Community Utilizes WaterSMART Funding to Improve Infrastructure

Just outside of Twin Falls, Idaho in a quaint community, sits a historic pumping plant, providing essential irrigation water to producers across the area. The hum of the pumps and motors reminds visitors how valuable water is to the local economy, and how important it is to have an updated irrigation system in place.

The Clover Irrigation and Pumping Company, based in the small settlement of Clover, Idaho, started in 1915 with the construction of the first pumping house with the help of the Carey Act. The Act allowed private companies to build and maintain irrigation systems in Western states. Currently, the Clover Irrigation and Pumping Company maintains their own canal laterals, which requires them to also maintain several individual water pumps and one leaky 54-inch diameter steel pipe installed in the 1930s. Each pump is an opportunity for water to spill and cause significant erosion within individual ditches.

Over the next several years, the Clover Irrigation and Pumping Company will finish updating its entire irrigation system with the help of the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

Through the Environment Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) WaterSMART Initiative (WSI), aging irrigation systems, like the one in Clover, can be upgraded to more efficient infrastructure. This program, in conjunction with the Bureau of Reclamation, promotes drought resilience in the West. WaterSMART began in 2011 and has been successfully implementing projects across the West ever since.

“NRCS’ WSI is meant to leverage NRCS resources in areas and with projects in the 17 western states where the Bureau of Reclamation has already made investments with its WaterSMART programs,” said Bruce Sandoval, State Conservation Engineer for NRCS Idaho. “At their core, both agency programs are designed to address issues surrounding water quantity and quality. WSI and the Bureau’s WaterSMART programs fit perfectly with NRCS’ Western Water and Working Lands Framework for Conservation Action Plan, a plan developed to conserve water, address climate change and build drought resilience in the West.”

Over the next several years, the Clover Irrigation and Pumping Company will replace four aging pumping stations and  install a network of pipelines to delivery pressurized water to all shareholders. Phase I of the project, which was completed in April 2023, spanned 930 acres, and is only the beginning of the improvements to the Clover Tract. Phase II is set to begin in 2023, with the entire project finishing by 2025.  

This project is made possible through strong, collaborative partnerships lead by the Clover Irrigation and Pumping Company, who called upon the Twin Falls Canal Company for support on labor and coordination. And, in addition to NRCS funding, the project is also being supported through the State of Idaho’s Idaho Soil and Water Conservation Commission and in-kind donations of labor and financial support. Without these partnerships, large-scale projects such as this may not be possible.

Through EQIP’s WSI, producers in the Clover Tract are also eligible for financial assistance from NRCS to improve their irrigation systems with more efficient ones, like pivots or hand and wheel lines. This funding is vital to ensuring continued availability of water resources in the Clover agricultural community. Clover’s farmers and ranchers produce a variety of crops, including wheat, corn, vegetables and potatoes, and efficient irrigation access is vital to the production of these crops.

“It’s great to see NRCS involved in something that will not only benefit individual farmers, but the Clover Tract as a whole,” said Mike Cothern, Conservation Team Lead for NRCS in Twin Falls. “Its identity was created with the development of the original pumping project and everyone’s efforts now will help ensure that the community persists into the future.”

Once completed, the Clover tract project will provide Clover Irrigation and Pumping Company’s customers with consistent, efficient irrigation water, and production of essential food and fiber will continue unabated.