Irrigation Leader May 2017

Volume 8 Issue 5

May 2017

Using Hydropower to Power Irrigation: A Conversation With Farmers Irrigation District’s Les Perkins

The Hydropower Issue

By Kris Polly

T

he respective histories of hydropower and irrigation are intertwined in the American West. Over the years, many large irrigation projects have included a significant hydropower component to help finance the costs of construction and provide power to the communities that grew from the introduction of water.

Today, smaller, low-head hydro projects around found on irrigation canals across the West. These projects are a testament to the fact that water and power are two foundational components of growth in the West.

In this issue of Irrigation Leader, we talk to managers and leaders about the intersection of hydropower and irrigation. Our cover interview features Les Perkins, general manager of the Farmers Irrigation District in Oregon. While the district is physically small, serving roughly 5,000 irrigated acres, its vision is big. Farmers is breaking the mold of what an irrigation district can do by incorporating the latest hydropower innovations into its infrastructure, management, and operations. The benefits are many. Mr. Perkins states them clearly, “[A]gricultural security, resiliency, and environmental enhancement . . . [I]t boosts the economies of small communities. One hundred percent of the income from the power we generate stays right here in our county.”

Hydropower is a known technology and proven source of renewable energy. That is not lost on irrigation district managers and operators. Carl Brouwer of the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District shares the story of his district’s journey to adding two powerhouses to its existing dams. With the necessary infrastructure already in place, the move just made sense. Rem Scherzinger of the Nevada Irrigation District (NID) in Northern California

discusses how integral power generation is to his irrigation customers and the stability it provides to a grid that is taking on more and more intermittent power sources. NID is innovating in that respect, looking to create a microgrid to serve emergency services in its region with a reliable power supply.

Elsewhere in this issue, we talk to leaders on the power side of the hydro equation. Leslie James of the Colorado River Electrical Distributors Association weighs in on the value of Glen Canyon Dam to irrigators, power customers, and recreationists alike. Ms. James is a tireless advocate for renewable energy, and she has dedicated her career to a big-picture view of what storage and power generation mean to the tribes and communities that rely on the Colorado River. In addition, Linda Church Ciocci of the National Hydropower Association and Jeanne Hilsinger of Mavel, a turbine manufacturer, weigh in on the policy and technical sides, respectively, of hydropower generation.

Finally, Sharon White and Chuck Sensiba of Van Ness Feldman discuss what to expect from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over the next 4 years.

Mr. Scherzinger said it best: “Hydropower has not been given its due for the truly renewable resource that it is.”

The leaders that we hear from in this issue remind us of essential role that hydropower has played in the sustained growth of the West.

Kris Polly is editor-in-chief of Irrigation Leader magazine and president of Water Strategies LLC, a government relations firm he began in February 2009 for the purpose of representing and guiding water, power, and agricultural entities in their dealings with Congress, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and other federal government agencies. He may be contacted at Kris.Polly@waterstrategies.com.

Tour the St. Mary Diversion Project in Montana and the St. Mary River Irrigation District in Alberta

August 14-15, 2017

Lt. Governor Cooney, with support from the St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group, will be conducting a two-day tour of the the St. Mary Diversion Project in Montana and the St. Mary River Irrigation District in Alberta.

Attendees will include members of the Montana congressional delegation, and the Bureau of Reclamation. The tour will highlight the importance of the project in the region and the economic development opportunities available in Montana. For more information or to register to the tour, please contact McCall Flynn, from Lt. Governor Cooney’s office, at (406) 444-3111.

Monday, August 14 - Montana Portion of Tour Tuesday, August 15 – Canadian Portion of Tour 2

Irrigation Leader

MAY 2017

C O N T E N T S 2 The Hydropower Issue

By Kris Polly

VOLUME 8

ISSUE 5

Irrigation Leader is published 10 times a year with combined issues for July/August and November/December by Water Strategies LLC 4 E Street SE Washington, DC 20003 STAFF: Kris Polly, Editor-in-Chief John Crotty, Senior Writer Matthew Dermody, Writer Robin Pursley, Graphic Designer Capital Copyediting LLC, Copyeditor SUBMISSIONS: Irrigation Leader welcomes manuscript, photography, and art submissions. However, the right to edit or deny publishing submissions is reserved. Submissions are returned only upon request. For more information, please contact John Crotty at (202) 698-0690 or John.Crotty@waterstrategies.com.

4 Using Hydropower to Power Irrigation:

A Conversation with Farmers Irrigation District’s Les Perkins

12 Harnessing Hydropower at Northern Water

By Carl Brouwer

16 Providing Power and Protecting Species at Glen Canyon Dam: A Discussion About Western Power with Leslie James of the Colorado River Energy Distributors Association 20 Promoting the Potential of the Milk River Project: Montana Lieutenant Governor Mike Cooney

DISTRICT FOCUS 22 From Water to Wire: Hydropower in the Nevada Irrigation District

By Rem Sherzinger

ADVERTISING: Irrigation Leader accepts one-quarter, half-page, and full-page ads. For more information on rates and placement, please contact Kris Polly at (703) 517-3962 or Irrigation.Leader@waterstrategies.com.

ASSOCIATION PROFILE 26 Looking at the State of American Hydropower

CIRCULATION: Irrigation Leader is distributed to irrigation district managers and boards of directors in the 17 western states, Bureau of Reclamation officials, members of Congress and committee staff, and advertising sponsors.

For address corrections or additions, please contact our office at Irrigation.Leader@waterstrategies.com.

BUSINESS LEADER 30 Bringing Czech Innovation to American

Copyright Š 2017 Water Strategies LLC. Irrigation Leader relies on the excellent contributions of a variety of natural resources professionals who provide content for the magazine. However, the views and opinions expressed by these contributors are solely those of the original contributor and do not necessarily represent or reflect the policies or positions of Irrigation Leader magazine, its editors, or Water Strategies LLC. The acceptance and use of advertisements in Irrigation Leader do not constitute a representation or warranty by Water Strategies LLC or Irrigation Leader magazine regarding the products, services, claims, or companies advertised.

COVER PHOTO: Les Perkins, General Manager, Farmers Irrigation District.

Irrigation Leader

in 2017: A Conversation With Linda Church Ciocci of the National Hydropower Association

Hydropower: A Conversation With Jeanne Hilsinger of Mavel

THE INNOVATORS 34 Controlling Aquatic Weeds: A Conversation With Dave Blodget of Alligare

WATER LAW 36 Opportunities for Hydropower Development in the New Administration

By Sharon White and Chuck Sensiba

Follow Irrigation Leader magazine on social media /IrrigationLeader

@IrrigationLeadr 3

Using Hydropower to Power Irrigation: A Conversation With Farmers Irrigation District’s Les Perkins

B

uilding and maintaining an effective irrigation district is a challenging task, and the upkeep of the district’s water infrastructure is no exception. Les Perkins of the Farmers Irrigation District in Oregon knows this fact well. He grew up on irrigated acreage and has worked in the irrigation business for 13 years, including a year and a half as manager of the Farmers Irrigation District.

Mr. Perkins helped found the Farmers Conservation Alliance, a nonprofit focused on solving the energy and water resources issues rural communities face. He is also chair of the Fish Screening Taskforce for the state of Oregon. All these experiences have given Mr. Perkins valuable insight into the needs of rural irrigators.

Mr. Perkins recently spoke with Irrigation Leader’s editorin-chief, Kris Polly, about the challenges his district faced in upgrading its outdated infrastructure, how the district is using hydropower to generate revenue to upgrade its irrigation system, and how other districts could benefit from doing the same.

toward residential use in the past 20 years with recent urbanization. The primary crops grown here are pears, wine grapes, cherries, apples, berries, and pastureland.

We have 11 diversions that we pull water from, ranging from our largest, which is 73 cubic feet per second (cfs) to small 1 cfs diversions. Our main diversion is glacially influenced and is based in the Hood River, so we get lots of glacial silt in the summer with our flows. The remaining diversions are spring driven.

