In Memoriam: Warren R. Morgan
[siteorigin_widget class=”SiteOrigin_Widget_Headline_Widget”][/siteorigin_widget] Warren R. Morgan, 60, passed away unexpectedly in May. He was born April 17, 1959 to Rex and Laurel Morgan in Soap Lake, Washington. He grew up in Quincy, Washington, and graduated from Quincy High School in 1977 and from Washington State University (WSU) in 1981. He returned to Quincy after graduating from WSU and lived […]
Growing Pecans in the Desert Southwest
The climate of the desert Southwest is ideal for growing pecans, and the region produces roughly one-third of all pecans grown in the United States. With global demand for their product rising, New Mexico pecan growers see a bright future. However, there is a hard constraint on pecan production: water. Growing pecans in New Mexico’s arid […]
An Online Security Training Course for Irrigation Districts
Philip Ball’s Situational Awareness Institute (SAI) provides training for private companies and public agencies about security, active killer prevention and response, and crisis communications. Now, SAI is releasing a new online course that presents the best of its information and education in brief modules that include text, pictures, and video. In this interview, Philip Ball speaks with Irrigation […]
Understanding River Hydrology and Aquifer Relationships in the Arid Southwest
It is well known that surface water and groundwater supplies are often interconnected, but it is difficult to accurately measure how they affect each other on a scale that is informative for purposes of management. Dr. Erek H. Fuchs, the groundwater resources director at New Mexico’s Elephant Butte Irrigation District (EBID), is addressing this issue through his […]
RTU, SCADA, and Gravity Meters: How EBID Monitors Its Hydrology
New Mexico’s Elephant Butte Irrigation District (EBID) benefits not only from the scientific expertise of its staff, but also from a sophisticated network of remote telemetry units (RTU) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA)–equipped meters. The information from these devices helps EBID capture stormwater and manage groundwater pumping, supplementing its drought-affected surface water supplies. In this […]
Maintaining Historic Carlsbad Irrigation District
Carlsbad Irrigation District (CID) was one of the earliest U.S. Reclamation Service projects and dates back to the turn of the 20th century. The town of Carlsbad, New Mexico, grew up around the project and the agriculture it enabled. The project has been updated several times over the years—notably with the Brantley Dam and Reservoir in the late […]
Volume 10 Issue 8 September 2019
New Mexico has some of the nation’s oldest Reclamation infrastructure. Today, it has some of the nation’s most sophisticated groundwater monitoring activity. Its arid landscape is also an ideal location to grow pecans, cotton, and alfalfa. This month’sIrrigation Leader looks at the state’s irrigated agriculture from a number of perspectives. In our cover story, Dale […]
Volume 10 Issue 7 August Washington Edition 2019
For a century, the Wapato Irrigation District (WIP) has been delivering water to the diverse and productive agriculture of Washington’s Yakama Nation reservation. While some of WIP’s engineering and operating activities are handled by the Yakama Nation, it is a federally owned project operated primarily by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In our cover interview, Stuart […]
Tackling Wapato Irrigation Project’s Challenges: Stuart Crane of the Yakama Nation
Wapato Irrigation Project (WIP) was founded by the federal government in the early 20th century to irrigation the Yakama Nation reservation in central Washington State. Today, WIP diverts several hundred thousand acre-feet of water from the Yakima River and local creeks each year to service around 150,000 acres of irrigated agricultural land. While WIP is […]
How Emrgy is Disrupting the Hydropower Industry
Solar and wind power have exploded in popularity in recent years as facilities have become cheaper to build, but up until now, this has not been true of a third renewable power source, hydropower. This is primarily because hydropower relies on large installations that require civil construction. A new startup called Emrgy is seeking to change all […]