015, and today, we have 24 companies. We are trying to grow it dramatically. It is all exciting; it is interesting how interconnected some of these things are. I’ll give you an example. Two days ago, I was sitting in the center talking to a representative of Pacific Gas and Electric. I thought he would be talking to me about how to conserve energy, but he was fundamentally interested in irrigation technology. The reason being, if you can be more precise in your irrigation and keep irrigation water on for shorter periods of time, it has an effect on the energy system. Technology benefits go beyond what people normally think about.
John Crotty: How does the process work at the Center for Innovation and Technology? Hank Giclas: There are several important parts of the innovation equation. The first is knowing what the problem is. The second is identifying entrepreneurs, technologies, and innovators that might be brought to bear on that problem. The third part is making sure the Irrigation Leader
On December 10, 2015, Western Growers President and CEO Tom Nassif and a trio of prominent past and present Western Growers chairmen were on hand to formally open the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology, housed in the Taylor Farms headquarters building in Salinas, California.
23
Students from Switzerland, Spain, the Philippines, Germany, the United States, and China visited the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology to learn how they can make an impact in AgTech.
John Crotty: How do technology companies or growers get involved with the Center for Innovation and Technology?
There are certainly challenges. The industry struggles with whether to look for indicator organisms or pathogens— and there is a whole different set of reactions associated with looking directly for pathogens as opposed to looking for indicators. That is one of the reasons why we are collecting bright minds in the same place.
Hank Giclas: Western Growers does a lot of outreach from the center: monthly webinars, virtual meetings, and in-person meetings. We bring growers in to the center to talk to the technology companies and let them know what their needs are. In terms of formal involvement, we are trying to attract companies that are working on things that would be of value to the industry. We have a marketing and communications team that is getting the word out in the tech space through pitch sessions and hack-a-thons. In addition, we are building a catalog of all the tech companies—a map of what is going on outside the center. We are also trying to encourage our own industry members to sponsor a company or desk at the center. We are not in it to make a profit, but we do want it to be a sustainable venture.
John Crotty: Where would you like to see both the Center for Innovation and Technology and the association in 5 or 10 years?
John Crotty: Western Growers has been very active in the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). How does technology development fit into that activity?
John Crotty: What should every irrigator know about Western Growers?
Hank Giclas: Western Growers has been fundamentally engaged in the implementation of FSMA. In fact, my particular area of expertise is in the food safety arena. There are a lot of technologies that can reduce the cost of the administrative burden associated with sampling. There are also technologies that can provide people with a real‑time view of water . . . maybe even in a fashion in which they would not have to sample but only monitor. Those are the types of technologies that we look for and hope the center will help facilitate. 24
Hank Giclas: In 5 or 10 years, I would like to see 5 or 10 coming out of the center. I would like to see a vibrant cluster of companies talking to each other. I would like the center to have positive effect on the grower’s bottom line. Although I think Western Growers is already a leader in the technology space, I would like the association to be perceived as the innovation leader for the produce industry. If the center is successful, we would think about replicating or emulating it in other areas where we know there are pockets of technology and growers aggregated in a single spot. We hope to engage people in other parts of the country or other countries.
Hank Giclas: I think they should know that Western Growers is an organization that is committed to ensuring the long-term viability and health of the agricultural sector in the West. Because irrigation is a fundamental part of that sector, we are here for them. Western Growers is looking for technology that will help us be more precise in irrigation. It would be beneficial for an irrigator to stay abreast of what we are doing in the center. There may be technologies that may be of use to them, and frankly, we could use their help with beta testing of those technologies. If something works, the irrigators will be the ones to help us scale it. Irrigation Leader
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International
Water Markets in Australia By David Atkinson Bouchard
W
ater markets are a key mechanism by which Australia manages water scarcity while still supporting economic growth. More than 6.5 million acre feet—8,000 gigalitres—of water was traded in Australia in 2013–2014, which is equivalent to more than four Hoover Dams. The Murray–Darling basin in south eastern Australia has the world’s largest water market, with the value of temporary and permanent trade totalling over $1.8 billion (AU$2.5 billion). Markets have also emerged in other regions of Australia. Australian water markets exist because the Australian government’s national water reforms have created a robust policy and regulatory environment in which a market can operate efficiently and effectively.
