Irrigation Leader Washington State November/December 2021

VOLUME 12 ISSUE 10

november/december 2021

WASHINGTON STATE EDITION

Craig Simpson: Implementing the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Project at the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District

KENNEWICK IRRIGATION DISTRICT

Planning for Drought

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he Kennewick Irrigation District (KID) serves up to 20,201 acres of agricultural and residential customers in a region of Washington State that receives less than 10 inches of precipitation per year on average.

These challenging conditions make irrigation necessary to grow economically valuable agricultural products such as cherries and grapes and to grow urban shade trees that help to cool residential areas and increase the quality of life in the urbanized parts of the district during the hot summer months.

KID depends on water from the Yakima River, which receives its water from the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range. Approximately 140 inches of precipitation falls in the Cascade Range per year, feeding the Yakima River through numerous tributaries and providing flows for fish, farms, and residences all the way to the Tri-Cities.

During years of average precipitation and temperatures, there is enough water to supply the needs of farms and residences in the Yakima basin. However, during drought conditions, when insufficient precipitation fails to fill the storage reservoirs or the snowpack fails to materialize or melts too quickly, water shortages threaten agriculture and our quality of life.

In 2015, a severe drought occurred in the Yakima basin, reducing water supplies for prorated water right holders by over half. The drought was due to a snowpack drought—a normal amount of precipitation fell in the mountains, but it fell as rain instead of snow.

The reservoirs in the Yakima basin can only hold enough water to store up to 30 percent of the total annual runoff. Snowpack plays a critical role in complementing water storage by providing water during the spring and early summer parts of the irrigation season.

Although KID holds a mostly proratable water right, it is not held to the strict prorated annual quantity that other proratable districts receive, due to a unique clause in our contract with the Bureau of Reclamation. This clause allows KID to not only divert water from the proratable bucket, but to also divert return flows that are not a part of the proratable

bucket. Return flow is water that returns to the river after being diverted by other users and becomes available for diversion by KID and other users downstream of Sunnyside Dam. This ability to divert return flows has historically allowed KID to receive a more reliable water supply than the other proratable districts, but large-scale water conservation projects implemented over the past 20 years have greatly reduced available return flows. Currently, during drought conditions, KID is not receiving water when it is needed most by our customers, during the hot summer months of July and August, which are critical to plant growth.

Current conditions and future potential climate change effects have created a great challenge to protecting and enhancing the KID water supply. To guide the district through the difficulties of drought conditions, KID adopted a drought plan policy. The on-the-ground realities of the 2015 drought caused KID to re-evaluate the drought plan. Many of the goals and actions in the plan were found to be infeasible for KID with its unique position in the Yakima project as a return-flow district. The plan was rewritten in 2019 to better support goals and actions that will give KID staff the tools needed to make the next drought that hits easier for our customers. Actions such as calling on reservoir storage will provide KID with more water in a drought, although it will have the negative effect of reducing water supplies for other users in the Yakima basin. Currently, KID is in talks with our partners at Reclamation, the Washington State Department of Ecology, and the Yakama Nation to discuss options to protect KID’s water supply and to enhance fish habitat in the lower river. Potential options that could have benefits to both supply and habitat include the addition of electric pumps at Chandler pump station and the construction of a central storage reservoir in the district.

Projects such as these will replace water taken from KID by federally funded up-basin conservation projects and will greatly enhance the reliability of KID water supplies during a drought, which will reduce the need to call on storage in future droughts.

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kid.org Facebook: @KennewickIrrigationDistrict Instagram: kennewick.irrigation.district LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/kennewick-irrigation-district

CONTENTS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 Volume 12 Issue 10

Irrigation Leader is published 10 times a year with combined issues for July/August and November/December by

an American company established in 2009.

8

Craig Simpson: Implementing the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Project at the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District

5 A quifer Rescue in Odessa

By Kris Polly 8 C raig Simpson: Implementing the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Project at the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District 16 D irector Tom Buschatzke of the Arizona Department of Water Resources: Dealing With the Tier 1 Shortage on the Colorado River 22 T he Gering–Fort Laramie Irrigation District: Responding to

Catastrophic Failure and Uniting to Support Aging Infrastructure 28 H ow Automating Furrow Irrigation Can Save Water and Reduce Labor Costs 34 W hooshh Innovations’ Proposal for Fish Passage on the Lower Snake River 42 E vans Equipment: Selling Top-Quality Refurbished Work Equipment to Irrigation Districts

STAFF: Kris Polly, Editor-in-Chief Joshua Dill, Managing Editor Elaine Robbins, Copyeditor Tyler Young, Writer Stephanie Biddle, Graphic Designer Eliza Moreno, Web Designer Caroline Polly, Production Assistant and Social Media Coordinator Tom Wacker, Advertising Coordinator Cassandra Leonard, Staff Assistant Milo Schmitt, Media Intern Amanda Schultz, Media Intern 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 our office at (202) 698-0690 or irrigation.leader@waterstrategies.com.

ADVERTISING: Irrigation Leader accepts half-page and full-page ads. For more information on rates and placement, please contact Kris Polly at (703) 517-3962 or kris.polly@waterstrategies.com or Tom Wacker at tom.wacker@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 us at admin@waterstrategies.com.

50 JOB LISTINGS /IrrigationLeader

Copyright © 2021 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.

4 | IRRIGATION LEADER | November/December 2021

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COVER PHOTO: A Water Strategies tour group visits the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District.

Photo courtesy of Water Strategies.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF WATER STRATEGIES.

Do you have a story idea for an upcoming issue? Contact our editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

@IrrigationLeadr

Aquifer Rescue in Odessa

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ince 2011, the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District (ECBID) has played a major role in implementing the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Project (OGWRP), an initiative to build out the Columbia Basin Project to its full dimensions and bring surface water to the Odessa subarea, where groundwater pumping has begun to seriously deplete the local aquifer. In this month’s cover story, we interview ECBID Secretary-Manager Craig Simpson about progress on OGWRP. In the Southwest, long-term drought in the Colorado basin is starting to bite, with automatic cuts in water deliveries kicking in after August’s tier 1 shortage declaration. To learn more, we speak with Tom Buschatzke, the director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

Two years ago, the unthinkable happened for Nebraska’s Gering–Fort Laramie Irrigation District (GFLID). One of its water conveyance tunnels collapsed, leaving it without water for more than a month during the most critical time of the year. GFLID Manager Rick Preston tells us about the hard work the district put in to get water flowing again.

Next, we speak with Dr. Khaled Bali and Dr. Stephen Kaffka, two University of California experts who were involved in studying the benefits of automating the surface irrigation of sugar beets in the Imperial Valley. Using Rubicon gates and software, they demonstrated an increase in water use efficiency from 70–75 percent to 85 percent.

By Kris Polly

In response to recent discussions of the breach of several dams on the lower Snake River, technology company Whooshh made a counterproposal that would cost 500 times less: placing its Passage Portal fish passage systems at the dams in question instead. These systems safely transport fish over dams in seconds rather than the hours or days required by conventional fish ladders.

Evans Equipment Inc. buys, refurbishes, and sells Caterpillars and other heavy work equipment, often disassembling the machines to the frame and completely rebuilding them. President Brad Evans tells us about the cost savings this allows the company to pass on to customers, including irrigation districts.

Addressing the challenges faced by irrigated agriculture in the United States will require considerable ingenuity and effort. Luckily, as the stories in this magazine show, our industry is full of smart, hard working individuals. Let’s all roll up our sleeves to help secure the future of irrigated ag. IL Kris Polly is the editor-in-chief of Irrigation Leader magazine and the president of Water Strategies LLC, a government relations firm he began in February 2009 for the purpose of representing and guiding water, power, and agricultural entities in their dealings with Congress, the Bureau of Reclamation, and other federal government agencies. He may be contacted at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

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QUESTIONS: Please contact Kris Polly at (703) 517-3962 or kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

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Craig Simpson: Implementing the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Project at the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District

One of the ECBID’s canals.

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he East Columbia Basin Irrigation District (ECBID), based in Othello, Washington, is one of the three districts that form the Columbia Basin Project (CBP). Since 2001, the ECBID has played a major role in implementing the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Project (OGWRP), an initiative to build out the CBP to its full dimensions and bring surface water to the Odessa subarea, where ostensibly temporary groundwater pumping has begun to seriously deplete the local aquifer. In this interview, ECBID Secretary-Manager Craig Simpson tells us about the planning, funding, and execution of OGWRP. Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

Irrigation Leader: In recent years, the ECBID has done significant work to bring surface water to the Odessa

8 | IRRIGATION LEADER | November/December 2021

Craig Simpson: We are just one of the entities working on the solution for Odessa. A lot of the early work was done by the Washington Department of Ecology through its Office of Columbia River (OCR) in conjunction with the Bureau of Reclamation. The ECBID involvement started in 2001, when we began a successful pilot program with Ecology and Reclamation to find conservation water supplies to replace the groundwater in Odessa. Then, we moved on to the CBP Coordinated Conservation Program with the Quincy–Columbia Basin Irrigation District and the South Columbia Basin Irrigation District (SCBID), which resulted in a total of 10,000 acres of groundwater replacement supplies. The Lake Roosevelt Incremental Releases Program was also developed, freeing up another 10,000 acres of water supply from Lake Roosevelt.

Ultimately, the big push was another 70,000 acres, resulting from the Odessa Subarea Special Study done

by Ecology and Reclamation. All combined, OGWRP involves 90,000 acres of CBP groundwater replacement.

When the preferred alternative came out of the record of decision for the Odessa Subarea Special Study, the federal government decided that it did not want to irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF WATER STRATEGIES.

Craig Simpson: I’ve been the secretary-manager at the ECBID since Dick Erickson retired in 2007. I had previously been the district engineer since 1995. Prior to that, after graduating from college, I did a 5‑year stint at a small consulting engineering firm in Poulsbo, Washington, called ADA Engineering. I was hired when the ECBID was looking for some municipal points of view on the system, a niche I was able to fill.

subarea to replace the use of groundwater by irrigators.

Please tell us more about this project.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ECBID.

An aerial view of the ECBID service area.

develop the project, because it was on the low side of the 1:1 cost-benefit ratio and because Reclamation is not really doing major infrastructure development anymore.

Our board of directors decided, after consulting with staff, that we would take on the implementation of the preferred alternative as part of the implementation of OGWRP. All along, our efforts in Odessa have been a partnership.

