The Irrigation Efficiencies Grant Program (IEGP) has been saving water for people, farms, and fish, since 2002. It made funding available for conservation districts through the WA State Conservation Commission (SCC) to conserve agricultural irrigation water through efficiency upgrades to conveyance systems (ditches), and application systems (flood/furrow/sprinkler). Water rights associated with the water savings were transferred to the state’s Trust Water Rights Program for instream flows only. The saved water was to stay in stream for the benefit of salmonids listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Switching to a more efficient irrigation system is just one of the things for which Irrigation Efficiency Grant Funding can be used.

This biennium, the SCC revised the program to address other water resource issues and to implement water conservation measures and irrigation efficiencies.  Cost share projects must save water in consideration of:

• Instream flow protection or enhancement.
• Water quality protection or enhancement.
• Mitigation of a drought vulnerability.
• Improving productivity or profitability on lands under threat of conversion to non-agricultural uses.
• Flow and/or water supply retiming.

Cost share projects may include the following eligible activities:

• Irrigation application systems
• Irrigation conveyance systems
• Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) if water savings is one of the results of the installation
• Roof runoff collection and storage (cisterns). This option is available whether you are wanting to augment your current water rights, or whether you do not have water rights and are currently irrigating with city or domestic well water.
• Irrigation water storage, reregulating, and retiming
• Irrigation or stock water well (such as source switch from surface to ground water)
• Ground water recharge
• Irrigation system component refurbishment (such as the replacement of nozzles and gaskets)
• Tree fruit shade cloth
• Weather stations for localized/shared Irrigation Water Management or Scientific Irrigation Scheduling
• Soil moisture monitoring equipment
• Urban agricultural practices that save water, such as heritage gardens, scalable soil moisture collection, irrigation, etc.
• Green energy power with eligible projects (such as solar power to run a center pivot)
• Fish screens with eligible projects
• Upland practices that reduce water demand or retime runoff (such as beaver dam analogs)

The program is first-come-first-served. The SCC will be reviewing received applications monthly, as funds remain available.  All projects must be completed by June 30, 2025, and require that a post-project Irrigation Water Management (IWM) Plan for your operation be developed by a Pierce Conservation District (PCD) farm planner.  More information can be found at Irrigation Efficiencies Grant Program (IEGP) (wa.gov). If you think this funding would be a good fit for your operation, or of you have any additional questions, please contact your (PCD) farm planner or Rene’ Skaggs at renes@piercecd.org or 253 325-8367.

Irrigation Efficiency Grant Funding can supply cost share funding for the installation of more efficient irrigation conveyance systems.