CHANGING CUSTOMERS — A CASE STUDY OF URBANIZATION EFFECTSON OPERATIONS IN FRESNO IRRIGATION DISTRICT

摘要

Fresno Irrigation District (FID or District) has historically provided irrigation water toapproximately 245,000 acres in California’s Central San Joaquin Valley. As the City ofFresno and its suburb to the east the City of Clovis have grown, farmland has beenconverted to homes and businesses. Fresno, Clovis and FID have agreements in whichthe cities receive the annexed land’s water allocation. After years of urbanization andexpansion of the cities’ respective boundaries, the cities had acquired a significantentitlement to water delivered by FID. Until 2003 Fresno and Clovis relied solely ongroundwater to meet the needs of their combined 500,000 residents. They each used theirallotment to recharge the local groundwater aquifer. To continue to meet the needs oftheir growing cities, Fresno and Clovis each built surface water treatment plants servedfrom FID’s Enterprise Canal. Providing service to the surface water treatment plants haschanged the way FID must operate the Enterprise Canal. Issues such as an extendeddelivery season, additional maintenance, increased flowrates due to concentrateddemands, and facilities improvements needed to be addressed prior to bringing thesurface water treatment facilities on-line. To address these issues, studies wereundertaken, and a construction program of irrigation system improvements wasdeveloped and has commenced. This paper will discuss how FID has adjusted to theseoperational changes and how these changes have affected their system.