Volume 9 Issue 2
February 2018
leadership at the
Truckee-Carson Irrigation District
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CONTENTS FEBRUARY 2018 Volume 9, Issue 2
Irrigation Leader is published 10 times a year with combined issues for July/August and November/December by Water Strategies LLC 4 E Street SE Washington, DC 20003 STAFF: Kris Polly, Editor-in-Chief John Crotty, Senior Writer Matthew Dermody, Writer Julia Terbrock, Graphic Designer Capital Copyediting LLC, Copyeditor SUBMISSIONS: Irrigation Leader welcomes manuscript, photography, and art submissions. However, the right to edit or deny publishing submissions is reserved. Submissions are returned only upon request. For more information, please contact John Crotty at (202) 698-0690 or John.Crotty@waterstrategies.com. ADVERTISING: Irrigation Leader accepts one-quarter, half-page, and full-page ads. For more information on rates and placement, please contact Kris Polly at (703) 517-3962 or Irrigation.Leader@waterstrategies.com.
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Coming Together in a Crisis: Leadership at the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District
5 Coming Together in a Crisis By Kris Polly
ASSOCIATION PROFILE 12 Nevada Water Resources Association By Jeff Johnson
IRRIGATED CROP 16 Teff in Nevada
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22 Tackling Aquatic Weeds at the Twin Falls Canal Company By Brian Olmstead 26 The History of Hydropower: Gilbert Gilkes & Gordon Ltd.
WATER LAW 32 Seeking Settlements and Solutions: A Conversation With John Penn Carter
Copyright Š 2018 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. /IrrigationLeader
@IrrigationLeadr
COVER PHOTO: Truckee-Carson Irrigation District Board President Ernie Schank and General Manager Rusty Jardine.
IRRIGATION LEADER
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE TRUCKEE-CARSON IRRIGATION DISTRICT.
6 Coming Together in a Crisis: Leadership at the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District
THE INNOVATORS
CIRCULATION: Irrigation Leader is distributed to irrigation district managers and boards of directors in the 17 western states, Bureau of Reclamation officials, members of Congress and committee staff, and advertising sponsors. For address corrections or additions, please contact our office at Irrigation.Leader@waterstrategies.com.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE TRUCKEE-CARSON IRRIGATION DISTRICT.
Coming Together in a Crisis It has been 10 years since the breach of the Truckee Canal, which flooded hundreds of homes in the city of Fernly, Nevada, and surrounding agricultural lands. It has been 10 tense years of investigations, accusations, and litigation, tearing at the seams of the agricultural community in northwestern Nevada. Fortunately, communities heal. And sometimes, a crisis can bring communities closer together. Truckee-Carson Irrigation District (TCID) is at the center of agriculture in northwestern Nevada. TCID operates and maintains the Newlands Project, one of the first projects built under the Reclamation Act of 1902. The project includes the Lahontan Reservoir and more than 300 miles of drains and canals, which provide irrigation water from the Truckee and Carson Rivers to 57,000 acres in the Lahontan Valley. The Sierra Nevada had record rainfall in 2017, which filled reservoirs in desperate need of water due to years of drought. For TCID, the overabundance of precipitation posed a real challenge: Lahontan Reservoir levels rose to dangerously high levels. But, like all good irrigation districts, TCID, in conjunction with the Bureau of Reclamation, state agencies, and county and local government, provided leadership and real solutions to move nearly 200,000 acre-feet of water out of the Lahontan Reservoir and away from the cities of Fernly and Fallon. Hand in hand with its local and state leaders and federal partners, TCID built a new spillway and weir to divert the IRRIGATION LEADER
By Kris Polly
excess water from one of its canals. With the support of a farmers brigade, the district dug a 16-mile, 60-foot-wide ditch to move water from Carson Lake into the low-lying desert. These are the kinds of can-do solutions that save lives. In this issue, we speak with TCID General Manager Rusty Jardine and Board President Ernie Schank about TCID’s efforts to prevent flooding in the Lahontan Valley and preserve water for its farmers and how those efforts built good will in the community. TCID intends to build off that good will to sustain its farmers, its economy, and its community. Mr. Schank explained, “We have to sustain both the ecosystem and the community for the future, and that will require some modernization, but it has to be done with an eye to how it will affect people who live here. If we can do that, the project may well be here sustaining this region for another 100 years.” IL Kris Polly is editor-in-chief of Irrigation Leader magazine and president of Water Strategies LLC, a government relations firm he began in February 2009 for the purpose of representing and guiding water, power, and agricultural entities in their dealings with Congress, the Bureau of Reclamation, and other federal government agencies. He may be contacted at Kris.Polly@waterstrategies.com.
