The Frenchman-Cambridge Irrigation District’s Radio Communications Towers
The FCID raises a repeater tower near Oxford, Nebraska.
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renchman-Cambridge Irrigation District (FCID), headquartered in Cambridge, Nebraska, diverts around 60,000 acre-feet of irrigation water a year to a service area of 45,669 irrigated acres. To make its delivery system more efficient and to save water, it is implementing a Rubicon Water automated gate system, with the end goal of achieving total channel control (TCC) capabilities. To enable its gates to communicate with each other and with the office, the FCID is also building radio communication towers. In this interview, FCID Manager Brad Edgerton tells Irrigation Leader about the capabilities the gate system gives the district and details the factors that went into selecting and installing its towers. Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about the FCID. Brad Edgerton: The FCID is a federal project built in the late 1940s and early 1950s by the Bureau of Reclamation.
40 | IRRIGATION LEADER | May 2021
Irrigation Leader: Would you tell us more about the size and scale of your canal system? Brad Edgerton: We have two bigger canals: Cambridge Canal, which serves 18,000 acres, and Meeker-Driftwood Canal, which serves a little less than 18,000 acres. We have two smaller canals: Red Willow Canal, which serves about 4,700 acres, and Bartley Canal, which serves about 6,500 acres. Cambridge, Bartley, and Red Willow divert directly off the Republican River, while Meeker-Driftwood Canal comes directly out of Swanson Reservoir. Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your Rubicon gate system. When did you install it and why? Brad Edgerton: We learned about Rubicon at the Four States Irrigation Council conference in Fort Collins, Colorado, in 2012, where its product was on display. We had two check structures on Cambridge Canal with which it was difficult irrigationleadermagazine.com
PHOTOS PHOTO COURTESY COURTESY OF THE OF COID. FCID.
Brad Edgerton: I started out in the water business in 1983, working for the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources. In 2009, I was named general manager of the FCID.
We serve 45,669 acres under four canal systems. We have a contract with Reclamation to take storage water out of three reservoirs. We have nine ditch riders and an office manager in addition to myself.
