Irrigation Leader September 2021

VOLUME 12 ISSUE 8

Henry Martinez of the Imperial Irrigation District: Supporting Agriculture and Solving Problems

September 2021

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CONTENTS SEPTEMBER 2021 Volume 12 Issue 8

8

Henry Martinez of the Imperial Irrigation District: Supporting Agriculture and Solving Problems

5 I mperial Irrigation

By Kris Polly 8 H enry Martinez of the Imperial Irrigation District: Supporting Agriculture and Solving Problems 14 W hy Zanjeros Are Fundamental to the Imperial Irrigation District’s Operations 18 H ow Rubicon’s FarmConnect Solution Is Turning Flood and Furrow Irrigation Into an Efficient System

30 A imee Davis and Ken Quandt: Making Meters Work Smarter and Harder at McCrometer 34 U PL’s Products and Services for Irrigation and Canal Districts 40 E cological Sustainability Should Be Our Goal

By Scott J. Cameron 42 JOB LISTINGS

an American company established in 2009.

STAFF: Kris Polly, Editor-in-Chief Joshua Dill, Managing Editor Tyler Young, Writer Stephanie Biddle, Graphic Designer Eliza Moreno, Web Designer Caroline Polly, Production Assistant and Social Media Coordinator Cassandra Leonard, Staff Assistant Milo Schmitt, Media Intern 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 our office at (202) 698-0690 or irrigation.leader@waterstrategies.com.

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

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 us at admin@waterstrategies.com.

Copyright © 2020 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.

/IrrigationLeader

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Coming soon in Irrigation Leader: October: Jeff Sutton of the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority Do you have a story idea for an upcoming issue? Contact our editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

4 | IRRIGATION LEADER | September 2021

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COVER PHOTO: Henry Martinez, General Manager, Imperial Irrigation District.

Photo courtesy of the Imperial Irrigation District.

irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE IMPERIAL IRRIGATION DISTRICT.

24 R onald Leimgruber: Using FarmConnect in the Imperial Valley

25 C olton Russon: Using FarmConnect on a Utah Dairy Farm

Irrigation Leader is published 10 times a year with combined issues for July/August and November/December by

Imperial Irrigation

T

his month, we bring you several stories that highlight the excellent work that is being done in California’s Imperial Valley, one of the nation’s leading producers of winter produce. In our cover story, we speak with Henry Martinez, the general manager of the Imperial Irrigation District (IID), the top user of Colorado River water, about IID’s operations and conservation efforts as well as the situation on the Salton Sea. We also speak with IID zanjero Jeff Dollente and Public Information Officer Robert Schettler about IID’s vast delivery system and the hard work of its zanjeros and other staff.

Next, we speak with Peter Moller, Rubicon Water’s business development manager, about the company’s launch of its FarmConnect on-farm irrigation solution, which has been tested at the University of California Cooperative Extension Desert Research and Extension Center in the Imperial Valley. We also interview Ronald Leimgruber, an Imperial Valley farmer, and Colton Russon, who farms near Tremonton, Utah, about their experiences with the FarmConnect solution.

McCrometer’s McMag2000 is an affordable, easy-to-read mag meter that was designed for farmers who would like to replace the popular McPropeller meter at a similar price point. We hear more about this attractive new product in our interview with Aimee Davis and Ken Quandt.

By Kris Polly UPL provides an array of aquatic chemicals to help irrigation districts keep their conveyance structures clean. In our interview with Jeremy Slade, UPL’s business lead for aquatics, we hear more about the advantages of the company’s combination of products and customer service for irrigation districts nationwide.

Finally, Scott Cameron, the former acting assistant secretary for policy, management, and budget at the U.S. Department of the Interior and a former principal with the National Invasive Species Council, lays out a blueprint for a holistic approach to ecological sustainability that encompasses climate change, invasive species, forest management, and agricultural production.

With large-scale agricultural production, water conservation, serious attention to environmental issues, new technology, and academic-business research partnerships, what is going on in the Imperial Valley is a microcosm of U.S. irrigation as a whole. This issue of Irrigation Leader helps highlight the many facets of this fascinating industry IL Kris Polly is the editor-in-chief of Irrigation Leader magazine and the 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 Bureau of Reclamation, and other federal government agencies. He may be contacted at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

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Henry Martinez of the Imperial Irrigation District: Supporting Agriculture and Solving Problems

An IID vehicle stands next to a gate on the Eucalyptus Canal.

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he Imperial Irrigation District (IID) has been providing water and energy services to inland Southern California for 110 years. A top user of Colorado River water and a top agricultural producer, it faces many of the same issues as other arid-region irrigation districts: drought, water supply, and infrastructure maintenance. However, it also must deal with the unique challenges related to the dropping water levels in the highly saline Salton Sea, including air pollution caused when wind stirs up the salty soil in the exposed lakebed, or playa. In this interview, IID General Manager Henry Martinez tells us about the district’s impressive services, the productive agriculture and large economy it supports, and how it is addressing the challenges of the Salton Sea.

Henry Martinez: I have been in the utility business for over 45 years. I have worked for large public and private utilities in both the water and energy departments. I came to IID a little

8 | IRRIGATION LEADER | September 2021

Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about IID’s history and current services.

Henry Martinez: The district celebrated 110 years of existence on July 25, 2021. It was formed to provide water services for Imperial County. Later, we became a public power provider, extending energy services into the eastern Coachella Valley and into the Riverside County area. We don’t provide water services in the Coachella Valley, since it has its own district, but we provide energy. We provide electricity to 155,000 electric meters and irrigate about half a million acres of crops, serving upward of 5,200 farm accounts.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top crops in your area? irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF IID.

Irrigation Leader: Please tell our readers about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

over 3 years ago as an energy manager. At the time I arrived, the idea was that I would run the energy department as part of the district’s services for customers. I became the general manager of IID when my boss Kevin Kelley retired. I will have been general manager for 3 years at the end of 2021.

A gate on IID’s Trifolium Canal.

Henry Martinez: Grass and hay are among the highest ones, but we have a whole list of crops, including large field crops, such as alfalfa, Bermuda grass, kleingrass, Sudan grass, sugar beets, and wheat; and garden crops, such as broccoli, carrots, lemons, lettuce, mixed citrus, mixed vegetables, onions, spinach, sweet corn, and plenty more.

Irrigation Leader: What are the district’s top issues today?

Henry Martinez: Our only source of water is the Colorado River, and we have contracts with the federal government to receive water from it. We have one of the oldest and most senior rights on the Colorado. As you’ve been reading over the last 20 years, there has been a continuous drought in the Colorado basin, leading the storage in Lake Mead and Lake Powell to decline. At this point, we’re looking at how the hydrology will develop in the future and asking what effects it will have on our water supply and our water transfers to San Diego and the Coachella Valley. Discussions are occurring with the rightsholders on the Colorado River and the Bureau of Reclamation about the long-term forecast and what decisions we may have to make over the next couple of years if the shortage continues. Our senior rights give us a good amount of security, but water rights can only get us so far if there’s no water available, which is our greater concern.

This makes us cognizant of water use and has led us to make major efforts to conserve water in the irrigation arena. We incentivize farmers to use water more efficiently for their crops by compensating them for the water that is conserved.

Another issue is the Salton Sea. The Salton Sea has been affected by the drought and by changes in water use and conservation. Irrigation has accelerated the decline of the irrigationleadermagazine.com

water level in the Salton Sea, which is already declining due to evaporation. The rate of evaporation now exceeds inflows.

That results in greater exposure of the playa surrounding the Salton Sea, particularly in its southern part. Soil that was formerly covered with water is now exposed to the open air, and coupled with our wind conditions, we end up with air quality concerns. Further, the sea itself is highly saline, which raises questions about whether it is sustainable for wildlife habitat and fisheries.

On the energy side, one issue is that our 99‑year agreement to serve the Coachella Valley expires in 2033.

When the contract ends, it opens the door for other energy providers to step in. There have also been proposals in the California Legislature for representatives from the Coachella Valley to be added to IID’s board. That has become a major concern for us. We’re currently following a bill that was introduced by Assembly Member Chad Mayes, who represents a portion of Coachella Valley in the Palm Springs area, that proposes adding one additional ex officio member to our board. Also, the bill includes a provision for an analysis of how best to secure the future of energy service in the Coachella Valley after the current contract ends.

On the positive side, we’ve seen an interest in lithium development and in the development of additional geothermal energy in our service territory. The California Public Utilities Commission approved the procurement of 1,000 megawatts of new geothermal energy. That will open a lot of opportunities for geothermal development on land that the district owns. It was also recently announced that General Motors is partnering with a local developer, Control Thermal Resources, to develop lithium hydroxide in the Imperial Valley as a raw mineral for storage batteries. We September 2021 | IRRIGATION LEADER

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expect major investments in the valley that will change the whole landscape of labor and infrastructure in the region.

