California has been the nation’s
leading agricultural and dairy state for the past 50 years. The
state’s 80,500 farms and ranches produce more than 400 different
agricultural products. These products generated a record $44.7
billion in sales value in 2012, accounting for 11.3 percent of
the US total.
Breaking down the state’s agricultural role in the country,
California produces 21 percent of the nation’s milk supply, 23
percent of its cheese and 92 percent of all grapes. The state
also produces half of all domestically-grown fruits, nuts and
vegetables, including some products, such as almonds, walnuts,
artichokes, persimmons and pomegranates, of which 99 percent are
grown in California.
Overall, about 3 percent of employment in the state is directly
or indirectly related to agriculture.
As implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
(SGMA) gets underway, questions are emerging about what it will
mean for lands protected under the Williamson Act, California’s
chief farmland preservation policy. For nearly 60 years, the
Williamson Act has helped protect 16 million acres—roughly half
of the state’s crop- and rangelands—from development. But as
SGMA’s limitations on groundwater extraction go into effect—and
as warmer, more intense droughts begin to push land out of
irrigation–the context within which the program operates is
shifting. In July, we gathered a group of agriculture, solar,
and county stakeholders to explore the interplay between the
Williamson Act and SGMA in the San Joaquin Valley. Here is what
we learned.
This drought isn’t going away anytime soon. One study projects
a 75% chance that it lasts through 2030. But if climate change
escalates unabated, dry conditions could last even
longer. It’s time for our elected leaders to take a hard
look at the biggest water abusers and drivers of climate
change. It’s time to take on big agribusiness and the fossil
fuel industry. … On top of climate-changing carbon
emissions, oil and gas production uses a huge amount of water.
In California, the oil and gas industry has used over 3
billion gallons of water since 2018. … Another
culprit behind the megadrought: Big Ag. In the West, thirsty
farms abound. Agriculture makes up 80% of California’s
water use, most of it industrial.
The word got out and the environmental lobby was quick to
pounce: After years of silence on the issue, Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s administration was reviving a controversial plan to
burrow a tunnel beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the
fragile hub of California’s water-delivery system.
Environmentalists said the tunnel would wreck the Delta, not
fix it. Ailing fish populations would be driven further to
extinction. The reworking of the Delta’s plumbing would leave
Delta farmers with water too salty for raising grapes, tomatoes
and other crops, they said.
California is amid its driest period since
record-keeping began, a drought made drier by climate
change. In June, the state curtailed water
allotments for thousands of users across the state,
including in agricultural areas like the San Joaquin Valley,
where Christine [Gemperle] farms. … The narrative around the
almond industry’s excessive consumption of water frustrates
Christine; everything in American refrigerators takes water to
produce, and she thinks the media wields statistics about
almond farming’s use of water like a weapon. Christine takes it
personally. Water scarcity has undoubtedly put strain on the
farm; last year she ripped out one orchard early to save water.
Agriculture in California faces an uncertain future as drought,
wildfires and other climate extremes become more commonplace in
the West. But a fledgling industry focused on growing and
distilling agave plants, which are used to produce tequila and
mezcal in Mexico, could be California’s answer to fallowed
fields and a lack of water. Earlier this year a group of
growers, distillers and retailers formed the California Agave
Council to foster collaboration and offer a chance to share
knowledge among members who previously had no formal network.
You can now register for the in-person return of the
Foundation’s 38th annual Water
Summit, a one-day conference highlighting the
latest information and perspectives on water resources in
California and the West. The event includes an evening
reception along California’s largest and longest river, the
Sacramento River, for an opportunity to network with speakers
and other attendees from a variety of backgrounds. Find more
details about our Water Summit along with our fall tours and
Water Leaders Alum Reunion.
California farmers and ranchers affected by a third consecutive
year of drought and related emergency curtailments of water
deliveries have planted fewer acres, fallowed fields or reduced
livestock herds to make it through the season. Siskiyou County
rancher Ryan Walker, president of the county’s Farm Bureau,
said farmers affected by emergency water curtailments—readopted
in July by the State Water Resources Control Board—face water
shortages and high hay prices, which impact ranchers’ ability
to maintain livestock herds.
Until the development of the major state and federal water
projects that began delivering surface water to the area in the
second half of the 20th century, the Central Valley relied
almost exclusively on groundwater. Heavy pumping of groundwater
has led to significant land subsidence throughout the valley,
causing major damage in some areas to canals, aqueducts, and
other infrastructure. This subsidence was particularly
pronounced in the valley’s southern half, which is known as the
San Joaquin Valley. By 1970, approximately half the San Joaquin
Valley, or roughly 5,200 sq mi, had subsided by at least 1 ft,
according to the website of the U.S. Geological Survey. Some
locations had subsided by as much as 28 ft.
Michael Jones ducked under an idle sprinkler and strode across
the sandy soil where he planned to plant drought-resistant
crops, hoping to save water amid the driest period in more than
1,200 years. … A company known as Renewable Water Resources
(RWR) aims to drill a series of deep wells on a nearby ranch it
owns and pipe the water more than 200 miles north to a Denver
suburb, where sprinklers rotate on manicured lawns. The
firm recently sought $10 million from Douglas County to
kickstart its project. … If the state engineer’s office,
its water court, and federal regulators were to approve RWR’s
plan, it would mark the first time that private investors could
ship water from an aquifer in one part of the state to a
community in another.
The unveiling of the Inflation Reduction Act lit a fuse in
Washington, just before the lazy days of the August recess…
The House is expected to vote on the bill on Friday. With its
drought provisions, the bill focuses attention on the Bureau of
Reclamation…. The $4 billion dollars in the Inflation
Reduction Act is more than double its annual budget. It’s
certainly a large chunk of money, said Jennifer Gimbel, senior
water policy scholar at the Colorado Water Institute at
Colorado State University. But it is “a drop in the bucket for
what is needed” to address a growing aridity that now covers
more than 70 percent of the West in some stage of
drought.