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Coming Together in a Crisis: Leadership at the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District Resolving old disputes and hard feelings is a difficult but necessary step toward ensuring lasting cooperation. The Truckee-Carson Irrigation District (TCID) had to do precisely that to forge a better relationship with the Bureau of Reclamation, which allowed the district to improve its water infrastructure, address urgent emergency situations, and protect its communities. TCID General Manager Rusty Jardine and Board President Ernie Schank were among those who led the effort to resolve the district’s disputes with Reclamation and other stakeholders. They have also helped pave the way for new leadership to lead the district into the future. Mr. Jardine and Mr. Schank spoke with Irrigation Leader’s editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, about the origins of the district’s challenging relationship with Reclamation, how it was able to overcome those disputes, and the benefits that the improved dynamic has brought to the district and its water users. Kris Polly: Can you give us an overview of the size of your district, its water sources, and the number of people you serve? Ernie Schank: This district is approximately 60,000 acres. The original project size was 72,800 acres, and it was all agricultural land at that time. We serve the Fernley area and all of the Carson Desert Sink, which is in the Fallon area. We have 350 miles of canals and laterals that serve water, as well as the exact same amount of drainage ditches. That makes us responsible for approximately 700 miles of ditches either for delivery or drainage. The project has one major dam, the Lahontan Reservoir, which has a capacity of 312,000 acre-feet of water when completely full. We can also divert water from the 720,000 acre-foot reservoir of Lake Tahoe for drought protection purposes. Rusty Jardine: We have approximately 2,500 water users in the district, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is our biggest water user due to the government initiatives
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In late November 2016, Lahontan Reservoir was storing only 4,000 acre-feet of water.
IRRIGATION LEADER
to purchase water rights for wetlands purposes. FWS owns 13 percent of the district’s water rights, and it uses that water to serve the Stillwater Refuge. There is a chapter of the Nevada Revised Statute that provides for that use, and we started our life as a district in 1918 by petition. Our water is stored in Lahontan Reservoir and Lake Tahoe, which means we have two major river systems that contribute to our water supply. One is in Alpine County, and the other comes from Lake Tahoe through the Truckee River. We derive our supply from the Truckee Canal and the Truckee River directly to the Truckee Division. The canal originates off the river at Derby Dam, which is the first facility ever built by Reclamation. Under state law, a water right is appurtenant to the lands within the projects, meaning the landowners hold the corresponding water rights for their land. This is different from many other districts under Reclamation’s jurisdiction. Ernie Schank: Our project was one of the first five Reclamation projects to be authorized in 1903. The original authorization was for approximately $7 million, and that money was spent before the drainage system could be built. After the project was built, people would water their crops, but the water would stand after the land was watered more than a few times because the water table was so high. Hence, TCID was organized in 1918 under Nevada state law so that bonding could be entered into to complete the drainage system. Up until the early 1960s, the project mostly went along without issue, but at that time, two factors became more prominent. One of those was the Endangered Species Act, and the other was legislation settling Native American water rights claims. Our evolution as a district really began during that time, and we had to tighten our belts in order to comply with the rules and regulations that have been imposed on us as a result. All those factors created tension that existed between water users and Reclamation until approximately 2 years ago. Kris Polly: What led to the improvement in relations between Reclamation and the district?
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE TRUCKEE-CARSON IRRIGATION DISTRICT.
Rusty Jardine: The pivotal development was that we finally resolved much of our outstanding litigation. One element was the litigation that originated in 2008 after the embankment breach in Fernley. That incident resulted in nearly $1 billion in tort claims, and we finally settled with the plaintiffs in that class action suit for $18.4 million. We held interest in the storage rights and dam works at Donner Lake, and we were able to sell that interest for a sum that was sufficient to pay off the settlement. Ernie Schank: We were involved in numerous lawsuits going back to the 1960s and 1970s, both as plaintiffs and as defendants. There was a combination of legal issues that IRRIGATION LEADER
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have clouded us for decades, and we were able to settle them all by resolving the outstanding litigation against us. In 2008, a month after the breach, we were served with a federal indictment against four of our employees, including our district manager, as well as the district itself. Eventually there was a settlement, and the federal court set aside all the indictments on the condition that the district manager resign and a new manager be appointed. We had an interim manager before hiring Rusty for the position. Settling the litigation caused a generational shift, which combined with the changes we made, including hiring Rusty, brought about this improved dynamic. It was difficult to convince our people to bury the hatchet and end the litigation, but they eventually agreed we were better off. Kris Polly: How has that new dynamic with Reclamation paid off for the district?
