Funding Water Projects Through WaterSMART
WaterSMART is a Bureau of Reclamation initiative aimed at providing federal cost-share funding to local, state, and tribal entities as they plan and execute projects to save water and energy. The WaterSMART umbrella covers a wide variety of funding programs, including the eponymous WaterSMART Water and Energy Efficiency Grants, Small- Scale Water Efficiency Grants, Title […]
Capital Improvements After Title Transfer:
The Farwell and Sargent Irrigation Districts of central Nebraska were constructed by the Bureau of Reclamation in the 1950s and early 1960s under the umbrella of the Loup Basin Reclamation District. Loup Basin owns the easements, the water rights, and the facilities, while the other two irrigation districts operate and maintain those facilities. In 2002, […]
Why Your Irrigation District Needs a Media Plan
In today’s media environment, news travels fast and customers can communicate their feedback and complaints instantly and publicly. This means that organizations like irrigation districts need to prepare for possible crisis situations in advance, by identifying spokespeople, preparing media plans, and proactively communicating with their customers and employees. In this interview, Keith Yaskin, president of The […]
How Agri-Inject Invites the Public In
Since the 1980s, Yuma, Colorado–based Agri-Inject has been a leader in manufacturing products for chemigation, which is the use of mobile irrigation systems to apply fertilizer and chemicals in liquid form. Agri-Inject, however, is also a leader in public outreach. The company brings local students into its facilities for tours and simulations and also provides […]
Naches-Selah’s Outreach To Local Schools
The Naches-Selah Irrigation District serves more than 10,500 acres in Washington’s Yakima County and has a history going back to the 19th century. The land the district serves is devoted predominantly to apple, cherry, and pear orchards, some of which have now been in the same families for five or six generations. Justin Harter has […]
Kennewick Irrigation District’s Customer Service Strategy
Kennewick Irrigation District (KID), nestled in the Tri-Cities area of Washington State, was started in the 1950s. The canal system that KID was formed to build is still in operation today, serving more than 65,000 people. The district has shifted from primarily agricultural land usage to more urban land usage as the Tri-Cities— Kennewick, Pasco, […]
Most Crop Per Drop
Most farmers are familiar with contests in which participants try to achieve the maximum yield of a crop from a given field. Fewer would be familiar with a contest in which participants’ total crop yield is divided by the amount of water they use—thus measuring their water use efficiency. That’s the kind of contest that […]
Roosevelt Water Conservation District
The Roosevelt Water Conservation District (RWCD) has been serving local farmers, urban irrigators, and other central Arizona water users for almost a century. Located on the eastern edge of the Phoenix metro area in Maricopa County, its 40,000-acre service area overlaps with the quickly growing cities of Mesa and Chandler and the town of Gilbert, meaning […]
Drought-Resistant Water Supplies for Yakima
The City of Yakima’s Water/Irrigation Division provides drinking water and urban irrigation services to around 70,000 urban drinking water users and around 30,000 urban irrigation users. Currently dependent on water from snowpack, the city is implementing aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) strategies as climate change shifts winter precipitation toward rain instead of snow. The city […]
Pisco Grapes: Part of Chile’s Historical, Cultural, and Economic Heritage
T he City of Yakima’s Water/Irrigation Division provides drinking water and urban irrigation services to around 70,000 urban drinking water users and around 30,000 urban irrigation users. Currently dependent on water from snowpack, the city is implementing aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) strategies as climate change shifts winter precipitation toward rain instead of snow. The […]