Temperatures have been soaring in LA for much of this week, and
it seems like the days will keep getting hotter. With climate
change happening, and concerns about loss of habitat for
creatures big and small, some folks are looking for little ways
to make a big impact. Enter microforests. At their smallest,
they’re 10 foot by 10 foot, planted in urban areas with diverse
native trees and shrubs to help provide wildlife habitats and
clean the air. Native plant horticulturist and educator
Katherine Pakradouni planted LA’s first microforest in Griffith
Park, and says it has already attracted a wide range of
animals, including bugs, birds, lizards, and squirrels.
[A]s climate change brings hotter, drier conditions, the
American dream is getting harder to achieve in the Valley.
Because of severe drought the past few years, farmers have left
some fields unplanted. And with fewer acres to plant and
harvest, many workers have had their hours cut or lost their
jobs. … [State senator Melissa Hurtado] says many of
these workers are struggling to pay rent and feed their
families. So she’s proposed legislation that
would provide qualified farmworkers with a $1,000 monthly
stipend for three years.
As the Sacramento Valley grapples with its most damaging
natural disaster to date, California agriculture is eyeing a
massive spending package in Congress and pressing for emergency
relief funding to ensure local economies survive the drought.
Dennis reported seeds sales were down as much as 85% for De
Pue, the nation’s largest independent drying and storage
company, with 14 rice facilities along the I-5 corridor. As one
of the primary seed providers for the Sacramento Valley, the
company projects it will have just 10% of its regular volume at
harvest. If the drought were to end this year, it would not
have enough seed for farmers in the next growing season.
The megadrought in the West is a time of reckoning for farmers.
… California is in a better position than western desert
states, because some areas of the state have adequate
rainfall. For California, the problem is not so much
growing water-intensive crops, but growing them in the driest
areas in the state. The arid scrubland on the southern floor of
the San Joaquin Valley gets about 7-8 inches of rain on
average. The farmland in this region was traditionally used for
grazing and low-water use crops such as winter wheat. … The
expansion of permanent crops has increased farm income, but has
also been a major cause of groundwater depletion.
The San Joaquin Valley is California’s largest agricultural
region, but it’s facing an uncertain future. A combination of
persistent drought and the rollout of California’s Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act will increase regional water
scarcity in the coming decades. Water scarcity will have a
major effect on land use: At least half a million acres are
projected to come out of irrigated production in the San
Joaquin Valley by 2040. This raises a thorny question: What
happens to all this newly fallowed land? -Written by Andrew Ayres, a research fellow of
the Public Policy Institute of California Water Policy Center;
and Caitlin Peterson, associate director of the
Public Policy Institute of California Water Policy Center.
Thousands of acres of crops, from corn to nectarines, surround
Melynda Metheney’s community in West Goshen, California — one
of the key battlegrounds where residents say irrigation and
overpumping have depleted drinkable water. … In 2012,
Community Water Center (CWC) told the Goshen community of about
3,300 that its water was contaminated with nitrates. Residents
spent two years fighting to connect to Cal Water — the third
largest regulated utility in the nation — and only some did.
Some of Metheney’s West Goshen neighbors still don’t have well
water.
Tucked high in a mountain range in San Diego County,
California, ranch managers Rob Paulin and Jeremey Walker rely
on “spunky” cows to mitigate wildfire by grazing on the
chaparral brush and shrubbery that traditional market cattle
won’t seek—let alone eat. … Originally from the Andalucía
region of Spain, these Raramuri Criollo cattle are small and
trim—weighing about 800 pounds each, compared to a
1,200-plus-pound Angus cattle. After being brought from Spain
500 years ago, they evolved in the mountains of Chihuahua,
Mexico, where they learned to survive by searching for food in
the far corners of the rough landscape.
Several hundred ranchers, grape growers, tribes, landowners and
community water suppliers, including the city of Healdsburg,
were barred Friday from exercising some of their rights to
water from the Russian River amid tightening supplies in an
unrelenting drought officials say is likely to get worse. The
third round of curtailments imposed by the State Water Resource
Control Board was prompted by drastic reductions in Eel River
water diversions, which are critical to boosting diminishing
storage in Lake Mendocino, which in turn feeds the Russian
River. The water board also formally suspended a new voluntary
sharing arrangement that allowed some of those with older,
“senior” water rights to share water with those whose rights
have been curtailed.
Charlie Hamilton hasn’t irrigated his vineyards with water from
the Sacramento River since early May, even though it flows just
yards from his crop. Nearby to the south, the industrial
Bay Area city of Antioch has supplied its people with water
from the San Joaquin River for just 32 days this year, compared
to roughly 128 days by this time in a wet year. They may be
close by, but these two rivers, central arms
of California’s water system, have become too salty to use
in some places as the state’s punishing drought drags on.
Healthy soil is a potent tool to combat the impacts of drought
on farms and ranches. By using conservation practices that
build healthy soil—like cover cropping, conservation tillage,
and compost—growers increase the natural water storage
potential of their land. Healthy soil captures more water when
it rains and holds onto that water for future crop use,
allowing farms with healthy soil to deliver stable yields, even
in drought years.
Small Valley communities are drying up. The latest town to find
itself waterless is Tooleville, east of Exeter on Highway 65.
In the middle of July, with temperatures soaring and the
intense Valley summer in full swing, residents of the town
found the well they rely on was delivering just a dribble where
it was working at all. With the aid of Self-Help Enterprises,
the town is now dependent on a pair of water tanks and costly
daily deliveries of trucked-in water.
The drought in the West and climate change have smaller cities
rethinking their economies, especially if their main business
is agriculture. On California’s Central Coast, one town is
trying to diversify beyond its main moneymaker – grapes and
wine. … Lynn Hamilton [a professor of agribusiness at
nearby Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo] says … “The attitude
here, it seems to be – until recently – that, oh, we’re just a
rainy season away from being saved. And I think people are now
starting to realize that that’s not true any longer.”
Knowing they are targets, farmers in southern Arizona and
California who receive irrigation water from the Colorado River
are discussing a plan that could go a long way toward meeting a
federal conservation mandate in the drying basin. With key
reservoirs Mead and Powell at record lows and despite the
continued decline of the Salton Sea, federal officials are
demanding historic cuts in water use next year, on the order of
2 million to 4 million acre-feet, or roughly one-third of the
river’s recent annual flow.
The Western US is an empire built on snow. And that snow is
vanishing. … That snowmelt, often traveling hundreds of
miles from mountain top to tap, sustains the booming
desert communities of Las Vegas, Phoenix and Salt Lake
City — even coastal Los Angeles and San Francisco.