Irrigation Leader: Would you tell us about the conservation efforts you are carrying out?

Henry Martinez: In 2015, we set up a program to incentivize farmers to invest in more elaborate systems, such as sprinklers, pumpback systems, and recovery systems, in order to minimize their use of water while maintaining the efficiency of their crop production. By putting significant effort and money into the programs, the district has been able to conserve quite a bit of water that would otherwise have been applied to the fields and then ended up as runoff to the Salton Sea. Again, that is a double-edged sword, because it reduces the already low inflows to the Salton Sea. This year, we authorized more funding to compensate the farmers for the conservation of water. We use the water that

our board decided not to participate in the conservation program. The DCP expires in 2026, so there has been an accelerated effort to begin addressing the provisions that may have to be implemented to maintain critical water availability for those who contract with the federal government for water.

Discussions on those issues have already started; we cannot wait until 2026 to start formulating plans.

Irrigation Leader: What is your message to other water users who depend on the Colorado River?

Henry Martinez: One of our mantras is that the Salton Sea is linked to the Colorado River. Whenever decisions are made regarding water use, water elevations, water deliveries, conservation plans, and regulations on water availability, we must keep in mind their effects on the Salton Sea and the risk that they will cause it to deteriorate further. Because of the Salton Sea’s relatively remote location, most people do not know about it and its environmental problems. We live in this area; we experience and see the conditions here. Our basic message is, “Don’t forget the Salton Sea when you are making plans for the allocation of Colorado River water resources.” We must address this issue concurrently with the allocation of Colorado River water.

Irrigation Leader: Are there efforts underway to reverse the decline in the Salton Sea’s water level or to address its salinity?

IID's West Main Canal.

10 | IRRIGATION LEADER | September 2021

irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF IID.

is conserved for transfers to urban areas. We also work with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to store some of that water in its system or behind Hoover Dam. Those partnership efforts help ensure that water is not wasted. Crop production has been maintained at the same level as before or higher, and the farming community continues to be healthy.

We’re also seeing the evolution of solar fields. We have excellent conditions here for solar energy production, and there is a trend of retiring farmland and converting it into solar panel farms. That indirectly conserves water, too. The downside is that the agricultural production of our area is reduced.

You may recall that in 2019, the federal government and the Colorado River contractors from the seven states of the Colorado basin signed the Drought Contingency Plan (DCP). IID did not participate in that agreement. The main reason we did not participate is that the compact did not acknowledge the detrimental effects it would have on the Salton Sea. Because that was not recognized in the agreement,

Henry Martinez: After a certain level of funding, the State of California has a responsibility to address these issues.

Secretary Wade Crowfoot of the California Natural Resources Agency has taken a leadership role in seeking state and federal funding. IID also advocates for federal funding to address the problems of the Salton Sea. There are also projects that have begun addressing those environmental concerns on a smaller, local scale. One project that broke ground early in 2021 is the Spatial Conservation Habitat Program. Its purpose is to create a habitat for wildlife and mitigate dust emissions through the shallow flooding of certain areas of exposed playa. We have worked with the State of California on other programs to reduce emissions and air pollution by treating parts of the playa with vegetation and furrowing to minimize the air quality problems that arise when high winds come across the sea.

There’s a lot more to do regarding salinity and other water quality issues. The state is evaluating proposals, including proposals to import water from the Sea of Cortez or the Pacific Ocean. The state works with the University of California, Santa Cruz, to determine whether the proposals are feasible ways to add water to the sea to stabilize it or improve its quality. There’s also a proposal to create what is called a perimeter lake. The perimeter lake would push the water toward the shoreline and create a smaller, more saline body of water in the center of the sea itself. The idea is to cover the shoreline by creating berms inside the sea, thus

reducing air pollution issues while maintaining the shoreline in a condition that is more ecologically and environmentally usable for wildlife and recreation. At this point, the State of California bears the responsibility for coming up with a solution for the Salton Sea. A large part of the problem is simply based on water quantity. Between drought and evaporation, water is rare. Solving this problem will cost quite a bit, but we need to fundamentally address the environmental problems of the sea.

Irrigation Leader: What is your message to Congress?

Henry Martinez: Congress and the federal government own property on the shoreline and the footprint of the Salton Sea. IID, the State of California, and various tribes also own land at the Salton Sea. We all have a responsibility as landowners to deal with its issues. Our long-standing concern has been that the federal government has been somewhat passive about contributing to a solution for the Salton Sea. Recently, we have had good support from Congressman Raul Ruiz and Congressman Juan Vargas, both of whom have introduced bills in Congress to provide funding to address the Salton Sea’s issues. However, those bills must be passed by both the House and the Senate and ultimately be signed by the president. They have a long way to go, but there is finally some movement in Washington, DC, to address these issues. Senator Dianne Feinstein has been tracking this issue for quite some time, and now, Senator Alex Padilla has also started paying more attention to the situation here. Congressman Raúl Grijalva from Arizona is the chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources and has held hearings regarding the Salton Sea. We had the first congressional hearing in 23 years in September 2020. On a positive note, we’ve seen more activity in the last 2 years to address the Salton Sea than we’ve seen in the past. We hope to see that attention and interest on the part of Congress continue.

Elected officials in San Francisco and Sacramento will also continue addressing this issue, despite those efforts being dormant for quite some time.

Irrigation Leader: What is your vision for the future of IID? Henry Martinez: My vision is to continue to maintain the flow of water into our district, which is one of the most productive irrigation districts in the United States. We want to maintain that leadership position and to maintain the productivity of the land, which has been built over the last 110 years. One thing that will require is being smart with water use. On the energy side, there have been huge changes in the electric business. It is getting more complicated to run an electric utility, particularly with all the changing policies and incentives in California, such as the renewable energy standards and the accelerating retirement of older gas- and coal-fired generation plants. irrigationleadermagazine.com

Another goal we have is to introduce new technology into our systems to make them more resilient, effective, and efficient and to keep our rates as low as possible. That is particularly important here in the Imperial Valley, because air conditioning is a necessity. Temperatures frequently reach 115 or 120 degrees during the summer and do not cool down in the evening. Energy costs can be a big burden for our customers, particularly given the unemployment rate in the county, which is one of the highest in the United States.

To continue to provide our critical services, we need the guidance of the board, and we will need to make intelligent investments, to pay attention to the basics of running the district efficiently, and to make the right decisions on a timely basis. Our services are necessary to maintain the valley’s economy and the livelihood of our customers. Our operations also need to be effective and sustainable for the long term. The district’s objectives are to be a major contributor to the economy of our service territory and to supply modern services to our water and energy customers.

Sprinkler irrigation in IID’s service area.

Irrigation Leader: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Henry Martinez: We appreciate the work of our agricultural community and how it is stepping up through on-farm water conservation and efficiency programs. The farmers are not sacrificing the productivity of the land just to conserve water. We are sustaining or increasing the level of production relative to the previous irrigation methodologies.

Conservation doesn’t mean you don’t plant anything and fallow the land. We are working to be sustainable. IL

Henry Martinez is the general manager of the Imperial Irrigation District. He can be contacted at (760) 339‑9477.

September 2021 | IRRIGATION LEADER

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Why Zanjeros Are Fundamental to the Imperial Irrigation District’s Operations

An IID zanjero operates a manual gate on the North Date Canal.

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he Imperial Irrigation District (IID) serves half a million acres of highly productive farmland in the Imperial Valley of Southern California with Colorado River water. Its massive water distribution system includes major canals and check structures that are operated automatically and remotely, but also thousands of field-level turnouts that must be manipulated by hand by the district’s zanjeros, or ditch riders. In this interview, Jeff Dollente, a zanjero for IID, and Robert Schettler, IID’s public information officer, tell us about the essential job zanjeros perform to deliver water safely to the district’s customers.

Jeff Dollente: As general background, water flows into IID’s system 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, mainly by gravity. We go up and down the ditch banks constantly, managing this water so that it goes to where it needs to go. We deliver and cut back water every day. Customers order the water the day before they need it. Then we get our shipment for the day and have to deliver it to the various fields and farmers.

Irrigation Leader: Mr. Dollente, please tell us how you came to be in your current position.

Jeff Dollente: I started at IID right out of high school and have been here since 1985.

Jeff Dollente: Each field has a delivery gate that we have to monitor to complete the order. We also have to adjust check structures to keep the ponds up and maintain pressure on the gates. The water that arrived today in the valley was ordered 3 days ago. Water is constantly moving, and it goes up and down.

Irrigation Leader: Would you tell us what a zanjero is, what your duties are, and how they differ from those of ditch riders elsewhere?

Irrigation Leader: Would you describe the size of IID’s delivery system and tell us how many gates or points of delivery there are? irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF IID.

14 | IRRIGATION LEADER | September 2021

Irrigation Leader: What is involved in making sure that water gets delivered where it needs to go? Does that involve manipulating manual gates?

