Irrigation Leader Washington Edition July/August 2018

Volume 9 Issue 7 Washington State Edition

July/August 2018

New Leadership at Columbia Irrigation District An Interview With Clancy Flynn

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The renegotiation of the Columbia River Treaty is critical to irrigators in the Columbia River basin. The Greater Wenatchee Irrigation District supports efforts to ensure that the interests of farmers who rely on water from the Columbia River to grow crops in arid central Washington have a seat at the table and maintain their water rights.

Greater Wenatchee IRRIGATION DISTRICT Delivering Columbia River water to bring quality fruits and vegetables to the world at low cost thanks to clean, affordable hydropower.

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CONTENTS JULY/AUGUST 2018 Volume 9, Issue 7

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

STAFF: Kris Polly, Editor-in-Chief Joshua Dill, Managing Editor Tyler Young, Writer Parker Kenyon, Writer Julia Terbrock, Graphic Designer 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.

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Securing Idaho's Water Flow: Brian Olmstead of Twin Falls Canal Company

Washington State Edition 5 New Leadership in the Northwest

By Kris Polly 6 New Leadership at Columbia Irrigation District: An Interview with Clancy Flynn 12 Securing Idaho's Water Flow: Brian Olmstead of Twin Falls Canal Company

22 Home-Grown Solutions: The Key to Successful Water Management in the West

By United States Senator James Risch

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WATER LAW 36 Assessing Idaho's Groundwater Settlement: John Simpson of Barker Rosholt & Simpson LLP

THE INNOVATORS 42 Returning Control: Carlos Guerra of Hose Solutions, Inc.

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.

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

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COVER PHOTO: Clancy Flynn, general manager of Columbia Irrigation District.

Photo courtesy of Clancy Flynn.

IRRIGATION LEADER

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIAN OLMSTEAD.

18 Springing Into Action: Governor Butch Otter's Guidance for Maintaining Idaho's Water Resources

28 Improving Water Delivery and Efficiency for Farmers: Daniel Carney and Kevin Pearson of Eastern Municipal Water District

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.

New Leadership in the Northwest

I

n this issue of Irrigation Leader, we speak with a range of water managers, stakeholders, and public servants about the effects of new leadership in the Northwest.

In our cover story, Clancy Flynn, the general manager of Columbia Irrigation District in Washington state, talks to us about the “highly contentious” issues of water allocation in the Yakima basin, the downstream effects of conservation, and the transition from agricultural to residential water usage.

In neighboring Idaho, water users have recently come to a historic agreement over similarly contentious water allocation issues. The 2015 Idaho Groundwater Settlement balanced the claims of groundwater and surface water users with the aim of halting the depletion of the Eastern Snake Plain aquifer. Brian Olmstead, the general manager of the 118-year-old Twin Falls Canal Company, one of the largest canal companies in the United States, explains how the “fabulous” settlement is helping resolve disputes between surface water users like his company and groundwater users.

Idaho Governor Butch Otter provides us with some historical background on how midcentury agricultural development led, over the long term, to the depletion of the Eastern Snake Plain aquifer, and the actions he took when he saw a “water battle” coming in 2007. While it took nearly a decade to figure out the details, the process he set

By Kris Polly

in motion with his 2007 summit led to the settlement Idahoans enjoy today.

United States Senator James Risch, who has also served as lieutenant governor and governor of Idaho, explains how Idaho’s experience demonstrates that “the best, most collaborative solutions come from those engaging with the land and the resources every day.” Drawing on his experience as a legislator and executive on the state and federal levels, Senator Risch argues for a more streamlined process for Bureau of Reclamation title transfers.

Finally, John Simpson, an attorney with experience in water management from both the engineering and legal angles, gives us an assessment of the groundwater settlement and its significance. Like many of the other individuals highlighted in this issue, he concludes that a proactive approach to water management is needed both in Idaho and across the United States. 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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New Leadership at Columbia Irrigation District AN INTERVIEW WITH CLANCY FLYNN in 1997. I had my first job in irrigation in 2000, working seasonally for the Wenatchee Reclamation District. I then attended Eastern Washington University, but I left school and took a full-time job with the Wenatchee Reclamation District as a canal patrolman. I finished my degree in business management at Western Governors University and went on to manage the Selah-Moxee Irrigation District.

After that, I was an assistant watermaster at the QuincyColumbia Basin Irrigation District, and then I managed the South Board of Control in Idaho, which covered the Ridgeview Irrigation District in Oregon and the Gem Irrigation District in Idaho. After that, I came back to Washington and worked in the private sector for 2 years, and, as of June 2018, I have been managing CID.

Kris Polly: Please tell us about yourself and your professional background.

Kris Polly: Did you grow up on a farm with irrigation?

Clancy Flynn: I was born in Frenchtown, Montana, and I graduated from high school in Ephrata, Washington,

6

Clancy Flynn: Actually, no; my father was a long-haul trucker when I was growing up. We were not close to irrigation or agriculture. My father did do some work for a IRRIGATION LEADER

PHOTO COURTESY OF CLANCY FLYNN.

Colombia Irrigation District (CID), located in southeastern Washington, delivers water to approximately 10,000 acres on close to 7,000 parcels of land. CID holds one of the oldest water rights in the Yakima River basin, with the district having officially formed in 1917. The CID system begins at the Wanawish Dam along the Yakima River and delivers water to the town of Kennewick. The CID system consists primarily of open canals, both lined and unlined, which total approximately 41 miles in length.

CID is currently building its vision for the future to proactively ensure its water delivery capability for many years to come. Kris Polly, editor-in-chief of Irrigation Leader, spoke with Clancy Flynn, CID general manager, about the district's history, challenges, and forward-thinking vision.

couple farms in his younger days, and I also did some farm work over the years. Growing up in Ephrata, which is part of the Quincy Irrigation District, a lot of the guys that I knew in high school were farmers.

Kris Polly: What would you credit as getting you involved in the irrigation business?

Clancy Flynn: Well, that’s a funny story. When I was a young kid growing up in Montana, I used to play in a small seasonal stream near our house. I would mainly try to dam the thing up and divert the water in a bunch of crazy ways.

So, I guess that I've had an interest in this type of stuff since I was a young kid. Couple that interest with the connection I had with the superintendent of the Wenatchee Reclamation District when I needed a job, and the answer is pretty clear!

Kris Polly: Could you please tell us about CID?

ABOVE: Clancy Flynn, general manager of Columbia Irrigation District.

IRRIGATION LEADER

Clancy Flynn: We have a staff of 12: three employees are office based, and the rest are operations staff who handle everything that happens out of the office. They work on things like general maintenance, vegetation issues, limited irrigation district (LID) issues, and general canal problems during the season. During the off-season, we all become maintenance- and construction-oriented. The district's roots date back to 1888, when land prospectors and the Northern Pacific Railroad started planning out an irrigation system.

That operation changed hands several times in the late 1800s and the early 1900s, until the formation of CID. Before CID took over, the irrigation project went belly-up several times while trying to get the infrastructure built. The shareholders from back east who were funding the project kept getting nervous, which caused the project to change hands several times before it became CID. It is important to point out that we are not a Reclamation district.

We service close to 9,600 acres within an 11,000-acre boundary. We have 7,600 water accounts; we have moved toward a more urban and residential service profile over the last few decades. Currently, we have around 30 percent agricultural use and close to 70 percent urban and small landowner use—pastures and hobby farms, for example. We have a few hundred acres of fruit trees and a few thousand acres of row crops, like peas and other things. We also

have some silage and grains.

Something interesting to point out is that we carry water for a few thousand acres that are primarily a vineyard, and we carry water for the Kennewick Irrigation District (KID).

We have around 145 cubic feet per second (cfs) that we can max out in, but we end up carrying around 175 cfs at our maximum because we carry water for KID and the large vineyard in our area. Essentially, we wheel the water around for KID: We take it in at our headworks, and they pump it out in four different locations. KID pays us for this service through a water carriage fee, and that large vineyard also pays a water carriage fee. KID and CID are pretty closely linked; a portion of KID's service was originally deeded over to the CID predecessors via the Northern Pacific Railroad. As the feasibility of the projects was being worked out, it shifted more toward KID, and then when KID was formed, it officially took that area into its boundaries. We used to carry almost 56 cfs for KID, but now, by the plan, we are down much lower than that.

Kris Polly: What are the primary methods of irrigation in your district?

