News articles and links from June 12, 2014

Environmentalists urge conservation as Calif. lawmakers bicker over drought From: Sharon Bernstein, Reuters Drought-stricken California could increase its water supply by a third by reusing water that would otherwise go down the drain and saving storm runoff, environmentalists said on Tuesday amid wrangling over the state's response to dry conditions. Report: Calif. could save plenty of water by recycling and conserving and storing rainwater runoff From: Raju Chebium, Gannett Washington    California could save more water than what its cities use in a year by ramping up its conservation and recycling programs and storing rain water instead of letting it run off into the Pacific Ocean, according to a report released Tuesday.

BLOG: Dueling Drought Strategies: Save More Water or Store More Water From: Lauren Sommer, KQED There's no doubt that in California, water is in short supply this year. How to avoid the same situation when the next drought descends is, on the other hand, a matter of debate. Two competing camps have emerged about how to boost California's water supplies during dry times: conserve more water or build more water storage.

Water-saving techniques should be taught to farmers, study urges From: J.N. Sbranti, Modesto Bee Farmers need to be more water efficient, and government funds should be used to help train them how, according to a new study.

The Coalition issued the following response to the above articles

Coalition response... Beware offers of easy money, rapid weight loss, and simple California water solutions. Environmental interest groups, like Pacific Institute and NRDC have sought for years to sell the public a message of vast waste, which when eliminated - will solve our every water woe. Unfortunately, this report is more of the same. Previous research on which agricultural water conservation potential in this report was soundly dismissed by leading agricultural researchers in 2009. There simply isn't 5 million acre-feet of water being wasted by the farmers growing our food and fiber. Where appropriate, and as feasible, California's farmers are already investing in drip and precision irrigation, soil moisture monitoring, and irrigation scheduling. From 2003 through 2013 California farmers have invested about $3 billion upgrading the irrigation systems on almost 2.5 million acres. Farmers are also intelligently selecting furrow irrigation, which, when coupled with laser leveling, adept irrigation practices, and careful monitoring has been proven by irrigation researchers to be highly efficient. Growers choose their irrigation methods based on the crop, the terrain, the geology, as well as economics. They manage that water to ensure optimal plant health, food and fiber productivity, as well as cost. The water problems facing our state demand serious solutions.

Report: State can conserve much more water From: Seth Nidever, Hanford Sentinel How do you solve California's water problem? Enhance water efficiency on the farm and in the home, capture more urban stormwater and reuse it, according to a report released Tuesday by the Bay Area-based Pacific Institute. The potential is there to save up to 14 million additional acre-feet - more than the annual use of all California cities combined, according to the study, which was conducted jointly with the Natural Resources Defense Council. Coalition response... Leading irrigation researchers categorically refuted the conservation potentials research this report is based on. There simply isn't 5 million acre-feet of water being wasted by the farmers growing our food and fiber. California's farmers will continue investing in improving the efficiency of their irrigation, as they have long recognized the plant health and productivity benefits.

Other News

Water Transfers

Environmental lawsuit filed to stop water transfer package From: Heather Hacking, Chico Enterprise Record A lawsuit was filed Wednesday in federal District Court for the Eastern District of California against the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, stating a proposed package of San Luis and Delta Mendota Water Authority transfers require a full environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act. Sending water from Northern California to other parts of the state has to stop, at least long enough for an environmental review of the long-term impacts, said Barbara Vlamis of Chico's AquAlliance.

Lawsuit targets Delta water shipments From: Alex Breitler, Stockton RecordEnvironmentalists sued Wednesday to block proposed water transfers from Northern California to the drought-plagued south San Joaquin Valley, arguing that the plan fails to protect the fragile Delta. Under the federal government's plan, willing sellers in the north would allow water to flow down the Sacramento River into the Delta, where the giant export pumps near Tracy would deliver it to southland farms, where very little water is available this summer.

Water Supply

Patterson Irrigation District to face water crisis by state's proposed curtailments From: Brooke Borba, Patterson IrrigatorDrought conditions have reached a new plateau this year, urging the State Water Resources Control Board to consider declaring a state of emergency at their next board meeting on June 17 and 18. As a result, the State Water Board is considering curtailing senior water rights holders in Sacramento and the San Joaquin Valley River such as Patterson Irrigation District, which could pose problems for over 700 local landowners and growers alike.