Kris Polly: Are all the diversions gravity powered?

Kris Polly: Can you give us some background on your district?

Les Perkins: Yes. Most of our diversions are located anywhere from a few hundred feet to over 2,000 feet above where our office and service territory are. Many diversions were established from the late 1800s to the early 1900s, and were fed through open canals off the river down steep hillsides. The ground here is loose volcanic soil, causing water to seep through the canals and into the ground quickly in many places. We have upgraded our system, replacing the open canals with pipes that reduce water loss and maintenance efforts.

Les Perkins: The district totals 5,888 acres and has 1,887 patrons within our system. We are a mix of farmers and residential customers, but we have been trending more

Kris Polly: When did your district’s current improvement project begin, and what has been done so far?

The Hood River Valley.

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Irrigation Leader

Les Perkins: In the 1970s, the board of directors recognized the need to modernize the system and move away from open ditches. They also recognized that doing so would be costly, so they began looking at hydropower as a potential means of paying for those improvements.

During the 1970s and 1980s, they developed plans for a hydropower system, and the two hydropower plants we have were constructed in 1985–1986. It took a while for the plants to generate enough revenue to help the district, but whenever we had any surplus hydropower revenue, it was directed toward capital improvement projects like piping the canal system. The hydropower system has paid for nearly all the 70 miles of pipe that has been put in the ground across the district. Most of that pipe was installed in the past 10 years.

Kris Polly: Does your hydropower operation function year round?

Les Perkins: Yes. Our irrigation water rights and hydropower rights are separate. Most of our electrical generation occurs during the winter months. As our irrigation demand picks up in the spring, our hydropower production decreases.

Kris Polly: How much water do you divert in a year?

Les Perkins: Our irrigation rights total 3 acre-feet per acre, for a total of just below 18,000 acre-feet, but we only typically use 13,000–14,000 acre-feet. The hydropower rights are an identical amount in rate, which is 108 cfs total. During irrigation season, our combined rate cannot exceed 108 cfs.

Kris Polly: Can you tell us about the recent improvements made to the hydropower turbines?

Les Perkins: Water quality is often overlooked when hydropower systems are being designed and established, and because our system is glacially fed, we have a lot of silt and sediment in the water. The original Francis turbines were not compatible with the amount of sediment we received, and we were spending $150,000 per year or more on maintenance. In 2013, the district began looking at different kinds of turbines and came across the Turgo-style turbines. In 2015, we replaced the two Francis units with a single Turgo. The powerhouse and control interfaces were also upgraded. This decreased the overall capacity from 3 megawatts to 2.6 megawatts but still allowed us to be more efficient through the entire flow range that we have, allowing us to actually increase our total production.

Turgo units also handle sediment and aggressive water well, decreasing our maintenance dramatically. We also Irrigation Leader

Putting canal into pipe at Farmers Irrigation District.

5

have exceeded the efficiency targets that the turbine manufacturer Gilkes predicted for us.

Kris Polly: How long do you expect it will be before the new turbine pays for itself?

Les Perkins: We received a $900,000 incentive payment from Energy Trust Oregon for the project. The total project cost was $5 million, and we have seen a net gain of $130,000–$150,000 in revenue and a reduction of maintenance cost of $100,000–$150,000 per year.

We are saving a total of at least $250,000 annually, so it should take us about 16 years to completely pay off the project, but we will likely do so sooner than that, as our maintenance savings are on the high end and our production is better than expected.

Kris Polly: How did the district find this particular type of turbine technology?

Les Perkins: The previous district manager, Jerry Bryan, discovered it while attending a hydropower conference in Washington. An engineer was giving a talk for Gilkes, and Jerry walked in while the presenter was discussing efficiency benefits as well as the conditions that the turbines could operate in. Jerry was very impressed by the efficiency improvement charts the company had and felt the district’s system fit perfectly with the Turgo turbines. It was a bit of a challenge to convince the board to move forward with the project, but it eventually agreed.

Kris Polly: What would be your advice to other district managers and boards of directors who are thinking of adopting hydropower?

Les Perkins: Hydropower opens a lot of doors for districts that want to fund capital improvements and increase revenue, and it can increase staff expertise as well.

The consistent revenue provided under a long-term powerpurchase contract provides districts the opportunity to take on debt to pay for large projects. Without hydropower, we would not have been able to complete the $50 million in infrastructure improvements we have done over the past 30 years.

But districts need to go into the process with eyes wide open, because it is complicated. There are a lot of factors to consider, and it requires a higher level of expertise on the part of staff to manage properly. Running hydropower units is not the same as running water through canals or ditches. Districts have to be prepared to negotiate powerpurchase agreements and interconnect agreements with utilities. Districts also need to stay up-to-date on what is happening at their local public utility commission relating to regulations and the market. But it can be a tremendous opportunity to augment a district’s income if the district is prepared.

Kris Polly: How many board members do you have?

Les Perkins: Five. Some of the members have been on the board for over 30 years, so there is a lot of longevity and commitment on their part.

In August 2015, Farmers Irrigation District commissioned a Gilkes HCTI Twin Jet Turgo turbine with a generating capacity of 2.6 megawatts to replace two older Francis turbines.

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Irrigation Leader

Kris Polly: Can you tell us what other improvements you have been able to undertake, such as electronic recordkeeping?

Les Perkins: We went to WaterMaster software approximately 4 years ago, and we use it for all our billing and water rights management. It has been excellent and has freed up a lot of staff time. It is easy to create reports, bill patrons, or manage water rights as needed. That was a big step forward in making things more efficient. We also use Geographic Information System (GIS) software to map our water rights and infrastructure. The next step will be to use GIS to track maintenance as well. Most of our diversions also have remote monitoring and cameras that allow us to track what is going into them and detect problems as they arise. As we continue to expand our SCADA/telemetry network and use of other technology, it will allow us to be more efficient with staff time, vehicle usage, energy, and water, as well as to more effectively track our progress toward organizational goals.

Kris Polly: Do you have a message for state or federal policymakers about developing and expanding the use of hydropower?

to PURPA, but the law allows small hydropower producers like us to have guaranteed access to the market. Utilities are required to buy our power at what is called the avoided cost rate, which is set by the public utility commission in each state. Over the past several years, there has been a strong push to weaken PURPA and to drive down the avoided cost rate at which we can sell our power.

Currently, that rate is low enough to be a disincentive for projects like ours and to be a threat to the continued operation of existing projects. It is important for legislators in all states to understand the effects of PURPA on the irrigation community. There are many benefits to projects like ours for agricultural security, resiliency, and environmental enhancement, and it boosts the economies of small communities. One hundred percent of the income from the power we generate stays right here in our county. That has a large benefit on the local economy, and legislators need to understand that those benefits are at risk when utilities start pushing to reduce contract lengths, reduce eligible project size, or drive down the avoided cost rates.

Les Perkins: One of the biggest barriers to implementing in-conduit hydropower within water conveyance systems is the Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA). Each state has its own regulations relating

Dedication of its recommissioned plant 2.

Farmers Irrigation District hydroelectric plant 2 houses its Turgo turbine.

Irrigation Leader

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Harnessing Hydropower at Northern Water

By Carl Brouwer

F

or years, the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District (Northern Water) had considered incorporating hydropower into its water operations.

In the mid 2000s, we started development of the Trout Hydropower Plant at Carter Lake Reservoir and Granby Hydropower Plant at Lake Granby. The two projects now generate a total of 12 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.

Laying the Groundwork

Northern Water is a partner with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for the Colorado–Big Thompson Project.

We had considered constructing hydropower projects for decades. Under its lease of power privilege (LOPP) process, Reclamation may issue a contract to a nonfederal entity, including third parties that do not operate a Reclamation project, to use an unpowered Reclamation dam or canal to generate power. Northern Water wanted to control its own destiny rather than have a third-party operator come in and force us to potentially modify our operations and maintenance.