Clancy Flynn: We have some pivot and some drip in the farmlands; we don’t have a whole lot of people who are still doing flood or rill irrigation. As we have urbanized, a lot of the irrigation has gone to sprinkler. A majority of our ground is sprinkled right now. We do have a couple outliers in the small hobby farms, where they are doing some flood irrigation, but that is an extremely small percentage.

Kris Polly: Is your canal system open or piped?

Clancy Flynn: The primary transfer system is an open canal; we don’t have a whole lot of piped canal systems. However, we do operate 40 or so LIDs that are both pressurized and nonpressurized, but they are all in pipe.

We have around 30 pumping stations that pressurize the LID systems, and we have a pretty extensive network of piping, but it is delivery-oriented. Our piping is for delivering water to a specific place rather than carrying the water over a great distance. We have almost become more like a city utility in this respect because of the way in which we are delivering water to our customers. There have been growing pains, but as we modernize,

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those growing pains will stop. We spend a lot of our time on work orders related to these pipes, so during the season we don’t do as much maintenance as a typical agriculturalbased irrigation district would. We don’t have crews out performing much canal maintenance via heavy machinery during the season unless something bad happens.

Kris Polly: How do you control for aquatic weed growth?

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Kris Polly: Do your pivot people have specialized filters?

Clancy Flynn: I’m unaware of any that don’t have pretty great dragon-style filters, which keep them cleaned out pretty well. This year, we have had slime algae, like rock snot and things, get into people’s filters, and they have had to clean that out. We have seen people having to clean a lot more frequently this year. We have had several patrons come the office asking why there is so much of that stuff, and the only answer is the extra hot days that we are having.

Kris Polly: What are the most significant issues facing CID? Clancy Flynn: Aging infrastructure is the most looming challenge; I know that everyone is struggling with that right now. It is a special concern to us because we are one of the older irrigation districts along the Yakima River. Our infrastructure’s roots go back to 1889, when the original wood crib dam was built. It was essentially a giant wooden check structure,

ABOVE: Left to right: Vincent Shawver, board president and division 1 director; Dallas (Bo) Ayde, division 2 director; Neil Martin, vice president and division 3 director; James Gose, division 4 director; and Sherri Thackham, division 5 director.

"We are trying to be more involved in the conversation and be more proactive about changing things when they need to be changed."

—CLANCY FLYNN

IRRIGATION LEADER

PHOTO COURTESY OF CLANCY FLYNN.

Clancy Flynn: We have gone to a zero-acrolein format. We don’t have an overly long system; we only have about 40 miles of open ditch.

Endothall works really well for us—one shot of that from the head end of our system carries through our entire system. We will boost the Endothall with copper carbonate every 6 to 8 miles in the system. We have fairly good luck with this method as long as we are proactive with the treatments. I think our team is really great at staying on top of it, which means we don’t have a whole lot of problems. This year has been a little bit more challenging because we have had more hot days, which means we have seen more algae and plant growth in the system. We had to treat more frequently than we have in the past, and we ended up with a

lot of stuff breaking off and plugging up the system. That is where most of our overtime gets spent: dealing with the plants after we treat.

which has since been replaced. It is a pretty good structure, but we are always thinking about the condition of the dam. We also have a seasoned canal system that is partially concrete-lined but mostly earthen, with some concretelined sections dating to the early 1900s. We also have flumes that were all replaced in the 1980s; they are not as old as some of our other infrastructure, but even so, they are 30 years old now.

The other top issue for us is adapting to a more urban, residential water use profile. The ebb and flow of our water usage is much different than traditional agriculture needs.

Our infrastructure was built originally for agriculture. So not only do we have the challenge of old infrastructure, but we have a situation in which our canal system is designed to irrigate rill ground and flood irrigation—farmers would be running water in 12- or 24-hour sets before they would turn their water off, but residential customers are typically using their water before they go to work or as soon as they get home from work to water their lawn. We end up having this huge wave of what we like to call slack water that goes out during the middle of the day or late at night as operational spills because we have to keep the canal full to meet those peak demand times.

This new usage pattern has led to our next main problem: We have no water storage in our district. Not only do we want to modernize and upgrade our infrastructure, we also want to work on having our own storage so we don’t end up spilling all that water at the end of our system.

Storage would allow us to stabilize our flows while still being able to meet those peak demand hours. CID’s board of directors has been doing a lot of forward thinking on this issue. A couple years ago, CID purchased 6.5 acres of ground to put in a reservoir. We have a 3-year plan to get that small reservoir finished, and then, long term, we hope to build additional reservoirs. This small reservoir is near the tail end of our system, which will allow us to catch that slack water at the end and regulate those flows.

When we have those peak demands from our residential customers, our current system often cannot deliver the demand instantaneously. The people at the end of the system sometimes end up getting low pressure or a water shortage. By putting in this regulating reservoir, we can address that issue and save some water. Hopefully, we can build other reservoirs in the middle and at the head end of the system; three would be ideal to equalize the flows and meet the peak demands. The reservoir capacity will be about 38 acre-feet of water, and it will stabilize flows for about 18 percent of our district downstream from the reservoir through about 3.7 miles of canal. We figure that the cost will be about $1.4 million.

Kris Polly: What is CID’s vision for the future?

Clancy Flynn: We are looking to get everything in our district modernized so that we can better transition from IRRIGATION LEADER

agricultural to residential usage. The board has been getting more and more involved in the water landscape in the Yakima basin and in Washington State. We are trying to be more involved in the conversation and be more proactive about changing things when they need to be changed.

Specific issues include reregulation reservoirs, spending money on infrastructure, changing policies, and clearing rights-of-way so that we can get crews to the work that needs to be done. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, CID had really aggressive plans and procedures for getting canals lined, which has been put on the back burner in recent years. The board wants to focus on that again. We are dusting off our water plan and forming an aggressive stance on the piping and lining of ditches. We are trying to turn the corner on modernization. Rather than always reacting to a problem, we want to be proactive so that problems don’t even arise.

Kris Polly: What is your message to our readers? What should everyone know about your district?

Clancy Flynn: Our big struggle, which I hope people continue to keep in mind, is that the water supply in the Yakima basin has been highly contentious at times and the allocations are yet to be finalized. The appropriations and the water that is there do not always line up. Finding partners for the funding of capital projects to make irrigation districts stronger and conserve water is vital. We are at the very end of the Yakima system, and we have one of the oldest water rights on the system. Any time there is fluctuation, we take the brunt of it. When something happens in the system, we get shorted. We have typically had some great water years, and we really wish to support all the conservation that goes on in the upper system, but for every drop that is conserved, that is one less drop of return flows that has fed the lower Yakima system. I want everyone to bear in mind that as we conserve water, we need to be thinking about the downstream effects that conservation may cause. We hope that everyone bears in mind that the Yakima River system irrigates hundreds of thousands of acres to make the desert blossom. Appropriate funding and conservation partnerships are very important to the success of the Yakima River system, its watershed, and water users. As CID’s service area urbanizes, it has fewer large-scale farming operations that are paying for irrigation water as a business expense and a greater number of residential patrons. To the residential patron, we are a utility, and as such, they compare the cost of irrigation water to the cost of running their sprinklers through domestic water. We will be provided with many opportunities and challenges as we continue to transition to smaller-scale water usage patrons. As a district, we are eager to meet the challenges of modernizing our system and stabilizing delivery to an evolving demand pattern while maintaining an economical rate. IL

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Securing Idaho's Water Flow Brian Olmstead of Twin Falls Canal Company

Kris Polly: Please tell us about yourself and how you became general manager of the Twin Falls Canal Company.

Brian Olmstead: I was born and raised in Twin Falls, Idaho, on a family farm, and I received my bachelor of science

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degree in animal science from Utah State University in 1975. After graduating, I returned to the farm and married my wife, Stephanie, and we had three daughters. I farmed on the family farm south of Twin Falls for about 25 years until 2000, when I decided to try something different.

We had reached a point at which we either had to grow the farm or choose a different profession because we were not making enough money to keep it profitable.

We decided to lease the farm to a beet and potato grower, and we are still doing that. I applied for a job here at the Twin Falls Canal Company and was hired as a field supervisor. When I began, we were working hard on the total maximum daily load/water quality issues, safety violations, and some difficulties with the growth of subdivisions. I worked directly under the general manager at the time, Vince Alberti. From 2000 to 2008, I worked directly under him and with all the crews, which gave me a good view of the overall operation. I was hired as general manager after he retired, and this is now my 11th year as IRRIGATION LEADER

PHOTO BY DREW NASH OF TIMES-NEWS AND MAGICVALLEY.COM.