What is a water market
The water market in Australia involves the buying and selling of water that is differentiated by water system or administrative boundaries, and comprises two separate markets for temporary and permanent water trade. Trade between and within valleys is possible in the Murray–Darling basin, and even within valleys there can be market differentiation. Water holders have a choice about how they use
their entitlements within a given water year: Use their allocated water, carryover unused water for future use, or sell it. Water holders may enter the market to lease, buy, or sell water rights. In terms of volume and market activity, most water trade occurs in temporary markets. Some water holders acquire water exclusively through temporary markets as they provide good liquidity; however, these water holders are exposed to seasonal price fluctuations.
Conditions for an effective and efficient water market
An effective and efficient water market requires robust water planning and management frameworks and a cap on water extractions, or scarce water resources may be overexploited. A key element of this framework is the cap and trade model: Because there are finite tradeable rights, the value of water rights is linked to water scarcity. Water markets require clearly defined and secure entitlements that are of an enduring nature, and are provided for within a clear statutory water resource planning framework. Trade requires hydrological connection between water resources. A number of water markets operate in Australia that are defined by their physical connectivity. Consistent water legislation is necessary to provide Map03_AUS_WTS_V02_2013-01-31
Principal surface water systems where trade has occurred
Darwin
Water trading zones
NT
Murray–Darling Basin QLD
This map shows surface water trading zones where trade has occurred in the period 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11 or 2011–12.
WA
SA
Brisbane NSW
Perth
Sydney
Adelaide VIC
Canberra
Melbourne 0
TAS Hobart
500
1 000
km
Data sources: WA Department of Water, Qld. Department of Natural Resources and Mines, NSW Office of Water, ACT Government, Vic. Department of Sustainability and Environment, SA Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, Tas. Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment. Topographic data: Geoscience Australia. Map produced by ABARES © Commonwealth of Australia.
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Irrigation Leader
200 000
1 800
180 000
1 600 1 400
140 000
1 200
120 000
1 000
100 000 800
80 000
600
60 000
Number of trades
Volume of trade (Acre Feet)
160 000
400
40 000
200
20 000
June
March
December
2014-15
September
2013-14
June
March
December
September
June
Irrigation Leader
March
Water rights are administered differently in Australia than in the United States. Some key differences include the following: • Australian water entitlements are defined in, and bounded by, statute. All water resources reside with the Crown, and access to those water resources is governed by statute. • Entitlements specify the volume or share of a water resource a water holder is permitted to divert. Each water resource region has a water plan that includes maximum diversion limits, providing security of water rights. • Australia has many classes of entitlements that are
December
Comparing Australia’s water governance with the United States’ system
2012-13
September
certainty for water holders. Australia’s water markets are regulated through the Water Act and supported by state water management legislation. Together, these instruments facilitate interstate trade. An efficient market needs reliable information so participants can make informed decisions about their water holdings. The Australian government provides public information about water resources, water markets, and trading rules to support decisionmaking. There should be minimal barriers to trade so all water holders can participate in the water market, including low statutory fees and standards for trade processing times. Finally, the water market needs willing buyers and sellers with tradeable water rights.
June
Volume of trade
March
2011-12
December
September
June
March
December
2010-11
September
June
March
December
September
June
March
December
September
2009-10
2015-16
Number of trades
differentiated by type of water resource, water security level, water use purpose, and other attributes. • Water rights in Australia do not follow the doctrine of prior appropriation. All entitlements of a certain class within a valley receive the same proportion of water allocation, determined each year by state water agencies based on water availability. Nontradeable riparian rights coexist with water access entitlements. • Water holders retain ownership of their entitlements, except in some irrigation districts where entitlements are held by water supply organizations. • Trades are approved and processed through state water agencies. Because secure entitlements have been established, trades are not subject to public consultation.