Northern Water first filed for hydropower project permits in 2009 and in 2011. Then, a series of events took place that allowed the projects to move forward. To finance the projects, both the Colorado Water Conservation Board and the Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority run low-interest loan programs that encourage the development of renewable energy projects. Because the existing Carter Lake Dam and Granby Dam are unpowered,

the new power addition is considered green energy, thus making us eligible for the programs. Loans from these entities came with a favorable interest rate of 2 percent. In addition, two rural electric power suppliers, Poudre Valley REA and Mountain Parks Electric, Inc., agreed to purchase power from the projects and, as a result, are able to generate up to 5 percent of their own power thanks to an incentive program from their supplier, Tristate Generation and Transmission. All those factors made these projects feasible.

The projects were given enterprise status, meaning they are completely self-funding and do not rely on any of Northern Water’s revenues. Power revenues exclusively pay for the plant operations, with no short-term fiscal effect on Northern Water’s constituents. In the long term, we can flow money back out of the enterprise to the parent district.

Once the projects are paid for, that revenue will be used to fund other infrastructure improvements.

Construction and Operations

After obtaining our preliminary and final permits, we hired an engineering firm to design the respective facilities.

The Trout facility went online 3 years after obtaining its initial planning permit. Granby took a bit longer due to some of the particular design features, but its planning process was also short.

The Granby facility was unique; we had to tie into an outlet that was 500 feet up a tunnel, so figuring out how to place the pipe and support it before tying into an existing valve was challenging. Construction began in May 2015, and the plant went online a year later. There was a lot of coordination with the local rural electric association to bring

View looking east from the top of Carter Lake Dam. Trout Hydro Plant is in center right of photo, with a concrete-enclosed canal running immediately below and in front of plant. The northern Colorado front range is in the distance.

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Irrigation Leader

power to the site. We also had environmental concerns due to spring weather, which limited when we could do construction work. Generally, these processes all went remarkably fast, especially the permitting.

Our contractor completed the details of the design, which allowed us to focus on the LOPP, coordinate sizing, and purchase the turbines from a company in England. We were also fortunate that both projects were located close to existing power lines, thus reducing the amount of line to connect the plants to those systems. Trout was 600 feet from another line, making its connection easier and less costly. We only had to pay for about a quarter of a mile of line to make that connection.

Outreach and Support

Before we could begin building either hydroelectric plant, we needed to gain support from a variety of stakeholders.

Northern Water’s board approved our approach early on.

We also gave presentations at our spring and fall water users meetings, ran public tours of prospective plant sites, and reached out to the public at every opportunity to promote awareness and gain support for the projects.

Administration, operations, and maintenance are all handled by Northern Water and billed to each enterprise.

We operate each project with the equivalent of one full-time employee. We often go weeks at a time without doing any serious work at either location. Maintenance is often timed to take place when the projects are operating at a low or no output level.

Lessons Learned

There have been a number of key takeaways from our experience with Reclamation’s LOPP process. The first lesson is that the LOPP process works. Throughout the development process, we consistently found Reclamation to be easy to work with. Our LOPP process serves as an example for others considering this program.

Another crucial takeaway is that a district considering the LOPP process must think about how to pay for the project

Inside the Granby powerhouse run two 600-kilowatt Francis turbines that generate 5 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy a year.

Irrigation Leader

The Granby Hydropower Plant with Granby Dam spillway to the right.

and whether it can ultimately pay for itself, and the district must be comfortable with the answers to those questions.

Making sure each project was self-sufficient was important; Northern Water’s board was comfortable with the projects as long as they would break even.

Districts should also consider gaining some experience operating these types of projects. We sent a number of our people to a hydropower class in Denver for a week, and that was very helpful for us. We have continued to send people to that class each year. The people who installed the turbines and the hydroelectric equipment also have been responsible for maintaining it, and that has been beneficial.

Finally, those looking to pursue LOPP should make it a priority to get to know their power company early on in the process, to understand what it does and how it operates. It is almost impossible to achieve a favorable rate without help from a power company, so early cooperation is important.

Carl Brouwer is the manager of the project management department at the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District.

You can reach him at (970) 622-2298 or cbrouwer@northernwater.org.

Northern Water is a public agency created in 1937 to contract with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to build the Colorado–Big Thompson Project, which collects water on the West Slope and delivers it to the East Slope through a 13-mile tunnel that runs underneath Rocky Mountain National Park. Northern Water’s boundaries encompass portions of eight counties and 640,000 irrigated acres, and it serves a population of about 925,000.

For more information, visit www.northernwater.org.

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Providing Power and Protecting Species at Glen Canyon Dam:

A Discussion About Western Power with Leslie James of the Colorado River Energy Distributors Association

Glen Canyon Dam Powerplant.

W

ater is the lifeblood of western states and provides many benefits to those communities, including renewable hydropower. Glen Canyon Dam is a prime example of this concept. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation built Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell as part of the Colorado River Storage Project (CRSP). This multiple purpose project provides power to 5 million homes and businesses each year. Reclamation owns the CRSP’s power generation facilities, and the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) manages the transmission facilities.

The Colorado River Energy Distributors Association (CREDA) is a nonprofit organization established in 1978 to represent CRSP customers in order to preserve and enhance CRSP resources and promote the responsible use of the Colorado River system. CREDA’s Leslie James spoke with Municipal Water Leader’s senior writer, John Crotty, about the Glen Canyon Dam, the role it plays in power generation in Colorado River basin states, and the challenges associated with the multipurpose federal CRSP. John Crotty: What prompted the development and organization of CREDA? 16

Leslie James: Often, good things can come out of conflict. In 1978, CRSP rates were skyrocketing. The CRSP was a fairly new project at the time with a lot of transmission investment, which put pressure on CRSP rates. CRSP customers in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming wanted to establish a collaborative way to deal with WAPA and Reclamation, so they formed CREDA to bring customers together to address rate and resource issues with a common voice. National Water Resources Association member Salt River Project was one of the founding members.

John Crotty: What is the history and current status of hydropower generation at Glen Canyon Dam? Leslie James: Since 1996, generation had been restricted by about one-third for environmental purposes under a record of decision signed by then-Secretary Bruce Babbitt. Environmental studies funded by CRSP power revenues and directed by an adaptive management program have been ongoing since then. In about 2011, we were encouraged by a hydropower memorandum Irrigation Leader

goals are complementary and that science supports them.

Another challenge is the cost or affordability of the resource. The CRSP service territory encompasses some of the lowest income counties in the United States. The CRSP has over 120 contractors, which include water users and tribal entities along with electric utilities. When Glen Canyon Dam’s generation is restricted and artificial caps on how much and when the dam can follow electrical demand are imposed, that loss of capability and energy has to be made up by other (usually nonrenewable) generating resources. The more capability the dam has to follow electrical demand, the less supplemental market purchases have to be made by WAPA to meet its contract obligations.

These purchases have an effect on the cost of the CRSP resource to all WAPA’s customers.

Leslie James at a CREDA board meeting in March 2014.

of understanding and a signing ceremony by the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. All three secretaries signed this agreement to enhance and promote hydropower.

As time went on, however, it became clear that hydropower was being promoted selectively, with small, new hydro plants favored over large and existing plants, such as Glen Canyon and Hoover Dams. Don’t get me wrong, we were and continue to be strong supporters of small hydro units; it wasn’t all that long ago that hydropower wasn’t universally included in the renewable list, and at times, large hydro units still aren’t.

In 2012, then-Secretary Salazar kicked off another environmental impact statement process, which culminated in Secretary Jewell’s signing of a new record of decision in December 2016. Unfortunately, this record of decision continues to unnecessarily restrict the renewable hydropower resource from Glen Canyon Dam. John Crotty: What are the current major challenges at Glen Canyon Dam? Leslie James: Probably the most challenging is the continued erosion of this renewable generation resource. We now have a new record of decision for reoperation of Glen Canyon Dam for the next 20 years, based on unsupportable conclusions. We believe there is sufficient science and flexibility that can improve hydropower generation at Glen Canyon Dam. The Endangered Species Act often drives operations, but the endangered species around Glen Canyon are actually doing well. In many cases, the prevalence of predatory species is a bigger threat than flow levels or manmade factors. Our goal is to improve conditions for both the endangered species and for hydropower. We believe the two Irrigation Leader

John Crotty: Can you talk more about the problem that predators pose for endangered species?