The Columbia River Initiative, which started in 2004, included all three CBP irrigation districts, the State of Washington, and Reclamation. The ECBID is the entity that is best known for OGWRP, but all of us were involved with it from the beginning. Right now, we’re finally starting to see significant payoff from the efforts that have been made. OGWRP efforts started in 2001, and in 2005, as a result of the pilot program, we transferred 2,361 acres of land from groundwater to the CBP water supply.

From 2013 to today, we have done the same thing to an additional 15,000 acres. The total area that we’re trying to put onto CBP supply is 90,000 acres. We’re not there yet, but we’ve definitely made good progress, and we have a lot of momentum.

Craig Simpson: By close to 45,000 acre-feet—that’s the amount of water that we’re delivering, so it no longer needs to be taken from the Odessa aquifer.

Irrigation Leader: By about how much have you reduced yearly groundwater pumping from the Odessa aquifer?

Irrigation Leader: How much money have you saved by doing the work in house?

irrigationleadermagazine.com

Irrigation Leader: You have done a majority of the construction work in house by growing staff and acquiring equipment, correct?

Craig Simpson: We’ve always maintained a workforce that is pretty proficient at concrete work, pipeline installation, and equipment operation. When it came time to do these projects, we recognized that at times we were getting money that needed to be used within a limited time frame. We didn’t have an extra 3–4 months of procurement time to get a contractor. We took a careful look at the expertise of the team and realized that we could do most of this work in house. This created efficiencies, saving the district time and landowners money. As a public organization, we don’t have to worry about profits like an outside contractor has to.

We’re just trying to do what we need to do to be as efficient and effective as possible, and one of those things is to do projects productively and use our funds pragmatically.

November/December 2021 | IRRIGATION LEADER

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Craig Simpson: That’s difficult to answer. We did all the earth work and a lot of the concrete work and gate installation, but we did have contractors install five large-diameter concrete siphon structures. The cost savings on the siphon job resulted from the district doing project management rather than having Reclamation do it. Reclamation’s initial cost estimate for the initial East Low Canal expansion work was $58 million, but we were able to do it for $26 million.

That showed that we were efficient with the monies that were available for our upcoming projects within OGWRP. I can’t tell you what the comparison of the estimates for the installation of the distribution lines for the 47.5 pumping plant are, but we also did some of that work with district crews and equipment, and I’m fairly certain that that also resulted in significant cost savings for our landowners. We also did most of the design work for that project in house, although we did have some assistance from Reclamation on the designs for the siphons, because it had done the initial designs for the Weber site. The work on the 47.5 delivery system was all done in house, with the exception of a little bit of assistance on electrical work and cathodic protection that was done by an outside consulting firm.

The name of the EL 47.5 Delivery System refers to the fact that it is located 47.5 miles from the point at which the East Low Canal bifurcates from the CBP main canal. It’s a fairly common convention to name laterals off the main canal by their mile posts along the East Low Canal.

Irrigation Leader: What did you learn from the building of 47.5 that may help save money or time on your future pump plants?

Craig Simpson: One of the first things we learned is that the federal process by which a nonfederal entity has to build federal infrastructure is convoluted and does not envision federal infrastructure being built this way. It requires a bunch of superfluous activities, and it’s cumbersome, to say the least. We learned a lot about that from the building of 47.5, and we’re approaching our future designs differently in the hope that we can move through the process more cleanly than we did on the first round.

Irrigation Leader: How many plants do you intend to build?

Craig Simpson: The answer to that is fluid, because it depends on what lands we are going to deliver to and who wants to participate. It’s a voluntary program with no edicts about where it has to go. We are currently looking at 9 delivery systems, but I expect there to be 15 or more as we get toward the end. There could easily be other systems that are necessary for smaller locations of 1,000 or 2,000 acres that would result in smaller pumping plants along the way. I think that will occur as time goes on and people move water to different locations.

Irrigation Leader: Where has the funding for this infrastructure come from, and where will the additional funds needed to complete your nine pumping plants come from?

These sections of pipe demonstrate the size of the OGWRP siphons.

Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your 47.5 pumping plant.

10 | IRRIGATION LEADER | November/December 2021

irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF WATER STRATEGIES.

Craig Simpson: The 47.5 is our first big delivery system in Odessa. We put it online and started functional testing on it in August 2020. We started commercial, or contractual, deliveries of water in April, at the beginning of our 2021 water delivery season, and it’s been online since then. We deliver to 8,523 acres out of the 10,500 acres that the system is designed for. The system pumps about 140 cubic feet per second (cfs) at about 350 feet of total dynamic head and provides delivery at a minimum of 10 pounds per square inch to all 15 delivery points on the system. Just five separate landowners own the 8,523 acres we are delivering to, which shows the size of the farms in Odessa that we’re trying to bring replacement water to.

Craig Simpson: The project has had different funding sources over time. The costs for the studies from 2006 to 2013 were split between the state and the federal government. As we have moved into development, the funding has predominantly come from the State of Washington through the OCR, which has provided significant construction grants of more than $79.5 million. The OCR gave us the initial funding for the widening of the siphons and for radial gates, and it is now supporting the development of the delivery systems. It has put significant funding into the designs of the 22.1 and 79.2 delivery systems.

There has been relatively less funding from the federal government—sometimes $1–2 million over a 2‑year period.

That is a lot less, and there have been a lot of strings attached and not much flexibility.

In addition to grants, the ECBID went to the municipal bond market to come up with the funds for the 47.5 delivery system. We borrowed $15 million for the construction of

the pumping plant and another $1.68 million for additional East Low Canal expansion.

After we had worked on that system for a year, the Washington State Legislature provided another $5 million to enable us to oversize it. We took a break, redesigned the system for an additional 2,000 acres, and ultimately built a system for 10,500 acres at a total cost of $20.8 million.

We ended up about $800,000 over what we were funded for, but we are operational this year and have delivered to over 8,500 acres. After the federal process, the complexities of funding projects from different sources on different timelines is something we’ve become a lot more familiar with, and we now recognize how much it can affect the development of a project.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ECBID.

Irrigation Leader: Would you tell us about how OGWRP is helping to preserve an aquifer that is relied upon by several small towns for their drinking water supply?

Craig Simpson: Often, it feels like folks look at OGWRP as a CBP development program and think that we’re just working to benefit farmers. I don’t think we do a very good job of pointing out that we’re not just doing this for our own benefit or for that of the landowners. The reality is the landowners are providing a solution to a problem that affects our communities. The local communities depend on those lands to continue to produce high-value crops that are then processed in the processing plants. This isn’t a landowner development program, and in fact, the landowners are on the hook to pay for the majority of it.

This is a groundwater replacement rescue program; people have lost sight of that. The farmers are taking on major debt loads to help restore the aquifer. They don’t have to do this. It costs a lot to pump water 15 miles uphill, and prices for major infrastructure are not going down. The capital costs of this project are well over $300 million, and if there is not enough grant funding available, landowners or the district may have to borrow the money for it, which would make it a $600 million project, since interest doubles the cost.

We need to remember why we are developing OGWRP and that it’s temporary. The CBP was never envisioned to be built this way. In fact, the excess capacity in the East Low Canal that we’re using is actually designed to be used by the SCBID for its future expansion. There are authorized CBP acres that the SCBID is not delivering to right now. The acres in Odessa that we are delivering to are intended to be served by a gravity system called the East High Canal; it was never envisioned that they would be served by the East Low Canal and pumping plants. It’s easy to get stuck in what we’re doing right now and not remember why we’re doing it, who’s paying for it, and who the beneficiaries are. The team at the ECBID works hard to keep the overall project goals and their importance at the forefront of everything we do. irrigationleadermagazine.com

Irrigation Leader: What is your message to the Washington State Legislature and to Congress? What should they know about the work that you have done and the work that is yet to be done?

Craig Simpson: The first legislation to help OGWRP was passed in 2004, and there’s a long history of state and federal support for it, including changes to laws that help govern the program. Our representatives in Congress have always supported us, including in our dealings with Reclamation and other entities. We can’t ever sufficiently express our appreciation for them and our good fortune in having a lot of the same folks in place for all those years. The members of our congressional delegation have a large amount of knowledge about what’s going on with OGWRP. They’re invested in what has happened, and they have continued to support us, which is the most beneficial thing that our legislators can do for us. Beyond that, they continue to provide us funding. I hope they continue to provide the funding, and with as much flexibility as they possibly can, because things change quickly.

Different landowner groups want to do different things at different times, and restrictions on how we can use the funds reduce our ability to help them all.

Over the longer term, we want to find a way to modify the Reclamation Reform Act so that it doesn’t limit the ability of OGWRP to be effective at its full 90,000‑acre potential. The 960‑acre limitation is not reasonable in our area. It may be appropriate for California orchards, but the large row-crop family farms in eastern Washington cannot operate off 960 acres and stay competitive. They need to grow rotational crops on multiple thousands of acres.

We need to find a way to allow them to access OGWRP without being penalized because their family farm is already 3,000–4,000 acres in size. We’ve got to find a way to do something about that limitation, because it’s going to restrict the number of acres we can develop in Odessa. We’ve already seen it on the 47.5 delivery system. One landowner had over 2,000 acres on the system, but the 960‑acre limitation dictated by the Reclamation Reform Act meant that he only signed up half his land. He needed the full amount of water and tried to make it work, but it resulted in half his land not being transferred to CBP water. You don’t want to see an impractical regulatory constraint be the reason why you can’t fulfill the functions of a program. I think there are ways to have an exemption for the Odessa. We need to revisit that and try to make it work without blowing up the whole Reclamation Reform Act in the process. IL Craig Simpson is the secretary-manager of the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District. He can be contacted at csimpson@ecbid.org or (509) 488‑9671.

November/December 2021 | IRRIGATION LEADER

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Newhouse Announces Greater Wenatchee Irrigation District Title Transfer Rep. Dan Newhouse (WA-04) has announced the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) has transmitted official congressional notification of the proposed conveyance of title to the Greater Wenatchee Irrigation District (GWID).

“In Central Washington, we do everything we can to conserve our most precious resource: water,” said Rep. Newhouse. “This title transfer is a major win because it enables the management of GWID’s water supplies to be handled by those who know our needs best – those who live, work, and farm right here in our communities.”