As in most parts of rural America, agriculture reigns supreme in southern Idaho. The area receives around 10 inches of rain and 19 inches of snow per year, but a substantial amount of water is required to ensure that traditional crops, such as corn, barley, potatoes, and beets, can flourish. Since 1903, the Twin Falls Canal Company has been providing water to the farmers, municipalities, and individuals who live in the more than 202,000 acres of land it services.

Kris Polly, editor-in-chief of Irrigation Leader, spoke with Brian Olmstead, general manager for the Twin Falls Canal Company, about issues affecting the Twin Falls Canal Company today, the 2015 Idaho Groundwater Settlement, and how Mr. Olmstead will prepare the canal company for future growth.

general manager. Vince tells me that I am the luckiest man he knows because he had several severe drought years during his tenure, and I have not had one yet.

Kris Polly: What is the history of the Twin Falls Canal Company?

Brian Olmstead, general manager of the Twin Falls Canal Company, talks about aquifer flows at the Milepost 31 recharge site.

"Even with all the new development, about 95 percent of our water still goes to farmers." —BRIAN OLMSTEAD

IRRIGATION LEADER

Brian Olmstead: We are the largest canal company in Idaho and one of the larger ones in the United States. The Twin Falls Canal Company was formed in 1900 by I. B. Perrine, an early settler, who filed a claim under the Carey Act. He got the 202,000 acres and the 3,000 cubic feet per second out of the Snake River when he filed. The Snake River was pretty well allocated above Blackfoot at that time, because the early Mormon pioneers had already filed on most of that land. Mr. Perrine was the first to apply for a large diversion below Blackfoot.

He built Milner Dam in 1904 and 1905, which he immediately began to divert out onto the farm country. The river generates a lot of additional water from Blackfoot on down in the form of spring flows. The system worked well: The land laid off in the right direction at a 1 percent slope generally, so gravity irrigation worked and that is why we still use it today. A lot of the farmers have converted to sprinklers, but not to the extent that the other districts in our area have. When I started in 2000, only about 15 percent of our customers used sprinklers. We are changing that by about 2 percent per year, or about 4,000 acres per year.

Now, we are over 50 percent sprinkler-irrigated; the rest is still on gravity irrigation.

Kris Polly: What kind of crops do area farmers grow?

Brian Olmstead: We grow a wide range of products in the area, mostly to supply dairy cattle. We grow a lot of corn, alfalfa hay, potatoes, sugar beets, barley (used by Coors and Budweiser), and wheat. There are several fairly large dry bean packaging companies in the valley, so pinto, pink, and garden beans are large crops as well.

Kris Polly: How many people do you serve?

Brian Olmstead: We serve over 202,000 irrigated acres, and with few exceptions, each acre has one share of Twin Falls Canal

Company stock. We try to keep it that way.

If the farm sells, the water stays with it. If the land goes into a rural subdivision or is annexed by the city of Twin Falls, the water stays with the land to be used for landscaping irrigation. We have about 5,000 stockholders, and of those, roughly 500 are active production farms doing 80 acres or more. Our largest two stockholders are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which has about 5,000 shares, and the City of Twin Falls; the city is our largest stockholder because it has expanded significantly. The city, through annexation, has acquired over 5,000 shares. The city delivers those to all the new parts of town through pressure irrigation systems. In addition to serving individual farmers, we deliver to 25 pressure irrigation systems owned by the city. The city tries to use its potable water for domestic uses and keep all landscaping irrigated with canal water. Even with all the new development, about 95 percent of our water still goes to farmers.

Kris Polly: How much do you rely on groundwater?

Brian Olmstead: About two-thirds of our water comes from the Eastern Snake Plain aquifer.

Annually, we divert just over 1 million acre-feet of water through our canal. We are a surface water canal, with efficiency somewhere around 50 to 60 percent; the farmers do not get the whole million acre-feet, but they get roughly 4 acre-feet per acre delivered to them. We have 250,000 acre-feet of storage water in the Jackson Lake and American Falls reservoirs, which is about a quarter of our water supply.

Another quarter is from the flood flows from the snow runoff in May and June. The other half of our water comes from spring flows returning to the river between Blackfoot and Milner. We are first in priority for any water that returns to the river below Blackfoot, so about 2,000 cubic feet per second of our water is natural flow that is derived from Eastern Snake Plain aquifer return flows. Essentially, we are using the same resources that the groundwater members use, even though we do not own a single pump.

Kris Polly: How effective do you think the Idaho Groundwater Settlement was?

Brian Olmstead: I think that it is a fabulous agreement. Water users throughout the

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Kris Polly: What are some of the biggest challenges you face on a day-to-day basis?

Brian Olmstead: Recently, we made a big switch from gravity-fed irrigation to sprinkler irrigation. That conversion has caused us some difficult water management challenges.

Another is our total maximum daily load/ water quality challenge. Because we are still

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around 40 percent gravity irrigation, we have a lot of mud entering our system and washing off our system into the river. With the Clean Water Act and the total maximum daily load, agriculture is nonregulated, but people still expect us to get that mud out of the river. We have built a lot of wetlands and other facilities to capture our return flows to keep the river clean.

Water conservation is another challenge we are constantly working on. We understand that we cannot just expect the groundwater users to cut by 13 percent and not make conservation improvements ourselves.

For the benefit of everybody, any water I can save stays in the reservoir system, where it will help fill the reservoirs or be used for aquifer recharge. We want the agreement to work, so as a result we always want to conserve as much water as possible. We have automated a lot of our deliveries. We are encouraging the conversion to sprinklers, which are somewhat more efficient. We have built a large reregulating reservoir to keep from wasting so much off the bottom end, and we are continuously installing new pipelines.

The most ambitious conservation project we are planning is a system of automated check structures for our main canals. Our canal was built in 1903, basically with horses and scrapers, and was designed to run full. When it is not running full, it does not run efficiently. The best way to have it run efficiently with less water is to install a series of check structures integrated with a significant amount of technology. To send water 66 miles down a canal, I have to plan 2 or 3 days ahead to get the water there, but if I had automated check structures throughout the whole canal, I could manage more in real time because it would be IRRIGATION LEADER

PHOTO BY DREW NASH OF TIMES-NEWS AND MAGICVALLEY.COM.

Eastern Snake Plain aquifer fought for about 15 years before reaching this agreement. Before 1960, there were roughly 1 million acres of surface irrigation and very little groundwater irrigation. Then, with surplus power and lots of land available, the state of Idaho and farmers developed about 1 million acres of groundwater irrigation with deep wells. So, the water the groundwater users were taking was the same water that we were relying on to supply the spring flows. We didn’t want to put groundwater farmers out of business, but in the West, there are two kinds of water users: those who fought for their water, and those who do not have any water. We were all just trying to protect our own interest. Groundwater farmers wanted to keep their farms going, and we wanted to keep our water secure. We were tired of fighting and decided that this agreement was needed to manage our water and sustain all parties into the future.

The aquifer is truly our biggest reservoir.

According to hydrologists, the usable capacity is around 11 million acre-feet. Although no one thinks we can get it back to the level it was in 1960, we think we can get it back to where it was in the 1990s. The Idaho Groundwater Settlement is a plan to sustain and effectively manage groundwater and keep everyone in business. The only way to restore water to the aquifer is through recharge or reduced pumping, and the agreement finds a balance between the two. Groundwater users agreed to the 13 percent reduction, and the state agreed to 250,000 acre-feet of annual recharge. In the good years, we try to recharge 500,000 acre-feet or more if we can, and in the bad years, we should be able to recharge about 100,000 acre-feet. According to all the modeling, within 10 years we will have the Eastern Snake Plain aquifer back to where it was in the 1990s. It is hard to say at this point whether there may be room for new water development if we ever get the aquifer restored. That will be a decision for future water managers.

LEFT: Brian Olmstead, general manager of the Twin Falls Canal Company, talks about the overflow of water in the canals in Buhl. "We got more water thrown at our canal than we could deal with," he says.

"We've been fighting it all night."

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIAN OLMSTEAD.

BELOW: Louis Zamora, a Twin Falls Canal Company engineering technician, at the Twin Falls Canal Midway Power Plant.

stored throughout the canal. We are hoping to get some grants and loans to speed up this important project. We need to be more efficient than we are.

We are also dealing with rapid residential growth. We do not want to be a canal company that has a subdivision built at the bottom at the bank and has canal failure. We are working really hard to protect our 50-foot rights-of-way on the big canals, 30-foot rights-of-way on the medium-sized ditches, and at least 16-foot rights-of-way anywhere. We do not want open ditches running through anyone’s backyard, so we now require developers to pipe subdivision ditches. A member of our team serves on the zoning board and spends a lot of his time at zoning meetings. We need to know where every development is and ensure that they know about and respect our rights-of-way.