Robert Schettler: We irrigate nearly half a million acres of farmland, some of the most productive in the nation.

Farmers grow every month of the year here. Summer crops include Sudan grass and alfalfa. In the winter, the Imperial Valley supplies 75 percent of the nation’s winter vegetable crop. This is possible because of the sunshine, but also because of the availability of water.

Our water comes from the Colorado River. It is stopped by structures like Hoover Dam and eventually gets to Imperial Dam, which is owned by the federal government but operated and maintained by IID. After Imperial Dam, the water is cleaned in a desilting basin, since there’s a lot of silt, sand, and sediment, and then goes into our canals.

The desilting basin is just north of Yuma, Arizona, but that’s 82 miles away from where we actually deliver water.

The water flows into the Imperial Valley, where we have major structures, and it goes through some power plants and generates electricity. Then it goes into the All-American Canal, which runs parallel to the U.S.-Mexico border. Once it finally hits the Imperial Valley, there are three major arteries: one on the east side of the valley, one in the middle, and one on the west.

On the larger level, coming from the dam and hitting the east highline, the gates are huge structures that are operated mechanically from our water control center. One of the questions that often comes up is why the system can’t be run all electronically. First, it’s just too vast. We have about 6,000 square miles of surface area that we have to get to on a daily basis. That includes plenty of big canals, laterals, and farm headgates. We have thousands of gates at the field level—perhaps 4,000–5,000. These structures are operated by our zanjeros, many by hand.

After the headgate, the water is the farmer’s responsibility.

It’s an intricate system that is fluctuating all the time.

There could be more water in one canal on the east side and more water needed on the west side, and our guys will have to make the adjustments.

Irrigation Leader: How has your job changed over the years as IID has modernized its system?

Jeff Dollente: Back when I started, water could only be ordered in 24–hour increments. We have now added the option of running water in 12-hour increments to better serve farmers.

Jeff Dollente: I guess trying keeping the customers happy and keeping them on order for the day. Cutting the water back without waste is also a challenge, although since my route has three reservoirs, it never has any water spilling out of it.

Robert Schettler: What Jeff is referring to are operational reservoirs. Water levels in the canals can fluctuate, so we use the operational reservoirs to hold some of the water for a little while and then turn it back in the system when it is needed so that it doesn’t go to waste. The levels in those operational reservoirs go up and down every day.

One of IID’s larger issues is that we don’t have major reservoirs of our own. Under the current rules and regulations at Hoover Dam, IID is limited to a set amount of storage there.

IID is the largest user-contractor of Colorado River water, and everybody looks to us in times of drought. The district is doing what it can as part of the quantification settlement agreement of 2003. IID has conserved almost 7 million acre-feet of water since 2003 for urban area use.

California itself only gets 4.4 million acre-feet a year. It’s guys like Jeff who make it happen.

Irrigation Leader: What are the top skills of a successful zanjero, and how do you learn them?

Jeff Dollente: Measuring water. You have to run the control checks successfully; if you let the water drop out, you can’t deliver it. It takes a little time to learn that.

Robert Schettler: In order to do their jobs well, our zanjeros have to maintain constant contact with the people they are serving, whether they are the landowner themselves, tenant farmers, or the irrigators who are in the field receiving the water. Everybody on Jeff ’s run knows his cell phone number, and they’re in constant contact. I believe that helps a lot.

Jeff Dollente: The customers are constantly changing their orders. If they finish irrigating early, they let you know—it doesn’t work out exactly 24 hours every time. We have guys working around the clock for our customers to reach out to.

IL

Jeff Dollente is a zanjero at the Imperial Irrigation District. He can be contacted at jbdollente@iid.com.

Irrigation Leader: Has the system become increasingly automated?

Jeff Dollente: Yes, quite a bit. We’ve installed automated gates. They’re working pretty well. We check them once in a while. The water in the canals goes up and down every day.

Robert Schettler is the public information officer at the Imperial Irrigation District.

He can be contacted at rdschettler@iid.com.

Irrigation Leader: What are the most challenging parts of the job? irrigationleadermagazine.com

September 2021 | IRRIGATION LEADER

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How Rubicon’s FarmConnect Solution Is Turning Flood and Furrow Irrigation Into an Efficient System

A Rubicon gate in operation in the sugar beet trial at the University of California Cooperative Extension Desert Research and Extension Center.

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ubicon Water’s technology helps manage 3.7 million acres of irrigated land. With thousands of miles of canals modernized and more than 35,000 automated control gates and meters sold, Rubicon’s innovative hardware and software is improving the efficiency and productivity of irrigated agriculture worldwide. One groundbreaking example is Rubicon’s FarmConnect solution, which leverages from technologies within Rubicon’s proven irrigation district solutions to provide individual farmers with precise, high-efficiency surface and furrow irrigation solutions. In this interview, Rubicon Business Development Manager Peter Moller tells us about the development and launch of the FarmConnect solution.

Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

18 | IRRIGATION LEADER | September 2021

irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF RUBICON.

Peter Moller: I’ve been working with Rubicon Water since 2010. Most of Rubicon’s prior business dealt directly with irrigation districts supplying canal automation, but my involvement began as I was asked by the directors to launch a new internal business unit to enter the market for on-farm automation technology for the application of water to farmer’s individual fields.

Our focus is assisting farmers to transform their flood irrigation systems by providing them with technology that enables them to apply the right quantity of water to crops when and where it is needed.

The initial step was to identify a solution for transforming traditional flood irrigation, which typically had an application efficiency of 50–60 percent, into a high-performance surface irrigation system that delivers application efficiency of 85 percent or better. We saw an opportunity to adapt Rubicon’s irrigation district technology to apply the science on farm. This was the beginning of what is now FarmConnect.

In the early stages, we had to understand the limitations of these manually operated flood irrigation systems and try to envisage a solution that could enhance performance without the barriers for uptake. After 18 months of product development, I was responsible for taking the solution to the commercial market.

We focused on an area within Australia’s Murray Darling basin and launched the solution to a group consisting predominantly of dairy farmers who grew pasture for dairy cows, corn for silage or grain, and alfalfa for feedstock. In 2015, we worked to automate furrow irrigation for the cotton industry, which grows crops on raised beds. For the first 7 years, our focus was on Shepparton, Victoria, where we achieved some impressive results for irrigators, including doubling their production per amount of water applied. With the production of corn for silage, we’ve been able to go from 2.6 tons per acre-foot of dry matter to 5.4 tons. Studies have revealed that irrigators are growing twice as much dry matter with the same volume of water. This is particularly relevant during the periods when we are at risk of water insecurity and are under restrictions on water use.

Following the successful outcomes for Australian irrigators, we soon implemented pilots of the on-farm automation control sensing technology in California, China, Italy, and Spain. In 2017, I was asked to take on a role within the U.S. business as national sales manager and business development manager, working with our account managers to focus on the customer relations side of Rubicon, specifically in relation to irrigation districts. Now, as we formally launch Rubicon’s FarmConnect solution in the U.S. market, our focus will be on irrigators who are currently using gravity flood irrigation systems and have a need to improve their application efficiency, reduce labor costs, and increase productivity.

Irrigation Leader: What is the FarmConnect solution, and how does it fit into the broader array of Rubicon products?

Peter Moller: Rubicon is working to increase agricultural water use efficiency from source to crop. We see a real opportunity to use hardware, software, connected devices, radio frequency (RF) systems, and data analytics to provide enormous water savings, and these opportunities have already been largely realized off farm. We work to improve the application efficiency of the surface irrigation system and to improve scheduling so that the right amount of water is delivered at the right time to the crop.

When it comes to the application of water to crops, we want to help transform flood irrigation. We know that the majority of the world’s crops are presently irrigated using flood irrigation, which consumes little energy but also has a reputation for low application efficiency. If this application efficiency can be improved, we will have a low-energy, high-efficiency solution. By using technology to improve precision, we have improved the application efficiency of surface irrigation from 50–60 percent to 85 or better, in many cases with zero input energy requirements. We’ve been able to demonstrate results like these in Australia and have had independent reviews by universities to measure and define them. In the United States, we’ve been working with the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), and its researchers and extension officers. One of the projects that we worked on at its research station in Southern California was able to demonstrate that with gravity-fed surface irrigation, we can achieve 85 percent application efficiency or better by using the measurement and autonomous control technologies that Rubicon has been developing for 25 years with irrigation districts. Modernized networks provide precise, on-demand water supplies that give irrigators the tools and flexibility to apply the right amount of water at the right times.

FarmConnect empowers farmers to harness the benefits of precision surface irrigation, including savings in energy and labor costs, improved water use efficiency, and enhanced yields.