… Those dwindling snow levels — a trend that’s
extremely unlikely to reverse as temperatures keep rising
— will demand hard choices if the 11 states in the Western
US are to continue to thrive. So far, responses to the
worsening water crisis have not matched the scale of the
problem.
The San Joaquin Valley is California’s agricultural heartland
and at the center of the state’s water challenges. As the
region brings its groundwater basins into balance under the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), over half a
million acres of irrigated farmland may need to come out of
production. At a virtual event last week, PPIC researchers and
a panel of local experts moderated by Ellen Hanak, director of
the PPIC Water Policy Center, discussed how to manage this
massive transition while reaping the greatest benefits from
idled land and mitigating air quality concerns.
Drive by a flooded almond orchard in the countryside
surrounding Manteca, Ripon and Escalon and your first thought
might be outrage. After all, California is slipping
deeper into a third year of a devastating drought. Looks,
however, can be deceiving. What looks like a waste of
water is actually helping keep water flowing to your home to
wash clothes, drink, flush toilets, shower or bathe, and wash
dishes and such if you live in Manteca, Ripon, and Lathrop.
960,000 acres of land in California are used to produce
alfalfa, using 2 million gallons of water per acre, per year,
all of which goes to feed livestock. What kind of livestock?
Mostly dairy cows, of which there are 2.5 million in California
alone. … It turns out, states [author Richard] Oppenlander,
“60 to 70 percent of California water goes to livestock and
crops to feed them.” …Once I learned that it takes 1,000
gallons of water to produce one gallon of milk, (raising the
cow, growing grain for the cow, cleaning the cow) buying
non-dairy milk sounds like a much wiser choice. Once I learned
that it takes 2,400 gallons of water to produce one pound of
meat, giving up meat altogether seems like the only choice.
-Written by Patsy Ouellette, a longtime
environmental advocate.
The brown hills of Northern California are peppered with
cattle. They spend their days slowly meandering under the sun,
munching drought-withered grass. Cattle are California’s
fourth-biggest agricultural commodity, valued at $2.74 billion
in 2020, according to the state’s agricultural department. But
increasingly dry conditions are making the land less and less
suitable for feeding and watering them. In March 2021, every
pond on Scott Stone’s ranch was dry for the first time in the
46 years his family has owned it.
As California grapples with another long drought, cities across
the state have implemented curbside collection programs to
increase the amount of available water. Composting turns
food scraps, sticks and leaves into organic material that is
then added to soil to make it more fertile. Robert Reed,
spokesperson for Recology, a waste management company, explains
compost acts as a natural sponge.
A Sonoma County wine executive and his business have reached a
$925,000 settlement with the Sonoma County District Attorney’s
Office following an environmental complaint that accused them
of causing significant damage to streams and wetlands while
constructing a vineyard in 2018 near Cloverdale, county
District Attorney Jill Ravitch announced Friday. Deeply ripping
apart the terrain, tearing down trees and pushing them down
streams without permits under the county’s Vineyard & Orchard
Site Development Ordinance, and lacking permits for grading
roads and installing culverts were among acts that Hugh Reimers
and Krasilsa Pacific Farms, LLC were accused of in August
2019.
Illegal marijuana grows in the once-quiet Antelope Valley are a
threat to California’s environmental goals and the safety of
Californians. These operations have caused an increase in human
trafficking, assaults, and robberies and are responsible for
the murders of at least five people living in our high desert
community. … While the secluded forests of Northern
California are still popular for these sites, more and more
criminals see an opportunity in the sprawling desert–vast
amounts of sparsely populated space, lots of sun, and the
presence of law enforcement is not as prevalent. The only thing
lacking is water, but determined growers simply steal what they
need.
Colorado River basin water has transformed Nancy Caywood’s
fields in the desert southwest of Phoenix into carpets of green
cotton and alfalfa for generations. But in June, the alfalfa
was expected to dry up, and a vast majority of the cotton
wasn’t even planted. The irrigation canal that serves her
property was shut down amid a 22-year megadrought that has hurt
growers across the seven states that comprise the
basin. Vultures gathered in the muddy pools of her canal,
feasting on the dying fish, a week after her hay was cut in
early June, likely for the last time this year.
After abundant rain and flooding in the Mississippi Valley and
other regions in 2019, drought returned to much of the United
States in 2021-22. From wet to dry, both extremes have
implications for soils and the crops they support. The opposing
extremes were detected by NASA satellites. But it was a novel
tool—the Soil Moisture Analytics (Crop-CASMA) product—that
integrated this satellite data into a format that was
particularly useful to people. With Crop-CASMA’s
high-resolution, timely information on soil moisture, farmers
and agriculture managers could track the areas of high and low
moisture more closely.
California is on year three of one of the worst droughts in
state history, and it’s hurting our farmers and ranchers. Jim
Rickert owns Prather Ranch and has been ranching in the
Northstate for more than five decades. He said this could be
one of the worst droughts in his lifetime. … Rickert
said this has meant making some tough and emotional choices
like the decision to sell off part of their herd.
… Inflation also plays a role in their hard times. He
said their input costs have increased exponentially thanks to
inflation. Farming necessities such as fertilizer, hay, and
even power bills for needing to pump water have all increased.
Often touted as the breadbasket of the world, California’s San
Joaquin Valley is the most agriculturally productive region on
Earth with over 250 different crops grown. But the area is also
a well-irrigated desert, and years of below-average rain and
snowfall have dried up its relatively few water sources. So
far, farmers in the region have fallowed approximately 100,000
acres of farmland. Experts believe that by 2040, drought may
force up to 500,000 acres to be fallowed. … The Public Policy
Institute of California (PPIC) released two reports and held a
webinar Tuesday to discuss both fallowing of land and the
resulting dust pollution as well as a solution: dryland
farming.
Farmers and water managers may need to do more to engage with
lawmakers from outside the Central Valley before the state
Legislature can be persuaded to make important investments in
water storage and other infrastructure projects, members of
Kern’s Sacramento delegation told an audience Tuesday of the
Water Association of Kern County. The three locally
elected representatives — Assemblyman Vince Fong and state
Sens. Shannon Grove and Melissa Hurtado — made the request
in the context of their frustration with big-city, coastal
lawmakers they said misunderstand how things work in not only
the water world but in-state energy production as well.
