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tin operator at C ARA) near Phoenix monitors primary flows and water surface elevations in the 60 -mile canal. This SCADA system was implemented at relatively low cost using affordable RTU equipment and spread spectrum radios for communication. low cost. With the upgrade, using the existing gates, actuators, and other infrastructure, the dis- trict staff installed new SCADA equipment on 108 sites for an equipment cost of approximately $150,000. Most of the district's checks are operated in remote manual mode. The central system simultane- ously displays the upstream water surface elevation at all 108 check structures on three side -by -side computer monitors. Using SCA- DA, gate adjustments can be made in increments of 1 /8th inch which coincidentally equates to a change in flow of roughly one cubic foot per second through the check. Additionally, a 15 -mile lat- eral reach of the CAIDD sister district's (Maricopa Stanfield Irrigation and Drainage District This SCADA system uses spread spectrum radio which does not require federal licens- ing. The spread spectrum radio is housed in the white enclosure and the directional antenna shown has a line -of- sight range of approximately 5 miles. or MSIDD) canal system is oper- ated by Water Conservation Lab staff under full automation using a program that was developed by the Agricultural Research Service (USDA -ARS), Water Conservation Laboratory, in Phoenix, Arizona. SacMan, which stands for Software for Automated Canal Management, has been under development for approximately five years. Sac - Man runs in parallel with the HMI software and interface and is used to operate a key MSIDD canal in a fully automated mode. A key approach to affordable SCADA for CAIDD was spread spectrum radios. These radios do not have a federal licensing re- quirement. The radios look for a clear frequency, use that frequency if it is unused, or proceed to an- other frequency if necessary. The line of sight range for a spread spectrum "loop antenna" is two miles and the line of sight range for a "directional antenna" is five miles. Of particular note, any one antenna can serve as a "repeater" radio to other radios. So, with a linear project like a canal system, communication can be achieved by using the radios in a daisy- chained fashion to increase the effective communication distance. New Cache La Poudre New Cache La Poudre Irrigat- ing Company (NCLPIC) operates one of the larger canal systems in northeastern Colorado which is known as the Greeley #2 Canal. The company holds decrees on the Poudre River and diverts approxi- mately 600 CFS when all the de-