Nobody Knowz with Callie Zamzow
Hosted by Callie Zamzow, Nobody Knowz is a Boise, Idaho-based podcast dedicated to exploring the connections that shape our lives—between people, animals, and the environment. Featuring stories and voices from across Boise, Nampa, Caldwell, and the greater Treasure Valley, the show is rooted in authenticity and driven by curiosity. Through thoughtful conversations, it champions integrity, sustainability, and lifelong learning.
Nobody Knowz with Callie Zamzow
The Water Problem Nobody Talks About
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Idaho’s water crisis is exposing just how fragile the Treasure Valley’s water supply can become during an extreme drought year.
Most of us turn on a sprinkler without thinking about where that water comes from or what has to happen behind the scenes to make sure it reaches our neighborhoods.
In Season 2 episode 1 of Nobody Knowz, Callie sits down with Mack Myers of Settlers Irrigation District to unpack how Idaho's irrigation system actually works, why low mountain snowpack matters so much, and how homeowners may be unintentionally wasting more water than they realize.
They break down how Treasure Valley reservoirs supply irrigation water, the difference between city and irrigation water, why aquifer recharge is becoming increasingly important as farmland becomes subdivisions, and how Idaho's rapid growth is changing a water system originally built around agriculture.
This episode is for Idaho homeowners, Treasure Valley residents, and anyone wondering where our water actually comes from and what happens when there isn't enough of it.
#Idaho #TreasureValley #WaterConservation #drought
00:00 – Welcome to Season 2 of Nobody Knowz
00:55 – How Serious Is Idaho’s Water Crisis?
01:20 – How Irrigation Built the Treasure Valley
03:15 – Why Idaho Depends So Heavily on Snowpack
04:10 – Why Summer Rain Doesn’t Solve the Problem
05:15 – How Treasure Valley Irrigation Districts Work
06:30 – City Water vs. Irrigation Water
10:20 – What Happens During an Idaho Water Shortage?
12:00 – How Conservation Extended One Irrigation Season
13:15 – The Biggest Watering Mistake Homeowners Make
17:00 – How Irrigation Supply and Demand Actually Works
22:00 – Idaho’s Growing Aquifer Recharge Problem
27:30 – What Happens When Homeowners Waste Water
30:00 – How Idaho’s Relationship With Water Has Changed
32:30 – Growth Is Changing the Treasure Valley Water System
39:15 – The Massive System Six People Help Manage
43:40 – The #1 Thing Idaho Homeowners Can Do
48:00 – Why Your Watering Schedule Matters So Much
50:15 – Protecting Idaho’s Water for the Next Generation
Everyone has a story, a moment, a lesson, or a piece of their life most people may never hear. Hi, I'm Callie Zamzo, and this is Nobody Knows. Well, welcome back to Nobody Knows. Uh this is season two, and I'm very excited to be starting new digs, new uh new space here. You'll probably notice different things in the background and um kind of fun to take some time off, but also really glad to be back in the studio. And I'm excited for today's topic. And today's guest, uh so Mac Myers, welcome to the studio.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. Thank you very much for having me.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for being uh thanks for being part of this uh first one of season two.
SPEAKER_01Yes, absolutely. This is my first time uh being on a podcast. Oh so I've been in front of some uh news media, you know, different interviews, but uh never a podcast.
SPEAKER_00All right, well, here we go.
SPEAKER_01I'll do my best.
SPEAKER_00I uh I I I really I don't want to delay what our topic is gonna be because it's so serious right now that Idaho is in a we're in a a water crisis. And and uh, you know, there's you hear bits and pieces of it here and there, but I I think we need to get to the crux of it. I need people to understand. I think we need to help help people understand how serious this really is. And uh so I guess let's just start with that. Is it even serious?
SPEAKER_01It is, it is very serious, you know. Uh it's it's basically what has driven the Treasure Valley to become developed to what it is today. If it wasn't for irrigation, uh there would be no Treasure Valley. This uh this area was an arid desert. And uh the settlers came in in the 1800s and and dug these ditches and and brought this water to the land, uh, which allowed us to create farm ground. And uh, you know, over the years they started building the different reservoirs. We have uh Anderson up top, we have Arrow Rock in the middle, and then we have Lucky Peak. And those were all constructed for flood control operations and to control uh irrigation demand.
SPEAKER_00So that was like straight up so that we can live in the valley. Like that's why those things were created. Absolutely because otherwise if we I suppose if the population stayed small enough, they could live off the river, but not create agriculture and all the things that now has created a thriving. Correct. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Correct, absolutely. And and you know, in doing so, if you if you look at the topography of the Treasure Valley, uh the old riverbank, if you follow it, you know, all the way from Starr, uh just north of Chindon, you can follow that bench line clear on up past the old HP, Hewlett-Packard there, uh, you know, Mountain View on up towards the train trussle, Federal Way, all the way up past Micron, that was the old south bank of the river channel, and the north bank was the foothills.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01So everything that's in the middle, all the way coming down from Harris Ranch, you know, downtown Boise, Garden City, that was all the river bottom until these reservoirs started to be constructed and they could actually control the flows uh and the output of what was going down the Boise River. Retaining that, uh basically conserving it for irrigation demand for the farmers.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so it was originally for farmers. That was originally the and so just for I don't know, me, because I don't understand necessarily how all the stuff works.