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Rusty Jardine: In 2017, we received over 100,000 acre-feet of water in Lahontan Reservoir in only 10 days. The reservoir’s capacity is only 40,000 acre-feet, and forecasts showed that even more water was on its way. We had to quickly come up with plans for how to deal with that kind of runoff, and Reclamation was there with us every step of the way. Our project was never authorized or intended to be a flood control project, but we had to operate in a flood operations mode for over half of 2017. The success in that effort led to better outcomes for everyone involved. We were able to divert the runoff water around our community to prevent it from flooding any homes. Despite that success, our ongoing forecast models told us we would need more capacity to deal with the runoff over several months, and we decided to provide for diversion off the V Line canal, which is one of the canals that branches off from Carson Diversion Dam. The water was diverted IRRIGATION LEADER
LEFT: A farmer’s brigade came out to pave the way for Truckee-Carson Irrigation District’s big dig of 16 miles of lateral to direct flood waters around Fallon, Nevada. ABOVE: A sheet pile driver at work in the construction of the V Line weir to divert the excess water from the V Line canal.
off the canal, sent into the open-terrain desert, and out into the valley to what is known as Carson Lake. From there, the water went to multiple oversize culverts that we built with the help of the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT). Highway 95 bisects Carson Lake, and we had to install pipes to connect the two portions of the lake to hold the water without flooding the highway. Ernie Schank: When we began that effort at Highway 95, we did not have a structure to hold back the water while the work was being done. Fortunately, Reclamation designed an emergency weir that used available space in the canal. Some concrete work was also required to make the emergency spillway, but it only took 33 days for us to get everything built after we became aware of the problem. That kind of expediency is almost unheard of for Reclamation, particularly given all the environmental and engineering IRRIGATION LEADER
requirements. Another problem was that the water needed somewhere to go once Carson Lake reached its capacity limit. Before the project was built, water would go out into the Stillwater area, where there is now a large federal wildlife refuge. We had to move the water through the refuge and out into the Carson Sink. To do that, we had to cross another major highway, and we brought in NDOT to lay culverts as it had before. Lastly, we had to dig 17 miles of new lateral ditch to move the water to the refuge. This was also a big public relations boost for the district. We are not a flood management district, and we could not have done this work by ourselves. Reclamation, the city, the county, and the state all had to jump in and help in various ways. Reclamation personnel were also literally in the trenches with us, working to get these projects finished as quickly and efficiently as possible. We emerged from this incident with not only a better relationship with the various
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The Lahonton Reservoir approached full capacity on July 7, 2017, storing 305,500 acre-feet of water.
agencies, but also a better reputation in the community and new infrastructure to protect our communities.
have extra people who can step in at a moment’s notice and take over a position if necessary.
Kris Polly: What are some of TCID’s priorities for the future?
Rusty Jardine: We are coming to the end of our contract term with Reclamation, and we have to renegotiate that agreement in a few years. That will be very important for the district’s future. Over the course of the contract, we have strived to provide a greater level of water measurement and improve our delivery efficiency. We have come a long way, but we are still not where we need to be.
Rusty Jardine: One priority is to bring in and develop new, young leaders who can carry the torch in the future as people like Ernie and I prepare to step away from serving after so many years. A lot of institutional knowledge will be lost when Ernie and I step away, and we need to retain and pass on that knowledge to others who can continue to use it. Ernie Schank: The small population base we have in the district has always made it difficult to have a lot of depth at many of our positions. But with the end of the litigation, we have some money freed up that we are using to be at least two people deep at all district positions that are important to maintenance and operations. The goal is to ensure we
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Ernie Schank: Another goal for the next few years is to find the balance between meeting our environmental requirements and keeping the community vibrant. We have to sustain both the ecosystem and the community for the future, and that will require some modernization, but it has to be done with an eye to how it will affect people who live here. If we can do that, the project may well be here sustaining this region for another 100 years. IL IRRIGATION LEADER
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ASSOCIATION PROFILE
Nevada Water Resources Association By Jeff Johnson
Water for Many Uses A primary focus of NWRA has been uniting the individuals, organizations, agencies, and industries that rely
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on the state’s water resources. Nevada’s geography shapes its varying perspectives on water resources. In the south, the primary focus is the Colorado River and groundwater resources to serve a populous area, while the northern portion of the state focuses on agricultural activity. Agriculture is an important industry in the state, not only for the food and fodder it produces, but also for the green vistas and environmental benefits agriculture brings to many areas throughout the state. Dialogue and Education With a focus on education rather than advocacy, NWRA fosters free and open dialogue so that all Nevada’s water users can learn and discuss current and emerging issues IRRIGATION LEADER
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NEVADA WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION.
