Efficient Deliveries for Badger Mountain
B
adger Mountain Irrigation District (BMID) supplies drinking and irrigation water to several thousand customers in the Tri-Cities region of Washington. Its Yakima River water is lifted 560 feet over Badger Mountain and delivered via pressurized pipe, which is efficient but energy demanding. As the district urbanizes and its infrastructure ages, its main challenges are increasing efficiency and maintaining its system. In this interview, Colby Getchell, BMID’s district manager, speaks with Irrigation Leader Editor-in-Chief Kris Polly about his district’s infrastructure and his efficiency goals.
Kris Polly: Please tell us about BMID and its history.
Kris Polly: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
Kris Polly: How many employees do you have?
6 | IRRIGATION LEADER
Colby Getchell: We have a total of seven. We have three in the office: an office manager, an administrative assistant, and me. In the field, we have four crew. We also have a three-person board of directors. Kris Polly: Is your service area still primarily agricultural, and is it being urbanized? Colby Getchell: We’re rapidly moving from agricultural to urban. Most of the developments are homes, not commercial properties. I would say that within the next 10 years, the district will go from mostly agricultural to mostly residential. Right now, the acreage is probably split 50/50 between residential and irrigators.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID LEE.
Colby Getchell: I am from South Bend, Washington, a small coastal town mostly known for its oyster industry, but which also thrives from logging and lumber mills in the area. My family background is in the lumber business. My dad worked in lumber mills; my grandfather owned a lumber mill and worked as a log scaler in the early 1900s. I moved here in 2011 and started working for BMID as part of the field crew. In 2015, I took over as district manager. The district was looking for somebody who knew the system and could run and operate it without any issues. What piqued my interest most is that my background is mostly in irrigation construction. I have been in the irrigation business most of my life now.
Colby Getchell: BMID was founded in 1975 to bring water from the Yakima River and McNary Pool all the way over to the south side of Badger Mountain in Richland, Washington, which is at a higher elevation. It was previously all dry land, and it was going to be used mostly for farming in small communities. Today, BMID provides irrigation and domestic drinking water. We supply about 2,200 outlets and about 4,800 acres of irrigated agricultural and residential land.
