Automated Pumping Station for Reuse of Irrigation Runoff Water

Common practice in the United States has been to allow surface runoff from irrigation systems to leave the farm and return to the canal system or natural stream. Currently, however, because of increased water demand, the trend is to collect and reuse this runoff water. Reuse of collected runoff water increases overall farm irrigation efficiency and decreases the total amount of water that needs to be pumped or delivered to the farm. Pollution of natural streams is reduced by stopping the flow of silt and nutrients that may be contained in surface runoff water. Other benefits such as reducing drainage costs and improved weed control accrue from multiple use of return systems. These systems are readily adapted to automation, and automated or semiautomated pumping stations can be used advantageously in many return flow systems

Erosion and Sedimentation on Irrigated Lands

Most erosion on irrigated land is caused by the irrigation itself. Surface irrigation -- where water is applied directly to the surface as in furrow or border irrigation -- can be very erosive. Data from southern Idaho show that large quantities of sediment may be generated within an irrigation system; however, less sediment may be returned to the river than is diverted with the water supply. Technology for reducing erosion from irrigated fields is available: irrigation systems may be modified or changed, fields may be leveled or profiled to nonerosive slopes, tillage operations can be reduced, vegetative filter strips and drain ditch elevation control will remove sediment, or sediment ponds may be used after runoff leaves the field. Erosion and sedimentation are active processes on much of the irrigated land of the United States. Erosion may be caused by rainfall or wind, but the bulk of the erosion on irrigated land is caused by the irrigation itself

Design of Recirculating Irrigation Systems

THE reuse of runoff water is becoming an integral part of the farmer's irrigation operation, especially where water costs are relatively high. Reuse of runoff water collected by recirculation systems from one or more fields decreases the amount of water that needs to be pumped or delivered to the farm and can improve water-application efficiency on individual fields. It also reduces contamination of natural streams by stopping the surface flow of silt and any nutrients that may be contained in the runoff water

Turbulent Flow Self Cleaning Trash Screens

Trash and weed seeds are a major problem to irrigators, particularly those using gated pipe or siphon tube irrigation systems. Trash in surface irrigation systems often stops or reduces flow through gates or siphons resulting in inadequate irrigation of the furrows served. Constant surveillance to clean trash out of these orifices is impractical. Weed seeds passing through an irrigation system are distributed throughout the field causing extra tillage operations and reducing yields

Management Guidelines for Controlling Sediments, Nutrients, and Adsorbed Biocides in Surface Irrigation Return Flows

Sediments in irrigation return flows arise mostly from furrow erosion, and nearly all nutrients and biocides in surface irrigation return flows, except those applied directly to the water, are adsorbed to the sediments. Therefore, controlling erosion and sediment loss in these surface return flows also controls the nutrients and biocides. There are three general management approaches for controlling sediments in return flows. The first is to eliminate surface runoff by using irrigation methods that produce no runoff. These methods include properly designed and operated sprinkler systems; basin, trickle, and some border and level furrow methods. The second approach is to eliminate or reduce erosion by controlling the slope in the direction of irrigation, the furrow stream size, the run length, the irrigation frequency and duration, and tillage practices. The third is to remove sediments from surface return flows by controlling the tailwater and utilizing sediment retention basins. All three approaches are applicable and necessary for adequate control in most irrigated areas. Available technology needs to be integrated and applied to these approaches. Research to develop improved irrigation systems and methods, improved irrigation water distribution systems, and better field management practices, and research on design and operational criteria for sediment retention basins are needed

Automatic Irrigation Gate

Much labor is required to irrigate cropland with conventional methods and equipment. The scarcity and high cost of good farm labor generally results in inefficient irrigation with the result that the crops either receive insufficient water or that too much water is used, resulting in a waste of that sometimes rare commodity. Accordingly, one object of this invention is to provide means for automatically opening a gate in an irrigation ditch. Another object is to provide means for so opening the gate at a predetermined time. Still another object is to provide means for automatically reclosing the gate and resetting the release mechanism when the water has run out of the ditch. These and other objects that will be obvious to those skilled in the art are achieved by means of the invention described below

Recirculating Irrigation Water

Recirculating irrigation runoff water is a method of making more effective use of irrigation water. Reuse of runoff water decreases the amount of water that needs to be pumped or delivered and can be used to improve water application efficiency. It also reduces the possibility of pollution of natural streams from irrigated land. Other benefits are reduced surface drainage costs, improved weed control and the saving of irrigation labor. Reuse systems are readily adapted to automation and can be used advantageously in modern labor-saving, automated and semi-automated irrigation systems

Cast-in-Place 2-Foot Concrete Trapezoidal Flow-Measuring Flumes

Procedures are presented for casting 50-ft^2/sec trapezoidal water measurement flumes in 2-foot bottom width lined and unlined ditches. Drawings and construction details for the concrete forms used are also presented. Flumes installed in concrete-lined ditches require about 13 man-hours and cost about $230. Flow can be determined for both free and submerged flow conditions from rating tables with depth measured in a sitting well or with a sloping gage on the flue sidewall

The Development of Automatic Irrigation Structures and Devices

(missing...) developed during the study are discussed in this paper. Brief mention will also be made to those structures for which development has been discontinued, since this information may be of interest to other researchers and possibly used in designing specialized structures. During the study, emphasis was placed on developing fully automatic structures which would operate from the energy of water flowing in the ditch and not require an external power source. The structures shown in Figure 1 were developed and field tested by the authors while located at Boise, Idaho

Recirculating Farm Irrigation Systems

A survey of systems for recirculating runoff water from irrigation in southern Idaho shows little evidence of formal system design. Systems were constructed to handle approximately 20 percent of the volume of irrigation water. Costs of the systems vary with the type of installation. Sequence, reservoir, and cycling sump systems each has certain advantages. Recirculating systems are not effective unless the water is applied to a different area than that which is contributing runoff. Recirculating irrigation systems can raise water application efficiencies to 80 percent