Benefits of the South san Joaquin Irrigation district's Pilot Pressure Irrigation Project

The South San Joaquin Irrigation District (SSJID) board commissioned Stantec Consulting as a partner in developing an irrigation program that could improve delivery efficiency and service. A portion of one of the District's nine divisions ‐ 1,537 ha in Division 9 ‐ was chosen as the site for building, testing, and optimizing a pilot pressure irrigation project. The vision for the system included the following fundamental capabilities: pressurization. Pumping water from a 69,075 m3 pond to individual farms through 14.5 km of pressurized pipeline; calculated use. Letting farmers choose the time, volume, and flow rate of deliveries; automated/mobile access. Developing a web‐based tool that allows farmers to schedule deliveries from a computer, smart phone, or iPad based on current and past weather forecasts, previous water usage and historical evapotranspiration rates, and orchard moisture sensors. This paper will focus on the realized benefits for the SSJID and the Division 9 farmers including but not limited to: improved service to crops, volumetric billing compliance, improved irrigation flexibility (duration, frequency, flow rate), water conservation, reduction in farmer energy costs, reduced groundwater pumping, improved air quality, improved yields, reduction in labor inputs, automatic delivery information for billing, increased pumping efficiency, increased District enrollment, protection of water rights, improved flood delivery service and efficiency, intelligent irrigation scheduling, and improved management of flows through a regulating reservoir.