Irrigation Leader: Is FarmConnect a combination of both hardware and software? irrigationleadermagazine.com

Peter Moller: Yes. FarmConnect uses smart sensors to measure and help predict what is going on in the field and provides farmers with data at their fingertips. The hardware component involves smart valves and gates that automate the water application process. Sophisticated software assists farmers with irrigation scheduling decisions so that they can precisely manage each irrigation event. For example, soil moisture monitors track exactly how much water the crop is using and how deep the water is infiltrating in the root zone of the crop. This helps farmers ensure that there’s no unintended deep drainage. FarmConnect uses precise gate and valve devices that are actuated to open, close, and regulate at the desired times, allowing precise volumes of water to be applied at high flow rates. These devices include overshot gates in on-farm canal systems and 16‑inch valves, such as alfalfa valves, in pipe systems. Rubicon also supplies accurate flow meters and controllers that maintain constant flow rates set by the farmer. The flows are kept constant despite canal or on-farm water level fluctuations. This allows for the precise management of applied volumes on a time basis. The technology also incorporates in-field sensors that can measure the rate of advance and infiltration as water is applied to each field so that the application flow rate and duration can be optimized at various stages of crop growth.

Using this technology, we have been able to make significant advances in the application efficiency of surface irrigation, making it highly competitive from an application-efficiency perspective and compelling from an energy use/operating cost perspective. The hardware, the radio networks, and the software are all provided as a cohesive, integrated solution that makes FarmConnect both easy to use and reliable.

The platform provides data analytics to help predict when the next irrigation should be scheduled, to determine how much water to apply to each field, and to run the system autonomously without human intervention. Flood irrigation has historically been a highly manual activity. We are reducing its labor component at a time when labor costs are increasing, particularly in California. As irrigators are retiring, there aren’t many skilled workers coming in to replace them.

Irrigation Leader: Is each FarmConnect system customized to a farmer’s property and operations?

Peter Moller: Yes. We have standard product components: automatic gates and valves in a number of different sizes to accommodate different on-farm application systems, water level sensors, wetting advance sensors, and flow control products to provide precise volumes of water. The solution uses a lot of technology that Rubicon has developed over decades with irrigation districts: all the components that open and close gates, the actuators, the motors, the gearboxes, the cable drive systems, the RF systems, and the software for control. We’ve taken the proven methodologies we use to automate irrigation districts and fine-tuned them for on-farm irrigation systems. We made the system smaller to handle September 2021 | IRRIGATION LEADER

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lower flows than irrigation districts do and adapted the hardware and software to be more suitable for irrigated farms.

The software is customized with a detailed map of where the devices are located, what they’re connected to, what they attribute to, and whether they’re controlled or monitored.

Irrigation Leader: Do you produce your own probes?

Peter Moller: We use a select range of third-party probes that we trust from experience to provide accuracy, reliability, and value for money. We’ve focused on the integration of these market-leading probes into a system that is easy and accessible for farmers and integrates into their broader onfarm operations. We have developed radio nodes that can be connected to a whole range of environmental sensors or monitoring sensors. For example, farmers can buy our RF node and then connect other vendors’ soil probes so that they have a single platform for control, automation, and sensing. To complement soil probes, Rubicon has developed an all-in-one microclimatic weather station to provided localized weather data that determine real-time evapotranspiration and climatic conditions and provide valuable insights into irrigation scheduling and prediction.

Irrigation Leader: Would you describe your pilot program with UC Davis and the Imperial Valley sugar beet industry?

20 | IRRIGATION LEADER | September 2021

Irrigation Leader: Is your current launch focused on pilot projects only, or are you selling the solution to interested customers as well?

Peter Moller: In the next couple of months, we’ll be fully stocked for projects in the United States. We’re focusing on a number of projects with irrigators at a commercial level in the Central Valley of California and in Southern California. We also have opportunities in Utah: There’s a valley there where farmers are looking for automation and a water efficient surface irrigation system. We have interest, and there is a group of farms and projects that are already operational, some of which are being closely monitored by UC Davis and, in Utah, by Utah State University.

Irrigation Leader: What is the expected time required for return on investment for a standard farmer?

Peter Moller: We have proven that Rubicon’s on-farm products work commercially and operationally over the last 10 years, including in the Southern California desert, and that they deliver a return on investment within 3 years because of the water and labor savings and productivity increases they enable. That really does interest farmers and is convincing many to take the step of implementing this technology.

Also, the barriers to entry are being reduced by federal and state grants for on-farm water use efficiency. There is a range of grants that can help fund these improvements and reduce farmers’ costs by up to half. We encourage any farmer planning to modernize their flood irrigation systems to explore this option to achieve a high-performance surface irrigation system with minimal energy costs. IL

Peter Moller is the business development manager at Rubicon Water. He can be contacted at peter.moller@rubiconwater.com or (970) 685‑7460.

irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF RUBICON.

Peter Moller: The irrigation researchers at UC Davis were familiar with the results we were achieving in Australia with modernized on-farm systems, including the work we’ve done with Australian universities, and were interested in using Rubicon’s technology for local research. We installed an automatic gate at the University of California Cooperative Extension Desert Research and Extension Center in Holtville in the Imperial Valley Irrigation District, where it’s been operating for the last 10 years with different crops and different trials.

In early 2019, I was approached by UC Davis to talk to the Imperial Valley sugar beet industry’s research committee, which was deciding on its research priorities. The emerging challenge for the industry was that the cost of labor in California was significantly increasing and the value of water was also changing. Something needed to be done to provide security to the sugar beet industry. The research committee reached out to us, and we presented it a use case, facilitated by UC Davis, on what we had done with furrow irrigation in the cotton industry. Like cotton, sugar beets are grown on raised beds and are irrigated with over-the-bank manual siphons. Rubicon has proven that automating furrow irrigation is possible, and we were able to demonstrate the benefits that had been achieved in Australia. We felt that the same benefits could be provided on a broader scale.

After that meeting in February 2019, the research committee gave UC Davis the go-ahead for a trial at the research station. During 2020 and into 2021, UC Davis

grew a sugar beet crop; performed frequent measurements of water volumes, the advance rate of water down a bay, and the number of irrigations; and analyzed the performance of the trial. In March 2021, I saw a paper by Dr. Khaled Bali and Dr. Stephen Kafka of UC Davis that was produced with the results of that work and showed that they had achieved an application efficiency of 85 percent.

The project for 2021–2022 is scaling up the trial in partnership with commercial sugar beet growers. I will be meeting with a farmer in the Imperial Valley to put this in a commercial context and analyze the solution in a commercial production system and to see how it’s run by an irrigator, what the user experience is, and whether it can work on a commercial level in this industry.

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Ronald Leimgruber: Using FarmConnect in the Imperial Valley

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onald Leimgruber is a third-generation farmer in California’s Imperial Valley who uses a variety of irrigation methods to grow his crops. He has been using Rubicon’s technology for over 10 years.

Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about yourself and your farming operations.

Ronald Leimgruber: I’m a third-generation farmer. I started farming in the 1980s after graduating from college with a business degree. My grandparents and my dad were dairy, livestock, and crop farmers. We’ve diversified into produce crops, onions, carrots, alfalfa, and seed crops. We have about 2,022 acres.

Irrigation Leader: What are your main irrigation methods?

Ronald Leimgruber: We implement six different methods.

Predominantly, we do surface line border check irrigation, which is the predominant method in the Imperial Valley.

That means our fields are laser leveled to a precise slope and flooded from one end to the other. We also use drip irrigation; overhead linear move irrigation, which is similar to center-pivot irrigation but linear instead of circular; solidset irrigation, which uses 3‑inch dam lines to germinate our crops; level basin irrigation, where the ground is 100 percent level and we run water in for a fixed amount of time; and furrow irrigation, which is used for certain produce crops.

Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your experience using Rubicon’s FarmConnect system.

Irrigation Leader: What are some of the benefits of automation and remote control for your operations?

to check on where the water is, because we have sensors out there. We get increased production, we get more uniformity of water application, we get water savings because we’re minimizing our tail water, and we get labor savings because we don’t have to pay the irrigator to monitor the water.

Irrigation Leader: More generally, what are the benefits of transforming flood irrigation using a technology like this?

Ronald Leimgruber: I’ve been using this system for 12 years now, and you have to apply larger volumes of water in shorter amounts of time. You try to be as efficient with your water as you can because the lower end of your field needs opportunity time for that water to infiltrate into the soil. If you get too much infiltration time, you get excessive water past your root zone. We need that in Imperial Valley soils, because every acre-foot of Colorado River water we apply contains 2,000 pounds of salt. The only way to keep our soils productive is to overirrigate our soils by about 10–15 percent so that we drive the water to our tile system, which takes the salts out to the Salton Sea and keeps our soil in balance.

With the Rubicon system, you have to be really careful that you keep that high level of water infiltration, but it’ll definitely save labor and water and increase production.