Leslie James: We have always known that there are competing species on the Colorado River. There is a blue ribbon trout fishery just below Glen Canyon dam. Trout are predators and competitors with the endangered humpback chub. In the past 2 years, a new predator called the green sunfish, which is found in a slough, has begun to show up in the system. Its presence prevented a high-flow experiment in fall 2015. The National Park Service has attempted to use poison, nets, or other treatments to remove the sunfish without acceptable levels of success. A larger population of brown trout has also appeared below the dam; these are highly predatory to the endangered species.

John Crotty: Are you seeing an acknowledgement of nonnative fish concerns or attempts to fix some of the concerns?

Leslie James: We hope so, and the angler community has passed a resolution to have a workshop this August to determine what can be done. Anglers have a vested interest in addressing the nonnative species; when there are too many trout of any kind, the fishing deteriorates. Although it is unclear how this workshop may work in light of the suspension of the Federal Advisory Committee Act groups, Reclamation is still trying to conduct the workshop in a manner that would bring all the scientists together to discuss what could be done.

Managing flows alone is inadequate to address the nonnative fish, and one option that may be considered is dredging part of the slough to make it flow-through.

Temperature control is also an ongoing issue below the dam.

New technology that can allow a device to be operated as a water cooling or warming mechanism is reviving some interest, but cost is another consideration.

The Glen Canyon Dam adaptive management program 17

Two major benefits of Glen Canyon dam: recreational opportunities and power generation.

is a program under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, comprising 23 stakeholder groups, including 6 tribes. The Zuni Tribe, in particular, objects to the lethal removal of fish in the canyon because the area is sacred. Related to tribal involvement in the program, a new programmatic agreement for Reclamation to comply with the National Historic Preservation Act is in the process of completion. When there are effects to cultural sites from dam operations, Reclamation has a legal obligation to address mitigation.

The record of decision recognizes this diversity, reporting that the over-50 CRSP tribal customers are disproportionately affected by Glen Canyon Dam John Crotty: Where do you want to see water and power operations that restrict the hydropower resource. management at Glen Canyon in the near term and in the long The second part of my answer will address term? potential financial effects to other federal programs and projects. CRSP power revenues not only pay for Leslie James: I would like to see us get back to basics. The original CRSP Act has six authorized purposes, and the generation all the repayment of the CRSP debt with interest, but also pay for most of the irrigation assistance of hydropower is one of them. The water storage and delivery beyond what the irrigators can pay. They fund just purposes of Glen Canyon Dam are not particularly problematic under $11 million for the Glen Canyon program, or controversial for the basin states from an advisory committee $8 million for the Upper Colorado River Endangered standpoint. The remaining project purposes are at times in Fish Recovery Program, and $2 million for Colorado competition, just by the nature of dam operations and physical River salinity control. Those are all referred to as downstream resources. Recent published studies by the University the nonpower programs. These programs are highly of Oklahoma underscore the importance the public places on the reliant on CRSP power revenues, which are the same water and hydropower resources of Glen Canyon Dam. We would like to see more opportunity to regain some of the capacity we have revenues used by WAPA to purchase supplemental lost, as we believe there is scientific support for that approach. Many energy to meet its contract deliveries when the CRSP resources (such as Glen Canyon Dam) are not of our members would like to go back to the pre-1996 record of available. decision that allowed the dam to operate in an unfettered manner to follow electrical demand. That goal may be difficult to achieve John Crotty: How important is hydropower for politically, but with energy independence being a priority for this administration, we can hopefully regain some of what has been lost. the development of other renewable resource in the region?

John Crotty: How many people are affected by this loss of Leslie James: Wind and solar resources are capacity? increasing, particularly in the West. These resources Leslie James: I’d like to answer that question in two parts; first, are intermittent, which means that they can’t operate around the clock or when electrical demand needs from a CRSP customer standpoint. Glen Canyon is the largest them. They require backup, or firming, sources of CRSP generator and is operated as part of an integrated system. It is difficult to say exactly how many could be affected; over 5 million power when their fuel—the wind and the sun—aren’t available. Hydropower is one of the most reliable types people across six states receive at least some of their electricity of firming power, and if it isn’t operationally restricted, from Glen Canyon. As I mentioned earlier, the CRSP service it can be used to firm up other renewable resources. area and customer base is geographically and economically diverse.

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Promoting the Potential of the Milk River Project: Montana Lieutenant Governor Mike Cooney

M

ontana Lieutenant Governor Mike Cooney recently spoke with Irrigation Leader’s editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, to discuss the August 14-16 tour of the St. Mary Diversion of the Milk River Project and Canadian irrigation facilities on the St. Mary River. The purpose of the tour is to discuss the stark difference between the facilities in the United States and Canada and to demonstrate the potential of the Milk River Project.

Kris Polly: Please tell us about the Milk River Project and its importance to Montana.

Lieutenant Governor Cooney: This is a project that has been front and center in the state of Montana for at least three administrations. The reason it’s so important is the Milk River. If this project is not dealt with properly, then what is going to happen is that the Milk River will run dry every 8 out of 10 years.

That is a huge problem for the communities, Tribal nations, and agriculture—essentially anyone that uses water in that area. They would suffer incredibly without this water supply. These communities, anticipating having a reasonable water supply, have built their economies around this river system. The Milk River Project is a very old system, over 100 years old. It has not been particularly well maintained, but it’s important to continue to grow as the communities and the economies in that area have grown. I think that’s why it is such a focus, and why it’s so important that we’ve been spending the time and effort in that area to address the concerns and the problems that are facing that system.

Kris Polly: Please tell us about the tour you are planning, why you are involved, and what you hope to achieve.

Lieutenant Governor Cooney: Over the course of time, people in state government change, people in the federal government change, and even some of the users along the system change. This will give us the opportunity to educate people about the Milk River Project and its needs. I am a perfect example. I’m not from the Milk River region, and the tour will be a great education for me.

We hope that members from our congressional delegation will attend. We think it is important for them to understand the relationship between the federal

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government, the state of Montana, the city, and the water users. It’s important they have a good understanding of what we are facing and what these communities, Tribal nations, and irrigators are facing if we don’t do something about it. We think it’s important for them to see what [the St. Mary Diversion of the Milk River Project] currently looks like. And some of the challenges we are facing.

We are also going to spend some time on the Canadian side of the project, and we’re going to be able to see what the system can be . . . if we invest in it and maintain it.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the Canadians have done, how [infrastructure investment] works to their advantage, and what benefits come with investing in the system. It will be a good educational tool for everyone.

Kris Polly: Who are you inviting on the tour?

Lieutenant Governor Cooney: We are inviting Senators Tester and Daines, our Congressman-elect Greg Gianforte, Tribal nation members, other water users from different communities, as well as members of the Bureau of Reclamation. The list of invitees is fairly substantial; we have invited about 35-40 folks. It’s not going to be a small undertaking, but we believe it’s important. However, if there are agribusiness representatives, financial investors, and especially farmers from both sides of the border who are interested in this project and learning about its true potential and the opportunities involved, I strongly encourage them to contact our office.

I hope they will come away with a much better Irrigation Leader

understanding of what we are talking about.

That’s one of the problems that we have when we talk about infrastructure: When it comes to water, I think it’s very undervalued. Most of the time when we talk about infrastructure, we’re talking about highways, bridges, public buildings, and schools. We take water for granted. We walk into our homes, turn on the faucet, and good, clean water comes out. We don’t think about where it comes from and what it takes to get the water to our home. I’m hoping this tour will also help remind people there is an incredible amount of infrastructure needed to bring water from its source to wherever its being used.