Aquatic weed management is a constant challenge for us. There are new weeds all the time. Weeds become resistant, and we have new restrictions on chemicals. Everyone really needs to stay on top of their weed management. We rely on aquatic herbicides for most of our problems, but we still keep our IRRIGATION LEADER

large anchor chains and pull them occasionally when modern methods don’t work.

One problem that is getting worse for us is the northern virile crayfish, an invasive crawdad that has arrived in our area. We have always had crawdads in our system, but the native ones died in the winter when we dewatered the canals. These new ones burrow deep and survive the winter.

They can get out of the water and travel 100 yards to another ditch. They are resistant to aquatic chemical products as well. They do not block the water, but they do block our farmers’ pumps, screens, and gated pipes.

They burrow to such an extent that we have lost some check structures; their burrowing is similar to a bunch of gophers digging around them.

Kris Polly: What words of wisdom do you have for your peers?

Brian Olmstead: I think you need to manage water 10 to 20 years out.

You have to be looking ahead and thinking about what the canal system will look like in the future. Once you get behind, you cannot catch up.

This applies to development in your area or to regulations such as the Clean Water Act. You must constantly strive for efficiency. We put a lot of effort into trying to protect our water supply. I have not heard of anyone who thinks they will have a better water supply in the future than they do now, so you have to plan for less water. Figuring out the most efficient ways to deal with that is imperative. IL Brian Olmstead is the general manager of the Twin Falls Canal Company.

He can be reached at olmstead@tfcanal.com.

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Springing Into Action Governor Butch Otter's Guidance for Maintaining Idaho’s Water Resources Idaho, like many states throughout the western United States, is dependent on irrigation for its agriculture economy. The state’s two main crops, potatoes and sugar beets, require 32 inches of water a year to thrive. With agriculture being the backbone of the state’s economy, efficient and sustainable use of irrigation water supplies is paramount for the success of the state and its farmers.

Governor Butch Otter began his public service as a representative for Canyon County in the Idaho House of Representatives in 1973. He has served Idaho as lieutenant governor, United States representative, and most recently as governor. During each of these roles, Governor Otter has played a pivotal role in preserving water for Idaho.

In an interview with Ian Lyle, executive vice president of the National Water Resources Association, Governor Otter explained the importance of water to the state he governs.

Ian Lyle: How did you originally become involved with agriculture and water?

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bloom. Irrigation systems today have evolved to make water delivery more efficient and economical for farmers.

Ian Lyle: What is the value of water to the land and the agricultural economy in Idaho?

Governor Butch Otter: We plan our whole agricultural year around water. Based on our irrigation systems and crop rotations, we know that 32 inches of water is required to raise an acre of potatoes or sugar beets, our two largest crops. When we think we are going to have a short water year, we will grow grain, corn, or something deep-rooted that will chase the water. If a farmer has poor ground where they have a water right, they will move the water from the poor ground and apply it to their good ground.

Idaho’s constitution, which was written in 1889, recognizes this as well. We built the dams, irrigation, laterals, and reservoirs. There is a saying in Idaho that goes, “Whiskey is for drinking, and water is for fighting,” and I can attest to the fact that the headgate has been the epicenter of a multitude of battles.

Ian Lyle: That brings us to a very interesting topic. Could you talk a little about the groundwater settlement?

Governor Butch Otter: In April of 2007, I called a water summit because I noticed real problems on the horizon.

IRRIGATION LEADER

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF GOVERNOR OTTER.

Governor Butch Otter: My appreciation for water goes as far back as my childhood. I was born to this land. Throughout my life, I grew up on farms and ranches with a family of 11.

Today, I live about 8 miles from where I was born. Early on, I can remember chasing 20 inches of water with a shovel and setting tubes. I grew up appreciating that water gave value to the land. In Idaho today, you can buy land for maybe $250 to $300 dollars an acre, but if you put water on it the value rises to $5,000 an acre.

There was a time, early in the past century, when we were pretty cavalier about water. In Idaho we wanted to hold on to our water for as long as we could—hence all of our reservoirs and dams. The care we took to add storage was significant. If there was a lake, and room in the watershed, we tried to add 10 to 15 feet on top of that dam. Payette Lake, near McCall, Idaho, exemplifies just that. It is both a natural lake and a storage reservoir. While the primary purpose of building dams was to collect water, people started to use them for recreation and housing sites. We later started to use the falling water to capture power.

Today, 60 percent of Idaho’s power comes from our dams.

With the miracle of irrigation, I have watched the desert

Governor Butch Otter.

As a result of several drought years, more water was being pumped out of the largest reservoir we have in the state— the Eastern Snake Plain aquifer, which goes from the headwaters of the Snake River by Yellowstone all the way across the southern part of our state.

Years ago, irrigators would look into the Snake River to assess the river flow and water level. If the Idaho Department of Water Resources could see water, then the agency would allow another water right. Between 1947 and the mid-1950s, groundwater started to be developed for irrigation at a quickening rate. As a state we were reclaiming roughly 50,000 acres of desert a year! This happened for two reasons. Number one, we needed that desert land in our agricultural economy. Number two, the local Idaho Power Company wanted to sell power. That is when we started drilling wells into the same aquifer that was hydraulically connected with the Snake River, though at the time we did not know it.

Finally, Idaho developed a public policy that allowed us to conjunctively manage both the Eastern Snake Plain aquifer and the Snake River, that recognized both as one water body under the law. When that happened, we started putting a check on the number of wells going into that aquifer.

We have a place in Idaho called Hagerman that is known as the area of a thousand springs. When the water in the upper Snake Plain goes into the aquifer, it hydraulically charges that aquifer with enough power that a thousand springs come out of a canyon wall. The ground is so porous in the desert that the water follows the fractured basalt.

The fractures in the basalt create large voids for the storage of water. The fractures are also very porous, resulting in downgradient transport of water through the aquifer. The Big Lost River percolates into the Eastern Snake Plain aquifer and used to disappear outside of Arco, Idaho. The water would then travel underground and reappear 90 miles later when it would come out the canyon wall. Increased pumping resulted in reduced spring flows and decreased water levels.

This problem was partially caused by the great job that these companies were doing to make economical and efficient water pumps. When we were only on gravity flow, we did not have a problem because a lot of the water would be absorbed back into the fractured basalt and it would be absorbed right back into the aquifer. When we got away from gravity flow irrigation by using wheel lines and center pivots, we began utilizing more of the water, but we were no longer allowing water to recharge our aquifer to the same extent.

In 2007, when we were close to reaching the point of a water battle, I called the summit in Burley, Idaho.

We invited all the farmers, ranchers, water users, and environmentalists who wanted to attend. I charged them all with solving this problem, and warned they would not like my solution if I had to resolve it. After we went through the adjudication process and the court decreed water rights, Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court said, "Today there is no question about who owns the water IRRIGATION LEADER

in Idaho." We started the discussion in 2007, but we really did not solve the problem until 10 years later.

In 2015, groundwater and surface water users struck a milestone agreement to sustain the state's water resources.

Through the direction of Director Gary Spackman and the oversight of his agency, the Idaho Department of Water Resources, this mutually beneficial pact has served water users and our state very well and gives us some predictability and sustainability when it comes to Idaho’s water. I also would like to give credit to the Speaker of the Idaho House of Representatives, Scott Bedke, for his laserfocused attention to this issue.

Ian Lyle: What are your thoughts on the appropriate balance between the state and federal governments when it comes to water and water rights?

Governor Butch Otter: Water rights, as far as I am concerned, should be governed by the states. Nothing within the Constitution talks about water being governed by the federal government. Now, when water crosses state borders, there might be a need for us to ask the federal government for assistance, but I do not think they should be involved in it unless they are asked. When I was in the United States House of Representatives, I never wanted to put our water in Idaho up for a vote, because California had 53 votes on the floor and Idaho only had two.

Ian Lyle: What words would you like to give to the citizens of Idaho about the current and future state of Idaho water?

Governor Butch Otter: The future of water in Idaho is the future of Idaho. Protect and keep control of it at all costs.

Honor those foundations that we used in order to solve our water problems, such as prior appropriation and first in time, first in right. If it is guided by those principles, I think Idaho has a great future. We have more deserts that can bloom. At the rate we are growing and losing farm ground in and around the cities, we are going to need to bloom some farmland. Also, we need to build another dam.

