Understanding Water Treatment and Water Scarcity

Hello! My name is Taylor and I just graduated with my masters in engineering. I am working as a wastewater treatment engineer and I started this blog so that I could share (and learn!) more about water treatment and how it impacts us as a society

[clean-water-system]

Types of Irrigation in Idaho

So there are a few different types of irrigation in Idaho, most common is sprinkler, but we also have surface and drip irrigation.

Sprinkler irrigation systems account for about 67% of irrigated land in Idaho. Done with large sprinkler system that drive across the farmland and rain down water onto crops.

Surface irrigation is done by either digging a ditch and using hoses to water the surrounding area or done by just ditches and flooding the surrounding area with water. (about 31% of Idaho is irrigated this way)

Drip irrigation system- hoses or sprinkler lines set to 'drip' the water out slowly over time. This is not common on large scale farms in Idaho.

Source:

Some Information about Irrigation

[clean-water-system]

Water Curtailment in Idaho

Water Curtailment for Idaho Farms

I'm pro curtailment- we need to protect the aquifer

I'm anti curtailment- farmers need water

I don't care

I don't know enough about this issue

I'm somewhere in between

Voting ended onJul 12, 2024

I'm curious where you all stand on the issue of water curtailment in Idaho, I would love it if you could take some time to answer this poll and perhaps provide some explanation as to why you feel that way?

[clean-water-system]

A Farmers Perspective

I'm curious what everyone's thoughts are on this. I agree with his statement about not breaking the aquifer in one season but there being the potential to break Idaho in three weeks. This has been a looming issue that has caused a lot of tension between the government and farmers in Idaho for years. Unfortunately, not much progress seems to have been made in either direction for both communities.

[clean-water-system]

This video gives a good run down of the current issue with water usage and farms in Idaho.

[clean-water-system]

Idaho Funding for Clean Water

As someone who works in water systems design, I'm curious to see how this funding will be dispersed throughout the state.

It is expected that Idaho will receive $355 million over five years to improve water infrastructure across the state and ensure that clean, safe drinking water is a right in all communities.

After talking to my collogues and friends that are in civil engineering, it seems like a lot of funding is going to Idaho Parks and Recreation to upgrade the parks water systems and paths. I hope to see more projects focusing in on agriculture as Idaho's agriculture is our main source of economic gain.

I will be contacting my local reps to see if they plan to allocate money to upgrading irrigation systems in southern Idaho and I encourage you all to do the same!

[clean-water-system]

If you would like to contact your local legislator for information or to encourage them to delegate funding to water resource projects you can follow the link and either search by district or committee to find who represents your area and the water resources within your community!

This can be a great resource to learn more about what projects may be up and coming but it can also be used as a tool to show that you, as a voter, want your local representatives to put more resources into improving water scarcity in the State of Idaho!

[clean-water-system]

How can we improve water usage for farmers?

In Idaho we have a variety of climates, northern Idaho is full of trees and lately a lot of rain which has helped with the heat. Central and southern Idaho is classified as a more desert like climate.

I bring this up because in the news for the last few weeks I have been reading about how some farms in southern Idaho were being cut off for not following the water use plans put in place by the government.

This is an extremely hot issue in Idaho and it's hard to not feel sympathy for both sides of the problem. On one hand, how can we not feel sympathy for farmers who are trying to grow and maintain their crops? It's important to note the agriculture is huge in Idaho and accounts for almost 12.5% of our GDP. Limiting their water use is harming their crops and damaging the economy which hurts everyone in Idaho.

On the other hand, how can we not think about the environmental impacts. The governor put these rules in place because water usage is depleting the aquifer faster than it can refill and the East Snake River Plains aquifer is a source of water for millions of people in Idaho and if we fully deplete it Idaho's economy will be in ruins.

I ended up thinking about what kind of solutions could be put in place to fix this cycle of back and forth when it comes to water usage and water waste. I thought about how either we end up depleting the aquifer and damaging our economy or damaging our economy by not producing enough product to sustain our growth. I wondered if there was a middle ground that could be met that differed a bit from the current solution which is to follow a strict mitigation strategy or be cut off.

My idea was that we expand the current mitigation strategy to prioritize crop and economic growth for a certain period of time. The catch is that the economic gains we seen need to be used to promote research into water reuse strategies, aquifer management strategies, and water infrastructure improvement. My hope is that in doing this we are able to rebuild the aquifer over time after a brief period of depletion. The trick is to not go to the extreme end of having a free for all for the next 100 years until there is no water left, but rather have a period of 10-15 years were we allow farmers to pull extra from the aquifer for the purpose of increased crop supply.

