IRRIGATION WATER CONSERVATION AND TRANSFER: THE IMPERIAL IRRIGATION DISTRICT EXPERIENCE

摘要

Water use in the West is changing, and nowhere is that being felt as acutely as theImperial Irrigation District, a 450,000-acre, 12-month growing season district inSouthern California where longstanding agricultural water users are under intensepressure to transfer water to the region's ever-thirsty and ever-expanding urban areas.In 2003, the District entered into 37 transfer agreements (IID, 2007), referred tocollectively as the Quantification Settlement (QSA) and related agreements. TheQSA committed the District to a massive efficiency conservation program that wouldfree up roughly 10 percent of its water for transfer to San Diego and others. The heartof the QSA calls for the District to generate more than 300,000 acre-feet of waterthrough a combination of District and voluntary on-farm efficiency conservationsavings. In 2007, IID completed their Efficiency Conservation Definite Plan(Definite Plan) that outlined strategies for both delivery system and on-farm watersavings. The pertinent terms of the water transfer agreements and their implication todevelopment of the Definite Plan are discussed and the elements of the Definite Planare presented. The paper concludes with an assessment of lessons learned anddiscussion of key technical and other issues encountered.