Biz ‘Bite:’ Jerome’s North Side Pumping Co. lands $2M water-saving grant

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North Side Pumping Company of Jerome received a federal WaterSMART Water and Energy Efficiency Grant (WSWEEG) for $2 million on June 21 from the Bureau of Reclamation (BR). The project will replace old pump stations with modern ones and will replace unlined canal with pipelines for a yearly water saving of 6,286 acre-feet.

WaterSMART grants recently received an infusion of funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that was signed into law in November 2021. The act allocated $8.3 billion for BR water infrastructure projects like WaterSMART. The grant was funded out of $25.5 million the BR allocated to the WSWEEG program in fiscal year 2022.

The WSWEEG award has a 50% match requirement. The total for the North Side Pumping Co. project has a total price tag for $4 million. The project will replace two pump stations built in the 1920s with approximately 25 small-scale high efficiency pump stations, each equipped with a variable frequency drive and flow meter that connect to existing on-farm irrigation infrastructure through a series of new pipelines.

The project will also allow North Side Pumping to abandon 14.5 miles of unlined irrigation canal with seepage losses of 6,286 acre-feet annually. The company will replace the canals with enclosed pipelines, including 86,000 feet of polyvinyl chloride pipe ranging from 2 inches to 15 inches diameter.

North Side Pumping received a previous WSWEEG award in 2015 for $600,000 to close an old inefficient pumping station and remove unlined irrigation ditches from services, preventing 9,150 acre-feet of seepage and saving an estimated 522,000 kilowatt-hours of energy yearly.

The North Side Pumping Company has provided irrigation pumping services since 1915. It is a tax-exempt 501(c)12 public utility in Jerome. It shares the same address as the North Side Canal Company but has a separate incorporation and founding date, according to the Idaho Secretary of State office.