Without water, communities don’t survive, businesses don’t survive, agriculture doesn’t survive. I hope that those who take this tour come away from it also understanding and having a much better appreciation of how we bring water to these areas that don’t have it.

about 70 percent users and 30 percent federal government.

That sort of a cost share is not something that allows us to maintain the infrastructure.

We need to work with our federal partners to try and figure out a solution for that, because we cannot afford that cost share. We have a system that is over 100 years old and that is in desperate need of repair.

Kris Polly: What should the St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group and irrigators dependent upon the Milk River Project know about the Governor’s commitment to the project?

Lieutenant Governor Cooney: This has been a priority for the past three administrations to raise the visibility and the importance of [the Milk River Project]. When I became lieutenant governor, the Governor wanted me to be involved, be attentive, and go to the meetings. I took that charge very seriously. Without this water system, this part of the state would depopulate quickly, and the economy of the state of Montana would be very much in jeopardy.

This is an important part of the state, and to walk away or to ignore it would be a disaster.

We need to look for ways to work with our federal partners and figure out some of the issues we are trying to deal with. For instance, the allocation of the cost share is

Irrigation Leader

The St. Mary Diversion Dam diverts water from the outlet of Lower St. Mary Lake to the Milk River through a 29-mile canal, siphon, and drop system.

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District Focus

From Water to Wire:

Hydropower in the Nevada Irrigation District

By Rem Scherzinger

T

he Nevada Irrigation District (NID) is a threebusiness-line organization: We supply water, power, and recreational opportunities (born out of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [FERC] licensing requirement). In operation for 95 years, NID now serves portions of Nevada County, Yuba County (under an old Railroad Commission order), and a quarter of Placer County, California. We also have some recreational facilities in Sierra County.

On the water side of our operations, we provide both treated and raw water. We own and operate six treated water plants and deliver that water to more than 19,000 customers in Nevada City, Grass Valley, and Lincoln.

As an irrigation district, our core mission is the delivery of 130,000 acre-feet of raw water annually to 5,600 accounts covering 30,000 irrigated acres of mandarin oranges, rice, grass, and wine grapes.

The power side of our operations dates back to the early 1920s, when NID acquired some high mountain lakes along with a small hydropower facility. The idea then, as it is now, was to use hydropower revenues to offset some of our water system expenses. In the 1960s, NID embarked on the Yuba-Bear Hydroelectric Power Project. With the help of Pacific Gas and Electric, we have developed seven powerhouses that have a generating capacity 82.2 megawatts of power.

Our power operations generate $22 million in revenue annually, of which $13 million goes toward the costs of running the water system of our upper division, protecting our ratepayers from additional expense. That gives our agricultural customers an advantage in their marketplace by making sure that at least one of their resource inputs has control and a low cost.

Water Supply and Delivery Challenges

Aging Infrastructure. NID formed at the end of the Placer mining activities in the Sierras and, as a result, acquired many of its water rights and facilities at the end of the 1800s. With $1.6 billion in assets, we do not have enough capital coming in to get ahead of our aging infrastructure—especially NID’s 474 miles of open canals and flumes.

Climate Change. NID is singularly a surface water system. We do not have a groundwater basin underneath us, and we are the highest water district in the watershed. We cannot buy or transfer water from another agency. We are using all the recycled water that

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The NID Chicago Park Powerhouse has a generating capacity of 39 megawatts.

is available to us.

Our single largest reservoir is snowpack. Any change to it causes a lot of downstream difficulties for us. There has been an empirical change in our normal snowpack levels, and NID has had to change how it operates and how it prioritizes its capital investments accordingly.

Regulatory Overreach. The California Water Resources Control Board (WRCB) has been very active in expanding its regulatory role in our local issues. It has felt the need to take a more direct role in managing the assets, licenses, and permits of the district. Our mission is to provide our communities the water they need. It is difficult when an organization divorced from that mission is trying to impose conservation on those communities. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to promoting conservation to reflect the diverse geography of the state.

Hydropower Operations and Management Challenges

Regulation. We continue to face a changing regulatory environment with FERC, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (the regulatory body that oversees the reliability and security of the bulk power system), and the Western Electric Coordinating Council. Running seven powerhouses in the mountains with a limited number of staff members makes it difficult for a district running small hydropower units to function.

A Changing Marketplace. We have to compete in a dynamic marketplace in which a significant amount of solar power is coming online. Solar power poses a Irrigation Leader

challenge to the grid: It comes on quickly and goes away just as quickly. Hydro units fare better as a constant load. You want to run the same amount of water through them over a long period of time.

With solar coming into the system, the California Independent System Operator, which oversees access to the grid in the state, is trying to use hydro units to make up loss in the grid. So our units have to be more dynamic, ramping up and down quickly. While they can do that, it puts more wear and tear on them. Those units were not originally designed to operate that way. That is not to say that we cannot modify the units to successfully operate that way, but it requires a financial investment to do so.

This challenge also affects the scheduling of our water deliveries. We are constantly moving water through our system of 10 major and 17 minor reservoirs. When generating block loads, we know that we can run a set amount of cubic feet per second for weeks on end through our system. In this new grid environment, that is no longer the norm. We have to move water in the call, meaning when Pacific Gas & Electric calls for the power unit to come on. That often happens in the evening, when solar starts to wane. We have to respond accordingly to ensure that we remain competitive in the marketplace and continue to generate the hydropower revenues that NID has become accustomed to.

relicensing process is to buckle in and stand your ground.

You have to have the best science available—we hired HDR Engineering and other consultants to do fisheries, flow, and habitat work. Although it is expensive and time consuming, it is important for smaller districts to invest in those studies.

The more objective information a district can add to the relicensing process, the more it can push out the subjective wants and needs surrounding the license.

FERC Relicensing on the Yuba-Bear Hydroelectric Project

Hydropower is out of the public consciousness. When most people drive in the mountains and see a small block building next to a river or dam, they do not understand that the operations inside provide power to 1,000 homes or 10,000 homes. Hydropower has not been given its due for the truly renewable resource that it is.

Hydropower is a sound, long-term investment with significant input control, which both solar and wind lack.

We can deliver power to the grid when it needs it, not just when the sun is up. Hydropower is an old technology, and we know how it works. We are about to acquire a unit that was built in 1903 and is still banging away. It will be there for another 100 years. Solar and wind do not have that kind of life expectancy. Wind generators are in a landfill within 20 years; solar arrays, within 30. And, unlike solar and wind, you can drink hydro’s battery.

NID, and districts like it, runs its systems for reliability, not for revenue. We have been upgrading and improving our hydro units to insulate our customers by providing continuous, reliable power.

NID built and operates the Yuba-Bear Project under the original 50-year FERC license and is now completing a multiyear effort to relicense it. At this stage in the process, NID currently is awaiting its 401 Water Quality Certification from the California WRCB. We have completed negotiations for the terms of the FERC license itself. We have a strong relationship with FERC, which has been instrumental in moving the licensing process forward.

However, we have struggled with some of the other players in the licensing effort, especially the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and third-party nonprofit organizations. Those nonprofits are using the conditioning authority of our federal partners under section 4(e) of the Federal Power Act to make asks for and from the district. That has resulted in some conditioning on the license that will place a significant burden on the revenue potential of the project.

We are not sure if some of those asks, which include monitoring for invertebrates and invasive species mitigation, are truly related to the fact that a powerhouse is attached to a dam. Our individual hydro units are not very big, and these conditions may render them infeasible in the future.

Under section 4(e), NID, which in this case is the project proponent, has no recourse to weigh in.

My advice to other district managers looking at a

Irrigation Leader

Creating a Microgrid for Emergency Power

NID has been thinking three dimensionally about our water-to-wire infrastructure. We have been studying the feasibility of constructing a hydroelectric turbine near our Loma Rica Water Treatment Plant. The station would generate power from raw water flowing through an existing 48-inch-diameter pipeline with over 460 feet of available head. It could provide power to a number of public facilities in the region, including the treatment plant itself, the Nevada County Airport, our local fire attack base, and the county public works corporation yard. This microgrid could save money for community, the county, and district, as well as insulate those public facilities from times when they may not have access to power from the main grid. These are emergency facilities that would have a renewable, reliable emergency power backup.

