California Water Users Seeking Solutions
September 8, 2015 Volumes have been written, over just the last few years even, about the plight of California’s water supplies. The dialogue will only continue to expand, as 2015 marked the fourth year of a historic drought that has impacted water users, especially agriculture, throughout the state.
A look at geography explains part of the problem. Much of the state’s water comes from the north, from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and other northern ranges. Here snowpack melts slowly to provide water that travels mainly west and south, explains Dr. Michael Cahn, water resources and irrigation advisor with the University of California extension in Salinas. Snowpack in California has reached critically low levels, and measurements taken in April recorded only 5% of the average for that date.
All of the state’s 12 primary reservoirs are below 50% capacity and far below their historical average levels.
And while California experienced plenty of rain in late 2014, the deluges did not go far in alleviating water stresses. As Dr. Daniele Zaccaria, extension specialist in water management with the University of California, Davis, points out, “The real help for irrigated agriculture is not the rain, but the snow precipitation.” The drought monitor map doesn’t have much meaning because water is conveyed from the Sierra Nevada to surface reservoirs for storage and distribution.
Targeting Ag
The “south” that receives snowpack melt includes irrigated agriculture, which has been concentrating in the San Joaquin Valley, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the Imperial Valley (which also receives surface water imported from the Colorado River). Until recently, water supplies were more secured and reliable.
But the south also is home to a huge number of people. The population has been growing quickly, with urban sprawl progressively taking prime lands from ag. Currently at 38.3 million, it is expected to reach about 44 million in 2020.
These and other stakeholders are tapping into a water delivery system made up of 100-year old reservoirs, canals and leveled farm ground all paid for by water users decades ago, says Ray Batten, large grower relations, Valley Irrigation. The “amazing system” as designed, he notes, was largely based on an expected population model of about 15 million people — not 38-plus million.
Simply put, 70% of California’s water is generated in the northern part of the state in the fall/winter months, but the south accounts for over 70% of demand.
Out of the developed water — that which travels above and below ground and is stored and regulated through the water infrastructure for municipal and ag use — 80% is allocated to agriculture. Some would say for good reason. California produces approximately half of the fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed in the U.S. — and more than 90% of all the almonds, tomatoes, strawberries, broccoli and other specialty crops. Many items are exported to China and overseas markets.
David Eddy, editor of CropLife’s® sister publication Western Fruit Grower, has become personally acquainted with many growers affected by the water crisis. One producer, Barry Baker of Firebaugh, CA, pulled 2,000 acres of almonds last year (though he will replant some of that ground to almonds with highly efficient buried drip lines). To urbanites protesting agriculture’s share of the water pie, he says California growers are “not watering their lawn or taking longer showers. They’re providing most of the fruits and vegetables of America.”
Many media outlets don’t help the situation. Consider a March article from The Daily Beast titled “Water Hogs: How Growers Gamed California’s Drought.” Among other things, the article highlights how lucrative the pistachio and almond businesses are and implies state authorities are not stepping in on water pricing because of political ties to agriculture.
Zaccaria confirms that over the last decade the Central Valley has converted large acreages from production of annual crops to more permanent systems, such as nuts, orchards and vineyards. “The social aspect of agriculture in the Valley is changing,” he says. Individual growers are becoming fewer as farming corporations and companies from other sectors invest in agriculture there. They invest in the most profitable crops — the permanent commodities.
The implications of this shift? Producers of annual crops are fallowing acres in the face of water shortages and using less of the resource. In fact, a survey by the California Farm Water Coalition found that approximately 620,000 acres were estimated to be fallowed this year, and associated job losses could reach 23,000, with an economic hit to the state’s economy exceeding $5.7 billion.
And unfortunately, permanent crops are less adjustable to water fluctuation and much less resilient to climate variability. Owners need water to at least keep their investments alive, if not producing.
