In 1957, Richvale Irrigation District (RID), Biggs-West Gridley Water District (BWGWD), Butte Water District (BWD), and Sutter Extension Water District (SEWD) organized to form the Joint Water Districts Board (Joint Districts) to coordinate their efforts in managing the former Sutter Butte Canal Company distribution system of which they all shared a portion. Because of the interconnectivity of the individual districts’ water supplies, monitoring and communication of water diversions and divisions is critical and historically time intensive due the size of the Joint Districts service area (over 120,000 acres).

Starting in 2010, Davids Engineering has worked with the Joint Districts to install and manage a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. The SCADA system initially included flow and level measurement at key existing monitoring sites within the shared portion of the distribution system, and has been progressively expanded to include new sites – both in the shared distribution system and in each district’s individual service area – and new site types – including pumping plants and automated canal gates. The SCADA system includes remote access and control to the sites, data archiving, robust user management, and mobile alarming, and Davids Engineering continues to closely support and expand this critical system.