The health of the aquifer is going to be the health of farming in Idaho. The standards I would set for the health of the aquifer are, first, that groundwater levels in the aquifer ought to be restored and sustained at the historical levels established by the settlement agreement, and second, that the flows of the thousand springs coming out of the Snake River Canyon wall ought to be sufficient to sustain spring- and river-beneficial uses as described by additional agreements between water users.

Whether we are talking about the local irrigation district manager or the governor of Idaho, each person has an important role in sustaining a long-term management plan.

We have to preoccupy ourselves with that at every level, from the ditch rider to our senators and representatives in Washington, DC. IL

19

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Home-Grown Solutions The Key to Successful Water Management in the West

By United States Senator James Risch

W

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United States Senator James Risch (R-ID).

entities the autonomy and flexibility they need for better decisionmaking and financing opportunities. Although the process for transferring qualifying entities has been in place since 1995, only 30 assets have been successfully transferred across all Reclamation states. This is because along with meeting the framework required by Reclamation to be eligible, each individual title transfer requires full compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and an act of Congress.

I am working to advance the Reclamation Title Transfer Act of 2018 to improve and hasten this process. Under this act, instead of requiring actions by both the House and Senate and full NEPA compliance, the title of qualifying entities will be able to be transferred by the secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior with a 90-day window for congressional disapproval.

Idaho has been a success story in the current title transfer process, claiming 4 of the 30 successful title transfers.

IRRIGATION LEADER

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF U.S. SENATOR JAMES RISCH.

ater was a pillar of economic success in the West long before Idaho and its neighbors became states. It has allowed us to boast of highly fertile farmland, thriving energy production, efficient transportation for goods, and unmatched recreational opportunities. As perhaps the most precious and vital resource in the western United States, our water comes with a storied past with competing interests. With its long history of controversy and compromise, those who best understand the complexity of the issues around water are the local communities. Western water is intricate and nuanced—and, above all else, so important to our state—which is why it is so vital that its management be focused in the individual states where laws and agreements have been shaped over time.

Idaho and other western states are no strangers to the burden of overreaching federal regulations. The egregious overstep by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2015 to extend the waters of the United States definition far beyond what could conceivably be considered “navigable” has resonated throughout the state. To examine irrigation canals and ditches under the same lens as the Snake River and other western rivers shows the lack of awareness that can come when decisionmakers are out of touch with the land and way of life they are dictating to.

Federal bureaucrats who live on the banks of the Potomac should not be given unlimited authority to regulate states, which is unfortunately precisely what the 2015 rule accomplished.

In the United States Senate, I have worked to defend the states as equals to the federal government, especially when it comes to our sovereign right to manage our treasured natural resources. Idaho has its own definition of navigable that went through the public process in the Idaho State Legislature and became state law, taking into account the needs and intricacies of Idaho water. I applaud President Trump’s EPA for working to rescind the poorly crafted waters of the United States rule to give states their entitled authority.

This Congress and administration must continue our work to reduce regulations and remove bureaucratic barriers to make way for common-sense, locally driven solutions. This is why I have introduced legislation to revise the process for Bureau of Reclamation title transfers. More than two-thirds of Reclamation assets, such as dikes, ditches, and pumps, are maintained by nonfederal entities that cover operating costs and often have already completed capital repayment to Reclamation. Obtaining an asset’s title gives those local

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

The convergence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers, near Lewiston, ID and Clarkston, WA.

However, those individual transfers have taken as much as a decade and hundreds of thousands of dollars to accomplish.

It is absurd to force local entities like irrigation districts to waste valuable resources just to be able to manage property in the exact way they already do. The convoluted process for a Reclamation title transfer should not be preventing the effective management of the West’s water resources. I will continue to work to get this legislation passed and signed into law so that irrigation districts are able to effectively manage their water.

I am confident that the best place for water-related and other decisions to be made is on the ground in Idaho because of our rich history of doing so. Disagreements over water rights and use are ever prevailing, but Idaho continues to be a shining example of how the best, most collaborative solutions come from those engaging with the land and the resources every day. Just look at the impressive work accomplished in such a short time in recharging the Eastern Snake Plain aquifer. Competing interests in a region where water is paramount came together and not only agreed to use less water but to actually pump it back IRRIGATION LEADER

into the aquifer. The result has been astounding. Annual recharge goals have been surpassed and water interests have chosen to pump more water into the aquifer than required by the agreement. This project will allow one of Idaho’s most important economic regions to remain viable long into the future and serves as an example for the rest of the country. This type of solution does not come from bureaucrats in Washington, DC, but rather from irrigators and canal companies that have both a stake in and an understanding of the aquifer.

Decades of not only serving Idaho and its agricultural industry, but being actively engaged in it, have shown me time and again that the best resource management comes at the local level. These success stories in water management should not be unique to Idaho; they should be burgeoning across the West. I will continue to fight for Idahoans and other water users to be able to make the decisions that will best use our nation’s most valued resources. IL For more information, please contact Senator Risch's office at risch.senate.gov.

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Improving Water Delivery and Efficiency for Farmers: Daniel Carney and Kevin Pearson of Eastern Municipal Water District In summer 2018, Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) of Perris, California, received a $210,000 grant from the Bureau of Reclamation to support increased water use efficiencies among its agricultural customers. The grant funding is part of the Agricultural Water Conservation and Efficiency program, a joint program between Reclamation and the National Resources Conservation Service.

EMWD was one of three agencies nationally to receive program funding. The funding will support new technology to assist local agricultural producers become more efficient and to provide them with a better understanding of their water use needs.

It will include real-time online tracking of water use, creating weather-based water budgets for local farms and replacing irrigation infrastructure with more water-efficient devices.

Kris Polly, editor-in-chief of Irrigation Leader, spoke with Daniel Carney, RLA, EMWD’s principal water resources specialist, and Kevin Pearson, EMWD public affairs officer, about the goals of the grant project, the reasons for the application, and EMWD’s water future.

Kris Polly: Please explain the reason EMWD applied for the grant and what the district plans to accomplish with the funding.

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Kris Polly: Are you starting with a core group of farmers on a pilot project and then looking at expanding to your entire service area?

Daniel Carney: Yes, that is the proposal. We are working internally with our information systems group. It is fairly complex on the software side: We have the automated meter infrastructure

ABOVE: Bruce Scott, co-owner of Scott Bros.

Dairies, one of EMWD’s largest recycled water customers, monitors irrigation at his property in San Jacinto, CA.

"That really is the long-term goal: increased information and more efficient equipment."

—DANIEL CARNEY IRRIGATION LEADER

PHOTO COURTESY OF EASTERN MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT.

Daniel Carney: We just completed an optimization review, and based on the recommendations of Dr. Charles Burt of the Irrigation Training and Research Center at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, we selected the Agricultural Water Data Project. The project aims to improve day-to-day communications between farmers and the water district by allowing the farmers to communicate with us via their cell phones, tablets, or computers. We also have information on the amount of water flowing into their fields on an almost real-time basis—there is about an hour delay—and we want to integrate that into a useful tool that all the farmers can use. This tool will allow

farmers to see how they are doing compared to their water budget and see if there are any leaks in their systems. Even though we currently have an automated meter infrastructure, we don't have the real-time communication link with the farmers, and that is what this grant application is for.

The second part of the grant application is more boots-on-the-ground oriented. We will be working with Dr. Burt’s team at the Irrigation Training and Research Center and with a small group of farmers who have participated in the optimization and review phase of this process to make sure that what we are doing is working for that group, and then we will expand those opportunities out to all the farmers using recycled water in our district.

Additionally, with the software, Dr. Burt and his team will do a detailed on-farm site analysis at various farms around the district. The team has a well-equipped trailer that it uses to measure pressures, flow, and uniformities. The team works with each farmer individually to see what types of improvements might be made.

The final step will be to work with the National Resources Conservation Service and possibly the EQUIP program, and based on the recommendations from Dr. Burt and his team, we’ll see what we can do as a district to help farmers take advantage of those loans, funding options, and opportunities to get new equipment. That really is the long-term goal: increased information and more efficient equipment.

system—radio read meters on almost all our services, and all our farmer turnouts have them. There is another layer of software that needs to be integrated that will allow twoway communications to be wireless. To facilitate that, our internal information systems team recommended that we get the software placed and then start out with a small group of 10 farmers with whom we have already been working on the optimization review. We are communicating with these farmers—they supply a lot of information about their sites, and they have indicated that they would be willing to continue working with us on this second phase, the Water Data Project, if we are able to get the resources necessary to complete the phase. We are hoping that they will all end up participating; we just found out that we were awarded the grant, and we haven't contacted the small group of farmers IRRIGATION LEADER

yet. There are always going to be updates and changes to the software, and that is why we chose to stick with the small group at first. We want to get the kinks worked out with as little trouble as possible for the core group, and then reach out to our entire group of farmers as quickly as possible with the data product.