“This is a big day for local water users and farmers in North Central Washington,” said Mike Miller, Greater Wenatchee Irrigation District (GWID) Manager. “After 30 years working for this district and providing service for 10,000 acres of tree fruit – fruit that feeds the world – I am proud to see this transfer through to fruition and to help pave the way for additional title transfers, guaranteeing a brighter future for a more reliable water supply in local communities across the United States. Thank you to our water managers, users, and federal partners – including Congressman Newhouse – for their support in making this conveyance a reality.”

Phone #: (509) 884-4042 Fax #: (509) 884-8763 Email: Office@gwid.org

Greater Wenatchee Irrigation District Office Monday through Thursday 7:00am–4:30pm Fridays 8:00am–12:00pm 3300 SE 8th Street Wenatchee WA 98802 US

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The Columbia Basin Development League salutes Columbia-Pacific Northwest Regional Director Lorri Gray for over 36 years of federal service, and congratulates her on her retirement!

Director Gray played a key role in protecting the interests of the Columbia Basin Project, regularly available to listen to stakeholder concerns and take them into consideration.

Among other accomplishments, Director Gray facilitated: - The completion and signing of the Record of Decision for the Odessa Subarea Special Study.

This set the stage for the implementation of the Study’s Preferred Alternative, the Odessa Ground Water Replacement Program (OGWRP).

- A review of the Odessa Subarea Special Study’s Benefit/Cost Ratio, which resulted in the adoption of a revised ratio, making OGWRP eligible for Federal funding participation.

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Director Tom Buschatzke of the Arizona Department of Water Resources: Dealing With the Tier 1 Shortage on the Colorado River

Tom Buschatzke (standing, fifth from left) and other water professionals join former Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman (seated, left) and former Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Tim Petty (seated, right) at the signing of the Drought Contingency Plan in April 2019.

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Irrigation Leader: Please tell our readers about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

Tom Buschatzke: I have a bachelor of science degree in geology from the State University of New York. I came

16 | IRRIGATION LEADER | November/December 2021

to Arizona to attend graduate school at Arizona State University. I have 40 years of experience in water resource management. I started working for the ADWR in 1982 as an intern. I spent 6 years there and then went to work for the City of Phoenix for more than 20 years. In 2011, I came back to the ADWR as an assistant director, overseeing many of its policy licensing functions. In 2015, the governor appointed me director, and I have been in this role ever since.

Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about the ADWR. Tom Buschatzke: The department was created by the 1980 Groundwater Management Act. We are both a regulatory and a planning agency, and we are responsible for Colorado River management throughout the state. We also do a lot of permitting—for instance, requiring developments to have 100 years of an assured water supply before houses can be built. We also have a program for municipal, industrial, irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BUREAU OF RECLAMATION.

rizona is an arid state whose productive farmland and major urban areas are supplied by carefully husbanded water from the Colorado River, among other sources.

The severe, decades-long drought in the Colorado basin has now triggered a tier 1 shortage under the terms of the Drought Contingency Plan (DCP) and, with it, automatic cuts to certain lower-priority water users in Arizona and the other basin states.

In this interview, Tom Buschatzke, the director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR), tells us about how Arizona is responding to the tier 1 cuts and planning to secure its future water supplies.

Lake Mead on the Colorado River.

and agricultural water users to increase their conservation through a series of 10‑year plans extending through 2025.

I think it’s critical that we plan for the sustainability and augmentation of our water resources.

PHOTO COURTESY OF EDDIE BUGAJEWSKI.

Irrigation Leader: What are your thoughts about the tier 1 cuts under the DCP? Tom Buschatzke: The cuts are a necessary evil. We need to look at ways to slow the decline of Lake Mead. That’s what the first year of the tier 1 cuts is intended to do. Unfortunately, those cuts will cause pain for those who are losing their water supplies. The cuts are really going to be felt by agriculture in the Central Arizona Project (CAP) service area, which is losing substantial amounts of its water supply. The Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) and a few cities will also see cuts in tier 1.

The reductions to tribal communities and municipal users will be fully mitigated with substitute water supplies or financial compensation. The Arizona Water Banking Authority, which stores water in underground aquifers for future recovery, will not be mitigated.

One positive thing that has come out of the tier 1 process is that stakeholders have come together to create the Arizona Implementation Plan. The plan is a series of agreements to share the burden of the effects of the irrigationleadermagazine.com

Colorado River reductions. It lays out a collaborative process in which higher-priority water users like cities, industry, and tribes put their water on the table to help agriculture. The mitigation plan also involves financial resources that the State of Arizona has provided to the ADWR and financial resources created by the CAP board.

Unfortunately, the DCP cuts that are designed for tiers 1, 2, and 3 and the cuts that Mexico will take under the binational water scarcity plan are not enough. Lake Mead continues to decline. Mother Nature was not nice to us this past winter: We only had a 32 percent runoff from the Colorado River, which caused another drop at Lake Mead.

This will also trigger adaptive management under the DCP. If the Bureau of Reclamation’s monthly 24‑month study projects the level of Lake Mead falling below an elevation of 1,030 feet, then Arizona, California, Nevada, and the federal government need to consult and take additional actions for Lake Mead. The elevation level of 1,030 feet was hit in August 2021, so we are in discussions about doing more. The three states have been meeting to discuss additional actions and to identify and resolve the many issues that may attach to those actions. Those additional actions could fall into two categories: additional mandatory reductions in use and additional voluntary conservation of water in Lake Mead through intentionally November/December 2021 | IRRIGATION LEADER

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created surplus or system conservation. At this time, the states are focusing on the latter.

Irrigation Leader: Would you tell us about the Arizona Implementation Plan?

Tom Buschatzke: The agricultural communities need to get wet water. Some of the cities that are losing some of their water are also going to get full mitigation. The GRIC may get a combination of water and money, in this case primarily from CAP. The GRIC and the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) are conserving some of their water.

The wet water resources are coming out of Lake Mead. To offset the water that’s coming out of Lake Mead, we created 400,000 acre-feet of additional conserved water in the lake

rely on CAP water, were that they would have to fallow 30–40 percent of their farmland when the tier 1 cuts hit. I don’t know yet what the actual numbers are going to be.

Another interesting thing about the implementation plan is that after 2022, it does not include any more wet water mitigation for agriculture. Agriculture will have to rely solely on the groundwater resources that it is legally entitled to use under the 1980 Groundwater Management Act. On the municipal and tribal side, the mitigation steps down, reaching zero in the last year of the DCP. That was purposeful, because we don’t have the resources, but also because we need to move into a new paradigm in which cuts from water resource supplies like the Colorado River need to be dealt with by entities taking cuts without mitigation. Mitigation is not sustainable for us from either a financial or a water resources perspective. We didn’t want to do that for the DCP, because the expectation before we implemented the plan was that there would not be additional shortages before 2026. However, there were, because Mother Nature was not kind to us.

The important message is that we are planning for a hotter and drier future in which our resources are going to be affected, and we need to start figuring out ways to live within our means until such time as we can increase the water supplies of our state.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey at the Arizona Drought Contingency Plan signing event in January 2019.

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Tom Buschatzke: The state is currently neutral on that legislation if it gets adopted in Congress. We worked closely with the CRIT to craft that legislation. We also worked with the tribes and the federal government to craft agreements that ensure that the CRIT actually reduce their consumptive use through whatever program is adopted. The legislation does not allow the CRIT to market their water outside of the state or to market water that doesn’t have a use attached to it.

Those are two important elements of the program.

Generally, leasing water from the CRIT would be a great opportunity for the state to support economic vitality while also seeking other methods of augmentation and future water supplies. In the near term, however, while the CRIT’s legislation is important, we need to focus on Lake Mead and the system as we continue with the consultation revision of the DCP, because Lake Mead is falling quicker than we were expecting when the DCP was written. That’s more of a priority for the department. irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF GOVERNOR DOUG DUCEY.

over and above what the DCP requires us to cut. The State of Arizona provided $30 million for that, and millions of dollars more came from a consortium of nongovernmental organizations that is funded in part by business entities.

During the term of the DCP, groundwater withdrawal fees from the Pinal Active Management Area will go to help agricultural districts fund groundwater infrastructure and efficiency projects. Those fees will go to help agriculture and infrastructure and increase efficiencies. Part of the program to increase efficiency is also being funded directly by the state legislature to the tune of $40 million through two different processes established during the budget discussions of the last legislative session. The agricultural community is seeking additional funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which also has a program that provides money to increase infrastructure and increase the efficiency of farming operations.

Despite all of this, the estimates we heard in 2018–2019 from the Pinal County agricultural entities, which mostly

Irrigation Leader: What are your thoughts about legislation that would permit the CRIT to lease their water to other users in the state of Arizona?

Irrigation Leader: What is your message to other water users in the Colorado basin?

Tom Buschatzke: My message is that we need to continue to collaborate to create resiliency and sustainability for the system. No one state or water user can solve this problem on its own. The challenges of climate change and a hotter and drier future will continue to increase, and flows in the Colorado River will continue to decrease. As we deal with these challenges, it’s important that the seven Colorado basin states and Mexico share the benefits and the risks of the system in an equitable manner.

Irrigation Leader: What is your message to your state legislature?

Tom Buschatzke: The state legislature approved the DCP back in 2019. It was critical, I believe, that the leadership of both parties in both houses were able to work with us from the ground up, and that all the stakeholders participated in creating the Arizona Implementation Plan. We also reconvened the lower basin DCP steering committee delegates to form the Arizona Reconsultation Committee, which will plan future management programs for the river.

We also applaud the state legislature for creating a drought mitigation fund during the last legislative session. The fund has several elements, but the most important part funds projects that will augment our water supplies from sources outside of the state of Arizona. It also gave me $10 million to use for compensated conservation to help conserve water at Lake Mead. I think the drought mitigation fund sets the stage for augmentation and is a meaningful step forward. This really needs to be the focus for our future.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ADWR.

Irrigation Leader: What is your message to Congress?

Tom Buschatzke: Congress needs to understand how important the Colorado River is, not just to the seven states and Mexico but to the region and the nation. More than 40 million people rely on the Colorado River for their drinking water, and millions of acres of agriculture depend on it. From November to April, about 90 percent of the green vegetables that we eat in North America come from Yuma, where they are irrigated by Colorado River water.