SPEAKER_01So you have the large reservoirs that's uh and those get filled from like Snowpack, so uh the different basins, uh, and there there are so many to name I'll just uh the Danskin Mountains, the the Trinity Mountains, uh Sawtooth Mountains, you know, up through Ido City. Uh so those areas get hit with snow, that snow runs off and uh runs into the different reservoirs, filling the reservoirs.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And uh and then that basically is what's holding the water that's gonna be used throughout the valley.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. That determines basically that that determines our our uh irrigation season, you know, uh that and conservation of the users in the valley. So if if people are just kind of watering as much as they really want when they don't need to be, and the demand is higher than the supply, we we're gonna run out quicker, you know. But this year particularly, we had an extremely low snowpack. Uh reports back to uh uh 1950 was the last time they seen a snowpack this low. So uh as everybody should be aware uh by now, we are in an extreme drought and uh we're looking at a short water year. You know, it's it's unfortunate, but it does happen here.
SPEAKER_00Um what about uh what about rain? We've had we've had some rain. How come how come rain is not helping us?
SPEAKER_01You know, because if we could have taken that last storm that was down here in the valley uh that flooded out most of the city and put that up there, that would have helped. Unfortunately, you know, most of that moisture fell down here before it got to those those basins that contribute to you know our storage. Now, some of it got up there and and it helped out a little bit, you know, it gave us an extra day or two of water. But uh, you know, the the demand, especially in these hundred degree temperatures, is is significantly high uh coming out of the reservoir versus what's coming in.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So there you're a part of one irrigation district. You're as the settlers, uh, but there are other ones.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so so settlers is just one part of uh what's called Water District 63. Water District 63, you know, it includes uh Boise Project, Board of Control, uh Napa Meridian, Pioneer Irrigation District, Thurman Mill, I mean all around the valley, basically, on out to almost to Oregon, you know. So uh it's a pretty good sized basin. Settlers itself, we we irrigate uh about just under 13,500 acres that that we supply water to. And uh, you know, it's it's over time uh urbanized into commercial and residential. And you know, when I started, it was it was the majority of it uh 20 years ago was ag land, uh mostly farmers, and we did have a little bit of residential, but uh uh nothing like what we have now. So so there's been a big transition into uh what we call pressurized irrigation systems that that feed these subdivisions versus the the old agricultural way of of gravity feeding these farm grounds.
SPEAKER_00Okay, let's back up for just a second because I know for me personally, I don't have I'm not fed by irrigation. So I I'm on city water. So I want to water my lawn, it's city water. And I know that I have friends that are on irrigation, pressurized irrigation. Um, and then and so how does how does one know what they're on, like one way or the other? Like how what's the clear indicator that you're doing city water versus irrigation water?
SPEAKER_01So there's a couple of them. Uh if you are if if you receive an assessment, uh you would receive an assessment from an irrigation district. Unless you're in a newer subdivision, those assessments, this gets kind of sticky, but those assessments go to the HOA or the property management group. So they do like a certain irrigation districts do what's called a single assessment and they set they assess the entire subdivision. That that bill is sent to the property management company. Uh, but in some of the older subs uh or some of the other irrigation districts, they individually assess each homeowner uh like lot by lot. But uh other indicators would be whether or not you had a uh a backflow, like if you had a dual point connection. So some houses have both city water and irrigation water coming to their sprinkler system. And in that case, they would be required to have a backflow so that the irrigation water doesn't cross-contaminate with the city water because it's not the same. There's two different sources of water.
SPEAKER_00I remember you saying that. If so if you could the city water you you can consume.
SPEAKER_01Yes, potable, potable water water.
SPEAKER_00The other one's gonna cause a lot of problems.
SPEAKER_01Yes, it will. Yes. Uh I've seen it happen numerous times. Purple, there we tend to uh well, we require a purple tag be placed on the irrigation valve lid, but they don't always stay. Sometimes they get weed whacked off or mowed off or just knocked off or sun-dried and falled off. But uh don't drink the irrigation water. It's a bad, it'll make for a bad few days.
SPEAKER_00I do this is a little bit of a digression, and don't do this at home kids at all now. But as a kid, we used to play in the irrigation desk uh ditches, and um, you know, we would surf and do all sorts of stupid things. Um but that's how I learned because when you're swimming in a canal, you consume and there was always a problem the next day. All of us felt it the next day.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00So that's how I learned. But again, don't do that.
SPEAKER_01It's yeah, stay out of the ditches, please. Whether you're swimming or driving your car, you know, please just stay out. You know, good advice. It is it is a deal. Uh we have vehicles in the ditch and stuff all the time, and it's unfortunate. But, you know, uh yeah, it's not a safe, it doesn't look like it's fast, but it is. Yeah, it's moving a lot faster than you think it is.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, that's scary. Okay, so so you're um let's say I I'm I was kind of thinking also when I talk to people about what what type of water they have. If they get a water bill from the city and in the w in the summertime, it's their it, you know, they're watering their lawn and it gets really, really large in the summertime, probably they're using city water too.
SPEAKER_01That's a great indicator. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00But it costs a lot more, right?
SPEAKER_01Yes, absolutely. So, you know, where irrigation water you might pay depending on the size of your lot, but most of these little residential lots are $30 to $40 a lot or something like that annually, uh, where uh some of these same-size lots are, you know, two to three hundred dollars monthly.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh when they're on the city water, you know. And so they just have a lot higher operating costs and and you know, it's more expensive to run those systems than it is for the for the irrigation water, you know.