You need to do all three of those things to be profitable in farming nowadays. Your margins are so thin—all you get to work with is about 5 percent—and if I can increase that to 7 percent, that’s a big difference. IL

Ronald Leimgruber farms in Holtville, California. He can be contacted at rclfarms@earthlink.net.

Ronald Leimgruber: It’s definitely a carbon-saving method.

We don’t have to drive out to the field multiple times a day

24 | IRRIGATION LEADER | September 2021

irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF RUBICON.

Ronald Leimgruber: The Rubicon system has two parts. The automatic gates help you control your water by sensing where it is opening and closing automatically. The smart connect part of it monitors the amount of water you’re putting in each basin and helps to minimize your tail water and runoff water.

In the Imperial Valley, because of the slopes of our ground, we have to saturate the lower end of the field as much as the upper end, so a certain amount of tail water is necessary, but we’re trying to minimize it as much as we can. One of the benefits of the FarmConnect system is that it allows us to monitor our water on each bay and the runoff water and to calibrate the difference to conserve water. We have plans to install two additional FarmConnect systems.

A Rubicon BayDrive gate irrigating alfalfa at Ronald Leimgruber’s Holtville, California, farm.

Colton Russon: Using FarmConnect on a Utah Dairy Farm

A Rubicon gate in the foreground against a panorama of the Tremonton, Utah, landscape.

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olton 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.

Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your background and your current farming operations.

Colton Russon: I work with my father-in-law on his dairy farm. We also grow barley, corn, and hay. Right now, we’ve split one field in half and have summer fallowed one half and are growing corn on the other. We’ve got about 50 acres total.

Irrigation Leader: Why did you purchase and install a FarmConnect system? What was the problem you were trying to solve?

Colton Russon: We had a bunch of small fields that were eroding into a nearby creek, so we laser leveled everything and changed the direction of the water flow. Our aim in that was to make our irrigation more efficient and to get the same results with less water. The State of Utah told us about Rubicon, so we decided to look into it. We got funding from the state to help us purchase and install an automated system, and we started using our Rubicon system just a couple of months ago.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF COLTON RUSSON.

Irrigation Leader: Are you primarily using furrow irrigation?

Colton Russon: We’re in the experimental stage of this process. Right now, we actually irrigate our corn by flooding it, rather than using furrow irrigation. We are trying to figure out what works best with the system. Next year, we’ll probably do what they call a pontoon—we’ll dig a 6‑inch trough in front of the blade valves and fill that up, then furrow the corn up to that little trough.

Irrigation Leader: What results are you seeing from this system?

let the water run all night long instead of having to go out and do it myself. Before, we were running siphon tubes, so I would have to be in the fields at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. Now, we’ve got sensors out in the field that allow me to track everything.

A bunch of helpful information is now available, too. This system has made our irrigation faster. We have been able to go across the field more quickly; we’re gaining time every day.

Irrigation Leader: How could the dairy industry benefit commercially from using a system like FarmConnect to make its surface irrigation more efficient?

Colton Russon: The difference that we’ve noticed is that our irrigation has become more efficient, which is especially important given the current water situation in Utah. We can get across the fields faster with less erosion, hopefully giving the plants their exact water needs. I know that the sensors of the FarmConnect system will tell me when the plants need water. That way, we can raise better yield and better crops for dairy cows.

Irrigation Leader: Would you tell us about the experience of working with Rubicon?

Colton Russon: Rubicon was awesome. We ran into a few issues related to translating Rubicon’s original metric measurements into U.S. units, but the company was great and was able to figure that out; I didn’t even have to get involved. Rubicon staff have helped me figure out the system and how to do various things. The technical support has been great. The people have all been awesome in helping me get everything running and figure out better ways to be more efficient in watering the crop. IL

Colton Russon farms in Tremonton, Utah.

He can be reached at cr.butchering@gmail.com.

Colton Russon: There are several things that have been great.

It’s a lot easier to change a valve or something by using your phone. It’s nice to set up a program on FarmConnect to irrigationleadermagazine.com

September 2021 | IRRIGATION LEADER

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Aimee Davis and Ken Quandt: Making Meters Work Smarter and Harder at McCrometer

Aimee Davis describes the installation process for the McMag2000 in this still from McCrometer’s instructional video.

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Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your backgrounds and how you came to be in your current positions.

30 | IRRIGATION LEADER | September 2021

Aimee Davis: I am a senior product manager at McCrometer. I’ve been with the company for quite a long time. I started working with the company back in the year 2000. I’ve had varying roles in operations and quality management and eventually found myself in marketing and product management. In February 2021, I was promoted to senior product management.

Ken Quandt: I work in market development for McCrometer.

I’ve been with McCrometer almost 15 years now. I started out working for Great Plains Meter, which was the Midwest ag rep for McCrometer. Then I went on to work for McCrometer as a regional sales manager, worked in marketing for a while, and did a lot of government relations work. Now I’m back on the sales team, and I work with all the ag regional sales managers on special district projects, irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MCCROMETER.

cCrometer 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.

irrigation districts, and conservation districts. I also develop grant proposals with some of our district partners.

Irrigation Leader: Please introduce the company and its product lines.

Aimee Davis: McCrometer was founded in 1955. The company first started out with our McPropeller meter, which was for the agriculture market. For a long time, we stayed in the agricultural market with quite a few different products. In 1985, we came out with the V-Cone meter, which allowed us to start playing in other markets, such as energy and industrial. Today, we are in all those markets as well as the municipal sector. We have varying ranges of product lines, but I’d group them into a few categories.

We have propeller, or mechanical, meters. We have electromagnetic meters, both full bore and insertion types.

We also have our differential pressure meters: our V-Cone and Wafer-Cone. And then we have accessories such as Connect and FlowConnect, which allow customers to get meter readings sent directly to a phone, desktop, or laptop through telemetry.

Irrigation Leader: Why did McCrometer develop the new McMag2000 meter, and how does it differ from your other mag meters?

Aimee Davis: We started seeing a trend of agricultural customers wanting meters with no moving parts. They also wanted something that was at price parity with what they were used to paying for propeller meters. However, the prices of most mag meters are quite a bit higher than those of propeller meters. Working with our research and development (R&D) team and a few others, and we tried to offer the farmers and irrigators an affordable, easy-toread meter with a similar look to the McPropeller. The new McMag2000 meter uses the same saddle as the McPropeller.

That makes it easy for customers who want to shift to mag meters to retrofit. They can buy a kit and easily build it in the field themselves. We have a YouTube video that shows them how to do it step by step.

We have a patent pending on the sensor. It has dual electrodes and takes the reading from the center of the flow column. That improves the signal distribution and ensures better accuracy. It’s a great little sensor. It has a modular design. To me, that’s really what makes it different, not only from our other mag meters but from the other mag meters in the marketplace. The modular design allows it to be fully serviceable in the field. Although it is modular, it still has no moving parts, just like other mag meters, meaning users need to do fewer repairs. One of the things that our customers love about the McPropeller is that they’re actually able to maintain them in the field, which reduces downtime.

This is the first mag meter that lets them do that. The sensor and converter can be easily replaced, and of course, irrigationleadermagazine.com

we have in-field batteries, so they can be replaced as well.

Another great thing that makes the McMag2000 different from any other meter is that it can partner with veins and flow straighteners. That drastically reduces straight-run requirements and eliminates the need to repipe customers’ systems when they switch to a different technology. We wanted to give customers a true, direct replacement for the McPropeller meter for when they were ready to make the jump to the mag technology.

A view of the new McMag2000.

Irrigation Leader: How did you keep the price of this meter down?

Aimee Davis: We built all of it in house, including the sensors and the electronics, and then we used the saddle we already use for the McPropeller. The converter housing is a different color, but otherwise it’s exactly like the housing for our McPropeller digital registers. Using the same housing and saddle as we do for other products allowed us to keep our costs down, and we pass that saving on to our customers. Ensuring price parity was a major motivator for the for the R&D team, which meant we had to figure out a way to take mag meter technology to the next level while keeping the cost low.

Irrigation Leader: In general, what are the advantages of mag meters over propeller meters, and why might current users of propeller meters want to upgrade?

Aimee Davis: Customers really want to get away from moving parts. The more moving parts there are, the more likely it is that an issue may arise. Mag meters have no moving parts at all—they just have electrodes sending the signal into the pipeline and a converter doing the correlation to determine the flow rate. They require less maintenance. However, when most mag meters do require maintenance, they have to be shipped back to the factory or taken to a certified service provider. The McMag2000 is the first mag meter that does not require that. It keeps downtime low, which was one of the things people liked about the McPropeller.

September 2021 | IRRIGATION LEADER

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Ken Quandt: The other advantage to a meter like this is that it is easy to integrate into the irrigator’s system and to make it a sensor. It has the built-in ability to send a pulse signal into a pivot panel or a telemetry system so that users can make better use of the meter as a management tool. A lot of farmers want to integrate the meter into the pivot panel so that they can have a better handle on how much water they’re applying.