What the Public Should Know

Rem Scherzinger is the general manager of the Nevada Irrigation District. For more information about NID and its operations, you can contact him at scherzinger@nid.com.

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A S S O C I A T I O N

P R O F I L E:

Looking at the State of American Hydropower in 2017: A Conversation With Linda Church Ciocci of the National Hydropower Association

L

ast year, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind and Water Power Technologies Office released Hydropower Vision, a report analyzing the status and continued potential for hydropower generation and pumped storage in the United States. The report found that the U.S. hydropower capacity has the potential to grow from 101 gigawatts to 150 gigawatts by 2050, providing power to 35 million homes and saving $209 billion in damages from greenhouse gas emissions.

With this study as a backdrop, the National Hydropower Association (NHA) has been advocating for reinvestment in America’s hydropower infrastructure. The NHA is the national trade association that represents the interests of the hydropower industry and advocates for policies that ensure the continued flow of hydropower’s benefits to all Americans.

Linda Church Ciocci is the NHA’s executive director, representing the country’s largest renewable energy resource before Congress, key national policymakers, and the media.

Irrigation Leader’s senior writer, John Crotty, spoke with Ms. Church Ciocci about current trends in hydropower, potential opportunities for increased generation, and the NHA’s message to the pubic and Congress about role of hydropower in the U.S. economy.

John Crotty: What are the biggest trends in hydropower at the moment?

Linda Church Ciocci: We think the importance of hydropower in today’s energy systems is growing because of its flexibility. Its attributes are exactly what we need to have a strong and healthy national grid system. There is a great opportunity for it to grow.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydropower Vision report determined that there is an opportunity to add up to 50 gigawatts to the grid system by 2050. There is also a need for reinvestment as part of a national infrastructure plan.

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John Crotty: What role does the NHA play in tracking and supporting those trends?

Linda Church Ciocci: Significant policy changes are needed to achieve that vision. The number one issue for us to not only encourage growth but also protect and maintain existing systems is permit approval. Requiring a decade of work to get an existing project relicensed at significant cost holds the industry back. We are not talking about rolling back environmental laws; we are talking about improving efficiencies in the process.

The small conduit legislation (Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2013 (HREA)) certainly helped small projects to secure approvals to move forward. Those approvals helped bring clean energy to the grid system and new revenue sources for the developers and operators of those projects.

Hydropower is not valued as it should be. The flexibility that I spoke of is not valued in our energy grid. A good part of our work goes into getting recognition for that value.

There is a new task force within the NHA that is focused on developing new market policies and tax incentives to ensure that the attributes that hydropower brings to the grid system are recognized in the marketplace. A critical area of our work involves the inclusion of hydropower incentives in any kind of tax reform package.

Irrigation Leader

John Crotty: How does the adoption of new technology fit into the equation?

Linda Church Ciocci: The 2013 legislation also created opportunities for new technologies and innovation. In addition, a number of research and development items came out of the Hydropower Vision report. So last year, the NHA created the Waterpower Innovation Council to provide support and share information about new innovations. To that end, we are concerned about the Department of Energy’s budget and are working to ensure that funding remains at least level and continues to support innovation in the field.

There are also innovations that have improved the environmental footprint of hydropower projects. There are number of new fish passage technologies that reflect a better understanding of fish behavior and biology. And innovation is not just new technology, it also involves developing a greater understanding of all aspects of a water system and improving operations.

John Crotty: In my conversation with Leslie James of the Colorado River Energy Distributors Association, she spoke of the untapped potential of existing dams and diversions that currently have a hydropower component.

How is the NHA working to facilitate unlocking that potential?

Linda Church Ciocci: Those facilities are lowhanging fruit. The infrastructure is already there, so we are talking about maximizing that infrastructure. In fact, the Hydropower Vision report finds that we could sustainably add nearly 5 gigawatts of capacity on nonpowered dams and over 6 gigawatts in upgrades. Particularly in the West, where projects were developed for water supply, there is an opportunity to capitalize on missed opportunities. The NHA has had discussions with a number of stakeholders about unlocking the value of that infrastructure. However, this issue is directly tied to the permitting processes we discussed earlier. Reclamation has made significant improvements to help facilitate hydropower on existing facilities. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has made some improvements, and we are working to expand on those to speed up the process. We think that this is the first step in bringing new hydropower online.

John Crotty: What does the public need to know about hydropower in general to help make informed decisions about its adoption?

Linda Church Ciocci: The problem that we all face—and this is as true of water policy as it is of energy policy—is that although hydropower is so important and Irrigation Leader

has made such a contribution to our quality of life, we as a nation have forgotten about that value. Much of this infrastructure was built over 50 years ago, and people just expect it to be there without an understanding of what the world looked liked prior to building and investing in this wonderful infrastructure.

We have a huge job ahead of us in educating the public about the value of these projects, whether it be from a water perspective or an energy perspective. All of us—from those here in Washington to the NHA member companies to water stakeholders—have to communicate the value of those projects. We recognize that there is a footprint; if you build a highway, you leave a footprint—that doesn’t devalue the highway and its importance to our economic system. That is true of our dams, our water systems, and our energy systems.

John Crotty: Since the 2013 legislation passed, numerous irrigation districts have adopted some form of hydropower as part of their project. How do the two benefit each other?

Linda Church Ciocci: If you are going to irrigate, you are going to use water, and water is our fuel source for hydro. There is a natural intersection between the two, and they are great partners. Not all irrigators have hydro, but certainly there are some important irrigators who, for example, are helping to play a significant role in helping states move toward a clean energy economy. There is also a whole new area that the irrigators can move to in terms of the conduit hydropower, which creates generation that is otherwise uncaptured. Conduit hydropower is efficient; these systems typically have a pretty steady flow of water, which also means that estimating the power potential is pretty reliable. It makes a lot of sense and is a part of common agenda.

John Crotty: What is your message to Congress about how we should invest in hydropower?

Linda Church Ciocci: Hydropower should be a part of any infrastructure investment plan. Hydropower creates well-paying, family-sustaining jobs. Those 50 gigawatts of hydropower that we discussed earlier can create up to 75,000 jobs for America. Another key message we have been bringing to Congress is that to unlock the economic potential of hydropower, there needs to be regulatory reform. These projects are not shovel ready without some form of permit streamlining initiative. Building out these projects is critical to our economic future.

For more information about the National Hydropower Association, contact Linda Church Ciocci at Linda@hydro.org.

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Business Leader Bringing Czech Innovation to American Hydropower:

A Conversation With Jeanne Hilsinger of Mavel

T

he end of the Cold War in the early 1990s created economic opportunities for innovators in many industries, including hydropower. One such innovator was Dr. Frantisek Cihak, who partnered with several others to form a company called Mavel, which is a leading innovator in the development, manufacture, and installation of hydroelectric turbines around the globe.

Jeanne Hilsinger is one of four managing partners who have guided Mavel’s success since 1997. She is the executive chairman of the parent company Mavel and the president of its U.S. subsidiary, Mavel Americas, Inc. Ms. Hilsinger spoke with Irrigation Leader’s editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, about Mavel’s origins, the innovative products it produces that bring hydropower to irrigation districts, and the future of the hydropower industry in the United States.

the United States, and Europe who had experience in manufacturing. The proceeds from that financing enabled Mavel to purchase new production machinery for the Benesov production facility and also a small company in the heart of Czech hydro territory, CKD TurboTechnics, s.r.o.

(CKDTT).

Kris Polly: What can you tell us about the company, its history, and its mission?

Kris Polly: In how many countries around the world are Mavel products installed?

Jeanne Hilsinger: Mavel’s mission is the same today as it was over 20 years ago: To contribute to the global development of renewable energy resources by providing customers with hydroelectric power technology that combines innovation, quality, and value. That mission drives our strategy today as it did 27 years ago when Mavel was founded.