It is important to point out that Dr. Burt and his team's on-farm analysis is something we don't have to wait for. My colleague Kevin Pearson will be reaching out to the farmers in our district and offering them these services at no cost to them. That can proceed as quickly as Dr. Burt and his team are available.

Kris Polly: Once Dr. Burt and his team are onsite, how long does it take them to complete their analysis?

29

Daniel Carney: Well, I had the good fortune to be onsite with them during the optimization review in which we essentially looked at 10 different farms, some of which are quite large. We spent about half a day per farm. We would look at point connection and the last sprinkler on the system, gathering information to help us understand the variability, pressure, and flow. I would imagine that it would be similar, depending on the size of the farm—2 to 4 hours per farm.

The team members want to be efficient with their time.

During the optimization study, we had a drone team onsite as well. The drone team was looking at the aerial imaging and heat maps of the water patterns. The analysis was through both land and sky to examine how they were watering and how we could help them increase efficiency and achieve a more even application pattern for their irrigation systems.

based on when we can get contracts in place for the grant, but we hope to be on the ground and running in early 2019. Dr. Burt’s team could potentially be on the ground helping the farmers with the onsite analysis in late spring or early summer 2019, which is when his students are more available to help him. We would like to get as much of the communication software product in place and functioning and have a full growing year to gather some results. The first phase will be setup: getting the software installed and contacting all the farmers, doing the analysis, and then finding more efficient methods if need be. Primarily, our focus is on getting the two-way communication system up and running to give the farmers better information to help them efficiently operate their farms. The last part of the project is gathering the information and reporting.

Kris Polly: Would you please describe the range and types of irrigation that your farmers are using and the crops they are growing?

Kris Polly: Are farmers in your district using recycled water?

Daniel Carney: I don’t think anyone has furrow irrigated in the last 20 years or so. The majority of systems that we have in our district are lateral move, manual set, and impact rotor, and we even have some pivot systems on the large turf plots. Farmers are growing a lot of alfalfa; forage crops; some specialty vegetables; and seasonal vegetables, including pumpkins; however, the majority is alfalfa. We have two primary service corridors within our system within which most of the farms tend to be clustered: One of them leans toward fruits and vegetables, and the other leans toward fodder crops for dairy feed and turf. Within those two corridors, different types of farming are going on.

Kevin Pearson: I want to add that in terms of specialty crops, we do a lot of bok choy—we are growing quite a few Asian vegetable varieties here. Microspray and microsprinkler are common on those types of crops. We do have a number of farmers who are using drip in-line emitters for the most part. We are hoping that because of the efficiency of that method, more farmers take that direction with some financial assistance.

Interestingly enough, a large amount of potatoes is grown in our district. We have a huge potato supplier that provides potatoes that ultimately supply a slew of fast-food restaurants in the area, including McDonald’s and Wendy’s.

It is really awesome to see that in our district.

Kris Polly: What is the time frame for completing your project?

Daniel Carney: As it stands, the proposal, beginning to end, is not to exceed 2 years. The first phase would be internally integrating the software combined with some outreach to the farmers to get them on board and to inform them of what we are doing. The starting point for phase 2 will be

30

Kevin Pearson: Oh, absolutely; a large portion of our farmers use recycled water. We do about 35,000 acre-feet of recycled water per year, and about 70 percent of that goes toward agriculture. It is all tertiary treated, and it is an interconnected pressurized system as well. A vast majority of our agricultural base in the district uses the recycled water.

All our investments are going to greatly affect the recycled water system. We are using 100 percent of our recycled water supply each year. We are one of the few agencies in the nation that can claim that. We sell every drop that we produce.

Kris Polly: What are your motivations for pursuing this grant program?

Kevin Pearson: We understand the need for the agricultural community to have the technology and to bring everything that the 21st century has to offer onto the farm. Part of that entails having the equipment they need from us to meet those changing needs. Traditionally, agriculture has been generational within families, and as the younger group is taking over, they want new technology on the farm so they can be more efficient. They understand that it’s a business and that new technology is an investment that equates to a larger bottom line. This program does not work if the local agricultural community is not willing to try new technologies that aim to increase efficiency and grow business. When we approached the agricultural community during the first study, I think everyone we spoke to wanted to be involved. They wanted to put in the time and effort because they realized that it would help them operationally—it would help their business and help them better understand their water use. Agriculture in our district is big business; it is a $156 million industry within EMWD’s service area.

Daniel Carney: I would like to add that for many years, IRRIGATION LEADER

EMWD has been working to provide a customer portal, a two-way communication data tool, to all our customers. It is interesting that this project would be the first rollout of the customer portal to the farmers in our district. I think that speaks to the commitment of our board of directors to provide excellent service to the farmers in our district.

Kris Polly: Earlier you mentioned that you were trying to implement cell phone technology for farmers in your district. Do you have a prototype of that technology?

Daniel Carney: Yes, we certainly do. Our information systems folks are working with a software package provided

by Harris Utilities. Of course, we are going to be refining and customizing it for this project. Officially, our goal is to make it an easy-to-use customer portal, similar to a banking app. We want to make it user friendly, so that farmers can make up their own water budget and use the app to better their farm. Our recycled water customers receive annual allocations, and that information would be integrated into the app; customers would be able to monitor their recycled water allocation in real time.

Kris Polly: With a pressurized system like yours, do customers have to order their water?

Kevin Pearson: No, they don’t have to order water, but each customer has an annual allocation. We typically see farmers irrigating during the day, and schools, parks, golf courses, and landscaping—areas on the recycled water system— irrigating at night when those facilities are not in active use. Our two main customer segments pulling water during opposite times of a 24-hour period tends to balance out the pressurization within the system.

Daniel Carney: From a water system operator’s point of view as well as the farmers’, this new technology is not water ordering in the traditional sense. It is communication between the district and the farmers. We are looking to optimize available pressure and flow at every farmer’s turnout, and this tool will allow us to better communicate with the farmers. One observation from phase 1 was that Farmer A does not know when Farmer B is going to be irrigating, and both farmers could be on the same pressurized mainline. If they don’t have pressure pumping, they may not have optimum pressure to irrigate. This tool will help us better help the farmers regulate the pressure and flow on any given mainline.

Kris Polly: What is the water rate structure in your district?

Kevin Pearson: We have a rate structure based on a customer’s allocation priority as well as seasonal rates. It tends to be about one-third of potable water rates, if not less.

IRRIGATION LEADER

Kris Polly: Do you have any other goals for this effort that you would like to mention?

Daniel Carney: Something that is really important in our district is water quality. EMWD is always looking at every possible source of water that we could use: desalination, groundwater, and recharging groundwater basins. One of the regulatory issues that we have with our state water quality board is making sure that the water stays where we put it.

Water quality downstream, groundwater, and the quantity of water applied are all related to irrigation efficiency.

Kevin Pearson: Because a lot of our farmers are on recycled water, there is a set amount of recycled water that we have every year that is based on wastewater flows. As our agricultural community becomes more efficient, it frees up more recycled water that can be put toward other purposes.

With that water saved, we could get more schools and parks on the system and engage in groundwater recharge. Making our agricultural water supply more efficient helps all our other customers, because we end up with a greater volume of supply that can be used for other purposes. This project is aimed at creating a benefit for everyone in our district; it is not just about the farmers.

Kris Polly: Finally, what was your experience working with the Bureau of Reclamation on the grant?

Kevin Pearson: I think we would be remiss if we did not thank the Bureau of Reclamation for its support in this grant opportunity. Reclamation has been an outstanding partner for a long time. Over the past 15 years, EMWD has received over $500 million in grants and low-interest loans from various funding agencies, but Reclamation provided us with funding in the 1990s that built the foundation of our recycled water system. Ever since, it has always found ways to support what we are doing, and we just want to say thank you to them. The resources that Reclamation provides are truly invaluable to projects like this and allow us to provide our customers with on-the-ground benefits as well. What Reclamation does for agencies like us often goes unnoticed; the public does not always realize how much it does. We have the infrastructure for our recycled water in place because Reclamation was willing to step up and provide us with funding decades ago. Now, we are one of the world leaders in recycled water. We wouldn’t be able to sustain our agricultural industry if Reclamation had not stepped up many years ago. IL Daniel Carney is the principal water resources specialist for Eastern Municipal Water District. He can be reached at carneyd@emwd.org.