Water reform in Australia
Since the 1980s, there has been a growing awareness of the effect of water extraction on the environment in Australia. Water sector reform was led by increasing water scarcity and concerns about the overallocation of water. The 1994 Council of Australian Governments water reform framework, the 1995 agreement to cap water use in the Murray–Darling basin, and the 2004 National Water Initiative have all been significant milestones in Australia’s water reform. These actions established agreement between the states on priorities for national reform. Reforms from the 1980s to the early 2000s included clarifying the definition of statutory water entitlements and the development of water trade. A significant reform
27
was the unbundling of water entitlements from land title, enabling water rights to be traded separately to land. The Commonwealth Water Act, introduced in 2007, built on these reforms. With a focus on the Murray– Darling basin, key objectives of the act include addressing the imbalance between consumptive and environmental water needs, ensuring greater transparency and consistency in irrigation water pricing, and freeing up water markets and trade. The act enabled development of water market and water charge rules. The rules introduced a common regulatory framework for the water industry in the basin, allowing water markets to operate more effectively while promoting efficient and sustainable use of water and infrastructure assets.
The effect of water markets
Water markets have had a positive effect on the management of Australia’s water resources, providing benefits to the economy, irrigators, and the environment. Markets have created significant economic benefits, encouraging water to move to its highest value use. During the peak of Australia’s millennium drought in 2008–2009, markets contributed to sustaining national GDP through reallocation of water in agriculture. Markets have helped irrigators to manage their business risk, enabling them to generate income from selling water rights or expand production by purchasing additional
entitlements. Many irrigators use their entitlements as loan security. Environmental water entitlements have the same legal status as agricultural water, and environmental water holders can participate in the market. The Commonwealth Environmental Water Office oversees the management of environmental water and protects the environmental interests of the Murray–Darling basin through a portfolio of water entitlements.
Future priorities for Australian water markets
As Australia’s water markets mature, new products are being developed that expand market opportunities for water holders. More sophisticated water products are becoming available through secondary markets, such as aggregated parcels of water rights. The Australian government has implemented policies to reduce and maintain basin extractions to within sustainable limits, and ongoing water reform is ensuring that markets continue to operate efficiently and effectively. The policy agenda is focused on increasing water market transparency to improve market confidence. David Atkinson Bouchard is the Director of Water Market Policy in Australia’s Department of Agricultur and Water Resources. You can reach him at david.atkinsonbouchard@agriculture.gov.au.
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The Innovators
Moving Dirt by Storm: The Hurricane Ditcher
B
ack in the early 1980s, Paul Snyder had an innovative idea that grew up out of the bottomlands along the Wabash River. Farming without sufficient drainage, he needed a way to get the water moving off his land. Inspired by the mechanics and action of his PAPEC ensilage cutter, instead of cutting silage, he saw a new way to churn and move dirt. Mr. Snyder broke down his cutter and refashioned it. His original model outfitted the cutter’s 3-foot-diameter, 1-inchthick flywheel with four paddles. He had crafted his first—of what would become thousands—Hurricane Ditcher.
The Company
The company began in 1984 as a familyowned business, and it still operates it that way today, 32 years later. Mr. Snyder’s son, John, oversees 15 employees who manufacture 10 different models of ditchers in a factory in Vincennes, Indiana. John Synder relies on his employees’ dedication to craft. “We have a tight-knit group of people who know what they are doing.”
Growing to Meet the Needs of Customers
After the first model went on the market in 1984, Paul Synder hired a company in Ohio to build them; after that, he hired a local company to do it. Interest grew, and more trips to trade shows proved successful. For Paul Synder, it was simple. “Farmers at the trade shows would ask for a ditcher to do this or do that, and we would make it for them.” Only six years after hitting the market, the Hurricane Ditcher Company began manufacturing its ditchers on its own. The Snyders made those early models heavy duty but able to fit tractors with a three-point hitch. With the success of those models, they were approached by various highway departments that needed ditchers to clean roadside ditches. Those requests inspired the development of what would become a patented sidearm ditcher. For Paul Synder, “One thing kept leading to another.” Today, the Hurricane Ditcher Company manufactures ditching, terracing, and waterway management equipment for farmers and municipal entities. Its products are sold in dealerships across 30 states and 10 countries, including Canada, Japan, and Bolivia.