In 1990, just as what was then Czechoslovakia was emerging from communism, Dr. Frantisek Cihak, a leading professor of hydroelectric power at the Czech Technical University in Prague, founded a company to commercialize some of his patents. He pulled together a group of his best students and registered Mavel in 1990 as the 167th company formed under the new Commercial Code in Prague.

The group quickly realized that finding a company to manufacture their products to the time schedule and quality standards they needed was next to impossible, so they began to rent time in an rail car repair facility in the city of Benesov, about 50 kilometers from Prague. Mavel delivered its first turbine, a small Kaplan, to a project in Germany in 1993. The volume of orders increased rapidly, and within 3 years, Mavel was leasing the entire manufacturing facility.

That growth in demand and the need for investment in machinery led the Czech management team to seek outside capital. But they also wanted to bring in expertise to help them grow the business. In 1997, the company brought in a group of outside financial investors from Canada,

Jeanne Hilsinger: Mavel products are installed in 41 countries.

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Kris Polly: How many projects do you have in the United States?

Jeanne Hilsinger: We established our offices here in the United States in 2007. Since then, we have signed agreements for 20-plus projects ranging in size from 200 kilowatts to 20 megawatts. Some are complete, some are in the design stage, some are in production, and some are pending final permitting or financing.

TM10 units on a project in Poland.

Irrigation Leader

Kris Polly: Is all your equipment manufactured in the Czech Republic?

Jeanne Hilsinger: Yes, it is all made in our facilities there. We have invested heavily in state-of-the art machining capabilities and are also completely ISO [International Organization for Standardization]-certified to ensure high levels of quality and environmental compliance.

Kris Polly: How do you see the business of turbines trending in the future?

Jeanne Hilsinger: In the United States, in the traditional markets, I see it as being a mix of replacement of existing generating units and the new development of lowhead projects on existing dams.

There is a great deal of activity putting low-head Kaplan turbines on existing facilities that are not powered. We are also seeing interest in the refurbishment of existing power plants that are now 50–100 years old and whose equipment has reached the end of its service life. Conventional technology has advanced considerably since those older facilities were built, so many of the older Francis turbines can be replaced with more efficient Kaplan turbines. Europe has been trending this way for some time, and it now seems that the U.S. market is beginning to do so as well.

Also critical to the expansion of hydropower in the United States is adding power generation to existing water infrastructure. Irrigation is one example. One of the most interesting projects Mavel has done as a company in the past 25 years was the Head of the U Project for the North Side Canal Company. This was the first installation of our TM turbine in North America, and our first project on an irrigation system. The entire company was and is invested in this project.

Kris Polly: Who is your typical customer?

Jeanne Hilsinger: We have been extraordinarily fortunate to have developed relationships with a wide array of customers, from municipalities, to small private developers, to large publicly-owned energy companies, to utilities. It is a very diverse portfolio of customers.

Irrigation Leader

Kris Polly: Are there minimum levels for flow and head that are needed at irrigation sites to operate a turbine?

Jeanne Hilsinger: In this industry, each project is unique, and that includes projects on irrigation systems.

Some projects we have looked at are meant for specific kinds of technology. This dictates the approach we recommend to clients.

As for minimum levels of head and flow, the two factors work together. Our smallest TM turbine can work with a flow as low as 0.15 cubic meters per second (5 cubic feet per second), and we have Kaplan turbine projects in Europe that are operational with a head as low as 1.2 meters (4 feet).

Kris Polly: What should irrigation district managers and their boards of directors know about Mavel?

Jeanne Hilsinger: We are an engineering company.

Our goal is always to find the best-engineered solutions for a site. This can be the application of one of our standard proven turbine models or the development of a new variation to meet the exact requirements of the irrigation district manager’s concept. Mavel’s engineers love a challenge. And, we have the manufacturing experience and expertise to guarantee quality. Finally, once we install our product, it begins a partnership with our customer that never truly ends. Our goal is for the district to be successful over the long term, maximizing the power and the revenue of the power potential at its site.

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The Innovators

Controlling Aquatic Weeds: A Conversation With Dave Blodget of Alligare

K

eeping aquatic and terrestrial weeds out of canals is one of the biggest challenges for an irrigation district.

Irrigators have to keep the canals and pipes clear to allow water to properly flow to fields, and they rely on products from a variety of companies to treat their systems accordingly.

Alligare is one of the largest weed control product distributors in the market, and it provides the chemicals, equipment, parts, service, and support its customers need to be successful. Dave Blodget has worked in the aquatic weed control business for 37 years. He is currently the western aquatics market manager for Alligare, managing sales and distribution in the western states as well as the worldwide distribution of MAGNACIDE™ H Herbicide.

Mr. Blodget spoke with Irrigation Leader’s editorin-chief, Kris Polly, about the effectiveness of Alligare’s products and the equipment and support the company provides to its customers, and about how irrigation district managers can have a more effective weed control program.

Kris Polly: What should every irrigation district manager know about having a cost-effective aquatics program?

Dave Blodget: They need to know that they can and should seek to expand their toolbox. There are a lot of newer products that may be a bit foreign to irrigators but that can save them a lot of time and money in the long run. Using a varied approach to weed control that includes preemergent and in-season treatment is the key to successful aquatic weed control.

Programs currently being used have resulted in a reduction in time and money spent controlling weeds.

Kris Polly: What does preemergence refer to?

Dave Blodget: The user puts a chemical on the bottom, insides, tops, and outsides of the canal when it is dry to form a barrier against weed seeds in the soil.

This prevents weeds from growing as they attempt to emerge. Preemergence is the best technique for keeping irrigation systems free of weeds, particularly with the

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growing number of resistant varieties of weeds we have today.

Kris Polly: Is there a certain time of year that is best for irrigation district managers to place calls and make purchases?

Dave Blodget: We receive calls year-round from people for orders, but the earlier we are contacted, the better for scheduling purposes. Sometimes it takes a bit of ingenuity to timely deliver product to all the places it is needed. In particular, with MAGNACIDE™ H Herbicide, we need to schedule trucks throughout the irrigation season for timely deliveries to our customers. We also have early order programs in the fall, which helps district managers with budgeting for the upcoming year.

Kris Polly: Can you talk about some of the names from your portfolio and the most cost-effective treatments from your product line?

Dave Blodget: The newest one is a product called Payload. In California, we have a Special Local Need (SLN) permit for canal bottoms. An SLN is issued by the state and approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for modified label uses of products. We obtained the permit 2 years ago, so this program is in its infancy, but we are seeing very positive results thus far. Payload needs to be applied to the insides and canal bottoms in the fall, shortly after dry-up, and it prevents the growth of terrestrial weeds in the canals. We believe it has shown some effects on submerged aquatic weeds later in the season as well.

The user must wait 30 days after application inside the canal before rewatering the canal.

The other product we have is called Fluridone, which has been used since 2008 as a preemergent treatment of canal sides and bottoms for submersed aquatic weed control.

Alligare is the sole provider of MAGNACIDE™ H Herbicide for the control of submersed aquatic weeds and algae. We offer commercial application of MAGNACIDE™ H Herbicide in many areas if Irrigation Leader

customers would rather have treatments professionally applied for them. We also have Argos, our 9 percent chelated copper for algae and aquatic weed maintenance.

Kris Polly: How effective is MAGNACIDE™ H Herbicide for aquatic weed control?

Dave Blodget: It is the best in-season aquatic weed and algae control product on the market today. When applied per the label, there are no irrigation restrictions for any crop.

Kris Polly: Can you talk about how MAGNACIDE™ H Herbicide breaks down into natural elements after a period of time?

Dave Blodget: The active ingredient in MAGNACIDE™ H Herbicide reacts with specific enzymes in aquatic plants and algae. When the product reacts, it ruptures the plants’ cells, causing the plant to disintegrate. Once it has reacted with the cells, it becomes inactive. The product quickly breaks down to carbon dioxide and water. Algae will break down within 24 hours of application, and pond weeds can take up to 7 days.