Originating more than 70 years ago as a focus group on water resources for the Nevada State Engineer’s Office, the Nevada Water Resources Association (NWRA) provides a collaborative approach to addressing current and emerging water issues within the state. With a growing membership of more than 300 individual members and 26 corporate partners, NWRA is committed to providing education, training, and networking opportunities that pools collective knowledge and resources to increase stewardship of Nevada’s water resources.
ASSOCIATION PROFILE In addition to courses on water rights, NWRA has been expanding its symposiums and panels to include the latest issues in water resources, such as best practices in well maintenance, artificial recharge, and lithium mining. As mining has been a mainstay in Nevada since the 1860s, NWRA expanded its educational programming and hosted a Mine Water Management Symposium at which professionals discussed the complexities of water management for mining operations. Considering the Silver State’s rich mining history and the recent uptick in lithium mining activities, this issue is of great importance to not only water professionals, but all Nevadans who benefit from this industry. Fostering Partnerships At the same time we are expanding our education efforts, we are partnering with other groups who have aligned goals. Recently, NWRA partnered with the Nevada Water Environment Association (NWEA) to produce The Water Spot, a publication dedicated to water resources issues in Nevada. Bringing water and wastewater professionals together, NWRA and NWEA are fostering collaboration within our discrete but related disciplines.
related to water resources, scientific research, and public policy. This concerted effort to set aside differences and emphasize dialogue and education provides a constructive path forward and is one of NWRA’s greatest strengths. NWRA invites all sectors across Nevada to participate equally in conversations about water issues, fostering an environment in which all opinions are heard and everyone can walk away with more knowledge about water. The concept that Nevada’s water resources serve many uses drives NWRA’s training and conferences. NWRA has provided training in a variety of water-related issues and disciplines. Taught by experts, the courses provide a solid foundation for anybody wanting to understand the history and complexity of water rights in the state of Nevada. IRRIGATION LEADER
Preparing for Nevada’s Water Future Looking to the future, we are preparing the next generation of water stewards. As part of our efforts to encourage participation and increase interest in water resources, NWRA allows college students from the northern and southern parts of Nevada to sit as active members on our board. We believe that this experience gets college students involved at a younger age, affording them opportunities to network and develop expertise. Most participants are studying geology, engineering, or water resource management, but NWRA does not want this to be a limiting factor. We encourage students in chemistry, geology, or public policy to participate—they can all bring value to the table. As we look at the likelihood of continued drought conditions, cooperation is the best way to discuss best practices and technology that could help Nevada stay ahead of emerging issues. Cooperation is what NWRA was founded on, and it is what we strive to continue in the future. IL
Jeff Johnson is the current president of the Nevada Water Resources Association. He also is the Water Resource Special Projects manager for the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA). For more information on the NWRA, please visit NVWRA.org.
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Teff IRRIGATED CROP
IN NEVADA
PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.
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IRRIGATION LEADER
O
IRRIGATED CROP
ne way for farmers to improve soil and reduce the risk of crop loss is to diversify crop rotations. More than a decade ago, a couple of farmers in northern Nevada’s Truckee-Carson Irrigation District—with the help and guidance of their local agricultural extension agent—started growing a staple of the highlands of the Horn of Africa, teff, to provide such diversity. Teff is the world’s smallest grain, but it produces a variety of items, including flour used for injera, a spongy Ethiopian flatbread, and high-quality hay for livestock and horses. Teff is high in protein and fiber and is gluten free. The crop is well suited to Nevada’s high elevations and arid climate, and its introduction has been nothing short of successful. According to the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, in 2016 Nevada farmers produced 2.6 million pounds of teff, valued at $1.2 million, across 2,000 acres. Rotating With Alfalfa Nevada agriculture has traditionally focused on the growth and production of alfalfa hay for feed. Nevada farmers dedicate more than 90 percent of the state’s irrigated acres to alfalfa production. The reliance on alfalfa puts producers at risk in times of drought or low commodity prices. For John Getto, owner of Desert Oasis Teff, growing teff came from his efforts to find a good rotation crop to work in with his alfalfa. Jay Davison, a forage and