SPEAKER_00So I'm just I'm trying to, when I think about, and you and I have talked about this a little bit offline, uh, just the understanding the water issue and how it actually impacts me. So we can talk about it all day long, the news can talk about it, people can say you you need to conserve. But in the end, what are we really looking at here? What what is the what's what's gonna happen this year? What's what's the the you know, what's gonna be the outcome?
SPEAKER_01Well, so we've encountered this in the past. The last time we we had a uh significant water shortage was 2013, where you know we shut off in uh September. Uh we did have another one and I want to say it was 22, but where we did something, we ran a little bit different. Settlers uh did where we shut off in the early spring. We ran for about a month, and then we shut off because it was snowing on uh like May 22nd.
SPEAKER_00Oh wow. So you knew that there was gonna be some some more going into the reservoirs.
SPEAKER_01I called uh excuse me, I called a few farmers that we have left, and I called our board of directors because I had two inches of snow on my bed of my pickup truck, and uh nobody needed to water. So we were at that time we were able to shut off for 10 consecutive days and you know let the storms pass through and the ground kind of dry up again and then turn back on. Well, we saved enough water to get us a few extra days, and then and on the end of that season, other districts had shut off earlier, and we were able to run that 10 extra days, which actually, because they shut off, it changes the dynamic of the river. So natural flows come up, and we're allowed we have natural flow rights, so we're allowed to take that natural flow, which bumped us out of storage. So all in all, we ended up running a whole month longer than the other irrigation districts by conserving water.
SPEAKER_00Interesting. Okay, so conserving water does help. Absolutely. You can actually make an impact.
SPEAKER_01So we did it again this year. Uh knowing what we were facing, we we started about three weeks later than everybody else and uh in hopes to uh let uh the reservoirs fill. Uh they ended up filling, and it's not just because we stayed off. We're pretty small compared to some of these other districts, Nap and Meridian and in the project and Pioneer. But you know, everybody doing their part does create an impact and helps out everybody doing their part. You know, I've got uh some some of my bigger ditches that have cut back and they're running on less water, just as everybody is in our entire district. Um, but those guys just being better water managers, better conservationists, have have made a significant impact in the amount of water that we're able that we're delivering this time of year, which is basically it's just allowing us to hold on to our storage a little bit longer, and which is gonna extend our season longer. You know, and a lot of that, you know, the majority of our users now are subdivisions, so pressurized irrigation systems. And this kind of goes this goes a little deep. So all of our pressurized irrigation systems, uh, at least the ones that we own and operate, we have watering schedules for all the residents. And the the biggest way to conserve water is to follow the watering schedule and you know be aware of how much you're watering. You don't need to overwater.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01Uh you don't need to water the sidewalks, you don't need to water the roads or the curbs and gutters.
SPEAKER_00I was gonna say the gutter all the way down the street.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Uh there are alternatives, and uh, you know, you don't have to water every single day.
SPEAKER_00Uh in fact, it's better if you don't for the lawn, though because the roots will actually kind of seek the water. So it will the the roots will continue to go down seeking the water as the water drops down.
SPEAKER_01Drops down.
SPEAKER_00Exactly.
SPEAKER_01And you know, there are many uh nutrient plant uh well, I'm sorry, uh plans, you know, fertilizer programs out there uh that are available that when you're actually feeding your lawn correctly, it doesn't require as much water to stay green.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01You know, it's it's they they burn up and go yellow when they're starving, when they're nutrient deficient. And uh, you know, they need all the vitamins and nutrients that are provided by the additional uh fertilizers, you know. Uh ZAMZ is a great program. I was gonna say I would go out there.
SPEAKER_00And I would give like a little extra plug there because um these things that we're putting on our lawns do end up in our aquifers. And so you want it to stay away from chemicals if you can. Like you that's the and you can. I just want to say that. You can if you choose.
SPEAKER_01And the soil conditions in Idaho are not great. Let's be honest here. So so they need help for sure.
SPEAKER_00You so you so you do want to be adding things to the to the soil.
SPEAKER_01There's a misconception out there where you know folks get into these subdivisions and they were farms and they think they have great soil. What they don't know is all that great soil has been stripped by the contractor and relocated, imported or exported off-site and sold, and then they're left with you know the underlying soil that's not great soil.
SPEAKER_00So it's dirt. We call that dirt.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah, it's not technically. Yeah, so you really need to work hard to you know uh provide the right nutrients, aeration, thatching, all that kind of stuff, the correct, you know, watering schedule, and and you can conserve a lot more water than what we're doing. You know, we have pumps, and I and I have some data that I will show you and we'll add to this uh this program here that will show the fluctuation in our canal uh that's daily and uh continues through the irrigation season that that's impactful and wasteful. I mean, it's significantly wasteful uh because the residents aren't following the watering schedule.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think there's a there's a huge misunderstanding there. Let's dig into that just for a second so that people really understand you're not asking people to water on a schedule because it's fun to screw with people.
SPEAKER_02Right. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Like the the point is that you're trying to keep a consistent amount. And by the way, I I for those um for our listeners and and watchers, I I got a chance to my husband and I, you you took us on a tour. Yes. And it was a phenomenal half day of like learning. I thought my brain wasn't gonna explode. It was so amazing. Um but that was one of the things that you showed us was the fact that um that you're trying to control the amount of water that is that is being released. And you have to know, you have to understand what's going to be taken in order for that to be. So I'm you explain that.
