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<br /> <br />~._. <br /> <br />:~.t <br />.~: <br />......T..: <br /> <br />"We were committed to creating a system that could be inte- <br />grated with existing management. The system we developed <br />enhances what irrigation companies already do," says Wynn <br />Walker, USU irrigation engineer who heads the project. <br /> <br />The USU system slashes costs by capitalizing on the skill and experience of <br />watermasters. In effect, watermasters replace costly and complicated automatic <br />controls. <br /> <br />Development and testing of the system is a collaborative effort between the Utah <br />Agricultural Experiment Station and the U.s. Bureau of Reclamation. <br /> <br />And it works. When the system was installed last year on a 7-mile canal in central <br />Utah, it saved 3,000 acre-feet of water worth $90,000. Savings more than paid for <br />the system, which cost $42,000, in one year. <br /> <br />Walker says the system lets watermasters monitor the behavior of the canal <br />every few minutes. They can adjust flow as often as necessary, rather than a <br />few times daily, and from any location. <br /> <br />Moreover, the computer program lets the watermaster compare current water <br />flows with flows that occurred minutes, weeks, months, or even years ago. <br /> <br />WINTER 1993 107 <br />