The federal government will channel $43 million into efforts to
purchase and distribute locally grown food from California’s
underserved farmers and producers, U.S. Agriculture Secretary
Tom Vilsack announced Wednesday in Woodland. …Vilsack also
highlighted several initiatives that will provide relief to
farmers over the coming years. Congress recently provided USDA
with $10 billion to distribute to farmers struggling due to
climate-related disasters — funds that could be especially
useful in the Golden State, where wildfires burn for months
every year.
Local farmers may soon be forced to bite the bullet and find
ways to use significantly less water in 2023 — potentially for
a lot longer. This drastic measure may come as a result of an
emergency water conservation effort to prevent further
depletion of the Valley’s main source of water, the Colorado
River. If less water flows down the Colorado River, the
consequences could be catastrophic for the two reservoirs —
lakes Mead and Powell — that feed into the so-called basin
states. For example, if water levels in Lake Mead continue
dropping, it could bring water and hydropower to a grinding
halt, all due to a relentless drought over two decades.
Early one winter morning, as Brian Lilla was riding his bike
through Napa, California’s hills and meadows, he spotted
farmworkers driving ATVs through rows of vines. They hauled
huge canisters of the weedkiller Roundup. As the workers
sprayed vines, a chemical smell shot through the air.
… In Children of the Vine, the 54-year-old
documentary filmmaker explores the use of glyphosate from the
time Roundup hit the market in the 1970s to Monsanto’s creation
of “Roundup Ready” genetically modified seeds in the 1990s to
its present legal woes and shattered public trust. But even
now, with at least 20 countries having banned or
limited the use of the herbicide, Lilla was shocked to find out
how ubiquitous the chemical is in our daily lives, and how
trace amounts of glyphosate appears even in certified organic
foods and wine (which by definition are grown without
pesticides or herbicides).
In a strawberry field surrounded by strawberry fields on the
outskirts of Santa Maria, a team of robots have been picking
berries all summer. Each robot, made by a Colorado company
called Tortuga AgTech, trundles between the elevated beds on
rugged wheels, then stops in front of a plant. An articulated
arm maneuvers its sensor array among the leaves; machine vision
software scours the sensor data in search of ripe berries.
… But the team behind Tortuga — and some longtime
experts in California’s $2-billion strawberry industry — see
agricultural robots … as the only way that an industry
sitting on the intersecting fault lines of climate change,
water rights, labor struggles, land use and chemical regulation
can adapt and survive.
As California declared multiple drought
emergencies and imposed mandatory water restrictions on
residents in recent years, the state’s almond farmers expanded
their orchards by a remarkable 78%, according to new
research by Food & Water Watch. In a brief but
critical report issued last week, the climate and consumer
advocacy group found that California’s nut farms have grown
steadily over the past 12 years, even as the state’s water
crisis has deepened. Between 2017 and 2021 alone, almond and
pistachio crops expanded so quickly that they required an
additional 523 billion gallons of irrigation water.
The latest blow in an ongoing water war between two Kings
County agricultural titans may put control of the entire
region’s groundwater into state hands. The J.G. Boswell Farming
Company and Sandridge Partners, controlled by John Vidovich,
have been scuffling over water in court, on ditch banks and
even in the air with accusations on both sides of various types
of water skulduggery. On July 22, the Southwest Kings
Groundwater Sustainability Agency, controlled by Vidovich,
voted to approve the region’s groundwater plan subject to an
addendum that state representatives warned — during the meeting
– could nullify the plan and lead to state control over
groundwater.
Solar-powered weather stations that beam real-time information
to farmers are the first investment for Galvanize Climate
Solutions, the firm launched last year by billionaire Tom
Steyer and Katie Hall to battle climate change. Galvanize led a
$40-million funding round for San Francisco-based Arable, whose
weather equipment gives farmers information on how much
sunlight and water crops are getting, and can help optimize
when to irrigate or fertilize. Such visibility is becoming
increasingly important amid tight on-farm labor and with
drought shrinking water reserves.
Three San Joaquin Valley water agencies are gearing up to spend
$10 million each in grant funding from the state Department of
Conservation to retire or repurpose farmland. Valley agencies
that have received grants so far include the Kaweah Delta Water
Conservation District, Pixley Irrigation District Groundwater
Sustainability Agency (GSA) and Madera County.
… Estimates are that 100,000 acres of farmland will need
to be taken out of production if the subbasin is to comply with
state law and reach groundwater sustainability, said Reyn
Akiona, watershed coordinator for the Tule subbasin.
As I drive across my family’s farm in the San Joaquin Valley,
it feels as if I’m traveling on a chessboard. I cross one
square with crops and then another without crops — our fields
that must lay fallow. Our farm’s crops have been decimated by
the drought. Last year, reduced water deliveries in the state
led to 395,000 acres of cropland being idled, according to UC
Merced researchers, and about 8,750 agricultural workers lost
their jobs. … Without enough water, farmers in
California can’t survive. The state’s aging water supply
infrastructure has not kept up with the growth of the
state. -Written by Joe L. Del Bosque, CEO and president
of the family-owned Del Bosque Farms in the San Joaquin
Valley.
People often have strange ideas about how water works.
Even simple water systems can be confusing. When water
systems become large complex socio-physical-ecological systems
serving many users and uses, opportunities for confusion become
extreme, surpassing comprehension by our ancient Homo sapien
brains. When confused by conflicting rhetoric, using numbers to
“follow the water” can be helpful. The California Water
Plan has developed some such numbers. This essay presents
their net water use numbers for 2018, by California’s
agricultural, urban, and environmental uses by hydrologic
region.
The ink is barely dry on the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act and here comes more legislation to redo what has been the
most significant change in California water law in over 100
years. The California Department of Water Resources has not
finished evaluating Groundwater Sustainability Plans submitted
by local agencies under SGMA, which established a cooperative
framework to protect California’s groundwater resources. But
already legislation—Assembly Bill 2201 by Steve Bennett,
D-Ventura—seeks to change SGMA in ways that would bring
unnecessary confusion and disruption into the
process. -Written by Danny Merkley, director of water
resources for the California Farm Bureau; and Jack
Gualco, president of The Gualco Group Inc.