SPEAKER_01It's a fine, it's a fine balance. You know, we we have an allotted amount of water. Uh, it's just like your bank account, you know. If you have $100 and you need to make it last 10 days, you are allowed to spend $10 a day. Or if you spend $100, you get one day, you know, or $50, you get two days, right?
SPEAKER_02It's well fed.
SPEAKER_01Uh, you know, we have 18,417 acre feet of storage when we're 100% full amongst the three reservoirs. We're using cur currently uh about 165 acre feet a day. Okay. Not all of it's storage right now. We're we're just diving into storage. But what happens is we have this amount of water going down the ditch, and all these users are kicking on early in the morning. Uh it's clockwork, and we've got it all graphed. And so we have this low at what we call the high demand time, which is typically between 4:30 and about 8 a.m., where our canal will actually drop down to just about zero. And that's where I try to run it at. Uh I try to hit that low, just a couple CFS above zero, so I don't completely dry up the tail end users. But the offset is that when everybody shuts off, my canal will spike up to 10 CFS, which is now because nobody's using, just being wasted. I don't have the option of making two orders in the morning. So every morning I have to order water, or if I have a change, I have to call it in and to water district 63, and then they call it up to the reservoir, just like every other irrigation district in the valley. You know, uh so if I'm running at a constant and I have this constant fluctuation every morning, every afternoon, I I have to basically waste water uh to offset that lull of demand in the morning. Whereas if everybody would follow the watering schedule that was designed by the engineer per the, you know, the contractor of the subdivision, uh, we should be able to have a constant in the canal and and save a significant amount of water. And I I could sit here and do the math. Uh, you know, it would be approximately 10 acre feet a day. So if our season's six months, seven, eight months long, you can you can figure that out pretty easily, you know. So uh that would extend our season significantly. When we're when we're down to talking about days, weeks, and months on a short water year, that makes a huge impact on the bottom end of the season, you know, when it's hot. You know, in 22, uh what I was talking about earlier when we shut off some of these other irrigation districts that didn't, they were shutting off when it was 97 and 100 degrees. Right. And we were continuing to run. Mind you, uh my phone was ringing off the hook. You know, I was I was running 150 phone calls a day, probably, uh, because people were upset that I had turned it off. And even though we had snow on the ground, you know, it's kind of uh, you know, one of those things where, hey, you know, it's not gonna burn up. It's 50 degrees outside, or or, you know, if it's snowing, obviously it's in the 30s.
SPEAKER_00Well, and I think that's a big thing too, especially with people newcomers to the valley. If you've come from a different area where water is it's handled differently and you have more of it or less of it, or then you you try to bring those things into this valley. And we do have a pretty unique valley. It's it isn't uh it's not like a lot of the places where people are coming from.
SPEAKER_01You're right. Yeah. And you know, again, with back to the irrigation stuff, um the users, if if the subdivision isn't built with a pond and it's kind of just it's the measuring device right to the pump station, and the demand is all occurring first thing in the morning, this becomes a supply and demand thing. If the demand is higher than the supply, your pump is going to low level every morning when everybody turns on at five. And we have we have subdivisions that do that. And we've tried to educate them. Uh, you know, we've attended their hoa meetings and stuff and and talked to their property management companies, but you there's no way to really go out there and police neighbors, you know. So we're big advocates for uh irrigation ponds. Uh for these pressurized irrigation systems, they help off they help offset the fluctuation and and the demand uh by creating a reservoir that for that pump station to draw from in those high demand times. And uh They work great, you know, and uh digging kind of further into the weeds here. I want to talk a little bit about the recharge of our aquifers here in the valley. Uh as urbanization continues west, you know, and we have less and less farmers, we're gonna have less and less recharge to our aquifers.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so yeah, do explain the recharge to our aquifers because that's so that's totally different. You were talking about pressure as well, water water being in the in in the dam or behind the dams and and the reservoirs. Yeah, this is a totally different this is the water that's down in little pockets.
SPEAKER_01Yes, right?
SPEAKER_00It's the way that it's been described to me is that we it's not like one, it's a whole bunch of pockets. Yes, right. And that's where water is kind of stored underneath. Okay, so talk about that a little bit.
SPEAKER_01So basically we have underground reservoirs, if you will, they're aquifers, and uh over time those aquifers were filled by you know open irrigation ditches, uh, farmers flood irrigating. And uh those those aquifers actually at one point got so high uh back in like the early 1900s that the farmers were sinking their tractors when they started disking their fields.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_01So the irrigation districts came along and they started constructing these drains. You know, and you have Nappa Marine has like the five miles drain, the farmers drain, there's the white drain, there's there's drains all over the valley. And those are designed to lower the water table so that the farmers could continue to cultivate the ground without getting their tractors stuck. Now, what's happened is all that farm ground has now been developed, urbanized, and is basically uh 98% impervious surfaces where the water can't get back to the aquifer, nor will it uh the way the grasses are being irrigated. It just will never happen. So sprinklers will not recharge it. You're not gonna recharge it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you can't do it that way.
SPEAKER_01There's not enough output of water uh to recharge the aquifer to get deep enough. So basically what we're what we're left with is uh our ponds. You know, these ponds that need to be put in, they're they're beneficial for more than just the pump station themselves. As long as they're not a lined pond and they're not dug so deep that they're into the water table, they need to be above the water table, but allowed to free drain down into the ground, recharging the aquifer. You know, eastern Idaho is running into some issues with uh the pumpers out there and uh you know drying up the aquifers and recharge, and and we're headed in that same direction.