Flows in the canal will generally recover within 24–48 hours. The MAGNACIDE™ H Herbicide in the water is safe for irrigation in concentrations up to 15 parts per million on any crop, and the treatment becomes inert after as little as 45 hours. It is pure magic for irrigation canals plugged up with aquatic weeds.

Kris Polly: Where is the product produced?

Dave Blodget: MAGNACIDE™ H Herbicide is made by Taft Manufacturing Company, which is part of Baker Petrolite LLC in Taft, California, just outside Bakersfield. Our application equipment is assembled by Alligare personnel in Madera, California.

Kris Polly: Do you also provide application equipment and training on how to use MAGNACIDE™ H Herbicide and your other products?

Dave Blodget: For MAGNACIDE™ H Herbicide, we build the application equipment. We track what equipment a customer has, when they bought it, and when they need to replace it. We conduct annual training for the customers, which is a label requirement, but has been done since the first registration of MAGNACIDE™ H Herbicide back in the early 1970s. We start those sessions at the end of January and finish at the end of April, to make sure everyone has received training before irrigation season begins. We do in-field training until the applicators are comfortable with the process. For all our other Irrigation Leader

products for use in aquatic environments, we offer advice, recommendations, and great pricing.

Kris Polly: Do you advise customers on when they need to replace hoses and other parts, or do you replace them automatically?

Dave Blodget: A lot of the districts replace some of their parts annually as a matter of course. We have a tracking program that helps us advise our customers when they need to order compliance parts again. Alligare has an agreement with the manufacturer, Baker Petrolite, to not sell to customers unless we have verification that the customers’ equipment is current, their licenses and permits are valid, and their training is completed. There are few companies that steward their products the way we do.

We also do customer audits periodically, during which we examine storage locations, applicators, and equipment, as well as how the product is being used, so that we can preempt any issues. We believe strongly in preventing problems whenever possible. We sell the application kits and provide approved full-face respirators that are required during setup and breakdown of the application. This is important, because many of the respirators commonly available are not approved for use with this chemical.

Overall, we find this comprehensive stewardship approach to benefit us as well as our customers, and our customers appreciate it as well. Our technical sales personnel are well versed in aquatic applications and are available to assist our customers in all aspects of aquatic weed management.

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Water Law Opportunities for New FERC Policies Promoting Hydropower Development Under New Administration

By Sharon White and Chuck Sensiba

T

hough still in their early days, the Trump administration and the new 115th Congress face opportunities to achieve policies that are favorable for hydropower, including new hydropower development at existing water supply infrastructure.

With the president’s recent nomination of two new commissioners to serve on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or Commission), FERC—which has been hampered for the first few months of the new administration due to a lack of a quorum—is soon expected to be restored to a quorum.

The return of a quorum at FERC will place the agency in a position to develop policies that are consistent with the president’s strong focus on infrastructure improvement programs and reducing regulatory burdens.

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Opportunities at FERC

To advance his infrastructure agenda, President Trump has issued several executive orders aimed at streamlining regulatory approvals and expediting infrastructure projects. On January 24, 2017, the president issued an executive order to expedite environmental review and approvals for high-priority infrastructure projects and requested state governors, agency heads, and the chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality to recommend projects that qualify as high priority. Many of these high-priority projects will involve water infrastructure. On January 30, 2017, the president issued an additional executive order to reduce the private sector’s costs for regulatory compliance; under this executive order, agencies must identify two existing rules to be revoked for each new regulation proposed or issued. Because FERC is an independent agency, it is not technically bound Irrigation Leader

by these and similar executive orders, but independent agencies may, and often do, comply voluntarily with the requirements of such orders.

FERC, too, has recently proposed several reforms to promote hydropower that remain pending. For example, in November 2016, FERC issued a notice of inquiry seeking comments on whether its existing policy governing the length of original and new hydropower licenses, under which a license term could range from 30 to 50 years, should be modified. FERC also has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking aiming to allow energy storage resources (including pumped storage) to more fully participate in organized electricity markets, and a policy statement affirming that storage resources (including pumped storage) can potentially serve as transmission assets and receive multiple revenue streams in an organized market, marking a change from its previous policy.

The lack of a three-commissioner quorum has delayed FERC’s ability to rule on these proposals and propose new policies to advance the president’s agenda on infrastructure development. FERC is composed of up to five commissioners, appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate. No more than three FERC commissioners may be from the same political party. Under the Department of Energy Organization Act, a quorum of at least three commissioners is required to advance major policy initiatives, make policy decisions, and approve contested infrastructure projects. FERC has lacked a quorum since the resignation of Chairman Norman Bay on February 3, 2017, which left FERC with only two commissioners: Cheryl LaFleur, whom President Trump named as acting chairman; and Commissioner Colette Honorable. Both Acting Chairman LaFleur and Commissioner Honorable are Democrats. Although FERC has issued delegated authority to its staff to act on certain matters until a quorum is restored, the current lack of quorum prevents FERC from taking final action on any policy proposals to advance the president’s objectives.

On May 15, 2017, President Trump nominated Neil Chatterjee and Robert Powelson, both Republicans, to fill two of the vacant FERC commissioner seats and restore the quorum. Chatterjee has been Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s energy policy advisor since 2009 and previously worked for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Powelson is currently chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, where he began serving as a commissioner in 2008, and also serves as president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a confirmation hearing for both nominees on May 25, 2017, and approved their nominations on June 6, 2017, by a vote of 20–3. The Irrigation Leader

nominations have not been set for a final confirmation vote by the full Senate. Depending on available floor time in the Senate, a FERC quorum could potentially be restored before the July 4 congressional recess.

Once a quorum is restored and the president names a chairman of the Commission, FERC must clear the backlog of pending orders awaiting a Commission vote and determine proposed new policies to advance the administration’s policies. This will take time. Upon their arrival at FERC, the new commissioners will first need to interview and hire their staff. Once their advisors are in place, they will need to review and consider a substantial backlog of pending cases. It could well be several weeks or months before the Commission begins to act on outstanding cases and develop proposals to advance administration priorities.

Conclusion

The focus of the new administration on infrastructure development could well create new opportunities at FERC for hydropower development over the next 4–8 years.

FERC will be seeking input from the industry on ways to streamline regulatory approvals and incentivize investment in hydropower at both new and existing infrastructure. It is a critical time for those considering hydropower investment to get involved and seek new policies at FERC that would make such investments more attractive.

Chuck Sensiba is a partner at Van Ness Feldman and provides strategic counsel and legal representation to public utility districts, state governmental entities, investor-owned utilities, water districts, independent power producers, and developers on the full spectrum of complex licensing, natural resources, and environmental issues related to hydropower development. You can reach him at crs@vnf.com.

Sharon White is an associate at Van Ness Feldman and represents a broad range of clients on issues relating to the regulation of hydroelectric projects before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, federal and state regulatory agencies, and the U.S. Courts of Appeal. You can reach her at slw@vnf.com.

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2017 CALENDAR May 9

May 19 June 12–13 June 14–16 June 21–23 July 23–27 July 27–28 August 8–10 August 23–25 August 29–31

Association of California Water Agencies, 2017 Spring Conference & Exhibition, Monterey, CA Agribusiness & Water Council of Arizona, 2017 Annual Meeting and Water Conference, Tempe, AZ Idaho Water Users Association, Summer Water Law and Resource Issues Seminar, Sun Valley, ID Texas Water Conservation Association, 2017 Mid–Year Conference, Galveston, TX Western Coalition of Arid States (WESTCAS), Annual Conference, San Diego, CA National Association of Clean Water Agencies, Utility Leadership Conference and 47th Annual Meeting, St. Louis, MO Kansas Water Congress, Summer Conference, Garden City, KS National Water Resources Association, Western Water Seminar, Santa Fe, NM Colorado Water Congress, 2017 Summer Conference, Vail, CO Texas Alliance of Groundwater Districts, Texas Groundwater Summit, San Marcos, TX

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