Many limitations and checks would have to be put in place and I truly am not sure if this is the best strategy, it certainly isn't the only one, but it is a potential avenue that needs to be explored as the current process is not the most effective.

I hope that this idea sparks everyone to consider ideas of their own and opens up the discussion for a more permanent solution to come into place. I welcome you all to comment any ideas/questions you may have below as that was my goal for this post!

[clean-water-system]

Water Scarcity in Idaho

As someone who grew up in Idaho I feel like I have a good understanding of how important agriculture is to our economy. My grandparents had a small farm and I would spend the summers with them learning about the animals and helping in the garden. During my time I saw how important having access to water was.

Water is fundamental for the growth of crops and animals and unfortunately it is not a limitless resource. Due to this it is important that we consider how we allocate our water resources. Focusing in on Idaho much of our water infrastructure was created during the early 1900s and pairing that with the drought conditions we are seeing contributes to us seeing less and less available water.

This problem is putting a strain on Idaho's agriculture sector and by extension Idaho's economy. Idaho's farmlands are responsible for roughly $11.7 billion a year, much of this money is cycled back into the community to benefit the people that live there. This just goes to show how important water is within our community.

Something that is currently going on in Idaho is that the Department of Water Resources has issued a water curtailment on 6 different districts where junior water holders have not been following the approved mitigation plans. A curtailment means that these areas have restricted water usage as the priority lies with more senior water rights holders.

You might be asking yourself what is the difference between a senior and a junior water rights holder is, I know I was. The only difference is that the senior permit holders established water rights prior to March 31st, 1954. These permit holders get first access to the ground water in the East Snake Plain Aquifer.

The East Snake River Plain Aquifer covers over 10,800 square miles of southern Idaho. Water from the aquifer is pumped out for irrigation purposes and funnily enough, most of the water that goes into the aquifer comes from irrigation (about 60%!). It's important to note that because irrigation techniques are changing and the availability of excess water is dwindling, the volume of the aquifer is dwindling as well.

My goal for this blog is to highlight the importance of water not only within our community but also around the world and share more information about how we are upgrading the current systems we have in order to protect this limited resource. I also want to share some of the stories of the people who are impacted by the decreasing availability of water. I think it is important to share this information so that people can understand not only what their money is being used for but also so that they can understand what is going on in their communities.

I would love it if anyone wanted to reach out with any stories, questions, or just wanted to engage in the conversation with me!

I'll be back soon with more stories to share!

-T

Sources:

Idaho’s treasure; the Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer. (n.d.). https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1017/ML101790328.pdf

IDWR Director issues curtailment order for six ESPA groundwater districts;  order affects groundwater users whose water rights are junior to March 31, 1954. (2024, May 30). Idwr.Idaho.Gov. Retrieved from https://idwr.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/news-release/20240530-IDWR-Director-issues-curtailment-order-for-6-groundwater-districts-FINAL.pdf.

Ratliff, S. (2024, June 5). “we can’t take that kind of hit” - local Farmers Fear Water Cut Off. “We can’t take that kind of hit” – Local farmers fear water cut off. https://localnews8.com/news/idaho/2024/06/04/east-idaho-farmers-say-water-curtailment-is-an-absurd-situation/

University of Arkansas . (n.d.). Idaho. The Economic Contributions and Impacts of U.S. Food, Fiber, and Forest Industries. https://economic-impact-of-ag.uada.edu/idaho/

Corbin , C. (2024, June 1). State official issues water curtailment order for many eastern Idaho users. https://www.eastidahonews.com/2024/05/department-of-water-resources-director-issues-water-curtailment-order-for-many-eastern-idaho-users/

[clean-water-system]

Well hello there, Taylor! That's a nice blog site you've started. One week down, seven weeks to go!

Water scarcity is an important topic, but I'm wondering what state you are living/working in. I'm asking because I was born in Southern California, where water scarcity was a big deal (although it didn't seem to stop people from installing swimming pools!), but in some places, water's not such a big deal. I guess my real question is why water is an important topic to you!

This is a great question thank you! I currently live and work in northern Idaho (where the only time we feel major impacts of water scarcity are during the fire seasons). I will say I think growing up I took for granted the fact that I had access to clean drinking water which is something that millions of people don't have even to this day. That's why I feel like it's such an important issue, we live during a time where we boast about so many scientific achievements but there are still so many areas around the world that don't have direct access to water that they can drink and even more areas have access to water that is unsafe but have no other alternatives.