As the California drought continues to impact agriculture as
well as the lives of residents, local government bodies have
requested regular updates on water resources. Once again, the
Butte County Board of Supervisors will hear the latest updates
regarding the drought, groundwater and water-related activities
within the county. In December, the board contracted Luhdorff
and Scalmanini Consulting Engineers to create an analysis of
drought impacts on the county in 2021.
[W]hen you’re driving down the highway in Southern Arizona,
sometimes you’ll drive right through a field so green, you’d
think you were in Coastal California. … [Anastasia
Rabin's] well hasn’t run dry yet, but several of her neighbors
and many people in the region where she lives have had to pay
tens of thousands of dollars to deepen their wells or dig new
ones altogether. … Many in the area put the blame
on a dairy and out-of-state pecan farmers moving in and using
the land in ways it wasn’t meant to be used. Mostly, they’re
using lots of water, digging deeper than the residents and
small farmers who were already here, and literally changing the
landscape.
There has not been much good news about California’s water
supply lately, but there could be some relief on the way. The
North-of-Delta Offstream Storage project, often referred to as
the planned Sites Reservoir, was authorized by Congress in
2003. The long delayed project got a financial boost in March
when the federal government signaled its intent to loan the
project nearly $2.2 billion — about half of the cost to design,
plan and build it. … The new reservoir could increase
Northern California’s water storage capacity by up to 15% and
would hold enough water to supply about 1.5 million to 3
million households for one year — although much of the water
would be for agricultural purposes.
The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) requires
groundwater users to bring their basins into balance over the
next two decades. In the San Joaquin Valley, this will mean
taking more than 500,000 acres of agricultural land out of
intensive irrigated production. Among other issues, this could
potentially lead to air quality impacts if the lands become new
sources of dust, especially windblown dust, which can have
numerous negative short- and long-term health and environmental
impacts. In addition, the changing climate may exacerbate risks
as warmer temperatures can dry out soils and increase dust
emissions.
A new policy brief from the Public Policy Institute of
California is recommending cost-effective water storage
investments as the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is seeing less
inflow. It also offers a damning picture of the thirty-year
shift in how the Golden State divvied up water, largely pitting
fish species against millions of its residents. The institute –
a nonpartisan think tank – initially published the brief in
early spring, focuses on the Delta that supplies water to about
30 million residents and over six million acres of
farmland.
Widely used insecticides that harm bees and songbirds would
face far-reaching restrictions in California under regulations
proposed by the state’s pesticide agency. The new limits would
be among the nation’s most extensive for agricultural use of
neonicotinoids, a class of insecticides used to kill
plant-damaging pests like aphids. The highly potent pesticides
have been shown to harm bees, birds and other creatures. Aimed
at protecting bees that pollinate crops, the California
Department of Pesticide Regulation’s proposed rules would
restrict four closely-related neonicotinoid chemicals:
imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, clothianidin and dinotefuran.
As drought conditions persist and with the potential for
another dry winter due to La Niña, some good news: the
California State Water Resources Control Board learned
Wednesday reservoirs in the northern and central parts of the
state have more water than at this time last year. State Water
Project reservoirs across Northern and Central California
remain below historical averages after three consecutive years
of drought. But with a combination of people cutting water use,
curtailments, farmers fallowing fields and a focus on storage,
the reservoirs in the State Water Project are either above or
near where they were last year.
The rollout of California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act (SGMA) is altering the state’s agricultural landscape. As
groundwater sustainability measures are implemented and water
scarcity increases, at least half a million acres are projected
to come out of irrigated production in the San Joaquin Valley,
the state’s agricultural heartland. Rather than widespread land
idling—which comes with unintended consequences such as dust,
weeds, pests, and soil degradation—a switch from summer
irrigated crops to winter crops produced with limited water
(including winter cereals and forage crops, among others) might
keep some of this land in production.
Soils in the San Joaquin Valley of California have been a
source of selenium (Se) release through dissolution into
agricultural drainage, requiring treatment before discharge to
the environment. A full-scale primarily anaerobic, granular
activated-carbon (GAC) bioreactor with an empty bed contact
time ranging from 3.4 to 5.0 h was fed
757 L/min757 L/min of second-pass agricultural drainage water
(ADW) at the San Luis Demonstration Treatment Plant (SLDTP) in
Firebaugh, California, for 1,062 days. This study
summarized startup of an actual water treatment plant with a
process scheme that had never been designed or operated at this
scale.
A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a 15-year plan for
several drought-stricken wildlife refuges along the Oregon and
California border against challenges by agribusiness and
conservation groups alike. The three decisions by the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals mark a stalemate in a century-old
water war in the Klamath Basin, where a federal irrigation
project to support farming began in 1906 and the nation’s first
wildlife refuge was established in 1908. The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service’s 2017 Comprehensive Conservation Plan drew
fire from agribusiness for regulating farming practices in the
Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex, while
conservationists argued the restrictions did not go far enough.
The town of Tooleville in Tulare County is once again without
water. The town, which has struggled for years with dropping
groundwater levels and contamination issues, saw its wells dry
up over the weekend. On July 15, residents called
nonprofit Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability
reporting very low water pressure and some with no water at
all, said Elvia Olea, policy advocate for Leadership
Counsel. This is the second town in Tulare County to lose
water this summer. East Orosi, about 30 miles north of
Tooleville, was without water for 24 hours when one of its two
wells went down July 12, according to news reports. A pump was
installed and restored water to East Orosi.
A small fish called the Delta Smelt has been a big topic for
farmers in California, as the state cites its 2016 Delta Smelt
Resiliency Strategy for limiting the amount of water from the
Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta, earmarked for agriculture. Wade
Crowfoot, California Natural Resources Agency Secretary, spoke
during the Western Food and Ag Issues Summit hosted by
Agri-Pulse. He says although the state of California is bound
by the federal Endangered Species Act to protect the fish, the
agency is working towards a more encompassing solution.
California’s historic drought may leave the state with the
largest amount of empty farmland in recent memory as farmers
face unprecedented cuts to crucial water supplies. The size of
fields intended for almonds, rice, wine grapes and other crops
left unworked could be around 800,000 acres, double the size of
last year and the most in at least several decades, said Josue
Medellin-Azuara, an associate professor at University of
California Merced.