alternative crops specialist at the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, had been working on introducing northern Nevada farmers and ranchers to the crop. He connected Mr. Getto to a grower from Idaho interested in running test plots of teff. “We [Mr. Getto and his business partner] watched the test plots and thought teff would be a good rotation crop. We started 20–30 acres and worked our way up from there.” Real Water Savings Teff requires less water than alfalfa, which is a critical value for Nevada growers. The grass has a shallow root system, so it does well in rotation after alfalfa. Where wheat may take up to 10 irrigations in northern Nevada, teff requires half that. The area’s growing season is very short. Mr. Getto plants his teff seeds on or near the first of June and harvests in September. “Water here is a very big issue— we are limited in the water we get. All of it comes out of the Sierra Nevada. However, if you are short of water and you only have five or six irrigations, you can make your teff crop work.” Harvest While Mr. Getto has been farming in Fallon, Nevada, for more than 20 years, his new crop required new gear. “We had to buy special swathers for harvest. Teff is a tall grass that lays flat. You have to swath it in a windrow, let it dry for a few days, bring in a combine to pick it up and thrash it, and then haul it to a facility and bag it. We store it all here.” In fact, Desert Oasis Teff built a whole new facility for cleaning teff. “We keep track of each grower’s seeds; the growers gets paid on a clean grain. We clean it on size and then by weight. Then the clean product goes back into a big polywhite bag.” Growing the Market Desert Oasis Teff ’s customer base is growing. Mr. Getto first began selling to an Ethiopian restaurant in Reno. From there, the company staring selling to natural foods company Bob’s Red Mill, based in Portland, Oregon. “Now, we are starting to get some other outside people interested. We are going to try and market this ourselves—bag it and brand it. It is a good product, and we would like to get it moving.” IL
IRRIGATION LEADER
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THE INNOVATORS
Tackling Aquatic Weeds at the Twin Falls Canal Company
By Brian Olmstead
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streams or anywhere that farmer return flows could get to fish-bearing waters. Meeting the label requirements and holding times for the chemicals was also difficult, so we stopped using the products in most of our system. In 2007, Dr. Cody Gray, a researcher for UPI, came into our office and said he wanted to do some testing on our system with UPI’s new Endothall-based aquatic weed IRRIGATION LEADER
PHOTOS COURTESY OF TWIN FALLS CANAL COMPANY.
The Twin Falls Canal Company, located in southern Idaho, provides water from the Snake River to over 4,000 irrigators across 202,000 acres. Our system has a large number of dairy farms that primarily grow corn and alfalfa. Others irrigators raise potatoes, sugar beets, dry beans, garden beans, wheat, and barley. We first delivered water in 1905 via a gravity flow system out of the Snake River, and gravity remains the sole source of power for moving water on the system to this day. The water flows downhill from Milner Dam and into the irrigators’ farmland through our unlined earthen canals and laterals. We have two primary canals that are 65 and 50 miles long, in addition to 1,000 miles of smaller canals and laterals. While the Twin Falls system has proven to be durable and effective, we do face a number of persistent challenges. One such challenge is that our water supply on the Snake River has been under increasing strain in recent years due to growing municipal, industrial, and agricultural demand. There has been a moratorium on expanding agricultural acres over the past 20 years, because we have reached the limit of how much water demand the Snake River can support. Water supply is an issue all the time, which is why we try to use water conservation all the time as well. Aquatic weed management is another significant challenge. Unlined canals like ours create ideal conditions for weeds to grow. By midsummer, there is usually a large amount of algae and pondweed in the canal system. Historically, we used heavy anchor chains dragged behind tractors to remove weeds. We had five crews working all summer on chaining teams consisting of highly trained operators and some high school students or other workers cleaning screens and removing debris. In the larger canals, we also had six large trackhoes set up to remove moss during chaining operations. We would usually have to chain the entire canal system twice each summer, and we would chain many of the smaller ditches more often than that. It would take up to 20 of our operations and maintenance workers 2 weeks to chain drag the main canals every year, and smaller numbers of people the entire summer to drag all the laterals. In the 1960s, we began using chemical weed treatment products like Magnacide and Xylene, but we were limited in where and how we could apply them. We could not use those products near spillway gates that led into perennial
THE INNOVATORS
Caption caption caption caption caption caption.
The effects of endothall are clearly visible in this Twin Falls canal.