A meter like this has a built-in pulse-output technology that can be integrated into their systems much more easily.

Irrigation is getting more technologically advanced, and this helps farmers integrate meters into their systems.

Irrigation Leader: Would you tell us more about the retrofit process?

Aimee Davis: The retrofit is pretty quick and easy. I put together a YouTube video where I walk users through the process. The video is about 7 minutes long, and a user could probably get it done in less than 20 minutes, including the time it takes to stop and look at the instructions. The user has to take the bearing housing off the ell of the pipe that comes off the saddle, unscrew the bearing housing, screw in the sensor, and then plug the ethernet cable that connects in through the ell of the pipe into the sensor. Then, after a little mounting of the electronics, it’s good to go.

Ken Quandt: The modular design that Aimee mentioned is a new philosophy for a meter like this. Just the other night, I was talking to a landowner in Aurora, Nebraska, who has a mag meter from a competitor that he put in 5 years ago.

Now, it has failed on him, and he can’t repair it. If he had a meter like the McMag2000, he could replace the sensor or converter and he’d be back in business. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have that option—he has to replace the whole meter.

Aimee Davis: On our website and in our brochure, you can see the exploded diagram for the McMag2000’s modular design. You can also see the converter detached from the saddle, the U bolts, and the sensor. It’s got an ethernet cable.

Users can buy the sensor by itself or buy the kit, which includes the converter and the sensor. If a customer wanted to, they could even keep that on the shelf in case they experienced any issues down the road.

Irrigation Leader: Is this product appropriate for pretty much anybody who wants to measure flow in a pipe, or is there something that makes it particularly appropriate for agricultural users?

32 | IRRIGATION LEADER | September 2021

Ken Quandt: People always used to say that if someone was irrigating with good, clean groundwater, nothing was more efficient and economical than a McPropeller. But many people irrigate with dirty water rather than good, clean groundwater. There are surface water irrigation districts with sediment and vegetation in the water, which creates issues with mechanical meters, props, and bearing assemblies; this is a good meter for applications like that.

Irrigation Leader: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Aimee Davis: The other thing that was important when we were designing this product was durability. Customers have come to expect a robust product from us, and we’re happy that they do. We wanted to make sure that this had a long product life cycle, and it did so well in testing that we were able to offer a 5‑year warranty on it. That doesn’t just cover the batteries; it covers the converter, the sensor, and the hardware. It’s a complete, bumper-to-bumper guarantee for 5 years. I think that is important to customers making a purchase for a farm.

Ken Quandt: I like to describe this meter as a mag meter that fits in the footprint of a propeller meter. This creates a good opportunity for customers to upgrade from the mechanical propeller meters they have used in the past.

They don’t have to worry about taking out the veins they have from their propeller meters. Customers can calibrate the meters specifically to the veins that are already in the pipes. It’s a direct replacement for what they had before, and it’s much easier to integrate this meter into their existing system. IL Aimee Davis is a senior product manager at McCrometer. She can be reached at aimeed@mccrometer.com.

Ken Quandt is a market development manager at McCrometer. He can be reached at kenq@mccometer.com.

irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MCCROMETER.

Aimee Davis: We designed the McMag2000 with farmers in mind mostly because we saw the shift from the McPropeller, which is popular with irrigators. That’s not to say that we haven’t also sold them for some municipal applications as well.

We just recently extended the line sizes we offer. At launch, we offered options from 4 to 12 inches. Now we offer 14‑ and

16‑inch options for those surface water applications, which may be of interest for municipal users. We may also launch another configuration in addition to the saddle configuration.

I have some beta models of top-plate configurations out in the field; those will appeal to municipal users who like the top-plate configuration with our propeller meters and are interested in moving to mag meters without having to repipe their whole systems. Supplying additional configurations for this mag meter technology is something we’re focusing on.

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UPL’s Products and Services for Irrigation and Canal Districts

UPL's CASCADE herbicide being applied.

U

PL 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.

Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

34 | IRRIGATION LEADER | September 2021

Irrigation Leader: Please tell our readers about UPL as a company.

Jeremy Slade: We’re the fifth-largest agrochemical company in the world, a ranking we reached a couple of years ago with irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF UPL.

Jeremy Slade: I’ve been in the aquatic plant management industry for about 15 years. After college, my first real job was working as a research associate at Mississippi State University.

I was contracted by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, where I evaluated herbicides and algaecides in controlled settings (i.e., mesocosms and growth chambers), supporting new product registrations with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and developing new use patterns for existing registered herbicides and algaecides. I did that for about 3 years and

then moved to Florida, where I took a job at the Center for Aquatic Invasive Plants at the University of Florida.

There, I evaluated herbicide applications of various scales to support the operations of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, which has one of the largest aquatic plant management programs in the country. A little over 10 years ago, I joined UPL as a territory sales manager for the southeastern United States. My territory spanned from Texas to Florida and up to Tennessee. In that capacity, I worked with commercial applicators and state and federal agencies to provide recommendations for their aquatic plant management operations. A little over 2 years ago, I took over as the business lead for the UPL aquatics division, where I manage a team of five territory managers and one field development manager.

Two of the territory managers I manage are primarily focused the irrigation canal business in the 15 western states.

the acquisition of Arysta LifeScience. UPL was founded in 1969 and today has a presence in more than 138 countries.

In the United States, we were previously known as UPI, but aligning with the global structure, we updated the name to UPL NA Inc. The NA stands for North America. The North American headquarters is located outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Our focus is providing sustainable and customer-centric solutions. We offer a variety of products and services, primarily for agriculture, but we also have divisions that service specialty markets like golf courses, fumigation, biosolutions, seed treatment, and aquatics. The United States is the only country within UPL that has an aquatics division.

Irrigation Leader: How many folks work at UPL? Jeremy Slade: Globally, there are more than 10,000 employees. There are more than 300 UPL employees in North America.

Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about UPL’s canal herbicide portfolio.

Jeremy Slade: The irrigation canal portfolio isn’t broad, but it has had a significant effect on the irrigation canal market over the last 10 years. We have two primary brands, CASCADE and TETON, both of which are endothall based and provide excellent efficacy and longevity when used appropriately.

CASCADE is a potassium endothall formulation and is classified as a herbicide. TETON is the amine endothall formulation and is classified as an herbicide and an algaecide.

Both products come in various package sizes, have limited use restrictions, are easy to apply, and have versatile use patterns to control weeds in small to large systems. We also have two copper formulations, which most readers might not be familiar with: CURRENT and SYMMETRY. CURRENT is classified as an herbicide, and SYMMETRY is classified as an algaecide, and both products are chelated coppers with 8 percent elemental copper. Both can be used in conjunction with endothall-based products or independently. Most recently, we were granted EPA approval for a new product called TOP DECK. While the name is new, there are other products in the market with the same active ingredient, imazamox. We’re currently working on state registrations for this new product. Once all of those are received, it will be available for use in and around aquatic sites, such as laterals or bank work, for vegetation management, and in deep water canals prior to filling.

Irrigation Leader: Who are your main customers?

Jeremy Slade: Our customers include anyone who manages water, specifically nuisance plants and algae. Often, people think of exotic invasive plants as the main nuisances, but in the irrigation canal market, native plants can also create irrigationleadermagazine.com

problems for conveyance. UPL started by managing plants and algae in the lakes, ponds, reservoirs, and river markets, which is the field we typically call aquatics. The irrigation market is relatively new to us, but our customers include homeowners, commercial applicators, irrigation districts, municipalities, and state and federal agencies.

Irrigation Leader: How does UPL develop its markets?

Jeremy Slade: We look for markets and opportunities to provide solutions to customers who are dealing with water weeds and algae issues. We know that water is one of the most valuable resources we have, and we keep that in mind when we work with our customers, including irrigation districts, commercial applicators, agencies, universities, and homeowners. We work with all of them simultaneously to understand issues that occur in the field, and we try to leverage knowledge and experience to continually refine solutions and products.

For example, prior to the registration of CASCADE and TETON for use in the water conveyance systems of the 15 western states, there weren’t many options. At that time, there was a need for an effective, long-lasting, environmentally friendly solution to make water management easier. We believe both products have filled that niche. In most instances, irrigation districts have relatively short windows for their operations, so we’re looking for sciencebased recommendations to develop our markets and provide solutions to customers that they don’t typically have.

Irrigation Leader: What kind of results do your clients see from using UPL products?

Jeremy Slade: In short, efficacy and longevity. Our products have few restrictions and are easy to apply, and our many years of experience allow us to make strong, sound, sciencebased recommendations. As a result, our customers have become accustomed to getting the results they need to achieve. Those results are weed- and algae-free canals during the time of year during which they need deliver water to their customers. With less time needed for managing weeds and algae, irrigation managers and ditch tenders can focus on their other maintenance tasks. Our customers are happy with the products, which are efficacious and economical.

