[Vision2020] Walmart Gets Nod for Starting Work

Fri Mar 13 08:05:38 PDT 2009

Garrett,
"So unlike many larger scale farms, our water use is probably way more
efficient, as we use drip line instead of sprinklers, which are very
inefficient".

Drip systems are the best way to spot irrigate. I always recommend drip irrigation to my customers if they are trying to water their shrubs. Garden areas can be tricky though. I still recommend drip but also have no problems if sprinkler heads want to be used. Granted a bunch of scenarios come into each property. IE wind, whats being watered,etc.

Here is my reasoning; lets say you are watering a 30' by 100' parcel of lettuce. A T-tape(netafim) drip line which has a 12" drip spacer puts out about .6 gph(gallons per hour per dripper) but you have rows spaced at intervals of 2 feet. Meaning you have 15 rows. If you water at lets say 30 minutes per cycle you could be putting out 450 gallons. I do prefer this method because you are putting the water right where you want it, on top of the roots.

I could design sprinkler head irrigation to cover the same portion which could water the veggies while potentially saving water.
Sprinkler heads are designed to cover broad areas, so if the shrub or veggies have the same desired water needs, then there is no reason why you couldn't use heads. 

Using sprinkler heads(12 heads needed), each that put out about .6 GPM for a period of 30 miuntes would put out about 216 Gallons. Problem with this is that you are watering between rows and some veggies may not like overhead watering. However, in order to rototill, you would not need to remove the drip lines each time.

The sprinkler industry has gone to great measures to make irrigation environmentally friendly. New timers, sensors and heads have made it so a person can save 30% water compared to "old school" hose and sprinkler method.
New heads now come with pressure compinsating features, reducing evaporation. Some have nozzles that make the droplets bigger, thus insuring the water reaches desired target.

To say that sprinkler heads are "very
inefficient" is not true and a thing of the past. Perhaps in your application, heads might be the improper method, if you are trying to selectively water. If however, your design of the plots includes same watering needs, then overhead watering could be benifitial.

I'm not trying to say your doing something wrong but just trying to show that sprinkler heads are not inefficient. 

Take care,

MD

> Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:45:11 -0700
> From: garrettmc at verizon.net
> To: vision2020 at moscow.com; jampot at roadrunner.com
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Walmart Gets Nod for Starting Work
> 
> 
> g's comments and my reply:
> 
> 
> > 1. My business is not located in Whitman county.
> 
> True. To clarify what I said, I like to shop at locally owned stores. I've gone to yours, and to stores in Whitman County.
> 
> 
> > 2. Predatory? All business competes with other business.
> > This is the nature of the game. Will Idaho lose some tax
> > revenue? Some, but probably not as much as you think. Those
> > same tax dollars are lost when Idaho residents go to Spokane
> > to shop ... > 4. I am willing to accept any legal, legitimate business.... Period.
> 
> I consider a mall twice the size as ours, who's stated intent is to take business from Moscow, as more predatory than your average store like Crossroads. I have no problem with Crossroads. I have no problem with competition per say. I believe in evolution, and competition drives natural selection, which is a good thing. I also understand some dogs will eat other dogs unless you put them on a leash. I have no problem regulating the free-for-all you endorse that seems to come at the expense of Moscow.
> 
> I doubt everything that may be bought at Hawkins are things that can't now be found in Moscow already. I'd venture to guess that most of what is sold at Hawkins can now be found in Moscow, so in general, if people buy things at Hawkins instead of Moscow, not only is it a loss of tax revenue for Moscow, but a loss of sales to businesses in Moscow. That's probably a reason why the owner of Tri-State is against the the water sale to Hawkins, as he expressed in the MCA forum last year. 
> 
> It doesn't seem like there is enough demand for retail items in this area to support a mall the size of Hawkins. Someone is going to lose due to the increased supply of cheap goods.
> 
> 
> > > 3. Water. We've been over this one repeatedly. Whether
> > it is delivered by the City of Moscow, pumped from private
> > wells, or provided by the City of Pullman, it's all the
> > same water. ... I suspect that your
> > vegetable production facility uses far more water than any
> > individual business will and provides far fewer jobs. If the
> > Hawkins property were to be turned into a truck farm the
> > same argument you attempt to use applies. Competition with
> > Moscow business. (you) No tax dollars for Idaho. Far higher
> > water consumption. Perhaps you would prefer the land lay
> > fallow?
> 
> 
> I don't think we know what affect Hawkins pumping from their well will have on Moscow's well. It probably wouldn't affect our well as much as if we pump that same water from our well to sell to Hawkins. But that's the crux of the problem. We really don't know enough about how the aquifer works to say for certain, except that it is declining at a rate that can't last forever, and that should be cause for concern that we are using more than the natural recharge rate.
> 
> So not only will we have an over-supply of retail goods, we have an under-supply of water to meet our needs over the long run.
> 
> As for the water we use for irrigation on our farm, it all comes from a shallow well, which is more than likely recharged yearly. That's a big difference from pumping from the deeper aquifer, which is better quality water, and doesn't recharge as quickly. It is possible we use more water than your average store, but it is a different water source. Ours replenishes yearly, yours probably takes a lot, lot longer to replenish.
> 
> We need to be conscious about how much water we use, because being a shallow water source, it potentially could dry up by the end of the season. So unlike many larger scale farms, our water use is probably way more efficient, as we use drip line instead of sprinklers, which are very inefficient. We also time our watering to reduce evaporation.
> 
> That's a big intent of our farm: to provide a necessity with as little impact as possible.
> 
> I think growing food is way more important than importing cheap foreign goods that have a history of being toxic, so I'd rather use a limited resource for what people need as opposed to using it for what people want, especially considering the size and potential affects to Moscow's businesses and water that Hawkins imposes.
> 
> 
> > 5. If a doctor or nurse
> > hired on with one of these facilities they would have a
> > reasonable expectation of working in an environment that did
> > not promote a culture of death. Forcing institutions such as
> > these to provide a service that they did not originally is
> > to force every person employed there to do something that
> > was not in their original job description. I stand by my
> > red herring assertion.
> 
> 
> I agree with this, though your red herring answer still didn't address the questions I asked. 
> 
> You're trying to prevent something that hasn't happened yet, but could be a big deal. That seems very similar to my diatribes about water and Hawkins...
> 
> gclev
> 
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