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The Ditch Angel™ is a side arm ditcher that operates in dry or wet conditions. It comes equipped with a 26-inch ditching wheel.
Paul Snyder attributes that success to the quality of the product and its adaptability to different soils and environments. “We have a good reputation and work in a lot different parts of the country, including the Louisiana bayou—and that is pretty tough stuff.”
The Next Generation of Ditcher
About 12 years ago, the Snyders incorporated laserleveling capabilities into several of their models. A couple of months ago, they introduced a sidearm machine that works with GPS capabilities for precision control of the sidearm. Hurricane Ditcher partnered with AMW Machine Control to enable its ditchers to automatically recalculate arm offset based on location, elevation, and grade. The software stores the data to guide future maintenance.
Adaptability and Quality
Hurricane Ditchers have evolved from strictly digging ditches and have become a multifaceted water management tool. According to John Snyder, “We have a quality water management tool that is unbeatable in terms of quality and durability for irrigation or soil erosion.” For more information on the Hurricane Ditcher, please visit http://hurricane-ditcher.com or call (812) 886-9663. Irrigation Leader
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
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(575) 526-2101 Fax (575) 526-2506 Email:
slh@lclaw-nm.com
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National Water Resources Association
85 Annual Conference th
November 14 - 16, 2016 Hotel del Coronado, Coronado, California For more details, visit www.nwra.org
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Security
Security for Irrigation Districts
P
hilip Ball is the founder and CEO of the Situational Awareness Institute, a company he formed to provide security and training to police departments and the private sector. Irrigation Leader’s editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, spoke with Mr. Ball about his training and consulting work with irrigation districts. Kris Polly: Please describe your business for our readers. Phil Ball: The Situational Awareness Institute is the culmination of my 20 years in law enforcement in multiple states. It is about educating individuals about all threats and vulnerabilities to one’s safety—both physical and electronic—and the importance of being aware of all threats. Kris Polly: Recently, you were in Las Cruces, New Mexico, presenting to the Elephant Butte Irrigation District. What were some of the things you talked to the district about? Phil Ball: In the two-day training, we talked about employer–employee relations and making every employee aware of potential workplace violence situations. If someone is going through financial struggles, marital struggles, or chemical dependencies, that individual can be in a particular state of mind that starts them down the road of mental illness. If all employees are looking out for each other and looking for signs that someone is having a bad time and going down a negative road, we can have early intervention. We can get that person the help he or she needs and prevent that person from getting hurt or going through the stages that every active shooter goes through before committing workplace violence. We also talked about supervisors dealing with discipline issues— they need to be compassionate and allow the individual to maintain a sense of dignity. Kris Polly: What are some basic security measures that irrigation districts in particular should be aware of? Phil Ball: One thing that is unique to irrigation districts is that their customers pay for water that they may or may not receive. So this may present a customerservice type of issue. A customer whose livelihood depends on a product but who does not receive the product and still has to pay for it, will feel wronged.
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These feelings are similar to the feelings that a school shooter or someone who commits workplace violence feels—that person feels they have been wronged in some way. That person feel that justice is not being served, that the system does not address his or her needs in a legitimate way. That is how Irrigation Leader
Phil Ball and the staff of the Elephant Butte Irrigation District.