There are also a variety of other issues, including environmental ones, that affect our ability to reduce Colorado River water use. I’ll give you two examples. California has 4.4 million acre-feet of Colorado River water per year, and we need it to participate in conservation efforts to protect Lake Mead. The Imperial Irrigation District, which uses 3 million acre-feet of Colorado River water per year, has issues with the shrinking of the Salton Sea. The dust that comes off the seafloor as the water recedes is causing health issues. In order to conserve water in Lake Mead, we need to deal with the shrinking Salton Sea. Likewise, there are environmental issues irrigationleadermagazine.com

in the Bay Delta, which is the headwaters of California’s State Water Project. Those issues have been boiling for over 20 years without resolution. They continue to make it harder for California to participate with us. Congress needs to understand that.

Congress also needs to provide funding for future augmentation, including desalination and our ability to use our reclaimed water. It needs to understand that while we will follow all the environmental laws, we need a way to make these projects come to fruition. Streamlining and making the process simpler and quicker would be helpful.

Lastly, it needs to be understood that watershed health is also a key element of management in all the states in the West. We need to attend to that, because the wildfires we’ve seen throughout the West are a clear example of how watershed health immediately affects us in lots of ways, including on the water resources side.

Irrigation Leader: What is your vision for the future?

Tom Buschatzke: In the near term, we are going to continue to find ways to conserve water within our state. In the long term, we need to look at desalination facilities and at improving and expanding the use of reclaimed water. There is a binational desalination working group, for which I serve as the cochair of the U.S. delegation, that is looking at opportunities for desalination in the Sea of Cortez. In addition, the ADWR is partnering with CAP, the Southern Nevada Water District, and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to look at using reclaimed water in the Los Angeles area that is currently being discharged into the ocean. It’s those kinds of partnerships that can create some new sources of water for us.

In Arizona, we’re going to have to make tough policy choices about water management. We’ll have to make choices about which aspects of our lifestyle we can give up and which we will maintain. Arizona already does a lot of water reclamation, which has environmental benefits for the restoration of streams and riparian habitat.

I am optimistic when I look at the progress we’ve made in the 40 years during which I’ve been working on these issues.

In Arizona, there is a history of strong political leadership working collaboratively with stakeholders to find successful paths forward. I feel confident that we will figure out a way to solve the issues we face. We’ll make the hard choices we need to make to sustain our agriculture, our environment, and the lifestyle that people in the state of Arizona enjoy. IL

Tom Buschatzke is director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

He can be contacted at (602) 771‑8426.

November/December 2021 | IRRIGATION LEADER

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The Gering–Fort Laramie Irrigation District: Responding to Catastrophic Failure and Uniting to Support Aging Infrastructure

Debris fills the GFLID’s tunnel number 2 after the collapse.

T

he Gering–Fort Laramie Irrigation District (GFLID) is one of the major districts on the North Platte Project, located in Nebraska and Wyoming. After suffering a major infrastructure failure, the irrigation district had to make huge changes and updates to support the water users. In this interview, Rick Preston discusses the infrastructure failure and all the repairs the district carried out to get the irrigation district back in service and running better than before.

Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

22 | IRRIGATION LEADER | November/December 2021

Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about the GFLID. Rick Preston: The GFLID is one of four government districts under the North Platte Project. In 1902, President Roosevelt commissioned five different projects, including the North Platte Project. The four government districts under the project are Pathfinder Irrigation District in Nebraska, Goshen Irrigation District (GID) in Wyoming, Northport Irrigation District in Nebraska, and the GFLID in Nebraska. Construction started on Pathfinder Dam in 1903, and work on the dams and the irrigation systems was completed in 1924.

The Fort Laramie Canal lies on the south side of the North Platte River, starting at Guernsey, Wyoming, and traveling southeast for about 130 miles. About 52,000 acres irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE GFLID.

Rick Preston: I was born and raised in the Central Valley of California. As a young man, I worked in the agricultural construction field, building irrigation districts. In 1992, H.R. 429 was signed, taking about 800,000 acre-feet of water away from some of the Central Valley projects. I decided it was time to move to the plains area, and I went to

work for the GFLID. I’ve been working with the GFLID as general manager for 30 years.

in the GID in Wyoming are irrigated out of the Fort Laramie Canal, as are another 55,000 acres in the GFLID in Nebraska. Our diversion is located on what we call the Whalen Diversion, which was completed in 1917. It’s a diversion out of the North Platte for the Fort Laramie Canal and for the Interstate Canal, which belongs to the Pathfinder Irrigation District.

Irrigation Leader: How many irrigated acres do you serve?

Rick Preston: There are about 107,000 irrigated acres under the Fort Laramie Canal. The operations and maintenance (O&M) costs for our share in Nebraska equals about $32.25 per acre. We have 55,000 acres in Nebraska, which are farmed by about 365 water users within the district.

The GFLID has about 90 miles of drains, numerous major structures called siphons, and three tunnels on the Fort Laramie Canal. One is a horseshoe-shaped tunnel about 14 feet in diameter, located about 5 miles downstream of our diversion at Whalen. The second tunnel is about 13½ miles below that diversion. It is a 14‑foot-diameter, horseshoeshaped tunnel about 2,200–2,300 feet in length. The third tunnel on the system is on the Fort Laramie Canal, just south of Gering, Nebraska. It is a 10‑foot-diameter, horseshoe-shaped tunnel about 6,500 feet in length. The two tunnels in Wyoming were completed in 1917, and the tunnel in Nebraska was completed in 1924.

getting into the system had caused material to move around the outside edges of the tunnel, creating an air gap between the tunnel and the material, with the material forming a bridge shape over the gap. In addition, there was about 300 percent more rain than usual in that particular area in 2019. That made the material so wet and heavy that the bridge couldn’t carry its weight. The engineers believe that the bridge failed, hammering the top of the tunnel, causing the concrete to collapse, and creating a dam inside the tunnel. That dam backed the water up and breached the canal system south of Fort Laramie, Wyoming. There was about 1,400 feet of water in the system at that time, and water moves in the system at about 1 mile per hour. After we got all the gates on our Whalen Diversion closed, it took about 14 hours for the water to subside enough for us to evaluate the damage. By that time, it had washed out about a quarter mile of our bank. The material funneled into the tunnel like an hourglass. Now, we were dealing with roughly 5,000–7,000 cubic yards of material in the tunnel, while also dealing with a major breach in the canal system. We started in dewatering and evaluating our next steps right away.

Irrigation Leader: Does the GFLID serve acres in both Wyoming and Nebraska?

Rick Preston: The Fort Laramie Canal is shared by the GID and the GFLID. The GFLID holds 51 percent of the acres, which brings us into some contract issues. The GID runs the canal for us and delivers the water to the state line for us.

We don’t get involved until the water gets to the state line; then, we take it and carry it through the Nebraska portion of the Fort Laramie Canal and deliver it to about 55,000 acres.

We’ve got about 1,300 delivery points on our canal and about 300 miles of lateral. The majority of our water stays within the system. We have five different spillway points on our system, which we use to regulate our water under extreme weather conditions.

Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about the tunnel collapse that occurred in 2019.

Rick Preston: On July 17, 2019, we had a major structural failure in tunnel number 2. At about 1:00 a.m., the alarm on the canal system started going off, and GID personnel went to find out what was going on. First, we thought maybe a tree had gotten in and plugged up a check. Later that morning, we realized that we had an actual structural failure. It was covered with about 120 feet of material. Our engineers speculated that years of water running through the system and rainwater irrigationleadermagazine.com

The collapsed ceiling of the tunnel.

Irrigation Leader: Please tell our readers about your response.

Rick Preston: We started looking for experts who dealt with tunnel repairs. We settled on a company from St. Louis, Missouri, called SAK Construction. About 2 days after the tunnel collapse, SAK Construction moved in and started doing the necessary work to remove the materials from inside the November/December 2021 | IRRIGATION LEADER

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On August 28, we put water back into the Fort Laramie Canal to try to finish the year. Our normal contracted water season is May 1 through September 30, but because of the failure, the Bureau of Reclamation allowed us to take water into October to try to save our crops. The tunnel breach occurred during the most critical time for the irrigation of our crops, and we lost most of them due to the lack of water.

The hay, sugar beets, and some other crops were able to finish, but the corn and beans were not. If that breach had happened in the middle of August 2019, it would’ve allowed us an additional 30 days of water, and we would have been able to save those crops.

Irrigation Leader: What other work will you have to do on the tunnel?

Contractors had to remove 300,000 cubic yards of dirt to gain access to the top of the tunnel.

24 | IRRIGATION LEADER | November/December 2021

irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE GFLID.

the tunnel. It also gave directions to companies based in Fort Laramie and Goshen on removing the materials off the top of the tunnel. We were responsible for moving about 300,000 cubic yards of dirt just to get to the top of the tunnel. Once we got about 28 feet from the top of the tunnel, we had to quit moving with machines. The contractor brought in nine shoring boxes, which were about 17 feet wide, 24 feet long, and 10 feet high.

They tied together three of them, end to end, and then went in and started taking the material out of these boxes to slide them down to the top of the tunnel. As the contractor workers moved the material, they would stack three more shoring boxes on top, until they were three long and three high. Once they got to the top of the tunnel and took the pressure off, they were able to finish removing the material from inside the tunnel. After the materials were removed, we put a steel shoring in the tunnel.

Next, we had to put in steel shoring every 4 feet to support the existing tunnel and ensure that the workers weren’t at risk inside.

It took about 6 weeks to return things to a state in which we could run water through the tunnel.

We also had to address the washout and the breached bank upstream on our main canal. About 2–3 days after it aired out, we hired a local contractor to oversee the dirt work. We brought in all our machines and some contracted machines to start moving material and putting our canal system back together. Both of those projects were completed at about the same time.

Rick Preston: Because of the shoring we put in that tunnel, we were only able to deliver 75 percent of what customers would normally receive at their headgates. We were only running 1,200 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water through the tunnel, which normally runs about 1,450 cfs. For the remainder of 2019, instead of delivering 1 foot for every 100 acres, we were only able to deliver 1 foot for every 125 acres. The same was true in 2020. Before the 2021 irrigation season, we went in and put steel plating over the top of shoring ribs to try to increase the hydraulic efficiency of the tunnel. By putting the sheeting in and covering the ribs in the tunnel, we increased the amount of water we could run from 1,200 cfs to 1,400 cfs. Today, we’re delivering 85–90 percent of what our customers would normally receive.

When all this started, the cost of temporarily repairing tunnel number 2 was estimated in the millions of dollars.