treatment products, Cascade and Teton. The products were not yet labeled for irrigation use, but Dr. Gray had spent nearly 2 years testing them for use in irrigation. In 2009, we applied for and received an emergency exemption to use these products, because we did not have any alternatives other than chain dragging. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allowed us to apply Cascade on a large IRRIGATION LEADER
portion of our system, and the first emergency treatment was successful. In December 2009, Cascade and Teton were labeled for use in irrigation canals for the 2010 growing season, and we have been relying on them for our aquatic weed control ever since. Our biggest aquatic weed issue in the canals was the presence of sago pondweed, which Cascade effectively combats. We did not use much Teton at first, but we have used it more and more in recent years as other weeds, like horned pondweeds, began to proliferate. Teton is more effective on those weeds, and we now use both products in combination. Cascade will travel farther but is not as effective against the algae and horned pondweed, whereas Teton is more effective against those weeds and algae but does not travel as far. In 2017, we had our best-ever year of pondweed/algae control using a series of primarily Teton treatments. We have 27 ditch riders and after using the UPI products for several years, they can now determine when a particular lateral or canal needs to be treated. There is also a lot of automation in the system, and if we see water levels rising in a stretch of canal with no increase in water flow, we know that there is something growing there. We do not want to wait until there is a water shortage to treat the canals. It is better to be proactive and treat them a few days before things reach that point. If there is a lot of mature pondweed in the canal and we kill it, the weed will break up and flow downstream and cause a mess for a few days before clearing up. More irrigation districts are using products like Cascade and Teton than ever before, but there are things they must understand before they begin applying the products. Every canal is different, and managers must know exactly what is in their canals and how best to treat them. At Twin Falls Canal Company, if the problem is just algae, we can often use copper products, but if we have algae and weeds growing in combination, we use Teton to treat both. Knowing the exact weeds that are present in the canal systems and their stage of growth is important to enacting effective treatment plans. Timing is a critical factor for adopting products like Cascade or Teton. Proactively addressing weed growth is much simpler and more cost effective than treating the canals after the weeds have caused a serious water shortage. We have not always had perfect timing, and several times aquatic weed treatment mistakes have forced us to pull out the anchor chains. We will always maintain our chain equipment and training so we can still use it in emergency situations. But if we time the Teton and Cascade treatments correctly, we can treat at least 90 percent of our system using just those two products. Overall, using these innovative products has been beneficial to Twin Falls Canal Company. They are a safer, faster, cheaper, and more thorough way for us to treat our system. IL
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THE INNOVATORS
The History of Hydropower Gilbert Gilkes & Gordon Ltd.
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onsistency and commitment are the hallmarks of long-term success in any industry, and hydropower is no exception. The long lifespan of hydropower facilities requires both producers and consumers of turbines or other hydropower components to plan for a relationship that can be measured in decades, or even centuries. Gilbert Gilkes & Gordon Ltd (Gilkes) is a hydropower manufacturing company in the United Kingdom that has prospered under that formula and continues to do so in its second century of business. Along with a perennial commitment to service and quality that allows its customers and owners all over the world to prosper, Gilkes provides turbines to the hydropower industry and pumping products to world-renowned blue-chip engine manufacturers. Darren Wager, sales director of Gilkes’ North American operations, has practiced this philosophy during his 20 years in the hydropower industry. Mr. Wager spoke with Irrigation Leader’s editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, about Gilkes’s rich history, the turbines and pumps it produces, and how its long-term vision has fostered its success and longevity. Kris Polly: What can you tell us about Gilkes’s history and products?
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Hydropower supplies 100 percent of the power to the city of Sitka, Alaska. In 2010, the city awarded Gilkes the contract to replace and expand its hydropower capacity. As part of the project, Gilkes installed three 7.140-megawatt Francis G150 reaction turbines.
machinery company in northwestern England and purchased the rights to a vortex turbine shortly thereafter. We soon realized we could power some of the farm machinery using the running water coming downstream from the hills, and the hydropower business grew from there.
Our current product makeup is evenly split between turbine and pump products. We also have an offshoot company focused on making investments in, and also solely developing, hydropower projects. Our products range from 50 kilowatts to 20 megawatts per single turbine IRRIGATION LEADER
PHOTOS COURTESY OF GILBERT GILKES & GORDON LTD.
Darren Wager: Gilkes will have been in business for 165 years this year, and we have been supplying hydro turbines since 1856. We are still family owned and are likely one of the oldest hydropower companies still in existence that has not been bought out by a larger corporate entity. We have sold hydropower equipment to nearly 40 percent of the world and have turbines on all seven continents, including Antarctica. The company started out as a farm
THE INNOVATORS unit. The designs are scalable to larger outputs if needed, but we have generally operated at or below the 20-megawatt level. Our products are focused more on medium- to high-head, as opposed to low-head, turbines. Turbines that are compatible with low head are something that we are possibly looking at developing solutions for in the future, but we do not currently have anything that can operate at those low levels. Kris Polly: What is the oldest Gilkes turbine that is still in service? Darren Wager: We have a turbine that is still operating that was installed in 1879 at a cotton mill that became a sawmill. The interesting aspect to this particular site is that there have been three Gilkes turbines in operation, with install dates of 1879, 1920, and 2008. That’s three Gilkes turbines installed in three different centuries, and all three are still operational today! Kris Polly: Have you worked with the Bureau of Reclamation or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers?
Gilkes’ North American Operations Sales Director Darren Wager.
