The One World One Water (OWOW) Center was created at Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU Denver) in Colorado to offer classes on water law, water history, global water concerns, and other water-related issues to university students who have a passion for water. It soon became clear that many water industry professionals were also interested in these classes. In response, the OWOW Center established a self-paced online certificate course open to professionals from across the nation. In this interview, OWOW Center Codirector Tom Cech tells us about the center’s mission, its in-person and online courses, and how it is helping educate a wide range of people about water. 

Hunter Morrical, a project engineer at the Bozeman, Montana–based planning and design firm WGM Group, took interest in the Bureau of Reclamation’s Canal Safety Challenge and entered the competition. WGM’s design, the Hydro Scoop, earned it a spot as one of the three finalists that have each been awarded $50,000 to build a prototype. In this interview, Mr. Morrical tells us about the design and his hopes for its development. 

Isotrope LLC is a radio engineering and broadcast communications firm based in Medfield, Massachusetts. Isotrope’s CEO David Maxson recently took park in the Bureau of Reclamation’s Canal Safety Challenge. Mr. Maxson’s proposal earned him a position as a finalist in the competition. In this interview, Mr. Maxson tells us about his interest in canal safety and how he came up with his concept. 

Greenfields Irrigation District (GID), based in Fairfield, Montana, serves 750 customers on more than 130,000 acres of land. With 600 miles of canals, many in locations that are difficult to fully close off from trespassers, canal safety is a serious concern. Recently, GID participated in the Bureau of Reclamation’s Canal Safety Challenge, and its proposal landed it as a finalist in the competition. In this interview, District Manager Erling Juel tells us about GID and its participation in the canal safety competition. 

The Bureau of Reclamation’s Research and Development Office is taking a unique tack to boost innovation: It has established a program of prize competitions on various topics, seeking to harness private citizens’ competitive instincts to advance the state of the industry. It has run competitions on topics including atmospheric forecasting, quagga mussel eradication, and canal safety, and pays out prizes adding up to as much as $800,000 in larger-scale contests. In this interview, Jennifer Beardsley, the office’s prize competition program administrator, tells us about the aims and results of this unusual program. 

The Horsefly Irrigation District (HID) in arid eastern Oregon provides water to 11,600 irrigated acres. To address limited supplies and evaporation, it has started piping its 25 miles of canals. In this interview, HID Manager Justin Eary tells us more about the district’s current projects. 

The Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority (TCCA), headquartered in Willows, California, is a joint powers authority (JPA) made up of 17 Central Valley Project (CVP) water contractors. The TCCA provides irrigation water to farmers throughout four counties along the west side of the Sacramento Valley, serving 150,000 acres growing a variety of permanent and annual crops. The TCCA is one of nine regional entities represented on the Sites JPA, which is supporting the construction of the proposed 1.5‑million-acre-foot Sites Reservoir. In this interview, TCCA General Manager Jeff Sutton tells Irrigation Leader about his agency and gives us an update on the progress of the Sites Reservoir Project. 

UPL is the fifth-largest agrochemical company in the world and provides an array of aquatic chemicals to help irrigation districts keep their conveyance structures clean. Not only does UPL manufacture some of the best-known aquatic herbicides in the irrigation business, it also delivers quality customer service. In this interview, UPL’s business lead for aquatics, Jeremy Slade, tells Irrigation Leader about his field of the business and changes in the industry. 

McCrometer has long been a stalwart in the irrigation industry. Its innovative meter products allow irrigators to properly measure water efficiently and cost effectively. As new technologies and customer demands have emerged, McCrometer has continually innovated in order to keep providing water users with high-quality yet affordable products. The company continues to do precisely that with its new mag meter products. In this interview, Senior Product Manager Aimee Davis and Market Development Manager Ken Quandt tell Irrigation Leader about why McCrometer developed the new mag meters, how it innovated to optimize them for customers’ needs, and the meters’ appeal to both irrigation and municipal water users. 

Colton Russon, who runs a dairy farm and grows barley, corn, and hay in Tremonton, Utah, has recently started using a Rubicon FarmConnect system. In this interview, Mr. Russon tells us about the results he is seeing from the system.