That was money we did not have in our accounts— irrigation districts do not operate in a way that produces an excess amount of cash unless they are power-generating districts, which we are not. We had to start work, and we did not have the funds. We met with Reclamation about finding some emergency money. To our good fortune, the regional director with Reclamation was able to find $4 million within Reclamation’s nationwide operation. Reclamation allowed us to take that money on an emergency repair contract. We will have to reimburse it for 65 percent of that money; the other 35 percent was given to us in the form of a grant. That helped us get started and pay off our debts.

Governor Ricketts also came out here and sat with me so I could go through all this with him and give him some estimated costs for the temporary repair of these tunnels. After that discussion, the Nebraska Legislature passed legislation to allow us to take money out of Nebraska and use it in Wyoming, and the governor provided a $3.8 million grant to the GFLID. That helped us cover on our loan payments and the final cost of repairing tunnels number 1 and number 2.

As of today, the GFLID alone has spent a little over $4 million on temporary repairs. The GID, our sister district on the Fort Laramie Canal, has also paid around $4 million on temporary repairs.

Today, we’re still not sure which direction we’re going, which means we may have to run with what we have for at least 1 more year, if not 2. Our initial thought was to bring a permeation contractor in to inject about 10 feet of liquid concrete all the way around the existing tunnels to stabilize all the material so that if there were any shifts, the same thing wouldn’t happen. The cost of that was estimated at $25 million for both tunnels. The GID also found a tunneling contractor working in Las Vegas, which proposed digging two new tunnels, side by side, for about $12 million. We would also have to design and build the structures for these tunnels, which would cost another $12 million or so, so both proposed solutions cost about $25 million. However, by law, irrigation districts cannot take out loans from public financing entities equivalent to more than 75 percent of their annual O&M budgets. In our case, that’s about $1.25 million. If we contract with government entities, by contrast, we can go as high as we need to repair the system. If we can work with Reclamation, we can go into a 50‑year contract and pay off our debt over time. We’re unsure of which direction we’re going to go in and how we’re going to find the funding to do this. The frustrating part for us is that we have done as much work as we know how to try to obtain grants. The problem is that we must be approved before we can start to work. We’re in an emergency situation, and we can’t wait. We have to continue to proactively get these systems put back together, not only for the stability of the system, but for the stability of the lives of our water users. There may be grants available that we would actually qualify for, but we can’t wait 18 months to be approved.

Irrigation Leader: What is your message to Congress and to your state legislature?

A steel shoring was installed to support the tunnel and ensure the safety of workers inside.

Rick Preston: The only reason we have progressed as far as we have is that the State of Nebraska and Reclamation stepped up to find funding to address the temporary repairs. Our governor, Senator Stinner, and other legislators worked diligently to approve the change to allow us that money. We’re thankful for their commitment. Our federal representatives, Senator Fischer and Congressman Smith, have been aggressive in trying to get the financial support we need to move forward. For the past 25–30 years, we’ve been talking about the need to address infrastructure nationwide. Today, we are sitting with the heartache of having a structural failure within a federal facility. Nobody has seemed to listen, and now we’re sitting with it in our laps. I would encourage all our constituents, regardless of whether they’re from Nebraska, Wyoming, or elsewhere, to realize that infrastructure in our nation should be a top irrigationleadermagazine.com

priority, especially if we want to continue our transport of foods and necessities. If we want to continue growing crops for food and for the livelihood of people within our nation, we need to focus on the infrastructure that has made us who we are and kept us on top of the world’s agricultural economy. Every state where irrigation is vital to the lives of the people needs to focus on infrastructure. I talked with the governor of Nebraska about how the state needs what’s called a Nebraska state water fee. It would be a flat fee charged to all residents of Nebraska. Currently, we do not have readily available funding to address emergencies, to prepare for future devastation, or to address today’s needs. A fee like that would ensure that we would have the funding to address those issues. This is not only needed in Nebraska; every state in the United States needs to do the same.

Irrigation Leader: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Rick Preston: The word I would use to address the need for infrastructure is united. We need a united effort by everyone who is involved in water or transportation. We need to come together. We need to make it as clear that things like infrastructure are important for the people of the United States. IL Rick Preston is the manager of the Gering–Fort Laramie Irrigation District. He can be contacted at geringftlaramie@gmail.com or (308) 436‑7144.

November/December 2021 | IRRIGATION LEADER

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How Automating Furrow Irrigation Can Save Water and Reduce Labor Costs

A Rubicon system is used to automate the furrow irrigation of sugar beets at the DREC.

O

ver the last decade, researchers from the University of California (UC) Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) and UC Davis have been working at the UC Desert Research and Extension Center (DREC), located in Holtville, California, and carrying out studies on the possibilities offered by automating surface irrigation using gates and software produced by Rubicon. Studies of sugar beets irrigated in the Imperial Valley using furrow irrigation have demonstrated that automation can increase water use efficiency from 70– 75 percent to 85 percent. Moreover, automation reduces labor costs, which make up an increasing percentage of the overall costs of farming. In this interview, we speak to two experts who were involved with the DREC study: Dr. Khaled Bali, a statewide irrigation water management specialist who works for the UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE), and Dr. Stephen Kaffka, an extension specialist and agronomist at UC Davis.

Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your backgrounds and how you came to be in your current positions.

28 | IRRIGATION LEADER | November/December 2021

Stephen Kaffka: I’m an extension specialist and an agronomist in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis. I’ve been at UC Davis for almost 30 years. I have statewide commodity assignments for sugar and oilseed crops, but I’ve also worked quite a bit on other irrigationand water-quality-related topics, including water quality and irrigation in the Upper Klamath basin and salinity and drainage issues in the western San Joaquin Valley and, to some degree, in the Imperial Valley. I have been working with Khaled over the last few years on various projects.

Water use and related economic issues are important to the sugar beet producers in the Imperial Valley. I cooperated on a successful precision agriculture project in the Imperial Valley with Khaled several years ago that focused on the effects of salinity on yield and fertilizer use efficiency. This research on irrigation is consistent with my responsibilities and overlaps nicely with Khaled’s skills and abilities.

Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about the research on automating surface irrigation that you carried out at the DREC. Khaled Bali: All the water used for irrigation in the Imperial Valley comes from the Colorado River. As you know, both the upper and lower basins of the Colorado River are facing severe shortages when it comes to the water that goes into the seven states and Mexico. The Imperial Valley grows lots of field crops, 70–80 percent of which are field crops like alfalfa, wheat, sugar beets, Sudan grass, Bermuda grass, and other types of grasses. Sugar beets are one of the major crops in the Imperial Valley, and the Imperial Valley is the irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE DREC.

Khaled Bali: I’m a statewide irrigation water management specialist. I work for the UCCE, which falls under the ANR. Today, I am based at UC’s Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, located in Fresno County in Central California. I do statewide work on issues related to irrigation, water conservation, and climate-smart agriculture.

I’ve been with the university for nearly 30 years. During the first 25, I focused on low desert research at the DREC in Holtville, California, near the Mexican border. That’s where we did the work on sugar beets.

Sugar beets grown at the DREC.

only major production area for sugar beets in California.

Typically, there are about 25,000 acres of sugar beets there per year. Sugar beets are typically planted around September and harvested between April and July. All the sugar beets in the Imperial Valley are irrigated with flood irrigation, also known as surface irrigation. One type of surface irrigation is furrow irrigation, which involves growing sugar beets between furrows about 30 inches wide.

Using surface irrigation, you have to apply enough water to meet the crop water demand. The process of applying that order is not 100 percent efficient, especially with furrow irrigation. If you apply enough water to get enough moisture into the soil profile, you end up with water leaving the field at the end of the irrigation event, which is known as runoff. Any water that leaves the field is lost water. There is significant surface runoff with the type of soils that we have in Imperial Valley, which are on the heavy side. Generally, furrow irrigation causes more runoff than other surface irrigation systems, such as border irrigation. Our objective here is to automate surface irrigation systems to minimize runoff so that we can increase irrigation efficiency and reduce surface runoff.

Stephen Kaffka: Many of these fields are quite large, and it’s hard to apply water uniformly and efficiently on them.

These automated surface irrigation technologies have the potential to reduce overirrigation at the head end of the field and underirrigation and runoff at the tail end of the field, which improves water use efficiency.

Irrigation Leader: Would this research be applicable to any furrow-irrigated crop or just to sugar beets?

Khaled Bali: It would be applicable to any surface irrigation system, including furrow, basin, or border irrigation.

Stephen Kaffka: This is the first trial with row crops that we know of in Imperial Valley. The previous work dealt largely with alfalfa, which uses a flood or border irrigation system without rows or beds. The Australians have used this technology successfully with cotton on beds in large irrigated fields. We wanted to get some experience with sugar beets. As Khaled said, the Imperial Valley has relatively secure water rights, but there is concern about water rights in the Colorado River basin, so it is prudent to pursue research on how to become more efficient. Savings of even 10–15 percent are significant.

Irrigation Leader: What technology were you testing?

Khaled Bali: We were using gates and software made by Rubicon, which has extensive experience in this type of work, as Steve mentioned. It is the leader in terms of farm automation. It has reliable software and various irrigation system components. The gate we have at the DREC has been there for 9 years, and we have had very few issues with irrigationleadermagazine.com

maintenance. It is a good and reliable system that has been working well in the harsh desert environment.

Irrigation Leader: Tell us about the study and its results.

Khaled Bali: We have been doing automation for at least 7–8 years. We started at the DREC and then expanded to an automatic system with an alfalfa grower in the Imperial Valley. We have lots of data documenting how much water and labor we can save. It’s not just about the water savings— labor costs have been going up and are a major component of the total costs of producing sugar beets or any other field crop in California.

As Steve mentioned, Rubicon has done lots of work in Australia. Universities and researchers in Australia have looked at automating furrow irrigation for cotton. With a traditional furrow irrigation system, an irrigator goes to the field and turns on the water for a section of the field and judges how long to keep it on based on their experience and how much flow is coming in. They might keep it running for 4, 5, or 6 hours in one section before opening another.

The work is 100 percent manual, and the decisions are made based on the experience of the irrigators.

Instead of having an irrigator opening and closing the gates, we have the system open the gates automatically.

As the water advances and moves through the field, we measure the flow rate and how fast the water is moving.

