Volume 9 Issue 3 March Washington Edition 2018
In today’s workplace, employee and customer safety is job number 1. Irrigation districts are no different. With miles of canals, fast-flowing water, heavy machinery, potent chemicals, and the potential for isolated working conditions, irrigation district managers must contend with a number of challenges to ensure the safety of their workers and the people they […]
Canal Safety at Nampa & Meridian Irrigation District
The incidence of accidental drowning in Idaho is too high. Idaho also has the unfortunate distinction of having the second-highest accidental drowning rate for children ages 1 through 5 in the United States. For over two decades, Nampa & Meridian Irrigation District (NMID) has worked with our taxpayers and community to foster a culture of […]
Canal Safety at Roosevelt Water Conservation District
Roosevelt Water Conservation District (RWCD) serves a growing customer base in and around the cities of Mesa and Chandler and the town of Gilbert in central Arizona. Urbanization and a more active population have the potential to create public safety issues in and around RWCD’s canals. In central Arizona, the public perception is that canals […]
Common-Sense Safety for a Community Asset
Canals account for the bulk of western water delivery systems. As communities and cities have grown around these water systems, the push to use them for purposes beyond water transmission and delivery intensifies. The Salt River Project (SRP) provides irrigation water and power to the greater Phoenix metro area. Over the years, SRP has worked […]
Volume 9 Issue 3 March 2018
In today’s workplace, employee and customer safety is job number 1. Irrigation districts are no different. With miles of canals, fast-flowing water, heavy machinery, potent chemicals, and the potential for isolated working conditions, irrigation district managers must contend with a number of challenges to ensure the safety of their workers and the people they […]
Seeking Settlements and Solutions
RReaching mutually agreeable solutions to problems is never easy, and nowhere is this truer than in disputes over water rights. Such disputes often lead to lengthy and costly litigation that ultimately results in less-than-optimal solutions. Successfully negotiating a settlement can be a more difficult but ultimately more beneficial method of resolving complex water issues. John […]
The History of Hydropower
Consistency and commitment are the hallmarks of long-term success in any industry, and hydropower is no exception. The long lifespan of hydropower facilities requires both producers and consumers of turbines or other hydropower components to plan for a relationship that can be measured in decades, or even centuries. Gilbert Gilkes & Gordon Ltd (Gilkes) is […]
Tackling Aquatic Weeds at the Twin Falls Canal Company
The Twin Falls Canal Company, located in southern Idaho, provides water from the Snake River to over 4,000 irrigators across 202,000 acres. Our system has a large number of dairy farms that primarily grow corn and alfalfa. Others irrigators raise potatoes, sugar beets, dry beans, garden beans, wheat, and barley. We first delivered water in […]
Teff in Nevada
One way for farmers to improve soil and reduce the risk of crop loss is to diversify crop rotations. More than a decade ago, a couple of farmers in northern Nevada’s Truckee-Carson Irrigation District—with the help and guidance of their local agricultural extension agent—started growing a staple of the highlands of the Horn of Africa, […]
The Value of Redundant Systems in the Quincy-Columbia Basin Irrigation District
Natural disasters are a prime example of the need for proper emergency planning and contingencies. Floods and wildfires can devastate the infrastructure of local towns, farms, and irrigation systems. Electrical power lines and stations are particularly vulnerable, and loss of electricity can cripple an irrigation district’s ability to manage its canals. The QuincyColumbia Basin Irrigation […]