SPEAKER_00So people are tapping into the into like the little pockets, as I'm they have.
SPEAKER_01They they've been tapped in, and and a lot of the farmers up there utilize the uh the groundwater to irrigate with.
SPEAKER_00And they're using more it but and sorry for interrupting you, but I'm I'm I so aren't there's like water rights involved with that, right? You can't just like if I were just so in my backyard if I happen to know that was water, I can't just tap down in there and take it.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, yeah. It it has to be, you know, you have to go through the the permitting process through Idaho Department of Water Resources to to get a permit to put in a well, and whether that'll be approved or not, uh I not so much anymore. I mean, they still do it once in a while, you know, but uh I think they're kind of finally starting to shy away from it. You know, there these subdivisions, some of the subdivisions still have wells. If there was a well there uh at the time that it was a farmer's it that it was agland, then it's allowed to stay. Now, wells are titled differently where or permitted differently. Some wells are irrigation wells, uh solely for irrigation, and they're allowed to be used all season. Some wells are shoulder season wells, and they're only allowed to be utilized when uh surface water, irrigation water, is not available. So there's a big discrepancy there where people just think, oh, well, I have a well just I'm running low on my water, let's turn it on and fill the pond because it's aesthetically pleasing. Let's not do that.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01You know, let's not do that, you know. So when you do that, there's other folks around that that don't have city water, you know, or uh they they just have a well. And if you guys start, if they start drying up the aquifers, you're impacting other people who actually only have a well as a source of water, where folks that have irrigation surface water uh they have multiple sources, you know. A lot of these subdivisions, uh some of them have three sources. They'll have their potable water, which is their city water, you know, and then they'll have irrigation water, and sometimes they'll have a well uh that feeds the pond, you know. But we have several wells in our district, and I'll tell you what, we do everything we possibly can to leave them off. I can't tell you the last time we turned one on, and if we did, it was probably just to run it for maintenance, uh, just to make sure that everything was still good. Uh, but it's probably been five, six years since we've actually done that. And uh I do see it happening quite a bit though with with the subdivisions, and and I'm I'm a big, big advocate for recharging the aquifer. I don't want to deplete Idaho's natural resources. You know, uh I have kids, you guys probably have kids, I don't know, uh other people have kids. We need to protect Idaho's natural resources and do what we can do to uh keep them available for the generations to come, you know.
SPEAKER_00So right now, if if somebody just wants to ignore that we're having a water crisis, and they are just living their best life and they're doing whatever, and they're the and we all kind of know them, right? We we know them. They're the ones that are running their sprinklers first thing in the morning off, you know, they're not on schedule and they're overrunning and the water's running down the you know, just curb and all that other fun stuff. Right now, there isn't really any there's nothing, there's no recourse on that right now. Has there been any discussion about what what the future might hold if if we can't as a society just be better humans? Is there a recourse other than just letting it run out and have people deal with it when they have no water?
SPEAKER_01There's no real recourse at the moment. You're wasting water, you know, uh dealing with your neighbors, dealing with the water shortage. You know, I I understand it's basically neglect. You're you know, you're only causing yourself problems by wasting the water, uh, and that we're just gonna run out sooner. You know, uh HOAs will will start to go around uh in some of the in some of the earlier droughts that we had, HOAs would go around and start knocking on doors or neighbors. Sometimes you'll get the neighbors who are retired and don't have anything to do. This is a great job for those guys, you know, uh to go around and knock on your neighbors' door and let them know that they're you know filling the storm drains. Those those those uh storm drains need to be there and available for storms like we had a couple weeks ago. And if they're full of irrigation water and they can't take any additional water, you're gonna have people on paddle boards paddling down the street like we did last week, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So a week and a half ago, but yeah, it's a it's a bad deal, you know. Um it's not like it used to be where these subdivisions, when they were farm ground, they had drains that could discharge. Now with with urbanization, all the uh storm drains have to be retained on site. So they have a limited amount of water that or capacity that they can hold. And if if that capacity's been taken up by irrigation water from people overusing, they're just compounding their own problems, you know.
SPEAKER_00It's interesting to me uh the change over from when I was a little girl because we irrigated. It was I loved irrigation day because it filled our whole yard was filled, and we could like, you know, get our boogie boards out and like skim across the top. And you know, we played in and it was and but and then and we knew our exact time when we and we went down and we actually managed it ourselves and we lifted one gate and shut a different gate, and it, you know, we had 24 hours with it, and then somebody else came and took our water. If they took it early, you got really angry at them. Yep. But there was this real like sense of ownership over our own water. And I even remember that as a kid. Like it was a big deal, and we were all involved, and everybody in the family understood it, and we all knew what we needed to do. Absolutely. And so did the neighbors, and you talked to your neighbors. There was a lot of talking about, hey, you know, I noticed you're gonna be out of town. Is there any chance that I could take your time? You know, so there was a lot of negotiating back and forth and that sort of thing. Now it seems like we're a little bit more removed from that. And there, and so it's not it's not as tangible, I think, for people. And I I wonder if there's a way or if you've had the thoughts in your head about ways to make it more tangible where people can, and and maybe it's maybe it's a year like this. Maybe this is the answer, is that people will begin to say, oh my gosh, I literally couldn't water my lawn because we ran out of water because we didn't pay attention. So maybe that's what that's the recourse. Maybe that's it. I don't know. But what are your thoughts on that as far as the change?
