October 7, 2016
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9
Idaho
Idaho study seeks optimum harvest, How cold cloud seeding works
storage dates for peaches, nectarines
Since its discovery in the late 1940s, cloud seeding has proven effective at changing cloud structure
and producing ice crystals that fall as snow or rain, although quantifying the amount of additional
precipitation can be difficult.
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
PARMA, Idaho — The
University of Idaho’s fruit
program has received a
$161,000 grant for a project
that researchers believe could
make peach and nectarine
production in the state more
competitive in the world mar-
ket.
The project seeks to de-
termine the optimum harvest
dates as well as storage life of
15 promising new peach and
nectarine cultivars.
UI researchers selected
those varieties out of 60 they
studied in a previous project.
Determining the best times
to harvest them in Idaho con-
ditions is the next step, said
fruit researcher Essie Fallahi,
who heads UI’s pomology
program at the university’s
Parma research station.
“The new question we
have is, what is the optimum
time ... to harvest them and
how long do we want to store
them to have the maximum
shelf life,” he said.
Researchers will measure
fruit characteristics such as
sugar content, fi rmness and
bruising to determine which
varieties maintain their qual-
ity longer in storage.
“Everybody is very excit-
ed about this project because
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Research associate Tom Elias
cuts open a peach at the
University of Idaho’s Parma
research station Sept. 19. Par-
ma researchers have received
a $161,000 grant for a project
that seeks to make peach and
nectarine production in Idaho
more competitive in the global
market.
it’s targeting the very specifi c
questions that growers are in-
terested in,” Fallahi said.
Commercial fruit growers
said knowing the ideal harvest
times and storage capacities of
these varieties will help them
make better management and
shipping decisions.
“Knowing optimum har-
vest dates (and) how long they
will last after we pick them
dictates a lot of things to us
as growers and shippers,” said
Jerry Henggeler, co-owner of
Henggeler Packing Co., one
of the state’s largest commer-
cial fruit orchards. “It’s (infor-
mation) that defi nitely would
be advantageous to growers in
this area who grow that fruit.”
Commercial fruit growers
in the region tend to pick fruit
when it’s greener and harder
so they can maximize shelf
life, said Michael Williamson,
manager of Williamson Or-
chards and Vineyards.
But that can lead to less
than ideal quality when the
fruit reaches the consumer, he
said.
“When you pick peaches,
you’re up against the clock,”
Williamson said. “If (Essie)
can fi nd that optimum harvest
date and storage life ... that
would be very valuable infor-
mation.”
The grant was awarded by
the Idaho State Department
of Agriculture and some of it
will be used to hire a graduate
student. The two-year project
started this year and Fallahi
expects Idaho fruit growers
will begin planting some of
the studied cultivars in 2018.
“In this project, we expect
to identify cultivars of peach-
es and nectarines that have
better post-storage fl avor and
taste as a result of optimum
harvest time and storage life,”
the project’s grant application
states.
1 Clouds form from air
4 Droplets of supercooled
rising over mountains.
water attach to the particles
forming ice crystals.
2 In the air, planes
accurately disperse
silver iodide into clouds.
5 If it is cold
enough, ice
crystals fall
out as snow.
3 On the ground, generators spray silver
iodide solution into a propane burner. The
heat column transports the seeding particles
into the cloud’s water vapor.
6 The enhanced
snopack melts in spring,
feeding rivers and lakes.
The right conditions
Ground-based generators rely on
prevailing winds to disperse seeding
material on target. Clouds must contain
supercooled water for effective seeding.
Sources: Desert Research Institute; North American Weather Consultants, Inc.
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
Cloud seeding study planned
in Idaho’s Payette range
By JOHN O’CONNELL
IGWA, Rangen re-enter settlement talks
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
BOISE — A recent Idaho
Supreme Court water right
ruling has renewed settlement
negotiations in the Rangen Inc.
trout farm’s call against junior
Eastern Snake Plain ground-
water users.