As local gardeners and farmers look for ways to keep their
fruit trees alive while meeting water conservation goals, they
can consider the water savings gained by applying organic
mulch, as documented in an influential 1999 University of
California study. The study’s findings and recommendations have
gained relevance today as water supplies tighten and watering
restrictions take effect during the severe drought.
… Rather than promoting growth, the main purposes of
mulch are to reduce erosion, suppress weed growth, moderate
soil temperature, and save water by retaining soil
moisture. -Written by David Goldstein, an environmental resource
analyst with the Ventura County Public Works Agency
It may seem counterintuitive in this very dry year to be
thinking and talking about floodplains; yet, these years
highlight the importance of the floodplain in the Sacramento
Valley and the opportunities we have in all years–including
critically dry years–to reactivate our floodplains as part of
ridgetop to river mouth water management. To learn more about
these opportunities, we encourage you to grab some popcorn and
watch several award-winning films that explore how reconnecting
our landscape with our vital rivers can have a profound impact
on recovery of endangered fish and wildlife populations in
harmony with our cities, rural communities and farms.
In California’s fields, farmers are already facing the impacts
of climate change every day. They are heading into yet another
potentially devastating fire year, and the third year in a row
of drought.
American agriculture is going to have to do without three
things that it has long taken for granted, according to a
recent article by Chloe Sorvino, who leads food and agriculture
coverage for Forbes. Those things are cheap energy, free water,
and a reliable climate…. Permanent crops are obviously
more vulnerable than annual ones. If the latter are plowed
under or the land for them is fallowed, there is always next
year. But trees and vines take a certain number of years to
mature and produce. To say that water in California is
free is simply not true.
Just days after ordering the Byron-Bethany Irrigation District
(BBID) to shut off its pumps and halt water deliveries at the
height of the growing season, the State Water Resources Control
Board (Board) lifted the curtailments of BBID’s water rights.
At 4:07 on Tuesday, the Board issued a Drought Update advising
that the pre-1914 water right serving much of BBID’s service
area, and the post-1914 water right serving the District’s West
Side Service Area, are no longer curtailed.
There is a state mandate to consolidate [small] water
systems with larger nearby communities by 2024. But that wasn’t
soon enough for East Orosi, an unincorporated Tulare County
hamlet southeast of Fresno. The water went off Tuesday
afternoon. A temporary fix allowed the water to run
sporadically on Wednesday. By then, a family had lost their
home to a fire they had no water to fight. Children had spent a
day scrambling to keep pets and livestock from dying. And in
this community that already depends on bottled water for
drinking, everyone knew the taps could soon go dry again.
As much of the Western United States suffers from drought and
cities turn to water restrictions to help conserve water,
farmers in California are becoming increasingly worried about
how it will impact consumers around the country. Fresno County
Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen’s farmers in California’s Central
Valley are preparing to harvest almonds in an area that
produces about 80 percent of the state’s supply.
… Jacobsen is a fourth-generation farmer on both sides
of his family, meaning he and his ancestors have seen many good
and bad years for harvesting.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed B1740 yesterday, investing
$1.2 billion over three years to fund projects that will bring
additional water to the state to secure Arizona’s water future,
improve existing water infrastructure and implement
effective conservation tools. The projects will help ensure
that Arizona families, businesses and agriculture continue to
have adequate long-term water supplies.
Cities and agricultural operations across the West put intense
pressure on groundwater supplies. In some rural regions, few
rules govern how, when and how much water can be pumped. That’s
true in rural southern Arizona, where wells are drying up as
cities grow, large farms move in and the megadrought continues.
… [Tara] Morrow and her neighbors are seeing the water
wells they use for their basic needs – cooking, cleaning and
showering – dry up as large farming operations move in and have
to drill deeper for groundwater.
Farmers along the Lower Colorado River in Southern Arizona and
Southern California are bracing for severe reductions next year
in their river water supplies — cuts they say could lead to
widespread crop production cutbacks, major economic dislocation
and, possibly, food shortages. “Mass fallowing” is a prime
concern among representatives of several big irrigation
districts along the river. The concern is growing as farm,
city, state and federal officials seek to negotiate a
compromise solution to carry out cuts in water use across the
entire Colorado River Basin that were ordered last month by the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Ask and ye shall receive — at least partially. And the Friant
Water Authority is hopeful there’s more to come. FWA announced
on Friday the Bureau of Reclamation has increased its 2022
water allocation for Friant Division Class 1 contractors from
15 to 20 percent. FWA added as in the past two years, Friant
Division Class 2 contractors continued to received 0 percent,
“which continues to reflect the hydrology for the 2022 water
year is very dry.”
Olive oil production in California is expected to drop
significantly in the 2022/23 crop year compared with the
previous harvest. According to the Olive Oil Commission of
California (OOCC), which represents 90 percent of the Golden
state’s production, its members will produce 1.8 million
gallons (8.2 million liters) in the current crop year.
Previously, OOCC members combined to produce three million
gallons (13.6 million liters) in 2021/22 … [P]roducers
faced a range of challenges, from high winds damaging
trees during blossoming to the state’s unrelenting
drought.
The climate in California’s Ojai Valley has been ideal for
citrus, but that climate is changing—getting windier, drier,
and hotter. A recent study showed that Ventura County’s
temperature has warmed more in the last 125 years than any
other county in the lower 48 states …
California regulators have begun curtailing the water rights of
many farms and irrigation districts along the Sacramento River,
forcing growers to stop diverting water from the river and its
tributaries. The order, which took effect Thursday, puts a hold
on about 5,800 water rights across the Sacramento and San
Joaquin rivers’ watersheds, reflecting the severity of
California’s extreme drought. Together with a similar order in
June, the State Water Resources Control Board has now curtailed
9,842 water rights this year in the Sacramento and San Joaquin
watersheds, more than half of the nearly 16,700 existing
rights.
A state appellate court has reversed a judge’s ruling that
would have required the Los Angeles Department of Water and
Power to conduct an environmental review before making annual
decisions about deliveries of water on pastureland it owns east
of Yosemite. The city agency on Thursday said the previous
ruling had “set an impossible standard” as it faces the complex
challenges of servicing ratepayers and meeting environmental
requirements in a time of drought, dwindling snowpack and
changing water availability.