SPEAKER_01I liked where you were going with how it used to be because that's what I enjoyed. Well, that was one of the things that I really enjoyed about Idaho. Uh, you know, I grew up doing the same thing. We we had a day where all the neighbors got together and and we would go clean the irrigation ditch.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, ditch cleaning day. I still love the smell of burning ditches, by the way. Like it smells like spring. It smells like spring for me.
SPEAKER_01You know, uh but but you're right. And and just to touch a little more on that, where you know, in those days, that was that was being a uh better uh steward of your water. Okay. Whereas now everybody has a clock, they auto-programmed that clock to kick on at a certain time. Where, like you said, everybody had a specific time and date that they got their water. And if you took my water, then I was not happy with you. Now nobody knows because the clock is in their garage and and the door is down, you can't see when I press manual start or or auto, you know, and set the zones to run. But uh as far as getting everybody together, you know, my my honest truth about that, you know, is that society has changed. You know, Idaho has changed. And I don't feel that we have that kind of Idaho anymore. We don't have those relationships amongst our neighbors. Our neighbors don't talk to each other. It's unfortunate. It's it's disheartening to see uh, you know, everybody says, Oh, Idaho is such a beautiful thing. Well, it's changing, you know, uh unfortunately, uh, you know, for the worse, but uh it is what it is. And and we we do need to learn to adapt because if we don't, you're absolutely right, we're gonna be we're gonna have huge problems.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh, where we are gonna run out of water uh from overuse. And and you know, the governor did declare a drought, and he did say that water managers can do whatever it is that they need to do to control the water however they feel is necessary in order to extend their season uh the best way they know how. So that's what we can do, uh, you know, as far as controlling individual homeowners, there's there's no way education as much as we can. Education, um, you know, and through development, if we can get with the developers and and require the developers to install what's called a two-wire system where there's one clock for the entire subdivision and one person runs that clock or one company runs that clock. So you can't go turn your water on at 5 a.m. and you can't go turn your water on at 5 a.m. and I can't go turn my water on at 5 a.m. Uh, you know, it's one person, and then they have a schedule and they set it that way so that it's used over time. Uh but I think that I think we might be a little bit past that, you know, maybe further west. Um West Napa, you know, Caldwell, those areas might still have a chance to do it.
SPEAKER_00But uh difficulty's growing so fast.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it it really is. You know, um it is something that that we've looked at and we've had several developments do, uh, but it came too late, it came along too late, you know. Uh we just thought it was we didn't know much about pressurized irrigation systems when we started to take them on back in you know 2006 and 2007.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01And uh it was kind of a big learning curve for us because we were just used to concrete ditches, siphon tubes, and you know, a lot of dirt ditches, you know, yeah and farm fields.
SPEAKER_00So can we uh can we switch gears and just just talk about the crux of your job? Because I did not realize until I got to ride with you that first of all, it is an enormous job. You have an enormous job. Like literally enormous in that it when I think people um like we're driving through the valley and you might be going past a ditch that's running, and you don't even think twice about it, you don't even think about it. That is your world. All of those ditches connecting to ditches, connecting to fields, connecting to and and the moving of the water from here to there and the pumping of water and the and the keeping the pump houses going and like your job is enormous.
SPEAKER_01It's it's tough. Yeah. Uh you know, everybody says, Oh, you're just a water boy. You know, and they should ride with you. When they say, Oh, what do you do for a living? I say, Yeah, I'm just a water boy, you know.
SPEAKER_00So uh I might have thought that. I might have thought that at one point. And then riding with you. And I yeah, and it was dumbfounding. I could I couldn't believe all the moving parts you have. And I just um like how many things you touch. I mean, it's not it's not just water. I mean, there's there's machinery involved, and there's you know, the actual ditches themselves and managing those and and what other people do who have a ditch adjacent to their home and how what they do to that ditch that screws things up.
SPEAKER_01And there's so much. And and it gets so deep as far as you know, there's the ditches, the aspect that portion, there's the pressurized irrigation, there's there's all the development stuff that goes on that we we review, you know. I've reviewed hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of sets of plans uh over the last you know several years, and and there's all the different utilities that go in, that go over, that go under, you know, that go through our easements. We have we have lots of different easements that we have to protect and maintain as well, you know. So it's not just waterways. We're we're trying to mow and spray and maintain our easements to the best of our ability. And that's a whole nother rabbit hole to dive down. Uh, you know, it's not for aesthetic aspects, you know, and and I get that some people don't like to see the weeds and stuff, but we mow them down and take try to take care of them the best we can so that we can get down uh you know the easements. We don't technically own the property uh in fee title, uh therefore we're not solely responsible to maintain those easements. But yeah, there's a lot that goes into it from legislation, you know, um emergency services, you know, uh plan review stuff, uh utility stuff, design, uh construction. You know, in the wintertime we're out there doing it. We're out there pouring concrete, digging ditches, uh, you know, building uh structures and diversions, replacing old stuff. And we're out in the river uh inspecting our diversions and and installing the boards and all that kind of stuff where I took you guys up to Americana there.
SPEAKER_00I was yeah, I was thinking about that one in the story you told about kind of walking out, walking the planks, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's uh it's dangerous.
SPEAKER_00Your job is dangerous, and it's and and uh and you're you're also doing it in inclement weather, whether it be burning hot days or whether it's freezing cold winters.
