Tailwater Education Program (TEP)

In April 2007 the Imperial Irrigation District began implementing a new Tailwater Education Program (TEP) throughout its water service area. Under this new program, 10 percent of all agricultural fields in the IID service area--about 500 fields--will be selected at random annually for delivery and tailwater monitoring. If a field is selected for monitoring, the responsible party will be notified, said Michael L. King, IID water manager. IID staff will place metering devices at both the delivery and the tailwater box, monitoring up to three complete irrigation events. Should the percentage of tailwater exceed 15 percent of delivered water on two out of three TEP monitoring events, the responsible party will be directed to attend a TEP seminar on water management issues conducted by the district.

"The focus of the program is to provided information and education to water users and IID operational staff," King said. "The goal is to give growers, irrigators, and the district information useful in making the most of our Colorado River water supply."

Information collected during the TEP is intended to help improve water orders and deliveries by both the water user and IID. While TEP is a new program, King said, it does not replace IID's normal tailwater monitoring and enforcement. For a number of years IID has conducted a voluntary tailwater monitoring program and has long encouraged the use of best water management practices. The TEP was approved by the district's board of directors in late 2004 in response to a request by the Bureau of Reclamation to all users of Colorado River water to best manage this resource due to the severity of the drought on the Colorado River, which is now entering its seventh year.

The Irrigation Monitoring and Management Unit (IMMU) at IID is responsible for implementing the TEP and can be contacted at (760) 339-9081.

TEP Informational Brochure IID-TEP-Informational-Brochure.pdf

TEP Letter to Water Users TEP-Letter-to-Water-Users.pdf