CCWCD Receives 2008
Conservation Innovation Grant

July 30, 2008

Early this month CCWCD received the Natural Resource Conservation Service’s (NRCS) 2008 Conservation Innovation Grant. The award was given for a newly developed program, the Online Irrigation Conservation Market and Farm Management Tool. The program creates an Internet-based water management tool for District and Subdistrict constituents. “Integrating water management with the web holds a lot of promise.... We’re all very happy with the award” says Christopher Schall, CCWCD Conservation Research Specialist and director of the program.

In the program, CCWCD staff will use awarded funds to consolidate and analyze past irrigation data, create an Internet-based calculator for on-farm water planning, develop a unique web interface for meter reporting, and provide additional web support for the already successful CCWCD quota trading program.

“The web has made quota trading very convenient for constituents...a lot of people use it. And when we start online meter reporting, the accuracy and efficiency of meter data collection should increase” says Lynn Kramer, CCWCD Contracts Manager and administrator of the quota trading program.

“A big reason why the program was sponsored is because of the adaptability of the finished product. These calculators will serve as a model for water districts all over the U.S.” says Chris.

Construction on the CCWCD web site has started and plans are in place to integrate meter reporting, quota trading and other features by fall 2010.Currently the new CCWCD web site can be viewed at: www.ccwcd.org.