With this information and other site-specific information, such as soil type and field slope, we can make real-time decisions about irrigation runtime. It provides much more control over flow rate than manual operation. It’s kind of like cruise control on a car—it keeps the flow steady, but you have the ability to slow down if you need to. It gives you a lot of flexibility.

Stephen Kaffka: The labor cost issue is very much in the minds of farmers. California has passed a number of new laws and regulations in recent years that increase the costs of agricultural labor, including laws related to overtime, health benefits, and so on. Field crops in particular have low margins of profitability, and increased labor costs could eat up all the profit. Automating surface irrigation is an important technological improvement for keeping the sugar beet crop economic, and it could be used for other crops, too.

Irrigation Leader: How has the labor cost issue been developing?

Khaled Bali: As California implements increases in minimum wage standards, labor savings have moved to the forefront of concerns. Right now, the minimum wage is $14 an hour for large companies. By January 2022, it will be $15 plus about 40 percent of overhead. To sustain field crops in California, we have to find ways to reduce the cost of irrigation labor. That’s a big component of this work.

November/December 2021 | IRRIGATION LEADER

| 29

Stephen Kaffka: It’s going to affect all kinds of things, including picking peaches. It’s an interesting problem. It’s not that you want to put people out of work, it’s just that the policy choices that are being made and the economic realities of farming favor automation if farms are to stay in business.

Automation gives farmers more and better control of resource use. It supports more-efficient management by the farmer.

The fewer variables associated with getting the water on and having labor show up and so on, the better. Farmers can manage automated systems from their cell phones, which is appealing. It’s consistent with the modernization pathways that agriculture has followed for decades.

Irrigation Leader: What results did your study find?

Khaled Bali: A typical furrow irrigation system for sugar beets or similar crops can achieve 70–75 percent efficiency. The minute we go to automation, we can achieve about 85 percent efficiency. That goes a long way when you’re looking at a desert region like Southern California, where evapotranspiration rates are relatively high during the spring and summer months, and it is still hot even in September and October.

Irrigation Leader: Is the DREC working to diffuse these results to sugar beet farmers?

Stephen Kaffka: We have annual workgroup meetings for sugar beet growers and other people in the sugar beet industry at the DREC, and we reported these results over a 2‑year period at those meetings and elsewhere. There are a number of farmers who have become interested.

Baja Farms is now in the process of cooperating with Khaled and me on a grant proposal to submit to Imperial County to support the installation of this on-farm technology on a couple of fields that it uses for alfalfa, sugar beets, wheat, and other crops. The farm is owned by a long-term pioneer family in the valley that holds the current world record for sugar beet yields. If we’re successful in automating the family’s fields and it has results that it likes, the results will spread through the valley, since there’s a community of growers there that all know each other. I have found that if a technology works, makes sense, and is economic, it’s a relatively easy sell.

Those things propagate pretty readily.

Khaled Bali: In general, technology companies approach us.

We conduct educational activities, such as workshops and field days. The irrigation industry knows about the UCCE, and it knows that we’re well connected with the agricultural

30 | IRRIGATION LEADER | November/December 2021

Irrigation Leader: What are the next steps in this particular research project?

Khaled Bali: The next step is to implement automation on a large commercial field in the Imperial Valley with a sugar beet grower. The field we have selected is about 70 acres in size.

Irrigation Leader: What is your vision for the future of desert agriculture and surface irrigation?

Stephen Kaffka: The Imperial Valley is one of the most productive places anywhere in the world. It has the highest sugar beet yields in the world by quite a bit. The highquality durum wheat produced here is in high demand internationally, and the Imperial Valley is also an important producer of alfalfa, which has an international market. The difficulties are that it is a desert environment with a high demand for water. I think that if this irrigation technology works well in the Imperial Valley, it can serve as a model for irrigated agriculture in other hot desert and semiarid climates. This technology integrates all kinds of new digital capacities. Information on infiltration rates on a field scale become part of your data. You can use Internet technology to control the system. If you already have a highly efficient system and can save 10–20 percent of the water that you used previously, you can keep your operations viable and maintain or increase yields while lowering your water use and your greenhouse gas emissions.

Khaled Bali: We’re facing serious challenges when it comes to climate change and water supplies. We have to look at ways to increase efficiency and sustain agriculture with more efficient practices. IL

Khaled Bali is a statewide irrigation water management specialist based at the University of California’s Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center. He can be contacted at kmbali@ucanr.edu or (559) 646‑6541.

Stephen Kaffka is an extension specialist and an agronomist at the University of California, Davis. He can be contacted at srkaffka@ucdavis.edu.

irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE DREC.

Irrigation Leader: In general, how do the DREC and other extension centers find out about technological solutions that have the potential to benefit local farmers? Do technology companies usually reach out to you, or do you actively look for things that are worth testing?

industry in California. Most of our research projects are done with the growers. We operate nine research centers all over the state directly with the growers, and there is a UCCE presence in every county in California.

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Whooshh Innovations’ Proposal for Fish Passage on the Lower Snake River

Whooshh's fish passage devices send salmon and other species through a soft, flexible tube at a speed of 25 feet per second.

W

hooshh Innovations, based in Washington State, manufactures innovative fish passage structures that safely move migratory fish through tubes over dams in seconds, rather than the hours or days required by conventional fish ladders. In response to recent multibillion dollar proposals to breach four dams on the lower Snake River, Whooshh has countered with a $67 million plan to install its Passage Portal systems at the dams instead. In this interview, Whooshh Cofounder and CEO Vince Bryan tells us about how Whooshh’s proposal stands to protect fish and free up water while preserving hydropower on the Snake River.

Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

Vince Bryan: I’m one of the founders and the CEO of Whooshh. I’ve been in this position since the company started in 2008. We started out as Picker Technologies, focusing on agriculture, and then pivoted to something that is also important to agriculture: the conflict between agriculture, hydropower, and water.

Vince Bryan: Our primary focus is on fish passage—assisting fish past barriers. We all grew up learning about how fish ladders help fish to pass barriers and dams, but they are expensive and don’t adapt to changes in the environment.

In many cases, the fish have not adapted to them either.

Fish ladders spill a lot of water, since water is continuously going down them. We are trying to address the problem of

34 | IRRIGATION LEADER | November/December 2021

Irrigation Leader: Would you tell us about your fish portal device?

Vince Bryan: The Whooshh Passage Portal is our most advanced fish passage system. The fish swim into the system and go up a ramp to a false weir. It dewaters the fish for a fraction of a second and we image the fish from three different angles. We get a perfectly clear image of every fish, and a computer calculates its size of the fish and identifies it by species. We can make sorting decisions based on those factors. The fish is directed into one of several tubes that is appropriate for it. If it’s an invasive species that should not be put over the dam, it can even be removed from the river system entirely. We can put wild fish over the dam and deliver hatchery fish to the hatchery. If we want to send the fish over the dam, it enters what the press has frequently called our salmon cannon. A pressure differential is created between the front end and the back end of the fish that sends the fish over the barrier through a soft, flexible tube at a speed of 25 feet per second. That pressure differential is not harmful to the fish, and we create a frictionless environment inside the tube with enough mist so the fish can exchange oxygen and remain cool. We use just a few gallons of water per hour to create the mist. We can move up to 40 fish per minute.

Irrigation Leader: Would your system work as a replacement for a traditional fish ladder system? irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF WHOOSHH INNOVATIONS.

Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your company.

getting fish past barriers while avoiding excessive spilling and protecting fish health.

Vince Bryan: That’s the whole intention here: to create a system that moves fish through the watershed at a quicker rate and that is safer for the fish. Our system also improves fish health because it eliminates the need for the fish to expend all the energy necessary to climb a fish ladder.

They can enter our system, get to the top of the dam, and continue their journey, rather than spending days climbing a ladder and then having to rest in the reservoir once they make it up. We’ve done a comparison study on the Columbia River that showed that the fish that went through the Whooshh system ended up an extra 100 kilometers (62 miles) further up the river a week after passing the dam than those that went up a ladder. Climate change puts extra stress on fish, which means that this is even more important.

Our objective is to get fish through waterways more quickly so that they have more energy and can successfully spawn.

This also allows them to reach the cooler waters of their spawning grounds more quickly.

Irrigation Leader: How many Passage Portal systems do you have installed today, and where are they?

Vince Bryan: The Passage Portal system is our newest system. We did a demonstration project at Chief Joseph Dam in 2019. In 2020, we were called in for a project on the Fraser River in Canada, where there had been a rockslide.

That was not a demonstration. We worked in an incredibly remote location without roads, power, or a water hookup.

Within several months, we had installed two systems. We had to reinstall one system a couple times when a 100‑year flood event occurred. We were able to get thousands of salmon entering the system within about 90 days of the time when we received the contract. Fraser River was our biggest Passage Portal installation: It was a six-tube system that could cover the full range of species we expected, including sockeye, pinks, Chinooks, Coho, and steelhead.

Right now, we are in the planning stages of several other installations ranging from Oregon to the East Coast, and we are in discussions with potential customers in Sweden. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed a lot of the permit approvals and hence our work on some of those projects. They will likely be completed in 2022.

The project at the Lower Snake River Dam and on the Columbia is the reason we started working on our technology. My family has property in Quincy, Washington, where we’ve grown grapes and apples for over 40 years. We could see the issues developing for years and observed the extreme measures that were being taken to try to help the fish. It was apparent that the conflicts over water use and fish passage needed different solutions. Our focus has been on the fish first, because if the fish aren’t safe and don’t reach the spawning grounds, we haven’t solved the problem. At the same time, we’ve been figuring out how to get the fish through the system more efficiently and how to make better use of the water, which already has many demands on it. irrigationleadermagazine.com

Whooshh's fish passage devices send fish past barriers in seconds, rather than the hours or days required by conventional fish ladders.

Irrigation Leader: Would you lay out the current concerns about the dams on the lower Snake River and explain why some are proposing their breach?

Vince Bryan: Those who are proposing the breach are technology-focused experts. They’ve seen that there’s a problem, and their solution is to take down the dams and hope it all returns to the way it was. That can work if you’re in a watershed that hasn’t changed. That’s not the case for the lower Snake River and the Columbia basin. We need to be open to other solutions.

We have made a counterproposal, suggesting the installation of our systems at those dams. Our proposal would cost $67 million, including the estimated costs of the civil work the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers might have to do to make the changeover. That turned out to be about 500 times less than the Simpson proposal. The key thing is that it can be done right away, and the water savings can pay for that system over a period of 10 years. Our calculations assume that the water currently going down the fish ladders could produce additional hydropower.

