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.