Farmers and cities on the east side of the Valley may get more
water than they originally thought. Friant Water
Authority, which operates the Friant-Kern Canal, said in a
recent memo on its website it is confident its contractors will
not only get the 15% allocation of surface water deliveries
announced in February but that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
will likely increase the amount to 20%, possibly as early as
this week. … Better snow and rainfall in the
Sacramento area late in the spring has allowed the Bureau of
Reclamation to budget more water to be delivered to the San
Joaquin Exchange Contractors …
The next six weeks, California pistachios will be on close
watch around how much–if any, the current drought in the state
is affecting its growth or “nut fill.” … So while some
growers are located in areas with good groundwater and/or are
receiving some supply of surface water, others have zero
surface water and also limited sources of groundwater.
… At the same time, the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA) is starting to be implemented. This
legislation, which passed in 2014, requires that all
groundwater basins in California be sustainable and agencies
were formed to ensure compliance with the act.
California’s once-abundant salmon runs are on the verge of
collapse. That’s a tragedy, but this story is bigger than the
extinction of an iconic fish that once fed millions of people
and was the basis of thriving commercial, tribal and sport
fisheries. … Our salmon are flirting with extinction because
they’re not getting the cold water they need to survive.
… Although they were aware of the growing water crisis,
state and federal water managers have drawn down reservoirs
rapidly over the past three years, leaving cold water — indeed,
any water — in short supply. Why? To provide water to a small
subset of commercial growers. -Written by Tom Stokely, a member of the board of
the California Water Impact Network, a nonprofit working
for the equitable distribution of water resources.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW),
Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) and State Water Resource
Board (SWRCB) announced in a press release on July 1 that it
would be collectively authorizing enforcement teams for the
2022 cannabis growing season. … This effort is funded by
Proposition 64 which enables these government agencies to focus
on protecting “priority watersheds and areas with sensitive
habitat and/or threatened or endangered species.” … The water
streams of California, and the wildlife that depends on them,
suffer when illegal cannabis grow operations divert
water.
Explore the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic
landscape while learning about the issues associated with a
key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Travel along the San Joaquin River to learn firsthand about one
of the nation’s largest and most expensive river restoration
projects.
The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most
contentious legal battles in California water history,
ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government,
Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental
groups.
This tour ventured through California’s Central Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25 percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
The lower Colorado River has virtually every drop allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
This tour guided participants on a virtual exploration of the Sacramento River and its tributaries and learn about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
This tour guided participants on a virtual journey deep into California’s most crucial water and ecological resource – the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The 720,000-acre network of islands and canals support the state’s two major water systems – the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. The Delta and the connecting San Francisco Bay form the largest freshwater tidal estuary of its kind on the West coast.
This event explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour.
Silverton Hotel
3333 Blue Diamond Road
Las Vegas, NV 89139
This 2-day, 1-night tour offered participants the opportunity to
learn about water issues affecting California’s scenic Central
Coast and efforts to solve some of the challenges of a region
struggling to be sustainable with limited local supplies that
have potential applications statewide.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of Oroville Dam spillway
repairs.
We explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop
of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad
sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and
climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs was the focus of this tour.
Hampton Inn Tropicana
4975 Dean Martin Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89118
This three-day, two-night tour explored the lower Colorado River
where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand
is growing from myriad sources — increasing population,
declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs is the focus of this tour.
Best Western McCarran Inn
4970 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89119
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of repair efforts on the
Oroville Dam spillway.
Participants of this tour snaked along the San Joaquin River to
learn firsthand about one of the nation’s largest and most
expensive river restoration projects.
The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most
contentious legal battles in California water history,
ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government,
Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental
groups.
Groundwater replenishment happens
through direct recharge and in-lieu recharge. Water used for
direct recharge most often comes from flood flows, water
conservation, recycled water, desalination and water
transfers.
Water is expensive – and securing enough money to ensure
reliability and efficiency of the state’s water systems and
ecosystems is a constant challenge.
In 2014, California voters approved Proposition 1, authorizing a
$7.5 billion bond to fund water projects throughout the state.
This included investments in water storage, watershed protection
and restoration, groundwater sustainability and drinking water
protection.
California agriculture is going to have to learn to live with the
impacts of climate change and work toward reducing its
contributions of greenhouse gas emissions, a Yolo County walnut
grower said at the Jan. 26 California Climate Change Symposium in
Sacramento.
“I don’t believe we are going to be able to adapt our way out of
climate change,” said Russ Lester, co-owner of Dixon Ridge Farms
in Winters. “We need to mitigate for it. It won’t solve the
problem but it can slow it down.”
From the Greek “xeros” and Middle Dutch “scap,”
xeriscape was coined
in 1978 and literally translates to “dry scene.”
Xeriscaping, by extension, is making an environment which can
tolerate dryness. This involves installing drought-resistant and
slow-growing plants to reduce water use.
Irrigation is the artificial supply
of water to grow crops or plants. Obtained from either surface or groundwater, it optimizes
agricultural production when the amount of rain and where it
falls is insufficient. Different irrigation
systems are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but in
practical use are often combined. Much of the agriculture in
California and the West relies on irrigation.
Excess salinity poses a growing
threat to food production, drinking water quality and public
health. Salts increase the cost of urban drinking water and
wastewater treatment, which are paid for by residents and
businesses. Increasing salinity is likely the largest long-term
chronic water quality impairment to surface and groundwater in California’s Central
Valley.
California’s severe drought has put its water rights system under
scrutiny, raising the question whether a complete overhaul is
necessary to better allocate water use.
(Read the excerpt below from the July/August 2015 issue along
with the editor’s note. Click here
to subscribe to Western Water and get full access.)
Introduction
California’s severe drought has put its water rights system under
scrutiny, raising the question whether a complete overhaul is
necessary to better allocate water use.
This issue looks at remote sensing applications and how satellite
information enables analysts to get a better understanding of
snowpack, how much water a plant actually uses, groundwater
levels, levee stability and more.