Irrigation Leader: What kind of technical support does UPL provide?

Jeremy Slade: One of the advantages of UPL is that all our territory managers have worked in the industry in various capacities. I’ve got a couple managers who worked as applicators; two of my managers and I did research in the field; one of my managers worked in distribution; and all of us have been in the plant management industry for many years now. Because of that, we have a strong September 2021 | IRRIGATION LEADER

| 35

knowledge base and experience that allow us to provide solid recommendations. When it comes to technical support in particular, we do have a technical development manager who works with the territory managers on any questions or issues that come up in the field.

If a customer isn’t getting the level of efficacy that they feel they should, we can provide sampling and analysis to identify the cause. Dye studies and herbicide residue analysis are two tools that we use to determine treatment regiments and correlate efficacy. Both of these aid us in making sure that plans are in place and work as a check to make sure treatments are hitting a concentration exposure time requirement. We want to understand the goals and objectives of the canal manager.

We also work with each irrigation district to provide a unique solution, because each system is unique. We want to make sure we tailor treatment regimens to specific systems to guarantee results. Sometimes, this requires adaptive management.

Because CASCADE and TETON are easy to apply, we can even make on-the-fly adjustments on the day of the treatment.

Our territory managers and field development manager are dedicated to working with each individual customer.

We also provide excellent customer service and regulatory support. We not only want to do a good job on the technical side, but we want to make sure the product is there on time, is clean, and looks good. We’re also committed to addressing any questions regarding National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits and ensuring that we’re following all regulatory guidelines.

Irrigation Leader: Does UPL have a unique payment delivery program that fits the budget cycles of irrigation districts?

Jeremy Slade: We’ve tried to make sure our purchasing programs for irrigation districts take advantage of preferred pricing early in the year to appeal to their boards of directors so that they can get the product prior to the start of the treatment season. From what we’ve seen, that is valuable to canal companies. They want to cover their product needs early in the season so that they can hit the ground running when it’s time to go.

Irrigation Leader: What is your message to irrigation districts with aquatic herbicide programs? What should they know about UPL?

36 | IRRIGATION LEADER | September 2021

Jeremy Slade: I think it has changed fairly significantly.

Over the last couple of years, there has been considerable consolidation. Manufacturers, distributors, and commercial application companies have made significant acquisitions and mergers. I believe customers are looking for stability within the industry. From that standpoint, it is becoming more apparent that we need to focus more on the customer, because at the end of the day, that’s who we’re working with. On top of that, there’s been a movement for pesticide safety. It’s now more important than ever for the industry to have a unified message. We have to have the tools to manage the issues we have in our waters. Having sciencebased information that we can provide to the end users and customers is vital for our ability to continue to have sustainable vegetation management and food development.

Irrigation Leader: What is your message to Congress and other policymakers about the safe use of aquatic herbicides?

Jeremy Slade: I think they need to listen to the users. At the end of the day, pesticides, specifically herbicides and algaecides, are tools that are needed in the field by the people who are providing our food and irrigation water. If we don’t understand what they need, we can’t provide viable options or solutions. To take that a step further, it would help to have the regulatory agencies get out in the field to see how these operations are run. A lot of times, their information comes from a piece of paper or what they are being told, so seeing it for themselves would be valuable, in my opinion. Discussing these things face to face with an applicator who has been applying a product for years would give some perspective on how it’s actually being used and the challenges users encounter. We also need to support the scientists who are doing research and developing these products. We’re getting into an age in which feelings and emotion are driving decisions, but those decisions need to be driven by science-based information.

Irrigation Leader: Can aquatic herbicides be used safely?

Jeremy Slade: Following the directions for use on a product label is the best way to ensure that you are using it safely and effectively. The label is the law. IL

Jeremy Slade is the business lead for aquatics at UPL. He can be contacted at jeremy.slade@upl-ltd.com or (352) 213‑2398.

irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF UPL.

Jeremy Slade: If you’re experiencing issues with plants and algae in your conveyance systems, please give UPL a call.

This message is for our current customers, too. We want to hear from you, whether your message is good or bad.

At UPL, we want to understand your issues and provide options; we’re here to help. We have reliable solutions. We want to help with your aquatic plant and algae management plans, and we enjoy working with each district to provide a specifically tailored, viable, cost-effective, and efficacious management program.

Irrigation Leader: How has the aquatic herbicide industry changed in recent years?

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Ecological Sustainability Should Be Our Goal

By Scott J. Cameron

A

40 | IRRIGATION LEADER | September 2021

now a year-round fire threat. The intensity, size, duration, and frequency of wildland fires continue to worsen.

To save lives, property, and our range and forest ecosystems, the Biden administration should • aggressively reduce the buildup of fuels in our forests and rangelands that is the result of decades of misconception that all fire needs to be extinguished, even in ecosystems where, for millennia, small, infrequent fires have played a constructive ecological role; • achieve better coordination across all levels of government between the programs focused on invasive vegetation control and the programs focused on fuels reduction, since they often use the same practices in the same geographies; • increase investment in the post-fire rehabilitation of firedamaged areas to avoid recreating the situations that lead to catastrophic fire; and • incentivize state and local governments to make it harder for builders to irresponsibly site new houses in the middle of fire-prone forests.

Finally, we need to appreciate that the industrialization of agriculture has brought the expanded use of machines, technology, infrastructure, and chemicals that allow us to dramatically increase per-acre yields so that more food is produced in a smaller area using less water and more land is left in a natural condition. Aquaculture similarly holds out promise that wild fish stocks may not be as overfished in the future as in the past.

There are ecological tradeoffs between modern intensive agriculture and the growing interest in more-natural foods.

Less-intensive food production means more land cleared and waters fished and therefore less opportunity for fish and wildlife conservation. This reality needs to be thoughtfully considered if the country is to achieve the Biden administration’s goal of keeping 30 percent of our land area in a natural state.

Only a holistic approach that addresses climate change, invasive species, forest and rangeland management, and a thoughtful approach to agricultural production will allow us to achieve ecological sustainability for generations of Americans to come. IL Scott Cameron, a former acting assistant secretary for policy, management, and budget at the U.S. Department of the Interior and a former principal with the National Invasive Species Council, is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

irrigationleadermagazine.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF SCOTT CAMERON.

s legislative and administrative solutions to climate change are being debated in Washington, DC, I encourage Congress and the Biden administration to step back and consider the larger challenge so that we accurately define the problem and can intelligently craft solutions to achieve our goals.

The big picture is our need for ecological sustainability, of which climate change is just one of four dimensions.

The three other key legs of the ecological sustainability stool in the United States include controlling invasive species; managing range and forest lands; and striking the right balance between extensive and intensive food production. Addressing global temperature alone is not enough to achieve ecological sustainability. Unless we take a comprehensive approach to all four of these challenges, we will lose the ecosystems that feed us, keep us healthy, and provide the natural resources we depend on for our physical and psychological well-being.

Invasive species are organisms that are nonnative to a particular ecosystem and whose introduction poses economic, environmental, or physical harm to human health.

They cost the U.S. economy in excess of $130 billion per year and are at least partially responsible for the status of more than 42 percent of the organisms on the country’s endangered species list. Some of the highest-profile invasive species are sea lamprey in the Great Lakes, kudzu in the Southeast, and Burmese pythons in Florida. The Biden administration should pursue a four-pronged defense-indepth strategy on invasive species: • Implement a more rigorous, but not draconian, regulatory and port-of-entry inspection system to keep invasive species out of the country.

• Create an effective monitoring network, coupled with a rapid response capability, to quickly detect and eliminate invasive species populations that leak through ports of entry before they can establish a firm foothold in the countryside.

• Target control efforts to deal with widespread invasive species so as to protect our most valuable ecological and economic resources.

• Conduct an aggressive applied-research program to create breakthrough solutions to more cost-effectively deal with invasive species that have already become widely established.

The most dramatic manifestation of our historically inadequate management of our range and forest lands is the ever-increasing threat to lives, air quality, property, and ecosystems from wildland fire. The summer fire season is

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Please save the date for this tour, sponsored by Irrigation Leader magazine and operated

by Imagine Tours and Travel, LLC. $4,707.00 per attendee (with airfare from Dulles airport) $4,319.00 per attendee (without airfare) All posted prices, services, and destinations are subject to the terms and conditions of the participant agreement.

To view, please visit http://irrigationleadermagazine.com/israel_tour/.

Irrigation Leader magazine is published by Water Strategies LLC.

