State experts discuss long-term water solutions

Issue Date: December 12, 2007

By Dave Kranz
CFBF Communications/News Division

Fields like this one in western Fresno County that was planted with cotton this year may go unplanted in 2008 because of an ever-tightening supply of water in California.

With many California farmers facing water shortages ranging from 30 percent to 70 percent in the coming year, there wasn't a lot of optimism to be heard at a water issues panel discussion held at the California Farm Bureau Federation's 89th Annual Meeting.

Water leaders who participated in the discussion predicted years of difficulty, particularly for agricultural water users, as California grapples with long-term solutions to its water problems.

"There's a rough patch ahead for California agriculture," Association of California Water Agencies Executive Director Tim Quinn told Farm Bureau delegates. "I think it can be made relatively temporary, but water quantities are going to go down in the next few years and water prices are going to go up."

A federal judge's decision committing more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to benefit protected fish leaves water agencies south of the delta scouting for alternative supplies, Quinn said.

"With what's happening in the delta, the Metropolitan Water District and big ag districts in the Central Valley are going to be getting their checkbooks out and putting the price of water up," he said. "I think we're going to go through a fairly tough time for everybody, but especially for agricultural water users."

A representative of one of those agricultural water users, Jason Peltier of the Fresno-based Westlands Water District, said the court ruling could lead to a 70-percent reduction in water supplies in Westlands and in "a bunch of other districts."

"Hopefully, it won't be that bad but certainly, that's what some of the modeling is showing," he said.

And that's just for one year in what could be a lengthy wait for a long-term solution for moving water through or around the delta.

"How do we deal with the eight, 10 or 15 years it takes to get a canal built so we can effectively separate our water from the fish?" Peltier asked. "It's a frightening prospect looking at that gap."

The prospect of a canal to carry water around the delta worries landowners and water users there. Tom Zuckerman, former co-counsel of the Central Delta Water Agency, said construction of a water conveyance in the delta "doesn't solve problems, it just moves them."

"Until we begin to address the severe imbalance between supplies of water and demands for water, building a conveyance that enables us to transfer the deficit from one area of the state to another doesn't really address our problems," Zuckerman said.

But Quinn said water conveyance lies at the heart of the state's water problems and that ACWA will seek solutions to solve "that controversial, difficult conveyance problem and still make sure all the boats are rising with the tide around the state of California."

Northern California Water Association Executive Director Ryan Broddrick said he worries that discussions about water supply reliability have not focused on what's needed to sustain long-term food and fiber production in the Central Valley.

"There's been a lot of discussion about what is needed for urban supplies and a lot of discussion about opportunities for conservation," he said. "But there has not been a discussion about the future of agriculture in the Central Valley. Is it able to stay economically viable? Is its value as a domestic source going to be valued considerably more than it is today? Those are questions that really haven't been addressed."

Westlands' Peltier said agricultural representatives in water negotiations must constantly deal with the myths that farmers use water inefficiently and that agriculture represents a low-value use of water. At one recent meeting, he said, he tried to change people's perceptions.

"I asked people to think about an acre," Peltier said. "You can play a football game on an acre of grass and it's pretty to look at, but what can a farmer do with an acre? A farmer can grow 12,000 heads of lettuce. That's 48,000 servings. A farmer can grow 100,000 pounds of tomatoes. A farmer can grow 2,000 pounds of almonds and if you're good and eat a can a week, that one acre can feed you for 150 years."

Richard Roos-Collins, director of legal services for the Natural Heritage Institute, said that sort of understanding among all the different interests involved in negotiating about California's water problems will ultimately be key to arriving at solutions.

"The water-supply system we have today was built at a time when Californians could do business together," he said. "We need to go back to that, or go forward to it, and find a way to do business together that protects our respective interests but nonetheless allows us to put aside differences that can be put aside, so we can get on with the business of the state."

(Dave Kranz is CFBF Manager of Media Services. He may be contacted at dkranz@cfbf.com.)

Permission for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm Bureau Federation when reprinting this item. Top