Kevin Pearson is the public affairs officer for Eastern Municipal Water District. He can be reached at pearsonk@emwd.org.

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WATER LAW

Assessing Idaho’s Groundwater Settlement: John Simpson of Barker Rosholt & Simpson LLP The Eastern Snake Plane aquifer in southern Idaho supports nearly 2 million acres of farmland, dozens of cities, and various industries across the region. In 2015, after years of contentious litigation and a declining water supply, groundwater users and surface water users in the region entered into a settlement to end the conflict over the management and use of the groundwater in the aquifer. The settlement was a critical step toward protecting Idaho’s water future and combatting rapid decline in the Eastern Snake Plain aquifer.

Idaho’s water future is looking more secure than before the settlement, but there is still work to be done. Tyler Young, a writer for Irrigation Leader, spoke with John Simpson, a founding partner at Barker Rosholt & Simpson LLP, about the effects of the 2015 groundwater settlement, lessons learned, and plans for the future of groundwater in Idaho.

Tyler Young: Please give us some information about your professional background and how you became involved in groundwater in Idaho.

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for Rosholt, Robertson & Tucker. John Rosholt was very active in the National Water Resources Association, and it was the preeminent water firm in southern Idaho. The firm represented a number of irrigation delivery systems, the Idaho Power Company, and other water users. I worked with engineers on the hydrology side and lawyers on the legal side—all good people. That is what led me to get into water.

When I joined the law firm, in the early 1990s the state was starting up the Snake River adjudication. That court case led to adjudicating the Native American, federal, and irrigation entity claims. Toward the conclusion of the adjudication and the resolution of all the claims, a new issue popped up: conjunctive management of groundwater and surface water in Idaho. There really had not been any conjunctive management prior to the early 2000s. The laws were on the books, but the state was reluctant to start administering groundwater and surface water without a groundwater model.

During the late 1990s, the state, with funding from the legislature and participation by private water users, developed the first groundwater model for the Eastern Snake Plain aquifer. The model came in on the heels of a multiyear drought and led to the first conjunctive management delivery call and litigation, which lasted for about 10 years before a settlement was reached in 2015. That settlement prescribed, as part of its terms, actions to be taken by the groundwater people to ensure that certain benchmarks in the aquifer, and ultimately an aquifer IRRIGATION LEADER

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN SIMPSON.

John Simpson: By education, I am a civil engineer, and I practiced as an engineer for 7 years before I went to law school. During my time as an engineer, I also got my MBA. I worked indirectly with water during part of my time as an engineer, designing and constructing pressure vessels for petroleum storage throughout the West. I then worked for Idaho Power Company as an engineer down in Hells Canyon. I negotiated power contracts for hydropower during that time as well. I then went to law school with the idea of bridging the communication gap between engineers and lawyers, the technical side and the legal side.

When I got out of law school, I began working

John Simpson, partner at Barker Rosholt & Simpson LLP.

WATER LAW level goal, were met. This area of the aquifer discharged water into the Snake River and satisfied part of the demands of the senior surface water folks.

Tyler Young: How important is having a reliable source of groundwater for the state of Idaho?

John Simpson: On the Eastern Snake Plain aquifer, there are about a million groundwater acres and about a million acres of surface water irrigation. Many of the reaches in the Snake River are fed by discharges from the Eastern Snake Plain aquifer. Water levels in the aquifer are important for groundwater and surface water users in the area because of the interface between the aquifer and the Snake River. That groundwater is a primary source of late-season irrigation water for many groundwater and surface water irrigators.

Sustaining the groundwater in the Eastern Snake Plain aquifer is of paramount importance to everyone, and the economy in southern Idaho depends on it. Growth in southern Idaho has historically been tied to farming and ranching. Water is the beginning point for such development and, also, a focal point for new development.

Tyler Young: The need for surface water users to have access to groundwater was one of the primary reasons for the settlement, correct?

John Simpson: Right. In 2015, the water users and the state recognized that we had an extremely dry spring forecast.

The Idaho Supreme Court had recently modified the administrative methodology the director of the Department of Water Resources used to conjunctively manage the water resource. There were some early-season projections of dramatic shortfalls in surface water delivery supplies, which would have necessitated substantial groundwater curtailment. I believe that was the first time that some of the parties realized that action needed to be taken. There was no choice, no legislative bailout. Curtail or find a long-term resolution.

Tyler Young: What is the current status of the 2015 settlement? Specifically, what did the settlement set in motion, and has that been adhered to?

John Simpson: An obligation was placed on the groundwater people to reduce their impact on the aquifer by a certain percentage—a 12–13 percent reduction in their depletions, or consumptive use, on the aquifer. They could accomplish that by changing cropping patterns, reducing irrigated acres, recharging, or converting from groundwater to surface water deliveries. It was a water budget change. With that water budget change, and in conjunction with the Idaho Water Resources Board’s efforts and funding by the legislature to increase managed recharge, the groundwater level indicators in the aquifer show that we have made some substantial IRRIGATION LEADER

progress over the last couple of years. The decline of the aquifer has stopped, and groundwater levels have improved; we are moving in the right direction toward the 2026 goals that were set in the settlement.

Everyone has played a part, and precipitation has played a great part. We have been blessed with a couple of really good water years, which have made water available for recharge and decreased natural losses from the Snake River, which in turn has reduced the demand from groundwater and surface water users. The climate and the significant water supply changes have had a significant effect on helping us begin changing the outlook that we had just 3 years ago.

More importantly, there are check-ins with a steering committee, comprising groundwater users, surface water users, and the Idaho Department of Water Resources, to make sure that groundwater users are complying with their obligations. Everyone is trying to work together, in part because everyone now realizes that all water users depend on that aquifer, and that if it is not sustainable, everyone is going to take a hit.

Tyler Young: Who are some of the individuals on the steering committee?

John Simpson: There are managers from the surface water delivery entities and members of the groundwater districts.

The Department of Water Resources is not an official member of the committee per se, but it participates in the meetings. It is the water users in the area and their representatives who are on the committee. Every year, they come up with a list of items to discuss, such as compliance; whether every well has a metering device and if not, why; the effect of new transfers and applications on groundwater levels; what other administrative tools we need to properly manage the resource; and whether we can collectively go for additional funding from the legislature to provide opportunities for projects that increase conservation and efficiency. Again, you have water users from both sides of the fence working together.

Tyler Young: Is it safe to say that the water shortage crisis was a catalyst in bringing all the parties to the table?

John Simpson: Well, without the court and the more stringent standards that came out of its decisions, plus a very dry period of time, there was a sense that the junior user could just mitigate its way out of the problem. Again, in 2015 the amount of mitigation required became so great that widespread curtailment was a reality. From 2007 to 2015, when there was an injury determination, the groundwater people could generally go off and find storage water to rent for mitigation. This water was then delivered to the surface water users through direct delivery to their headgates downriver, which would then be delivered to

37

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Barker Rosholt & Simpson, LLP, has represented irrigators, mining companies, ranchers, power developers and construction companies throughout Idaho and the Northwest, with over 100 years combined experience.

Twin Falls, ID 163 2nd Avenue West Twin Falls, Idaho 83301-5672 Phone: (208) 733-0700

those people who needed the water. Unfortunately, that did not do anything to address the decline in the aquifer.

We were watching the aquifer continue to decline while we were just leasing storage water. Well, in 2015 it did not look as though there would be sufficient storage water available to lease to address the injury to the senior water rights holders. We still had a declining aquifer, and simply mitigating with storage was addressing the symptoms, not the illness. Only when we started taking action on the aquifer did we start addressing the illness.

Tyler Young: During the mitigation, were the groundwater people worried about the public and its perception of the declining aquifer levels?

John Simpson: Prior to the settlement, there was no directive to have a measuring device on every well. How can someone know how much they are pumping if they do not have a measuring device? Conversely, how are they to know how much they could be conserving? The other part is, as is the case in most places in the country, you have senior and junior groundwater rights. For years, the senior groundwater rights participated in the mitigation that really benefited the junior groundwater rights. The senior groundwater rights were tired of paying to benefit the juniors, and they wanted the juniors to step up and start mitigating. That has not gone smoothly in all cases. We are still struggling to make sure everyone is participating.

Tyler Young: With the last several years having been good water years, do you feel that Idaho is heading in the right direction, and do you think the measures are sustainable for the future?