such individuals feel justified when they stray outside of normal operating boundaries and resort to violence and the taking of other’s lives: They feel they have no other resort. For this reason, I think it’s important that irrigation districts have a kind of “verbal judo” or deescalation training for their personnel who deal with customers. As a customer’s first point of contact, it is important that these employees know how to verbally deescalate the situation and prevent an agitated person coming in to the district office from resorting to violence. There needs to be training for the people at the front desk. Because that is where the situations usually begin. That is one of the issues I addressed with Elephant Butte. Kris Polly: What kind of services do you offer irrigation districts? Phil Ball: I offer active shooter prevention and survival techniques training. I can also talk with them about policy needs and the liability they may have. There are some policies and training that I can help them develop quickly. Also, for districts in jurisdictions that recognize the authority of permit carriers, I can offer that kind of training. My primary focus, however, is making my clients aware of potential workplace violence and active shooter issues, as well as teaching physical defense. Teaching people some basic self defense moves gives them confidence, which can actually deter a situation with predators. People driven to violence look for weak prey. A person with self-defense training Irrigation Leader
can project an aura that will deter predators. Site design is another thing that can be a deterrent. Kris Polly: Do you help irrigation districts with security response plans? Phil Ball: Yes, one of the many positions I held in the Atlanta area was certification manager of a local police department. I am the primary author of that police department’s 487-page policy manual on all its operations, including administrative procedures, evidence collection, and how each call is to be responded to. So I am aware of the administrative side—how security response needs to be legally defensible—and also the practical side—how it needs to be operational for field performance. Kris Polly: Are you scheduled to meet with any other irrigation districts, and how may a district contact you if they are interested in your services? I understand you have another event coming up at Quincy Columbia Irrigation District? Phil Ball: Yes, I will be presenting to the Quincy– Columbia Basin Irrigation District in Quincy, Washington, on October 13. The manager, Darvin Fales, asked me to come to his district to talk about security and to help his people be as safe as possible. I have learned through my interactions at the Irrigation Leader workshop in Phoenix and at Elephant Butte that the irrigation people are just the nicest, most solid Americans you could ever meet. I love working with them and am happy to meet with any irrigation district or water agency. I can be reached at saitactical@gmail.com or (954) 292-5592. 37
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Active Killer Prevention & Survival Training Essential strategies to lower liability and save lives OSHA GENERAL DUTY CLAUSE 5(A)(1) “All employers have a duty to provide their employees with a workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious harm. “Recent court rulings throughout the country have allowed negligence suits filed by the victims of Active Shooters to proceed against employers for failing to provide defensive training to their employees. In other words, companies can no longer avoid their corporate responsibility to provide training on how to react if confronted by a violent intruder.
This training will equip you and your employees with the knowledge to: • Recognize the early warning signs of an “Active Killer” in the making. • Know what to do to protect your life when an Active Killer is in your vicinity. • Respond properly when law enforcement arrives.
About the Instructor Specialist Ball is the author of the Active Shooter Survival Manual available on Amazon.com Philip Ball just completed five years as a Police Training Specialist in South Florida. Specialist Ball has served as a Certified, Sworn Police Officer in the States of PA, MD, and GA. He is a certified Instructor in the State of Florida where he teaches officers Active Shooter Response and schools Active Killer Survival. As a Police Instructor, Specialist Ball is a certified Firearms Instructor in FL, GA and with the FBI. Specialist Ball is also an Active Shooter Response Instructor, Active Killer Survival Instructor, Crisis Intervention Training Instructor, and Defensive Tactics Instructor. Specialist Ball has held the positions of Emergency Management Coordinator, Training Director, Training Officer, State Certification Manager, SWAT Officer, SWAT Armorer, DARE Officer, Motorcycle Gang Intelligence Officer, and School Resource Officer.
S.A.I. offers 2 hour, 4 hour, and 1 day programs, with full scale drill options customizable for your needs.
Situational Awareness Institute Active Shooter Response & Survival Firearms Instructor GA, FL, FBI Defensive Tactics Instructor Certified Officer PA, MD, GA, FL SaiTactical@gmail.com 954-292-5592
5TH ANNUAL IRRIGATION LEADER OPERATIONS AND MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP Sponsored by Irrigation Leader Magazine
February 1–2, 2017 • Phoenix, Arizona IRRIGATION LEADER magazine is sponsoring the 5th annual Operations and Management Workshop with a theme of Emergency Management Plans. The purpose of the workshop is to provide an opportunity for General Managers and Directors of irrigation districts and water agencies to discuss ideas and exchange information on a variety of district operational and management-related issues, to build out-of-state working relationships, and to learn from their peers. The issues and topics have been selected by General Managers and Board Directors and pertain directly to the management and improvement of irrigation districts and water agencies.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1 8:00 a.m. 8:30–10:00 a.m. 10:00 a.m. 10:30–12:00 p.m. 12:00-1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 2:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:30 p.m. 4:30 p.m. 5:30 p.m.