In our proposal, we looked at what has been happening at the lower Snake River dams over the last 20 years. At the same time that we have seen the salmon populations go down, a higher number of shad have been trying to cross those dams in the same ladders. Shad are not an invasive species, but they’re nonnative and might breed at the same time as many of the salmon. Salmon don’t like migrating in the ladders, and being in a crowded situation may cause them to delay. Our proposal was focused on improving the habitat for the salmon. We wanted to help the adult salmon to migrate upstream by removing the shad from the area.

Shad have a 2‑year life cycle, so you can effectively eliminate them from migrating within the ladders in a couple of years so that they do not crowd the salmon.

November/December 2021 | IRRIGATION LEADER

| 35

We would also use our scanning and sorting technologies to deliver the salmon over those dams in a fraction of the time while also making an accurate count of every fish that comes through the system. Today, a human counter actually looks through a window and counts fish for 8 hours a day. The total number is estimated based on those numbers, and we make decisions based on those estimates. Our system would provide an accurate count of each fish and an image of each fish. We would know whether a fish was coming into a system already injured and could determine whether its wounds would prevent it from reaching its spawning grounds. or if the fish was in good enough condition to make it. When we had a scanner in Bonneville a couple of years ago, we were able to report that 14 percent of the Chinook salmon coming through the dam in the month of May had a major injury.

Many were caused by the pinnipeds below that dam. You

Numerous fish passage tubes stretch over a dam.

36 | IRRIGATION LEADER | November/December 2021

Irrigation Leader: What are the next steps for your proposal?

Vince Bryan: We don’t usually go public with our ideas like this. This is a unique situation, because the lines have been drawn and there’s so much litigation going on. Even the states and tribes are not in full agreement on these issues. Over the last 20 years, these disagreements have prevented action.

In looking at the situation, we have been working to educate the state and federal legislative offices about our systems and our mission: to save the fish, feed the planet, and increase clean energy production. If we can bring this to the attention of the public, it can help politicians push for proposals and bring money to the solution rather than continue with unproductive arguments. By publishing our proposal, we’re reaching out to the taxpayers and telling them that we have worked on technology with these problems in mind. For the last 10 years, we’ve been doing the necessary research and studies, and we have the technology, including the Passage Portal and other fish passage systems.

We have also started selling stock in our company to the general public. You don’t have to be an accredited investor to do so; you can do it through a Federal Communications Commission–licensed platform called Start Engine. Part of the strategy is getting people involved in what we’re doing and bringing that bigger mouthpiece to the message. When we are talking with politicians and agencies, it helps to show there are people in their local jurisdictions who support our company and want to see this solution to move forward.

We have been advocating and educating for years now on what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and how we’re going about it. It’s time for execution. When it comes to governmentowned dams like those on the lower Snake River, this requires political pressure. To all those who earn their living from farming, I would say that there’s an opportunity here to get involved. It makes a difference when farmers speak up with solutions to these problems. We cannot give up here: The solutions are at hand; we just have to get them deployed. IL Vince Bryan is a cofounder and the CEO of Whooshh Innovations. For more about Whooshh Innovations, visit www.whooshh.com.

irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF WHOOSHH INNOVATIONS.

could predict that those fish were not going to make it to their spawning grounds due to things that happened below the dam. That gives us better decisionmaking data.

The fish ladders are helpful, but when you have multiple dams in a row, especially high-head dams like the ones on the Columbia and Snake Rivers, as well as changing water conditions that are causing the water to warm up as the season progresses, we can’t afford delays in the fish’s migration through the system.

We need 2 percent or more of the fish to return to their spawning grounds in order to have abundant growth. We think that more than 2 percent of the fish come back to the mouth of the river, but less than 2 percent reach their spawning grounds.

We want to fix that and provide a more natural habitat without nonnative fish in the ladders and reservoirs.

This is something we can do now, as opposed to years from now. It would be parallel to what we did at Fraser River, and we’d have data on the results immediately. If we do all that in the 10 years described in the Simpson proposal before anything is done with the dams, then we can reverse the trends we’ve been witnessing. We can’t prove that until we do it, but there is sound logic and science behind it, and

there’s nothing to be lost in the process. It’s an opportunity for us to rethink our approach to the problem, using technology rather than assuming that a natural recovery will occur after removing the lower Snake River dams.

The biggest existential threat to all of us, including the fish, is climate change. Hydropower is a part of that solution, and it is not likely to go away because of that threat. As water becomes a more precious resource, the need to use it as efficiently as possible becomes greater.

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Evans Equipment: Selling Top-Quality Refurbished Work Equipment to Irrigation Districts

A Caterpillar D11T bulldozer sold by Evans Equipment to Kennewick Irrigation District.

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vans Equipment Inc. buys, refurbishes, and sells Caterpillars and other heavy work equipment, often disassembling the machines to the frame and completely rebuilding them. This allows the company to sell top-grade equipment at 50–60 percent of the cost of new machines. Evans’s customers include irrigation districts, and it is interested in working with more in the future.

In this interview, Brad Evans tells us more about the history and current activities of his family’s business.

Irrigation Leader: Please tell our readers about your background and the history of your company.

42 | IRRIGATION LEADER | November/December 2021

Irrigation Leader: Do you focus exclusively on Caterpillar machinery?

Brad Evans: Not exclusively, but that is the main type of equipment we work on. We work on other types, such as Hitachi and Komatsu, from time to time, but we have found that our potential customers are most interested in Caterpillar.

Irrigation Leader: What was your father’s vision when he started the business?

Brad Evans: When he worked for a Caterpillar dealer in Kansas City years ago as a territory salesman, my father quickly saw that the dealership’s philosophy was to focus on selling new. Whenever he was trying to sell used equipment, it was usually still in the same condition it had been in when it was traded in. Caterpillar dealers generally frowned upon the idea of investing a lot of money into the repairs necessary irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF EVANS EQUIPMENT.

Brad Evans: The business was founded as an independent dealer focused on buying and selling used equipment in 1965 by my father, Tom Evans, and a partner who had previously worked with him at a Caterpillar dealership. After they had built a solid foundation over many years in business, my brother Bryce Evans and I joined the company. Around the same time, the company was officially renamed Evans Equipment Inc., after the remaining partner was bought out.

At our facility, we repair equipment that is not ready to be completely reconditioned or disassembled. However, when necessary, we also have the capability of disassembling

equipment to the bare frame, rebuilding all the components, and making it run like new. That’s been the cause of our success over the years.

to put used equipment into a first-class condition. That’s what he wanted to do.

Irrigation Leader: Would you tell us more about your father's background?

Brad Evans: My father, Tom Evans, who just passed away about 2 years ago, worked every day, even past his 91st birthday. He was having just as much fun at Evans Equipment as he did when he started the business in 1965. He started out selling Ford vehicles with his father in a small, rural town in Missouri. If you can believe it, he was approached by someone whom he sold a vehicle

or three states over that used big equipment. From there, we started working on the bigger dozers, trucks, and loaders.

Eventually, we made some contacts with European dealers. I remember our first international transaction in 1983, which happened to be a large spread of German equipment that was used on a big highway project in the middle of the desert outside Baghdad, Iraq. That was our first taste of international business. From then on, the world truly shrank. We did a lot of business in Russia during the 1990s, as well as in Asia, Australia, and Europe. It’s not uncommon at all to buy and sell from one part of the world to the other. That’s one of the things that fascinated my dad—how small the world had become over the course of his life and career. We were proud and grateful that we had a chance to work with dad all these years. He was very well respected throughout the industry. We had a lot of clients whom he dealt with for 30–40 years.

Irrigation Leader: How many employees do you have?

A Caterpillar D11T bulldozer is delivered to Kennewick Irrigation District by Anchor Trucking Inc.

to whose son happened to work for the Caterpillar dealer in Kansas City. That individual told my father, “You ought to apply for a position at the dealership. They’re looking for a salesman, and I think you’d be an excellent salesman.” My dad went home and told my mom, “You know, I think I’m probably just going to stay here. I’m happy selling Fords.” My mom said, “Tom, that’s fine.

They probably wouldn’t hire you anyway.” That bit of reverse psychology was the best salesmanship in the history of the Evans family. He went to Kansas City 2 or 3 days later and applied, and they selected him out of several candidates, even though he was the only one who had zero experience in the Caterpillar industry. He went on to be a territory salesman for the next 10 years.

He made the move away from Caterpillar at the age 39.

When he left, he took the used-equipment manager and the dealership’s top two mechanics, so when they opened the new business refurbishing equipment and selling to our local market, they hit the ground running. We then expanded to a three- or four-state area. When my brother and I got out of school, we realized that we needed to expand outside the Midwest, because there wasn’t a lot of highway work going on at the time. We discovered that there were coalfields two irrigationleadermagazine.com

Brad Evans: We have around 30 employees. We are busy year round, either repairing or completely rebuilding machines.

Bryce and I have the same philosophy as our dad regarding our team: It’s important to the success of the company to surround yourself with good-quality, competent employees whom you take care of. We’re proud that in all our years in business, we’ve never laid off any of our employees.

Most of our machines are not sold in our local market.

For example, we are doing business with Kennewick Irrigation District (KID), which is located in central Washington State, halfway across the country. We buy and sell machines all over the United States and around the world. We’re in the middle of the country and right on the interstate. Freight is getting to be a pretty expensive part of the equipment business, but it does not prevent us from consummating a transaction.

Irrigation Leader: Would you tell us about your business with KID? Brad Evans: We have sold KID four large Caterpillar 657 scrapers. These are midlife machines that did not need to be rebuilt, but we have completely processed them in our shop. We’ve done all the necessary repairs, starting with things as minor as fixing oil leaks, to make sure that everything is extremely tight and that it will be in excellent working condition when it hits the ground out in Washington. We ensured that they have excellent brakes, which is important in big scrapers. KID has also acquired a Caterpillar D11T, the largest dozer that Caterpillar makes, which it will be using to move a lot of material.

We disassembled that particular machine to the bare frame in our shop and completely rebuilt it from the frame up, including a new, out-of-crate engine assembly. That machine is 850‑horsepower and is powered by a Caterpillar November/December 2021 | IRRIGATION LEADER

| 43

The D11T bulldozer eventually purchased by KID was completely disassembled in Evans Equipment’s shop and rebuilt from the frame up.

