In 1998, the Utah Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) developed a low cost technology to assist water use managers who maintained miles and miles of canals.
This technology utilized data loggers, solar power and radio communication technology to allow the managers to be able to gather data such as water levels and flows, and also to remotely control gates on their canals and at their dams. This was an important breakthrough in water management, as it allowed instant management of resources that were previously difficult or costly to access because of distance or terrain.
As these systems became widely deployed, it became apparent that there needed to be a way to make the information being collected more accessible. The Internet was the obvious medium for sharing this information, but a system did not exist which would facilitate this. To address this need, members of the Duchesne County Water Conservancy District, Emery Water Conservancy District and Sevier River Water Users Association joined together to form the Rural Water Technology Alliance (RWTA).
Hand in hand with the Bureau of Reclamation, the RWTA worked with local technology companies to develop a web-based solution that would record the data collected by the Bureau systems, keep historical records and make it available via web browser, smartphone and even voice recording. This solution is known today as Exactraq.
Today, real-time data can be viewed on the following websites:
Duchesne County Water Conservancy District – www.duchesneriver.org
Emery Water Conservancy District – www.ewcd.org
Sevier River Water Users Association – www.sevierriver.org