John Simpson: We are getting there. Hopefully, people are not becoming complacent because we have had a couple good water years and increases in the aquifer. We do have some outliers who are not complying with their obligations, and there has been a struggle to identify how to enforce those obligations. I think we are moving toward a state where instead of allocating new water rights, we are

38

becoming water managers. How do we effectively manage the resource to meet existing rights and obligations, all while sustaining the resource? The Department of Water Resources is more a manager of the water supply than an administrator. We have this agreement, and we are trying to put in place groundwater management areas where the director has the authority to require every water user within that management area to develop and submit a plan to ensure the goals of the plan are met. Otherwise, there is curtailment by priority that favors water users who have submitted a plan. This authority also gives the director enforcement capability with respect to outliers.

If you do not know how much you are taking out and how much you are recharging, you could be mining that aquifer.

Everyone thought that the Eastern Snake Plain aquifer had an infinite supply of water, and we found that it does not. It does have a very large supply of water, however, and it can recharge quickly. The next part of this planning and management is figuring out how to effectively recharge the aquifer and build up the water supply during high flows so that it can be part of our drought resiliency program.

Tyler Young: Do you have any advice for other states or groups that may be facing some of the same challenges as Idaho?

John Simpson: I think with the climate variability we are seeing, everyone needs to be proactive. Now is the time to be proactive in Idaho and take advantage of the times when we have excess water for storage to protect ourselves against drought and to potentially provide some water for development. Water is only going to get scarcer, and I think that using history as a barometer for what the future will bring is shortsighted. I do not think that in Idaho, we can look back and say that 2018 was like any specific year from the past. Get the state legislature to help with funding, get the water users to play their part, and use the National Water Resources Association to help get federal funding. IL John Simpson is a partner at Barker Rosholt & Simpson LLP. He can be reached at jks@idahowaters.com.

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THE INNOVATORS

Returning Control: Carlos Guerra of Hose Solutions, Inc. For many families, farmers, businesses, and municipalities throughout the country, a connection to sources of groundwater is essential to ensuring a reliable source of drinking water.

Traditionally, a tap would be drilled hundreds of feet to the aquifer and lined with pipe installed in increments. Although this method of tapping into groundwater still works well, installing pipe in confined areas is difficult, and problems associated with corrosion and scaling can arise.

Hose Solutions, Inc., has sought to address some of the challenges many groundwater users face on a day-to-day basis. Tyler Young, a writer for Irrigation Leader, spoke with Carlos Guerra, territory manager for Hose Solutions, about the company’s Boreline Flexible Drop Pipe solution.

By offering customers across the nation a custom product that is easy to install and is resistant to corrosion and scaling, Hose Solutions hopes to make groundwater more accessible and to return the control of wells to their owners.

Tyler Young: Please tell us how you got your start with Hose Solutions.

Carlos Guerra: I started working for Hose Solutions almost 5 years ago. I found the opportunity online, and when I interviewed for the job, I learned that the company had an innovative technology that I felt could make for a decent career, and it has.

Carlos Guerra: The company started in Europe in the 1800s, and the factory in Cape Town, South Africa, started producing fire hoses 50 years ago. From there, it has developed more advanced products, such as lay-flat hoses for fuel, hoses for snow making, and high-pressure mine dewatering hoses.

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Drop Pipe is one of the smaller pieces of the puzzle when it comes to pumping water out of the ground and into water treatment facilities for consumption. Before Boreline, traditional steel drop pipe offered zero benefits, so depending on the depth and gallons per minute you were trying to pump out, you had to use steel, polypipe, or PVC pipe.

Tyler Young: What sets Boreline Flexible Drop Pipe apart from traditional pipe options?

Carlos Guerra: You get many benefits with Boreline. For example, during installation, users can go from putting 20-foot pieces of steel in the ground at a time to being able to install a single piece of Boreline at once. With respect to removal, for a 1,000-foot well with traditional pipe, you would have to pull out the 50 20-foot pieces of steel pipe one at a time until all 1,000 feet were removed. With Boreline, you can pull as high as your boom can lift. If you have a boom truck that can pull 37 feet or a crane that can pull 200 feet, that is the length of hose you can pull out at one time.

Another benefit is the ability to install Boreline over a rolling wheel.

You simply attach one end of the pipe to a truck and drive it into the IRRIGATION LEADER

PHOTO COURTESY OF CARLOS GUERRA.

Tyler Young: Would you tell us about Hose Solutions and some of the problems it hopes to address?

Pump and Boreline being lifted into position.

THE INNOVATORS well. I have seen people pull around 750 feet in less than 10 minutes. It is a pretty quick, safe, and efficient process.

Another area in which we really shine is in restricted spaces. If you are in a restricted area that has overhead restrictions such as power lines or roofs, you can install the pump on Boreline relatively easy by rolling it up on the spool.

Another great benefit is that Boreline maintains a low friction loss over the long term. Plus, it will never scale or corrode over time, which restricts water. We have seen steel pipe corrode in 12–18 months and have replaced it with Boreline; the Boreline pipe has been running for over 10 years without scaling or corrosion. This ensures the pumps are always operating within the design curve, and the result is a more efficient system and a longer life for the pump. No more premature pump failure due to an inefficient pumping column.

Boreline saves on electricity costs because the pump does not have to run for as many hours per day. In energy savings alone, the Boreline can pay for itself in 3–5 years.

We have had towns, for example, Forest Lakes, Arizona, get a rebate check from their electrical company because they are running a more efficient system. Forest Lake installed Boreline 2 years ago, and it is achieving the same flow as when it first installed the pump on Boreline.

When we first met the Forest Lakes water operator, he had a well that was problematic. We learned he was having an issue with scaling in the steel drop pipe that was causing the screen to get clogged. When Forest Lakes initially began the restoration project, it had a drilling company redrill the well. When Forest Lakes installed the Boreline, it was able to choose the gallons per minute and set additional specifications after the rehab was completed and the Boreline was installed.

We donated a length of Boreline to some schools in Haiti so they could get water from the well. The schools were able to install it themselves with a forklift and a wheel instead of hiring a company to come in and install the pipe.

Tyler Young: What are some of the challenges your company faces?

Carlos Guerra: I think the biggest challenge is that the water well industry is not eager to transition to new technology, and educating industry participants on the benefits of Boreline is imperative. We have been manufacturing this product since 1990; it is not new technology. We sell Boreline around the world. In the United States, we are in all 50 states for agricultural and mining use and in many states for municipal use. Even the U.S. military uses Boreline.

Tyler Young: Where would you like to see Boreline go in the future?

Carlos Guerra: We started out on the industrial side IRRIGATION LEADER

of water wells, focused on mining, municipal use, and agriculture wells. We have done well in North and South America in all those categories. Our next product will be a pipe called WellHose, a do-it-yourself drop pipe that targets our end user. We want to let people know that this product exists and that if they have a water well, it should not cost $5,000–10,000 to have the existing pipe replaced.

We want them to know they can do it themselves. We want to put people's water wells back into their own hands.

In Colorado, residential well rights are pretty restrictive.

One individual had a well that was only 250 feet deep, but she had to pay $80,000 to have the well rehabbed. With Boreline, she could install it herself as long as she could get the existing pipe out.

The biggest pump we have installed was a 400-foot deep, 380-horsepower pump pumping 3,300 gallons per minute.

That is a huge well, considering that the average household well pumps 10 to 15 gallons per minute maximum. Usually, they are in the 5- to 10-gallon range.

Tyler Young: What should customers do to get their wells ready for Boreline?

Carlos Guerra: Customers only need to remove the existing drop pipe. Once that is removed, they should call us so that we can select a customized solution for them. Boreline is cut to fit the exact specifications of a customer’s well, so if the well is 250 feet deep, we will cut 250 feet of hose. In most cases, the customer can use the same pump if it is still in good condition.

We have an instructional video online that walks users through the installation process. It costs a lot of money to have a well driller do a site visit, so anytime our customers can avoid that cost, it is a good thing. People are pretty eager to try to install the pipe themselves, and with Boreline, that is a reality.

Tyler Young: What piece of advice do you have for individuals interested in pursuing this solution?

Carlos Guerra: I would ask them to please call Hose Solutions, and we will walk them through the step-by-step process of installing their pump on Boreline. If they have any questions, we would be more than happy to talk to them, show them how many projects we have, give them references, and make them confident that they can install their pumps on Boreline Flexible Drop Pipe. IL For more information, contact Hose Solutions at (480) 607-1507 or Sales@HoseSolutions.com or visit HoseSolutions.com.

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