C32 engine. The powertrain has been completely gone through, and we installed a complete new undercarriage.

Everything else has been processed here as well, so it looks and runs just like a brand-new tractor.

Irrigation Leader: Is there a general rule of thumb for how much customers can save by buying your refurbished used equipment instead of buying brand new?

Brad Evans: In this particular circumstance, without giving exact prices, the machines are close to half the price of what a new machine would cost. The savings depend on the machine, but the number is usually fairly close to that.

Sometimes, it may be 60–65 percent, but usually, it’s in the 50–60 percent range.

Irrigation Leader: What’s an example of equipment you sell to the mining industry?

Brad Evans: Basically, a smorgasbord of all the main production machines as well as all the support machines. We sell the mining industry a lot of trucks—100‑ton trucks and up. A lot of the mining folks have a need for large dozers like the one we sold to KID. We’ve got six more that we’re getting ready to process—big D10s and D11s. Currently, we have the biggest motor grader Caterpillar makes on our yard, a 24M that we have remanufactured from the bare frame. Only the largest of the mines are able to use motor graders of that size. If they have a lot of trucks, they also need a lot of 10‑ to 20‑yard-size wheel loaders.

Irrigation Leader: What’s the biggest truck that you’ve worked on?

44 | IRRIGATION LEADER | November/December 2021

Brad Evans: They should know that we have a large quantity of machines available for whatever type of work they have within their districts, including new construction of the kind that KID is undertaking. We sell earth movers, big dozers, and motor graders. If it has been processed through our shop, it’s something that will hit the ground running whenever it gets to its destination.

Irrigation Leader: What is Evans Equipment’s business philosophy?

Brad Evans: We have a lot of philosophies, but one thing that my dad always said was, “The quality of the equipment we supply has to match the quality of our company.” You have to make all the necessary repairs to make it function.

But most importantly, when you do all those things, you can never sell to somebody just once. That’s always been the key to our success. If we do sell somebody a machine, we’re going to sell to them many more in the future as well.

Irrigation Leader: Is there another generation that is cued up to take over?

Brad Evans: Around 7 years ago, one of Bryce’s sons joined the company to learn the business that his grandfather founded and that his dad and I own and operate on a daily basis. I also have a son who is currently at the University of Missouri. He has expressed interest in possibly joining the company in the future, and if he chooses to do that, I think he’d be a good addition.

His grandfather would be pleased to see the legacy of Evans Equipment Inc. as the third generation gets further involved. IL Brad Evans is the president of Evans Equipment Inc. He can be contacted at (660) 463‑2204.

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF EVANS EQUIPMENT.

Brad Evans: We’ve rebuilt some 150‑ton Caterpillar rock trucks, and we have owned quite a few that are bigger than that, but never brought them into our facility to work on.

We have sold them at the location where we purchased them. As for dozers, the D11 is the biggest tractor that Caterpillar makes. I mentioned we’re working on the biggest motor grader Caterpillar makes; we’ve done several of those over the years.

Irrigation Leader: What is your message to irrigation districts? What should their general managers and boards of directors know about Evans Equipment?

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JOB LISTINGS

Does your organization have a job listing you would like to advertise in our pages? Irrigation Leader provides this service to irrigation districts, water agencies, and hydropower facilities free of charge. For more information, please email Kris Polly at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

CARLSBAD IRRIGATION DISTRICT GENERAL MANAGER Location: Carlsbad, New Mexico Deadline: Open until filled Salary: Based on qualifications RESPONSIBILITIES: +D irects the activities of the district’s 30 personnel in administering, operating, and maintaining the water storage, delivery and the facilities of the project. +O versees the contractual operation and maintenance on three BOR dams on the Pecos River. Provides a recommended annual operating budget for approval by the Board. +R epresents the district on federal, state, and local levels. +W orks on operation and contractual matters on a continual basic with federal and state agencies as necessary.

REQUIREMENTS: +S uperior oral and written communication skills and a demonstrated ability to interact effectively on behalf of the district and to stress the value of protecting the project’s water rights, the district’s operation authorities, and proving service to its members. +W orking knowledge of the operations of an irrigation district and ability to project a positive image of the organization and to stress the value of irrigated agriculture.

For more information: Administrative Assistant, Carlsbad Irrigation District, 5117 Grandi Road, Carlsbad, NM, (575)236‑6390 or e-mail: cid@plateautel.net.

To apply: submit a cover letter, resume, and three references to: cid@plateautel.net or mail to: Carlsbad Irrigation District, 5117 Grandi Road, Carlsbad, NM 88220.

OAKDALE IRRIGATION DISTRICT GENERAL MANAGER Location: Oakdale, CA Deadline: Open until filled Salary: Based on qualifications RESPONSIBILITIES: +P rovides oversight of irrigation and water utility operations, personnel matters, fiscal control, and safeguarding District assets.

50 | IRRIGATION LEADER | November/December 2021

+D evelops and maintains active relationships with local, state/federal agencies, elected policymakers as well as the private industry.

REQUIREMENTS: +C ollege degree in engineering, construction, public administration, business administration, economics, industrial relations, government, or related field.

Additional qualifying experience and/or education may be substituted. +M inimum of five years of successful experience in a high level administrative position. +U nderstanding of California Water Law, Government Code, Environmental Law, Public Records Act, Employment Law, Contract Law and California water rights related to both pre-1914 and post-1914 rights and storage.

For more information: contact Kim Bukhari, HR Administrator at (209) 840‑5519 or go to www.oakdaleirrigation.com/employment To apply: submit a cover letter, resume, and three references to: kbukhari@oakdaleirrigation.com or mail to: Oakdale Irrigation District, 1205 East F Street, Oakdale, CA 95361

LEAN COORDINATOR Location: Adelanto, CA & Orem, UT Deadline: Open until filled Salary: Based on qualifications RESPONSIBILITIES: +L ead evaluation of production processes needing improvement and recommend solutions to management. +W ork with management/supervision, Operations, QA, and Maintenance to develop best practices. +D rive process improvement through statistical analysis and Lean toolbox. +O ptimize manufacturing processes to attain maximum safety, product quality, efficiency, and repeatability. +T rain and mentor department subject-matter experts in the application of the continuous improvement system.

REQUIREMENTS: +B achelor’s degree in Engineering or a technical discipline desired. +M inimum 3 years business operations, plant engineering or manufacturing experience to include 1‑2 years of process improvement program proven success. +U nderstanding of welding concepts and liquid industrial coating applications. +C ertification in Lean Manufacturing processes strongly preferred.

For more information: contact Nick Hidalgo, Talent Acquisition at nhidalgo@nwpipe.com, or go to www.nwpipe.com/careers. irrigationleadermagazine.com

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Phoenix

January 26 —27, 2022

JOIN US FOR THE 2022 IRRIGATION LEADER OPERATIONS AND MANAGEMENT TRAINING WORKSHOP About the Workshop

Workshop Details

Irrigation Leader magazine, after a COVID gap year, is sponsoring the 2022 Irrigation Leader Operations and Management Training Workshop. This year’s theme, “Prospering in Uncertain Times,” will focus on managing labor issues, insurance, and finance and finding new ways to reduce costs and add revenue. The purpose of the workshop is to provide an opportunity for general managers and directors of irrigation districts to discuss ideas and exchange information on a variety of district operations-and-managementrelated issues and to build out-of-state working relationships. The issues and topics to be covered have been suggested by general managers and board directors.

Date: January 26–27, 2022 Registration: $550.00 Vendor: $1,000.00 Location: Crowne Plaza Phoenix Airport Hotel 4300 East Washington Street Phoenix, Arizona 85034

Workshop Topics: -Effective public communications/managing a crisis -Building public good will -Bureau of Reclamation grant program changes -Private financing options -Federal COVID mandates -Creating an irrigation insurance pool -Unique sources of revenue -Things to know for the new manager/board member -Zero-based budgeting -Firing an employee the right way -Renewable energy/revenue sources -Buying rebuilt construction equipment -ATLIS electric truck factory tour

For personalized hotel registration assistance, please phone Kristen Thomas at (202) 656-1684.

Hotel Information: Book your room NOW at a rate of only $169.00 per night. Call (855) 729-6011 to make your reservation no later than Thursday, December 30, 2021, to take advantage of the special 2022 Irrigation Leader Workshop rate.

How to Sign Up Space is limited, so register on our website today!

Learn more and purchase your registration at irrigationleadermagazine.com/ If you have any questions, please contact Kris Polly at (703) 517-3962 or kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

Upcoming Events November 3–4 Texas Rural Water Association, Fall Management Conference (North), Dallas, TX November 3–5 National Conference of State Legislatures, Legislative Summit, Tampa, FL November 8–10 National Water Resources Association, 90th Annual Conference, Phoenix, AZ November 17–18 Kansas Water Office, Kansas Governor’s Water Conference, Manhattan, KS November 22–23 Nebraska Water Resources Association and Nebraska State Irrigation Association, Joint Conference, Kearney, NE November 29–December 3 Association of California Water Agencies, Fall Conference & Exhibition, Pasadena, CA December 6–10 Irrigation Association, Irrigation Show & Education Week, San Diego, CA December 7–10 North Dakota Water Users Association, 58th Annual Joint North Dakota and Upper Missouri Water Convention and Irrigation Workshop, Bismarck, ND December 14–16 Colorado River Water Users Association, Annual Conference, Las Vegas, NV December 14–16 National Ground Water Association, Groundwater Week, Nashville, TN, and virtual January TBD National Water Resources Association, Leadership Forum, Phoenix, AZ January 4–6 Idaho Irrigation Equipment Association, Show & Conference, Idaho Falls, ID January 12–13 Four States Irrigation Council, Annual Meeting, Fort Collins, CO January 18–20 Ground Water Management Districts Association, Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX January 21–22 Texas Rural Water Association, Rural Water Conference, Round Rock, TX January 26–27 Irrigation Leader Operations and Management Training Workshop, Phoenix, AZ January 31–February 3 Nevada Water Resources Association, Annual Conference Week, Las Vegas, NV February TBD Idaho Water Users Association, Ditch Rider and Applicator Workshop Series, Southern Idaho locations TBD February 17–18 Ditch and Reservoir Company Alliance, Annual Conference, Colorado Springs, CO

Past issues of Irrigation Leader are archived at IRRIGATIONLEADERMAGAZINE.COM /IrrigationLeader

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