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh. Yeah, we don't stop. It's it's all year round. Uh we're we're not a seasonal employee by no means. Uh, you know, we're full-time every day and uh and all day. And we have we have guys that are on 24 hours a day uh during the irrigation season in case there's an emergency, you know, and and we have like a rotating on-call schedule uh that that uh keep it just keeps us really busy, you know. Yeah so on top of maintaining all of our own stuff, we try to we try to do that and we try to do everything, you know, uh to the best of our ability to keep our cost, our operating operational costs as low as possible, you know, to to keep our assessment down as much as possible for the users. You know, we're not we're not driving brand new equipment or brand new trucks or anything like that. And we're trying to be uh tight, I would say with our money. So well with their money, I should say.
SPEAKER_00And how many up there are you? I mean, it didn't it doesn't seem like you have a uh I mean as far as your your settlers irrigation district. I know there are other ones, but just let's talk about yours in particular.
SPEAKER_01How many how many guys do I have? Yeah. I have six guys. Uh, you know, and then we have our secretary and we have our we have one secretary and we have three board members. So six guys that that run the district. And uh yeah, we we run it every day. We check all of our gates. We have 65 laterals, uh 95 miles of laterals. I think we have 120 miles of ditches uh that we operate and deliver to. Uh we have 18 individual pump stations that I couldn't tell you how many subdivisions uh those pump stations feed, but I think we have over 250 subs that we feed water to or supply water to.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's you know it's gargantuan. This is it's well, and then on top of it, and here's full disclosure to people listening, if they're like, wow, you just went to go understand how this no, I did not go, we did not do a ride along with you to understand. No, we were super excited about that, and that was a wonderful side thing that we got. In fact, it was much more valuable than our vanity reason why. But we were actually curious about because you had told us that there are homeless encampments and there are there are issues with that. And we were just curious about that part. My husband and I were, and so you that was where it started. And then you're like, but while I've got your ear, I think you probably need to understand this better, Callie. And it was amazing. It was it was such a gift to to learn all about that. But so going to that, so what uh is there anything interesting that's happened lately that you uh could share with us?
SPEAKER_01Oh boy.
SPEAKER_00Or maybe even not lately, maybe an interesting story that has happened.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, I could we always the public always keeps us on our toes, you know, I should say. Uh we've had some interesting situations where we've had we had a gentleman uh put a boat in a canal. And uh like just a regular canal, not like a I mean, this wasn't it's a concrete line canal, and uh he had backed the boat in into upstream oncoming water, and the boat floated and he hadn't disconnected it from the trailer. I think I think what he was trying to do was just start the boat.
SPEAKER_00Oh, it just needed to be in water to do that. So he was okay.
SPEAKER_01And I guess he turns out he didn't know about the little cups that go over the intake, you know, that you can hook to a garden house. So older gentleman, I think he bought the boat uh for him and his grandson, you know, all good intentions, but uh he had backed the boat in to oncoming water, left the transom, the straps onto the trailer. So it floated the trailer with the boat on it, jackknifed it around the side of the truck, pulled the truck into the ditch, flipped the boat, filled the boat full of water, the cushions floated, uh, the gas tank floated, and the oars floated. And this happened up in uh Boise, Garden City area, and we found the cushions in the tank and oars down in Eagle. Oh, you know. Um we ended up finding the guy, gave him his stuff back, had a talk with him about it. You know, I think he understood what he did was not a great idea after the fact. You know, it probably seemed fine at the time, but boats float.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Again, just stay out of the canals, you know.
SPEAKER_00Um and we should probably reiterate that stay out of the canals. And and we there are always terrible things that happen every happen every year in canals because of accidents and and and people thinking that they're not flowing as fast as they are or whatever else. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's not pleasant uh in dealing with uh those kind of findings. So please, yeah. It it used to be uh okay to play in. Things have changed, times have changed. Don't don't play in them. You know, uh, I don't want to have to yell at people or even I don't even want to have to approach people to ask them to get out of a canal, you know. But we have we've caught guys out there jet skiing, uh, we've caught guys wakeboarding behind a four-wheeler, you know, and uh there's bridges, there's there's pipes, there's things sticking out. Um, you know, there's old farm equipment buried in the ditch banks. Right. Right. You know, there's barbed wire, there's all kinds of stuff in there, you know. So it's not safe and uh it's not legal.
SPEAKER_00So there's that part, you know. There's that part.
SPEAKER_01I mean, yeah. Uh, you know, I would just I'd really like to just uh uh discuss more. I don't know what else we can discuss about conservation. I really think it's a a huge deal here with with where we're at and the time we're we're in and and how many users we have uh you know in our in our district.
SPEAKER_00Let's uh let's sum the whole thing up. For our listeners, if there was if you could create a magic bullet. Now your magic bullet can have it can have various elements to it. It doesn't have to be one thing. But if it was a little combination that went into the magic bullet that you could shoot at the Treasure Valley for the state of Idaho. And it would people would change some behaviors. What would that magic bullet like what would be the key things that people would that would make the biggest impact for our our crisis that we're in right now?
SPEAKER_01Watering schedules.
SPEAKER_00Absolute watering schedules you think that's the biggest thing. It's just straight up if they just follow the watering schedules that absolutely do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah that is huge. We can save so much water. We really could you know uh we wouldn't have to offset for that fluctuation and you know your lawn is not gonna burn up uh if you water during the heat of the day yes oh that's a good point yes talk about that yeah so there's an old wives tale that your lawn will burn up if you water during the heat of the day because the water droplets will magnify the sun's rays UV rays and and burn the blades of grass. That is not true.