This 3-day, 2-night tour, which we do every spring,
travels the length of the San Joaquin Valley, giving participants
a clear understanding of the State Water Project and Central
Valley Project.
Located just north of Fresno, the
Friant Dam helps deliver water as it runs towards the Merced River, though its
environmental impacts have caused controversy.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
agricultural water use – its successes, the planned state
regulation to quantify its efficiency and the potential for
greater savings.
This Western Water looks at proposed new measures to deal with
the century-old problem of salinity with a special focus on San
Joaquin Valley farms and cities.
The Reclamation Act of 1902, which could arguably be described as
a progression of the credo, Manifest Destiny, transformed the
West. This issue of Western Water provides a glimpse of the past
100 years of the Reclamation Act, from the early visionaries who
sought to turn the arid West into productive farmland, to the
modern day task of providing a limited amount of water to homes,
farms and the environment. Included are discussions of various
Bureau projects and what the next century may bring in terms of
challenges and success.
30-minute DVD that traces the history of the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and its role in the development of the West. Includes
extensive historic footage of farming and the construction of
dams and other water projects, and discusses historic and modern
day issues.
A new look for our most popular product! And it’s the perfect
gift for the water wonk in your life.
Our 24×36 inch California Water Map is widely known for being the
definitive poster that shows the integral role water plays in the
state. On this updated version, it is easier to see California’s
natural waterways and man-made reservoirs and aqueducts
– including federally, state and locally funded
projects – the wild and scenic rivers system, and
natural lakes. The map features beautiful photos of
California’s natural environment, rivers, water projects,
wildlife, and urban and agricultural uses and the
text focuses on key issues: water supply, water use, water
projects, the Delta, wild and scenic rivers and the Colorado
River.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, features
a map of the San Joaquin River. The map text focuses on the San
Joaquin River Restoration Program, which aims to restore flows
and populations of Chinook salmon to the river below Friant Dam
to its confluence with the Merced River. The text discusses the
history of the program, its goals and ongoing challenges with
implementation.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Klamath River Watershed. The
map text explains the many issues facing this vast,
15,000-square-mile watershed, including fish restoration;
agricultural water use; and wetlands. Also included are
descriptions of the separate, but linked, Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement,
and the next steps associated with those agreements. Development
of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Truckee River Basin, including
the Newlands Project, Pyramid Lake and Lake Tahoe. Map text
explains the issues surrounding the use of the Truckee-Carson
rivers, Lake Tahoe water quality improvement efforts, fishery
restoration and the effort to reach compromise solutions to many
of these issues.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, illustrates the
water resources available for Nevada cities, agriculture and the
environment. It features natural and manmade water resources
throughout the state, including the Truckee and Carson rivers,
Lake Tahoe, Pyramid Lake and the course of the Colorado River
that forms the state’s eastern boundary.
Water as a renewable resource is depicted in this 18×24 inch
poster. Water is renewed again and again by the natural
hydrologic cycle where water evaporates, transpires from plants,
rises to form clouds, and returns to the earth as precipitation.
Excellent for elementary school classroom use.
With irrigation projects that import water, farmers have
transformed millions of acres of land into highly productive
fields and orchards. But the dry climate that provides an almost
year-round farming season can hasten salt build up in soils. The
build-up of salts in poorly drained soils can decrease crop
productivity, and there are links between drainage water from
irrigated fields and harmful impacts on fish and wildlife.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to California Water provides an
excellent overview of the history of water development and use in
California. It includes sections on flood management; the state,
federal and Colorado River delivery systems; Delta issues; water
rights; environmental issues; water quality; and options for
stretching the water supply such as water marketing and
conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of the guide is a
section on the human need for water.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Central Valley Project
explores the history and development of the federal Central
Valley Project (CVP), California’s largest surface water delivery
system. In addition to the project’s history, the guide describes
the various CVP facilities, CVP operations, the benefits the CVP
brought to the state and the CVP Improvement Act (CVPIA).
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater is an in-depth,
easy-to-understand publication that provides background and
perspective on groundwater. The guide explains what groundwater
is – not an underground network of rivers and lakes! – and the
history of its use in California.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to
Water Rights Law, recognized as the most thorough explanation of
California water rights law available to non-lawyers, traces the
authority for water flowing in a stream or reservoir, from a
faucet or into an irrigation ditch through the complex web of
California water rights.
The 20-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Marketing provides
background information on water rights, types of transfers and
critical policy issues surrounding this topic. First published in
1996, the 2005 version offers expanded information on
groundwater banking and conjunctive use, Colorado River
transfers and the role of private companies in California’s
developing water market.
Order in bulk (25 or more copies of the same guide) for a reduced
fee. Contact the Foundation, 916-444-6240, for details.
There are two constants regarding agricultural water use –
growers will continue to come up with ever more efficient and
innovative ways to use water and they will always be pressed to
do more.
It’s safe to say the matter will not be settled anytime soon,
given all the complexities that are a part of the water use
picture today. While officials and stakeholders grapple to find a
lasting solution to California’s water problems that balances
environmental and economic needs, those who grow food and fiber
for a living do so amid a host of challenges.
Land retirement is a practice that takes agricultural lands out
of production due to poor drainage and soils containing high
levels of salt and selenium (a mineral found in soil).
Typically, landowners are paid to retire land. The purchaser,
often a local water district, then places a deed restriction on
the land to prevent growing crops with irrigation water (a source
of salt). Growers in some cases may continue to farm using rain
water, a method known as dry farming.
Evaporation ponds contain agricultural drainage water and are
used when agricultural growers do not have access to rivers for
drainage disposal.
Drainage water is the only source of water in many of these
ponds, resulting in extremely high concentrations of salts.
Concentrations of other trace elements such as selenium are also
elevated in evaporation basins, with a wide degree of variability
among basins.
Such ponds resemble wetland areas that birds use for nesting and
feeding grounds and may pose risks to waterfowl and shorebirds.
The Coachella Valley in Southern California’s Inland Empire is
one of several valleys throughout the state with a water district
established to support agriculture.
Like the others, the Coachella Valley Water District in Riverside
County delivers water to arid agricultural lands and constructs,
operates and maintains a regional agricultural drainage system.
These systems collect drainage water from individual farm drain
outlets and convey the water to a point of reuse, disposal or
dilution.
