Water marketing is the transfer or sale of water or water rights
from one user to another, typically from an agricultural to an
urban water agency, often without investing in new infrastructure
California is by far the United States’ most populous state, as
well as its largest agricultural producer. Increasingly, it is
also one of the country’s most parched places. But Edgar Terry,
a fourth-generation farmer in Ventura County, just outside Los
Angeles, thinks he has a key to reversing worsening water
stress: establishing tradeable rights to shares of
fast-depleting groundwater aquifers.
Aside from advanced economies and Mediterranean climates that
sustain long growing seasons, California, Spain and Australia
share an intermittent feature that reshapes their overburdened
water systems every time it rears its ugly head: drought.
Sarah Heard is Director of Conservation Economics & Finance
with the California chapter of The Nature Conservancy… At the
Groundwater Resources Association’s Western Groundwater
Congress, Ms. Heard gave this presentation on the Fox Canyon
Groundwater Market in Ventura County, the first groundwater
market since the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act.
The successes and failures of Australia’s recent reform of the
Murray-Darling Basin hold valuable lessons for policy makers in
California and elsewhere who are likely to grapple with the
environmental repercussions of extreme drought in the future.
The newly formed water market would create a place where
farmers in the Rosedale district can buy and sell water based
on their needs. So if one farmer has too much for his crops in
a certain year, he’d be able to sell it on the market to
another who might not have enough.
Venture 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.
South Coast agencies purchased more than 27,000 acre-feet of
supplemental water during four drought years to make up for
lowered allocations from Lake Cachuma and the State Water
Project, and for most of those deals, payback includes water in
addition to money. Agencies’ so-called “water debt” means that
when the city of Santa Barbara purchased from the Mojave Water
Agency last year, for example, it was committing to paying back
1 acre-foot of water for every 4 acre-feet it purchased.
Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency published a
memo encouraging states, tribes, and local governments to look
to markets for help in solving stream quality issues. … Water
quality trading can lower costs and, thereby, unleash new
opportunities to improve water quality.
Cove, which is launching later this month, is packaged in a
bottle made from a biopolymer called PHA. If the bottle
ends up in a compost bin or landfill–or even the ocean–it will
fully biodegrade. … The company, which is a public
benefit corporation, has guidelines that say it won’t source
from areas that are currently in a drought.
Agricultural and environmental leaders spoke at the Water
Market Exchange Symposium in the Satellite Student Union on
Jan. 24 to share their perspectives on a water market exchange
program. The symposium featured speakers from water agencies,
environmental interests, disadvantaged community interests and
water market administrators.
Congressmen John Garamendi and Doug LaMalfa have reintroduced
legislation to provide farmers access to discounted rates under
the National Flood Insurance Program. The
bipartisan Flood Insurance for Farmers Act of
2019 (H.R.830) would also lift the de
facto federal prohibition on construction and repair of
agricultural structures in high flood-risk areas designated by
the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In the universe of California water, Tim Quinn is a professor emeritus. Quinn has seen — and been a key player in — a lot of major California water issues since he began his water career 40 years ago as a young economist with the Rand Corporation, then later as deputy general manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and finally as executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. In December, the 66-year-old will retire from ACWA.
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.
We 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.
We 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.
Groundwater overdraft in the San Joaquin Valley – producer of
half the state’s agricultural output – has averaged roughly 1.8
million acre-feet annually since the mid-1980s. Even before the
start of the most recent drought in 2011, a few San Joaquin
farmers recognized the dire need for sustainable water
management and started individually pioneering a groundwater
recharge practice that has since gained
statewide traction.
On the edge of the Mojave Desert, beneath 1,800 acres of
scrubland and tumbleweeds, California’s giant public pension
fund is trying to make a killing in the water business.
As storms hit California and the Sierra Nevada snowpack keeps
building after years of punishing drought, water managers on
the San Joaquin Valley floor are replenishing groundwater
supplies while the getting is good.
San Joaquin County water commissioners took the first formal
step Wednesday toward approving an innovative experiment to
store water below ground and share a portion of it with Bay
Area residents.
It’s too late for the current drought, but an ambitious water
bank project in the southern San Joaquin Valley would give
farmers a supplemental supply in future dry spells.
The Oakdale Irrigation District expects to reap $13.75 million
selling Stanislaus River water to buyers from the Fresno area
and on the Valley’s drought-scarred West Side, according to a
sales agreement unanimously approved Tuesday by the OID
board.
[Disque] Deane [Jr.] is not a rancher or a farmer; he’s a
hedge-fund manager who had flown in from New York City the
previous night. And as he appraised the property, he was less
interested in its crop or cattle potential than in a different
source of wealth: the water running through its streams and
coursing beneath its surface.
The Bureau of Reclamation has released for public review an
Environmental Assessment on a proposal to place temporary pumps
along a joint-use portion of the California Aqueduct. The pumps
would reverse flow so the Santa Clara Valley Water District can
recover previously banked Central Valley Project water. …
Normal operations of the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s
previously approved banking and exchange program is not
possible due to severe drought conditions.
Drought is rampant these days in many parts of
the American West, so consider this a pretty sweet gift:
You’ve just been given the rights to some water. … Your
job is to turn around and use that resource in the most
valuable way possible.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at California
groundwater and whether its sustainability can be assured by
local, regional and state management. For more background
information on groundwater please refer to the Foundation’s
Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater.
Although some water districts have coordinated use of surface
water and groundwater for years ,conjunctive use has become the
catchphrase when it comes to developing additional water supply
for the 21st century. This article focuses on conjunctive use. It
includes background information explaining how conjunctive use
works, discusses the potential storage capacity, provides an
overview of the hurdles that must be overcome to develop a
successful project, and profiles several projects.
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 2000 version offers expanded information on groundwater
banking and conjunctive use … Colorado River transfers,
CALFED’s Water Transfer Program 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.
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.
Water marketing is the transfer or sale of water or water rights
from one user to another, typically from an agricultural to an
urban water agency, often without investing in new infrastructure
Most exchanges involve a transfer of the resource itself, not a
transfer of the right to use the water.
Reallocating the available water on a supply-and-demand basis is
viewed by proponents as the best financial, political and
environmental means of accommodating an increase in population.