SPEAKER_00By the way I it that you think about that logic you're like what it makes it makes sense but you have better logic and you said this when we were driving you have to understand that there's a conspiracy for everything you know uh so historically when this was farm ground and there and if you don't believe me you can drive out west and see for yourself but farmers irrigate all day long.
SPEAKER_01Yes they have to and whether it's via siphon tubes let's let's get a little more specific and talk about wheel lines because wheel lines are sprinkler systems above ground sprinkler systems that are irrigating broadleaf crops uh all all different types of crops uh for that matter and they're doing it all day long and when it's a hundred degrees out there you can go out there and you can look at that farmer's field with that wheel line running and see that his crops are getting sprinkled and they're all green. You know some of those fields look better than my lawn you know and uh it's not gonna burn up the grass. So what you will experience watering during the heat of the day is evaporational loss. And to offset that I would suggest punching in a couple extra minutes per station on your clock whether that five minutes you know uh if you need six seven eight ten minutes you know if you pay attention to your lawn you'll notice when it's thirsty you know and it and it's actually like we said earlier healthy to let it dry out you don't get fungus you don't get mushrooms right you know uh it it allows the roots to go deeper because they're searching out water and uh you know it's if you're watering at night you're you can do the same thing if you allow your lawn to dry out you you just need to let it air out but you can I water at night you know um so it's more important I'm sorry and I water in the heat of the day you know and uh I don't get mushrooms and I don't have big burnt spots in my lawn but you know I pay attention to my lawn I fertilize my lawn I have a good you know fertilizer program uh and I have a good dog food program so my dogs are happy I'll tell you that uh and they're healthy but uh thanks to that plug yeah uh so it it's all about watering schedule for conservation and it doesn't matter go ahead it seems counterintuitive to the average person if you're like wait a minute so you want me to actually turn on my sprinkler a little bit longer and do it at the right time of day like according to the schedule whatever right time fits your schedule whatever you're assigned to it's better to do that and and actually water a little bit longer than it is to water at the wrong time.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely so I think that's a huge I think that people are like that's counterintuitive but it's because of what you talked about at the very beginning about how you are regulating how much water is coming down the line.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00So that's what it's all about that.
SPEAKER_01And then if they're not using it when the water's coming down the line then the water's just getting wasted wasted it's all supply demand you know and when the demand is high then we have no water at the bottom end and when the demand is low we have tons of water at the bottom end and that is just getting wasted. We can't recapture it it's gone out of our system out of our hundred dollar account you know we've taken that 10 and thrown it out the window. Right. You know and it's unfortunate that we can't recapture it or you know uh do something different with it to conserve it. But I really think that the best way to conserve water is you know uh follow the watering schedule don't overwater your lawn when it's not necessary. If it's running down the the curbs you know too much water go to the next zone. It can't take anymore. You know uh you need to aerate your lawn if you uh want to get more water into the ground. Yeah you know so you gotta punch those holes in there and get that water down deeper but you can only do that so much.
SPEAKER_00Uh and build up that humus in your soil you brought that up earlier. If you if you've got really good healthy soil it holds the moisture longer so you want to be adding in if you are going to aerate if you can it's a lot of work but if you can aerate and then fill in those holes with compost now you're talking.
SPEAKER_01I agree I do I do agree and you know folks if you're just keeping your yard green by irrigating it I I see the issue. You know your your water your lawn is starving because it's only pulling the nutrients out of the water and it's irrigation water.
SPEAKER_00It's not it's not full of nutrients you know I mean it's it's snowpack and it runs through the reservoirs and comes down the Boise River and is is ran through the irrigation systems through the pump stations but it's not a it's not an unlimited supply yeah you know and and uh it's a natural resource that that we need to conserve and protect just like our groundwater you know and and recharge and when wherever we can absolutely well Mac thank you for being here I really appreciate it yeah you've given us so much to think about and so much to consider and I I hope that some people are listening that are gonna go and look up their schedule and see actually what time they're supposed to be watering.
SPEAKER_01Yeah that would be fantastic I would really appreciate that and if if anybody out there has any questions they're gonna be able to answer how would they learn more? Is there a website or could they we do have a website um you know it is settlers irrigation district dot org uh you can just google us uh it's actually a new website we're just finishing it's up and running but uh we're kind of adding to it now our last one got hacked and taken down or something something happened but uh so we just got it working again and uh it's nice it's nice but we're adding to it and and if folks have questions you can call me I can't guarantee I can answer all the questions uh you know but uh I will do my best absolutely to help educate uh anybody in the Treasure Valley that I can to help especially if it's uh about water conservation yeah you're incredibly passionate about water conservation and it's it's kind of it's but it's kind of contagious I gotta be honest.
SPEAKER_00It's uh I think both my husband and I walked away saying what else can we do? Because uh because you do have a way of engaging people and and getting them to lean in yeah and hope to do better.
SPEAKER_01So yeah and I I hope everybody does. I hope this is impactful. Um I would like to post this on my website if that's okay. Yeah absolutely well we'll see how it turns out you know I don't know I'm a little fidgety and everything but uh well we're both kicking our nose a lot so there's yeah so uh I would really like to get the information out to the public and not just for our district but for all the districts for the entire basin for the entire state yeah you know it's very important and uh you know Idaho's growing uh like a weed uh that's being well watered yes it is uh I appreciate the time and and uh you guys uh for having me here and being able to speak to you guys and kind of educate the public a little bit so it's really important to us.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for being here I really appreciate it and thank you for everything that you and your team are doing.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
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