Physical Training by Quincy Columbia Basin Irrigation District Creating Emergency Management Plans for Irrigation Districts and Water Agencies Networking Break Using Social Media in Emergencies Lunch on Your Own How to Verbally De-escalate Situations Identifying and Resolving Staff Problems Ice Cream Sundae Break Board Members’ Role in Emergencies Innovative Managers Reception
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2 8:00 a.m. 8:30 a.m. 10:00 a.m. 10:30 a.m. 12:00 p.m. 1:30 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:30 p.m. 4:30 p.m. 5:30 p.m.
Physical Training by Quincy Columbia Basin Irrigation District Saving Lives and Money With Safety Programs Networking Break Planning for a Canal Break: Lessons Learned Sponsored Lunch Australia Irrigation Education Tour and Exchange Program Networking Break Innovative Technologies Open Forum Reception New Zealand Irrigation Education Tour (February 18–25, 2017) Door Prize Sponsored by Irrigation Leader Magazine
ONLINE REGISTRATION: You can register for the Operations and Management Workshop at www.WaterStrategies.com. Please
complete and submit the online form as soon as possible, as space will be limited. Should you have a particular topic you would like discussed during the Open Forum at the meeting, please add it to the registration form in the space provided. Should you have other ideas for the Workshop, please share those as well. Updates to the agenda will be provided as registrations are received.
HOTEL RESERVATIONS: We have reserved a block of rooms at the Crowne Plaza Phoenix Airport Hotel, located at 4300 East
Washington Street, Phoenix, Arizona 85034. The rate is $139.00 single or double occupancy per night plus tax. Your reservation includes a complimentary full express breakfast, complimentary 24-hour airport shuttle service, complimentary wireless Internet service, and complimentary valet parking for registered guests with in-and-out privileges. To make or confirm your reservations at the special Irrigation Leader rate, please call (855) 586-8475 or 1-888-233-9527 and identify yourself with the Irrigation Leader group no later than Friday, January 6, 2017.
COMPLIMENTARY AIRPORT SHUTTLE. To request the hotel’s complimentary airport shuttle, please call 1-855-586-8475 as soon as you have retrieved your luggage. Reservations for your return to the airport can be made at the Front Desk.
QUESTIONS: Please contact Kris Polly at (703) 517-3962 or Kris.Polly@WaterStrategies.com.
Thank you for your time. We hope to see you in Phoenix.
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2016 CALENDAR October 11–14 October 12–14 October 26–28 November 3 November 3–4 November 14–16 November 20–22 November 30–December 2 November 29–December 2 December 14–16 January 9–11 February 1–2, 2017 February 18–25, 2017 February 23–24, 2017
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United States Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, International Conference on Irrigation and Drainage, Fort Collins, CO Texas Water Conservation Association, Fall Meeting, San Antonio, TX WESTCAS, Fall Conference, Phoenix, AZ Columbia Basin Development League, Annual Conference, Moses Lake, WA Idaho Water Users Association, Water Law Seminar, Boise, ID National Water Resources Association, Annual Convention, San Diego, CA Nebraska Water Resources Association & Nebraska State Irrigation Association, Joint Convention, Kearney, NE Washington State Water Resources Association, Annual Conference, Spokane, WA Association of California Water Agencies, 2016 Fall Conference & Exhibition, Anaheim, CA Colorado River Water Users Association, 2016 Annual Conference, Las Vegas, NV Groundwater Management Districts Association, Annual Winter Meeting, Fort Worth, TX Irrigation Leader Operations and Management Workshop, Phoenix, AZ and Municipal Water Leader Magazines New Zealand Water Leader Educational Tour, Sponsored by Irrigation Leader and Municipal Water Leader Magazines Family Farm Alliance, Annual Meeting and Conference, Las Vegas, NV
For more information on advertising in Irrigation Leader magazine, or if you would like to have 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.
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