Services included in the package: • meeting and assistance at Ben Gurion Airport on arrival • transfer to/from Ben Gurion airport • licensed English-speaking guide for all transfers and sightseeing days • luxury air-conditioned coach • entrance fees for all visits and tours • eight nights of hotel accommodation • breakfasts and dinners at hotels and farewell dinner at local restaurant

CLIMATE CHANGE INTENSIFIES WATER STRESS ON OUR COMMUNITIES BE PART OF THE SOLUTION WATER STUDIES ONLINE CERTIFICATE

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JOB LISTINGS

Does your organization have a job listing you would like to advertise in our pages? Irrigation Leader provides this service to irrigation districts, water agencies, and hydropower facilities free of charge. For more information, please email Kris Polly at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com. advantage to customers in the geography. +D evelop and execute a territory plan for focus market

MANAGER/SECRETARY Location: East Wenatchee, WA Deadline: Open until filled Salary: Based on qualifications RESPONSIBILITIES: The Greater Wenatchee Irrigation District (GWID) provides irrigation water to approximately 10,000 acres of cropland and residential lots with a fully pressurized and metered system. The district is spread over a large area, and some portions are remote. GWID maintains its own powerlines and substations. It has a robust and reliable SCADA system that monitors and operates its system. The GWID manager will be a well-rounded leader with experience leading a small crew. The position covers a wide range of skills and could be very rewarding for the right person. Customer service should be the number one priority. Also thinking outside of the box to solve issues will be paramount to being a successful district manager.

REQUIREMENTS: +C ollege degree in finance, business, engineering or equivalent experience preferred +U nderstanding of electrical and mechanical engineering and financial and business management. +U nderstanding of business laws, contracts, and regulations. +E xperience working around large equipment and managing large projects. +W illingness to work extended hours and be available in emergency situations 24/7. +W illingness to work outdoors in inclement weather conditions ranging from 0 to over 100 degrees. +V alid Washington driver’s license or the ability to get one.

For More Information: go to www.gwid.org/employment To apply: submit a cover letter, resume, and three references to: office@gwid.org or mail to Greater Wenatchee Irrigation District, 3300 SE 8th St., East Wenatchee, WA 98802,

TERRITORY SALES REP - PACIFIC NORTHWEST REGION Location: Pacific Northwest Territory (WA, OR, ID) Deadline: Open until filled Salary: Based on qualifications RESPONSIBILITIES: +U nderstand and communicate Alligare’s product offerings, functionality, positioning, and competitive

42 | IRRIGATION LEADER | September 2021

segments, including aquatics/irrigation, bare-ground, range & pasture, and forestry. +E xperience in noncrop vegetation management as well as aquatic weed and algae management is desirable.

REQUIREMENTS: +B S/BA, preferably in ag business or agricultural sciences. +A bility to travel extensively within territory 30–50%. +R eliable transportation with clean driving record.

For more information: contact Dave Blodget, regional managerwest, at (661) 599‑3231 or dave.blodget@alligare.com.

EHS LEAN SPECIALIST Location: St. George, UT Deadline: Open until filled Salary: Based on qualifications RESPONSIBILITIES: +T his new role will support the team by implementing and championing safety, lean, production, and environmental initiatives. +L ead safety program to ensure employee safety and compliance with OSHA standards.

REQUIREMENTS: + I ndustrial Safety or a technical discipline is desired. +M inimum 3 years business operations, plant engineering, or manufacturing experience, including 1–2 years of proven success with process improvement programs. +E xperience delivering OSHA-compliant safety programs in a manufacturing environment. +U nderstanding of welding concepts and liquid industrial coating applications. +C ertification in OSHA General Industry Outreach Trainer program; certification in lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, and 5S processes strongly preferred.

For more information: contact Nick Hidalgo, talent acquisition, at nhidalgo@nwpipe.com, or go to www. nwpipe.com/careers.

REGIONAL SUPERVISOR - PLANT OPERATIONS Location: Adelanto, CA; Tracy, CA; and Portland, OR (travel 30%) Deadline: Open until filled Salary: Based on qualifications RESPONSIBILITIES: +D irects and coordinates activities concerned with manufacturing of company products by performing the essential job functions personally or through their subordinates. irrigationleadermagazine.com

JOB LISTINGS REQUIREMENTS: +2 ‑year college or technical school; or 3–5 years related experience; or equivalent combination of education and experience. +P revious supervisory experience in a manufacturing environment required. +E xperience in a heavy-industrial manufacturing environment preferred.

For more information: contact Nick Hidalgo, talent acquisition at nhidalgo@nwpipe.com, or go to www.nwpipe.com/careers.

LEAN SPECIALIST COORDINATOR Location: Adelanto, CA Deadline: Open until filled Salary: Based on qualifications RESPONSIBILITIES: +L ead evaluation of production processes needing improvement and recommend solutions to management.

I+ m plement best practices and train affected personnel in their application. +D rive process improvement through statistical analysis and Lean toolbox.

REQUIREMENTS: +B achelor’s degree in engineering or a technical discipline desired. +M inimum 3 years business operations, plant engineering or manufacturing experience to include 1–2 years of process improvement program proven success. +U nderstanding of welding concepts and liquid industrial coating applications. +C ertification in lean manufacturing processes strongly preferred.

For more information: contact Nick Hidalgo, talent acquisition at nhidalgo@nwpipe.com,

LABOR COATING TECHNICIAN Location: Atlanta, GA, and Denver, CO Deadline: Open until filled Salary: Based on qualifications RESPONSIBILITIES: +S urface Preparation of the area in which epoxy will be applied; perform functions of a laborer as required.; sandblast to remove debris from metal; operate electric and hand tools; operate a high-PSI pressure washer and spray gun.

REQUIREMENTS: +M ust be willing to travel in and out of state when needed. +M ust feel comfortable working in a confined space for long periods; must be able to stand for long periods. +W illing to complete a field training in Massachusetts. +A ble to complete a confined space training (provided

by A&W); able to complete OSHA 10 and other safety training (provided by A&W); able to travel to Massachusetts for ongoing field training.

For more information: For Atlanta-based position, contact Cherry L. Martinez, senior recruiter, at (407) 287‑8790 or cmartinez@garney.com For Denver-based position, contact Ariana Craft, recruiter, at (407) 287‑8808 or abehler@garney.com. irrigationleadermagazine.com

PROJECT ENGINEER Location: Denver, CO Deadline: Open until filled Salary: Based on qualifications RESPONSIBILITIES: +N egotiate and purchase materials +C reate submittals, RFIs, and change orders +C oordinate projects from start to finish: assist with estimating; project setup & closeout; support field operations; maintain detailed job costs +A ssist in scheduling projects and crews +B e willing to fill in on crew when needed REQUIREMENTS: +D egree in civil engineering, construction management, or other related field +0 –3 years experience +L ocated in or willing to relocate to the Denver area +M ust be willing to travel 1–4 weeks at a time to support projects.

For more information: contact Josh Snow at jsnow@garney.com

.

RENEWABLE ENERGY ANALYST Location: Atlanta, GA Deadline: Open until filled Salary: $70,000 – $95,000 RESPONSIBILITIES: +E xecute analytical, strategic, and financial assessments for business case development +G ather customer/market information and offer recommendations to answer key business questions +Q uantify risk and rewards to prioritize commercial activity and drive sales +T ranslate business problems into advanced analytics and research projects +P roactively manage customer and partner deliverables to ensure excellence and consistency +O wn detailed financial modeling and market research for economic determinations such as cost of energy, breakeven, and project IR +A nalyze and evaluate data, creating innovative advanced analytics and data visualizations REQUIREMENTS: +B BA/BA/BS in business, finance, accounting, or engineering + I nvolvement in developing creative research and analysis program + I ntermediate proficiency with Excel and PowerPoint for financial modeling and presentations +E xcellent written, analytical, and organizational skills, including the proven ability to manage multiple projects +A bility to travel up 25% For more information: go to https://emrgy.com/careers/ or send cover letter and resume to HR@emergy.com

September 2021 | IRRIGATION LEADER

| 43

Upcoming Events September 13–16 National Water Works Association, WaterPro Conference, Milwaukee, WI September 14 Husker Harvest Days, Grand Island, NE September 17 Agribusiness & Water Council of Arizona, Annual Meeting and Water Conference, Phoenix, AZ, and virtual September 21–23 Hydrovision International, Spokane, WA September 22–29 National Drilling Association Convention, Charlotte, NC September 26–28 Nebraska Association of Resources Districts, Natural Resources Districts Annual Conference, Kearney, NE October 12–13 Nevada Water Resources Association, Minerals and Mine Water Management Symposium, Sparks, NV October 13–15 National Association of Counties, Western Interstate Region Conference, Salt Lake County, UT October 29 Agribusiness & Water Council of Arizona, H2Open Golf Tournament, Casa Grande, AZ November 3–5 National Conference of State Legislatures, Legislative Summit, Tampa, FL November 8–10 National Water Resources Association, 90th Annual Conference, Phoenix, AZ November 17–18 Kansas Governor’s Water Conference, Manhattan, KS November 18–20 National League of Cities, City Summit, Salt Lake City, UT November 30–December 3 Association of California Water Agencies, Fall Conference & Exhibition, Pasadena, CA

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