Offi cials of Idaho Ground
Water Appropriators Inc. say a
possible outcome is construc-
tion of a second, shorter and
more energy-effi cient pipe-
line to mitigate the Hagerman
trout farm for up to 9.1 cubic
feet per second of reduced
fl ows to its spring. The re-
duced fl ows were attributed
to junior groundwater pump-
ing west of a geologic feature
near American Falls known as
the Great Rift.
In February 2015, IGWA
completed a $4 million miti-
gation pipeline running up a
cliff wall and spanning more
than a mile from the Magic
Springs hatchery to Rangen’s
raceways.
The pipeline has been op-
erating ever since, but IGWA
attorney T.J. Budge said the
sides re-entered negotiations
after the Supreme Court af-
fi rmed IGWA’s claim to a 12
cubic feet per second water
right on the Bridge Diversion
of Billingsley Creek.
Rangen had been using
water from the Bridge Diver-
sion for decades before IGWA
fi led for the water right in
2013.
The Supreme Court con-
curred with IGWA in Febru-
ary that Rangen’s right ap-
plies only to a feature at the
head of Billingsley Creek,
called the Curren Tunnel. In its
May 27 ruling, the high court
rejected Rangen’s claim that
IGWA shouldn’t be entitled to
assume the Bridge Diversion
water right solely for mitiga-
tion purposes, arguing mitiga-
tion doesn’t legally constitute
a benefi cial use of water.
“Mitigation has been rec-
ognized as a benefi cial use
both in agency and judicial
proceedings,” the court’s deci-
sion reads.
Budge said meetings have
been productive as both sides
seek a mutually benefi cial per-
manent resolution. If negotia-
tions break down, Budge said
IGWA groundwater districts
have already consented to
move forward with condem-
nation proceedings and pursue
IDWR approval of a fi fth mit-
igation plan to forcibly build
a pump station and pipeline,
with an estimated construc-
tion cost under $500,000, on
Rangen’s property.
Budge said IGWA’s ulti-
mate course should be clear
within a couple of weeks.
“Rangen does not want a
pump station on their property,
and our folks want to mitigate
as reliably and cost effective-
ly as we can,” Budge said.
“We’ve explored other ways
to decide if there’s a win-win
available.”
Capital Press
BOISE — Offi cials say a
planned study of storms pass-
ing through the Payette range
this winter should provide fi rst-
of-its-kind data on the phys-
ics of cloud seeding, enabling
weather-modifi cation programs
to better quantify their results.
The $2.1 million research
project, funded by the Nation-
al Science Foundation, will
involve Idaho Power Co., the
University of Colorado-Boul-
der, University of Wyoming,
University of Illinois and the
National Center for Atmo-
spheric Research.
“We are interested in under-
standing the natural dynamic
and micro-physical processes
by which precipitation forms
and evolves,” said Katja Frie-
drich, a professor with the
University of Colorado’s De-
partment of Atmospheric and
Oceanic Sciences, adding the
data could also help with se-
lecting generator sites and the
best types of clouds to seed.
The process involves releasing
silver iodide into clouds to form
more ice nuclei and bolster
mountain snowpack.
Jeff French, an assistant pro-
fessor of atmospheric sciences
at the University of Wyoming,
said this will represent the
second major study on cloud
seeding since improvements
in instruments recently rekin-
dled interest in the subject, after
seeding research halted in the
early 1980s.
The University of Wyo-
ming fi nished the other recent
study in the winter of 2014,
but French emphasized seeding
infrastructure in the Payette,
where Idaho Power has long
Courtesy of Jeff French
The University of Wyoming’s Beechcraft King Air plane will gather
data from within clouds to analyze the effectiveness of cloud
seeding in Idaho’s Payette range as part of a $2.1 million research
project.
run a seeding program, is far
superior to the area analyzed in
Wyoming.
French said the Wyoming
project utilized only ground-
based seeding generators and
relied on modeling of cloud
response. For the Payette proj-
ect, his university will provide
a King Air plane to fl y into
clouds as they’re seeded by an-
other aircraft and ground-based
generators, recording results
for comparison with unseeded
clouds.