Cahn emphasizes that water problems in the state are in large part regional. He reports that in the Salinas Valley, growers are still producing crops, not fallowing fields from lack of water because groundwater sources have been adequate. “I see no regulations restricting pumping at all, even though the groundwater level is dropping to historically low levels,” he says.
Many urban areas there, however, face mandated water use cut-backs, including restrictions on washing cars or watering lawns. They see sprinklers in fields using well water and wonder why growers aren’t cutting back.
“It’s a source of conflict,” says Cahn. “People are wondering how much water do these crops use? Why are farmers growing, say, alfalfa — much of which is exported to China — during a drought.”
What Ag Is Doing
While fallowing land is one option for some growers, many stakeholders have been working hard on other solutions. Growers are using better irrigation technology and methods, which include microirrigation (microsprinklers, spray, drip, and subsurface drip irrigation). Better education on water use is being offered to producers, mostly via the University of California cooperative extension and other institutions. And thirdly, growers are doing better at nutrient management. These three components have brought a very sharp increase in water productivity over the last 10 years, says Zaccaria.
The results have come from educating farms’ irrigation consultants, designing and upgrading irrigation systems and utilizing different irrigation scheduling methods. Funds come from a host of sources, including the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the California Commission on Energy, USDA and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. “I would say the drought is motivating farmers to try things they haven’t tried before. Luckily we have a lot of tools out there that they can use,” says Cahn.
The University of California and state agencies have produced a wide variety of water management resources in the form of workshops, bulletins, drought tops, fact sheets and online videos.
Zaccaria is convinced that irrigated agriculture is really doing its part, its homework and that blaming ag for problems is misplaced. “I don’t see any other possibility to supply the demand for food in a safe way that California is not doing already,” he says.
Other Factors Influencing The Landscape
Water pricing has been a huge issue in some parts of the state. Zaccaria says costs can range from $19 to $21 per acre per foot in the most abundant water regions such as the Imperial Valley (supplied by the Colorado River) to $400 or more per acre/foot in water-scarce areas. In fact, in the southern part of the San Joaquin Valley, costs of $1,700 per acre/foot have been recorded. Some growers simply cannot pay the high cost of production.
Zaccaria anticipates a more structured water market coming which would re-allocate water to different regions based on needs and willingness to pay. It would include more transparency about the amounts and prices exchanged. Tiered pricing is also a possibility. Here, users would pay a first-tier cost up to a certain volume, then pay a higher, second-tier price when they exceed a set amount.
“This could be a very effective incentive to growers to no longer aim for maximum yields from crops but to pursue the maximum net profits,” he says.
An undoubtedly controversial suggestion is to revisit water rights. A new system would tailor them to the new climate scenario in California. For instance, water rights would not be tied to property rights; instead stakeholder users would consider the common good, as is the model in Europe and other countries.
The U.S. water rights system was taken in great part from the East Coast without adjustment to the climate in the West, says Zaccaria. In turn, the East coast took its water rights system from England, a geography with a radically different climate than California.
Cahn explains that in a move to control groundwater use better, state legislators passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act late last year. It requires agencies in 127 quickly depleting watersheds/basins (there are hundreds in California) to draw up sustainability plans. These areas are mostly concentrated along the Central Valley, and some surround Los Angeles. While they represent only a quarter of the total number of basins in California, they account for almost 96% of state’s groundwater pumping.
“Some areas already have a management agency in place, while others have never even thought about it,” says Cahn. “The act requires the community to come together — urban and ag users of water, environmental interests — and come to some agreement on how that water should be used in a sustainable manner.
“They have to figure out over the long term how much water is recharging that aquifer and if that amount can be increased. How much can be extracted. In many cases, they’ve been overextracting for maybe the last 50 years. So then, what does that mean.”
Cahn says the agencies provide the forum for urban and ag users to discuss these issues over the long term.
Part of that long view is an understanding that the current drought is not a sporadic, emergency situation, says Zaccaria. Rather, it’s a manifestation of California’s new “normal” — climate variability that includes drought, heat waves, frost and floods.
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