Conservation Innovation Grant Awards for Arizona

2006

San Juan River Dineh Water Users, Inc. (Arizona, New Mexico)

Irrigation Water Management and EQIP Project Coordinator

Provide cost sharing funds to assist the Water User's development and implementation of conservation plans on their individual farms. The monies will be used to assist in funding salaries for conservation planners in education on Irrigation Water Management and installation of irrigation practices on cropland. The planners will also provide assistance in conservation plan implementation and follow-up and conduct workshops related to farm planning, Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Federal Cost Share assistance.

2005

National Center for Appropriate Technology (Arizona, California, Georgia)  $294,843

Sustainable American Cotton Project: Pesticide Reduction Innovations

Cotton fields are generally sprayed with a diverse group of insecticides.  Impacts on nontarget organisms, as well as soil, air, and water resources, can be significant.  Pesticide expenses also represent a significant cost to cotton producers.  The purpose of this project is to demonstrate and evaluate the efficacy of installing beneficial insect habitat plantings in and adjacent to cotton fields.  Results from initial testing indicate that beneficial plantings, not commonly used by producers, can reduce pesticide applications by over 60%. 

Universal Entech, LLC (Arizona) $250,500

CAFO Water Conservation Commercial Demonstration Utilizing an Innovative Algal "Waste Nutrient" Filtration System

Effective water conservation practices are a growing concern in the US, especially in the arid West and Southwest regions that are experiencing high population growth and intense demands on water supplies.  Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are large water consumers and are under increasing pressure to develop best management practices (BMPs) that address water conservation measures.  Many BMPs for agricultural producers, specifically CAFOs, simultaneously address water conservation along with water quality.  Facultative lagoons and land application are standard nutrient management methods used by CAFOs, but these methods are suspected sources of nitrate contamination of ground and surface waters.  Aeration, anaerobic digestions and constructed wetlands are alternative treatment methods, but these techniques alone cannot remove sufficient nutrients to make treated wastewater reusable, and therefore advanced nutrient removal strategies are sought.  An innovative technology for nutrient management and water treatment is large-scale algae culture technology.  Integrating our innovative technology into CAFO comprehensive nutrient management plans and systems is based on photosynthetic microalgae using solar energy to rapidly uptake nitrogen and phosphorous (N and P), and in the process producing clean water for reuse.  This CAFO wastewater treatment and water recycling/conservation project is designed to showcase and transfer a proven, high-rate, algal filtration concept which requires minimal land space or manual supervision to treat and recycle high-strength CAFO wastewaters.

Willcox-San Simon NRCD (Arizona) $75,000

Application of Technology to Maximize Water Conservation on Cropland

The Willcox-San Simon Natural Resource Conservation District encompasses 2.1 million acres in northern Cochise and southern Graham Counties of Arizona.  The entire area is semi-arid with 80,000 acres of cropland (65,000 currently in production) that relies on deep underlying aquifers for irrigation.  Dramatic deepening of wells in the 1970’s, land subsidence and drying of the aquifer under the Kansas Settlement region of the District led to the abandonment of nearly 20,000 acres of cropland.  According to data supplied by the Arizona Department of Water Resources, water users are currently pumping at twice the rate of recharge.  In recent years, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has helped producers install more efficient irrigation systems.  While over 90% of producers have installed more efficient systems, less than 10% of the producers in the District use monitoring technology and equipment to schedule irrigation and/or coordinate water application to crop needs.  Pump operation costs are at $200 per day during the growing season.  Many operators are trying various methods to cut costs but don’t have access to adequate information.  This results in under watering, over watering, applications that are not timed to meet the crop needs, and reduced yields.  With use of monitoring technology, water consumption could be cut by up to 45% without a sacrifice in yield.  The purpose of this project is to reduce water consumption by engaging producers to adopt irrigation monitoring and scheduling technology to complement their efficient irrigation systems.

 
2004

State of Arizona (Arizona) $503,092

Arizona Best Management Practices: Agricultural Water Conservation Program
In 2002, the State of Arizona established an innovative Best Management Practices program designed to onserve increasingly scarce water resources while reducing soil erosion, improving soil tilth and productivity, and reduce nutrient transmissions to surface water and groundwater supplies and agricultural emissions to the atmosphere. The purpose of this project is to greatly increase producer enrollment and add sophisticated performance evaluation, impact analysis, producer outreach and technology transfer components, based on motivating participation through the use of incentives.