“We need some validation
of the production of ice due to
cloud seeding,” French said.
“That’s what we’ll be able to
get with measurements of the
King Air — how many ice
crystals are being produced —
then we can verify our model is
capturing this correctly.”
French said the additional
research is especially timely
for Wyoming, which recently
completed a six-year seeding
pilot project and is commenc-
ing with a state-sponsored pro-
gram. Idaho Power initially ex-
perimented with cloud seeding
in 1995, and has administered
a program since 2003 to benefi t
its hydro-power operations.
Jon Bowling, the electric
company’s engineering lead,
explained the program will
have a roughly $3.6 million
budget this winter, with part-
ners contributing more than $1
million. Pledges for this win-
ter from water users include
$600,000 from the Idaho Wa-
ter Resource Board, $125,000
from the Boise water district,
$125,000 from the Wood Riv-
er water district and $200,000
from the Upper Snake River
water district. The company
also plans to meet with the
water board about additional
funding to further develop tools
to verify benefi ts of cloud seed-
ing, down to the acre-foot.
Shaun Parkinson, Idaho
Power’s senior water man-
agement engineer, said the
program has grown its infra-
structure by 40 percent during
the past two years but will add
only three new generators to the
system for this winter. In the
future, Idaho Power will prior-
itize adding a second aircraft in
the Upper Snake, he said.
Last winter, Idaho Power
estimates its seeding increased
the snowpack in the Payette by
11.5 percent, in the Boise by
9.4 percent, in the Wood River
by 5.4 percent, in the Northern
Snake by 4 percent and in the
Eastern Snake by 5.4 percent.
Grant to improve irrigation water quality, quantity
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
41-2/#4
PARMA, Idaho — A
$500,000 USDA grant will
enable farmers in the Parma
area to participate in a project
designed to improve and con-
serve water in the lower Boise
River watershed.
The money will be used by
Farmers’ Cooperative Ditch
Co. to build an 8.8-acre set-
tling system that removes
sediment.
This will improve the
quality of water the compa-
ny delivers to its 450 irriga-
tor stakeholders, said Tom
Johnston, a retired farmer and
member of the FCDC’s board
of directors.
“There is more scrutiny of
water quality all the time,” he
said. “Water quality is getting
to be a very important part of
irrigation for farmers. We’re
trying to get a leg up and do
some positive things that will
be helpful to all of us.”
Improving the quality of
water the company delivers
could also help irrigators’ bot-
tom line, he said.
A lot of farmers in the area
have been unable to switch
from gravity to sprinkler or
drip irrigation systems be-
cause sediment in the water is
hard on pumps and plugs the
tubing of drip irrigation tape.
Johnston said NRCS esti-
mates the sediment basin will
remove about 68 percent of
sediment from the water.
Removing large amounts
of sediment from the water
will enable those farmers to
convert to other forms of irri-
gation if they choose, he said.
Half of the grant will be
used to design and construct
the sediment basin, while the
other half will be used to pro-
vide fi nancial assistance to ir-
rigators who want to upgrade
their systems or adopt other
conservation practices.
This will help the farmers
in the 4,000-acre project area
to reduce production costs
and conserve water, while as-
sisting in efforts to clean up
the lower Boise River, which
is considered an impaired wa-
terway.
“We’re trying to do what’s
right for the environment as
well as give our clients a bet-
ter bang for their buck,” John-
ston said.
He said the sediment basin
is expected to be complete by
mid-summer next year.
The grant is provided
through the USDA’s Natural
Resources Conservation Ser-
vice’s Regional Conservation
Partnership Program.
“The long-term water
quality, quantity and soil
health goals of the company
are exactly the type of proj-
ects we want to support in
Canyon County and the lower
Boise River watershed,” Cur-
tis Elke, NRCS state conser-
vationist for Idaho, stated in a
news release.
NRCS expects to an-
nounce the sign-up period and
eligible conservation practic-
es during the last two weeks
of October.