NEVADA IRRIGATION DISTRICT: MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF URBANIZATION

摘要

The Nevada Irrigation District (NID), located in Northeastern California and covering 287,000rnacres, is facing and meeting the challenges of urbanization. NID was formed in 1921 to servernagricultural customers in Nevada and Placer Counties. NID provides treated and raw water,rnmunicipal, residential, agricultural, and industrial water to customers throughout its service area.rnIt currently supplies over 150,000 acre-feet of water annually, and a recent study concludes thatrnNID can meet the year 2027 predicted demand of 211,000 acre-feet per year.rnUrbanization challenges include serving the City of Lincoln (Lincoln), a rapidly growing urbanrnarea that is expanding into the existing NID service area, serving municipal customers within thernservice area but "off the grid" of existing delivery systems, and maintaining canal right-of-waysrnfor recreational use. NID has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding and, at the time thisrnpaper was completed, a planning agreement with Lincoln. The initial planning study hasrnidentified sites for a water treatment plant and a delivery system that would be built and operatedrnby NID and financed by Lincoln.rnCustomers "off the grid", or not near existing water treatment and delivery systems, have beenrnunable to obtain domestic water due to the high capital cost of supplying them. NID has recentlyrndeveloped numerous methods to assist these areas with treated water. These methods are diversernand customized to the needs of the area. These needs include financial, site constrictions, andrnother needs.rnAt this time, NID is pursuing numerous retrofit projects that are necessary to improve reliabilityrnand capacity. One project is to replace a major canal with a pipeline to increase system capacityrnand reliability. NID has worked with local citizens in an effort to maintain the canal forrnrecreational use along its right-of-way.rnThis paper includes a description and history of NID, and how it is meeting the above challengesrnof urbanization.