“That high quality translates to reliability in the product, which leads to more reliable revenue for the plant owner.” —DARREN WAGER
Darren Wager: We have not had direct contracts with either, but our turbines are installed at some Reclamation facilities. We recently completed the Carter Lake and Lake Granby projects for the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, which successfully navigated the Lease of Power Privilege Program, adding hydropower to formerly nonpowered Reclamation dams. Kris Polly: Does Gilkes have refurbishment facilities in the United States?
PHOTO COURTESY OF DARREN WAGER.
Darren Wager: We do not have a dedicated American facility to refurbish our turbine equipment, but we contract that work out to specialized companies in this field when needed. In many cases, we have also sent turbine equipment and components in need of repair to our facilities in the United Kingdom and performed the refurbishment there. Kris Polly: How can Gilkes help owners of aging hydropower plants decide whether they should refurbish or simply replace their plants? Darren Wager: The most common tool we use to help customers with those decisions is direct communication. We typically do not refurbish turbine equipment made by IRRIGATION LEADER
other suppliers, generally focusing on equipment we manufacture. We have all the drawings and technical specifications for all our turbines, so it is easy for us to review those, examine the design, and figure out how to replicate it. We will sit down with the client, have an engineer perform an assessment, and develop a plan. The focus of such plans can include improving electrical output, increasing energy efficiency, or bringing the client’s systems up to modern standards. The biggest advancements in recent years have been in control systems, so that has been an area of emphasis for us for the past 2 decades. Increasing runner efficiencies has also been a specific focus of ours recently, and our inhouse research and development department has made some exciting improvements, with efficiency increases of 1 percent or more on our turbine runners. Kris Polly: What should every hydropower plant owner know about Gilkes?
Darren Wager: We develop true relationships with our clients, and we are not a company that bounces from one project to the next. Our history shows the benefits of our long-term commitment to our clients and the equipment we provide them. Whenever possible, we try to align ourselves with clients who share our long-term focus. One example is the Farmers Irrigation District [in Oregon], which has made a strong commitment to longevity and growth well into the future. That commitment has led the district on a path of modernizing its water delivery systems by eliminating open canals into enclosed pipes and replacing older turbines in a way that many other districts are seeking to emulate. The district is setting itself up for prosperity and success for generations. Quality is another hallmark of our products, and the number of turbines we have around the world that are still in operation after multiple decades speaks to the standards we build them to. That high quality translates to reliability in the product, which leads to more reliable revenue for the plant owner. We also stand behind our products long after any contractually mandated warranties expire. Those practices have allowed Gilkes to build a well-respected name in the industry, and upholding that reputation is part of the thought process we undertake with every project. IL
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WATER LAW
Seeking Settlements and Solutions A Conversation With John Penn Carter
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Kris Polly: Can you please give us a brief history of the various water conflicts you have been involved with in the West? John Carter: I come from a family of farmers, and my paternal great-grandfather helped build the canals in the Imperial Valley at the turn of the 20th century. My grandfather later became a farmer and reportedly grew the first iceberg lettuce crop in the valley. My father eventually took over the farming operations, and I worked there until I went to college and law school. At that same time, the U.S. Department of the Interior decided that the 160-acre limitation under the Reclamation Act should apply to the lands in the Imperial Valley, even though those lands had prior vested rights as a result of acquiring water rights under state law. I wrote an article for the law review about the inapplicability of the acreage limitation, and when IRRIGATION LEADER
PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN PENN CARTER.
Reaching mutually agreeable solutions to problems is never easy, and nowhere is this truer than in disputes over water rights. Such disputes often lead to lengthy and costly litigation that ultimately results in less-than-optimal solutions. Successfully negotiating a settlement can be a more difficult but ultimately more beneficial method of resolving complex water issues. John Penn Carter has made a career of negotiating and implementing such settlements. As a water attorney, he has had to convince opposing parties as well as his own clients that negotiated settlements are superior to litigation, to stay the course during difficult negotiations, and to only go to court as a last resort. Mr. Carter recently sat down with Irrigation Leader’s editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, to discuss the cases he has successfully resolved throughout his career, how he was able to achieve settlements in difficult cases, and how parties involved in water disputes can often obtain better outcomes at the negotiation table than in the courts.
