Erling A. Juel of Greenfields Irrigation District: Building Big Sky Hydropower to Fund Maintenance Needs
The mighty 2,200-cubic-foot-per-second jet of water seen in this picture vividly shows the potential hydropower energy available to be harnessed at the base of Gibson Dam. Its maximum discharge is 3,050 cubic feet per second at full pool. GID has plans to develop this year-round hydropower potential.
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career. I worked in the private sector as a geotechnical engineer and was the president and CEO of a regional engineering firm before retiring in 2015. As an encore career, I have been working for GID for the last 7 years. It’s been both an honor and a challenge. While I have worked for many irrigation districts in the past as an engineering consultant, managing one is quite different.
Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about GID’s history and current services.
Erling Juel: I was born and raised in Montana and have lived here my whole life, except for an 8‑year stint in Alaska attending graduate school and starting my engineering
Erling Juel: GID is a Bureau of Reclamation project located in north-central Montana. Our district covers about 133,000 acres, about 83,000 of which are irrigated.
44 | IRRIGATION LEADER | July/August 2022
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF GREENFIELDS IRRIGATION DISTRICT.
reenfields Irrigation District (GID), based in Fairfield, Montana, serves 550 water users on more than 83,000 irrigated acres. In this interview, District Manager Erling A. Juel talks about GID’s plans to build several hydropower plants and to use the revenue generated to fund a backlog of repair and replacement projects, to modernize its system, and to conserve water.