WATER LAW
“Be prepared to litigate, but even more, be genuinely willing to sit down and negotiate an agreement in good faith.” —JOHN PENN CARTER I began working for the law firm that represented the Imperial Irrigation District (IID), the U.S. government filed a lawsuit arguing that the limitation should apply. Since I had worked on it during law school, I became involved with that litigation. We won that case in the federal district court before it was overturned on appeal in the 9th Circuit Court. In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately decided that the acreage limitation did not apply because the lands in the Imperial Valley had prior vested rights. Later, some farmers in the Imperial Valley were concerned that IID was allowing too much drainage water to flow into the Salton Sea, and it was affecting their lands around the edge of the sea. The California Department of Water Resources became involved and filed a report that was sent to the state Water Resources Control Board, which in turn filed proceedings stating that IID needed to do a better job of using water more efficiently. In 1984, the board ruled that IID and its farmers were using water inefficiently and unreasonably under California law. In 1988, the Water Resources Control Board told the district that it should conserve 100,000 acre-feet annually and find a third party to help finance the necessary projects. As that was happening, I realized that Imperial Valley needed to consider a new strategy, and I recommended that it be proactive and invite urban Southern California entities to lease conserved water from it. The IID board ultimately agreed and adopted a resolution to that effect. This was a sea change in IID water policy and led to several historic water rights agreements. Kris Polly: What are some of the most important factors in effectively resolving water disputes? John Carter: You have to know the law, know the facts, understand where others are coming from, and be able to sit down with all the parties and find a workable solution while still being prepared to litigate if necessary. It takes time and focus to keep everyone at the table until an agreement is reached, but that is the best way to settle these issues. Kris Polly: Is it often difficult for you to convince your own clients that entering into an agreement or settlement is in their best interests? John Carter: It can be challenging at times because people can dig their heels in. That was the case when I recommended that IID enter into a historic agreement with the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of IRRIGATION LEADER
Southern California in 1988 and the landmark agreement with the San Diego County Water Authority. The MWD agreement focused on saving water by infrastructure improvements, such as canal lining. The 1995 agreement with San Diego focused on conserving water on the farms by undertaking measures that would allow farmers to continue to grow the same crops using less water. IID and the farmers said that they did not want to transfer water to San Diego or anyone else, but I said that they already do so anyway as part of their crops. Lettuce, watermelon, and other produce are largely water, so I told them to think of ways they could produce the same crop with less water. This would allow them to essentially produce two crops at once—the fruits, vegetables, and other crops they were growing, and water—the water they no longer needed could be leased to other users. The farmers eventually agreed, the documents were signed, and both sides are benefiting from the conservation efforts that the farmers undertook. Over the term of the IID/San Diego agreement, Imperial Valley will be receiving billions of dollars for the conserved water, the farmers are able to continue growing and selling their crops, and San Diego will have a reliable supply of water to help meet its needs. Kris Polly: What are some of the techniques you have used in the past to bring parties together? John Carter: Bring everyone into the room, ask them to turn off their cell phones and computers, and just start working on how to reach a resolution. That was how I recently helped resolve a decades-old water rights dispute among five Indian tribes, the Vista Irrigation District, and the city of Escondido. It took a while, but we were able to reach an agreement after a lot of hard work, which was rewarded when Congress, the court, and FERC [Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] approved that settlement in 2017. Kris Polly: Is there one central message you would like to convey to irrigation districts or others involved in water rights disputes? John Carter: Be prepared to litigate, but even more, be genuinely willing to sit down and negotiate an agreement in good faith. That approach will produce better outcomes and more cooperation and good will in the long term from all the parties involved. IL
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CLASSIFIED
HIRING: CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE MANAGER Under the direction of the Association’s General Manager, supervises and coordinates assigned personnel and contractors in the construction, maintenance and repairs of irrigation and drainage facilities within the Association’s delivery system. This includes main canals, laterals and drainages and other features such as roads, bridges, buildings, borrow pits and proper operation of related equipment. When necessary designs above features according to BOR and Association standards. Responsible for necessary vegetation control in a timely, safe and economical manner. Assists the General Manager in preparing the annual budget and is responsible for operating his/hers department within that budget.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
Job application forms and application instructions are available at YCWUA.org. Phone (928) 627-8824 Fax (928) 627-3065
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• Bachelor or Associate degree in engineering, construction management, a related field or commensurate work experience. • Six years of experience supervising others in construction, operation and maintenance projects. ABILITY TO: • Work independently, understand, and effectively carry out general oral and written instructions. • Present actions, proposals and recommendations effectively to co-workers, staff, or the public. • Establish and maintain effective relations with customers, the public, governmental and contractor representatives, co-workers and staff. • Analyze and resolve problems. • Develop and implement appropriate procedures and controls. • Exercise tact, good judgment and diplomacy in dealing with sensitive, complex and confidential issues.
COMPENSATION:
• Starting pay $85,000 per year. Subject to adjustment according to education and experience. • Association provided health insurance, a 401k program, paid vacation and sick leave.
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