Drought Outlook: 'Disastrous Consequences' If 2015 Is Dry From: Craig Miller, KQEDThe assertion in a new report on California's long-term water woes likely comes as no surprise to most Californians: "A dry 2015 would have disastrous consequences for agencies and sectors up and down the state." That ominous prediction is part of a "drought action report" released this week by the Association of California Water Agencies, whose members manage about 90 percent of Californians' water. The document attempts to identify key vulnerabilities to the state's water system and offers recommendations that its authors say could stave off the worst impacts of a protracted drought.

Water Rights

Discussion on 100-year-old water rights delayed until July From: J.N. Sbranti, Merced Sun-StarThe State Water Resources Control Board will push back its discussion of curtailing 100-year-old water rights to July 1. The board planned to bring up the controversial issue at its meeting next week, but apparently its staff needs more time to prepare. "Our Division of Water Rights has had a number of responsibilities, including issuing curtailment letters to various watersheds, so has been very busy these past several weeks," Kathie Smith, a spokesperson for the board, explained Wednesday. "We just needed some more time to get language ready for the hearing, so it was rescheduled. These things happen."

San Joaquin River   OPINION: Why I'm planning to kayak (and walk) America's 'most endangered' river From: John Sutter, CNNIn California, water flows uphill toward money and power. That's a well-known maxim out here, especially in the Dust-Bowl-ready Central Valley -- that forgotten stretch of California that grows 40% of U.S. fruits, nuts and other table foods. Meet a few people and it's easy to see why.

News articles and links from March 24, 2014

Delta

Drying up the delta: 19th century policies underlie today's crises

From: Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times

A shallow inland sea spreads across more than 160 square miles, speckled with egrets poking for crayfish among jewel-green rice shoots. The flooded fields could be mistaken for the rice paddies of Vietnam or southern China, but this is Northern California at the onset of severe drought. The scene is a testament to the inequities of California's system of water rights, a hierarchy of haves as old as the state.

Thanks to seniority, powerful Central Valley irrigation districts that most Californians have never heard of are at the head of the line for vast amounts of water, even at the expense of the environment and the rest of the state.

Coalition response... Water use and water rights have come a long way since the 19th century practice of nailing a post to a tree. The State Water Resources Control Board, charged with overseeing the proper allocation and efficient use of water alone is staffed by a bureaucracy of 1,500 regulators reporting to the Board. Permits are challenging to acquire and take years to navigate through review and challenges by environmental interest groups like NRDC.

It's no surprise that California values protecting the environment, including the endangered species in the Delta - it's such a high priority in fact, that we have proactively allocated 48% of our available water supply to environmental water uses without requiring that environmental water uses demonstrate or quantify benefits to the environment. We have, to date blindly hoped that increasing Delta flows would produce beneficial outcomes for those threatened and endangered species.

Water use in California agriculture has never been more efficient. California's farmers in the Central Valley have invested more than $3 billion dollars on 2.4 million acres to improve the efficiency of their irrigation systems. These improvements would be the envy of many 20th century countries, to say nothing of 19th century Californians. Between 1967 and 2007 California farmers have almost doubled their productive yield, improving quality, while using 14% less water to do it.

Water Supply 

California drought: Central Valley farmland on its last legs

From: Carolyn Lochhead, San Francisco Chronicle

Even before the drought, the southern San Joaquin Valley was in big trouble.

Decades of irrigation have leached salts and toxic minerals from the soil that have nowhere to go, threatening crops and wildlife. Aquifers are being drained at an alarming pace. More than 95 percent of the area's native habitat has been destroyed by cultivation or urban expansion, leaving more endangered bird, mammal and other species in the southern San Joaquin than anywhere in the continental U.S.

Coalition response... This year's drought gives us a sample of what California can expect from a land fallowing program the scale of the one being proposed. Agricultural economists say this year's idling of 800,000 acres or more of farmland in California will cost 20,000 jobs and roughly a $7.5 billion hit to the economy. The environmental community never talks about the downside of wholesale land retirement but it's there - and it's not good. What are the costs of 20,000 more unemployed, underemployed, or on the welfare roll? How will we pay those costs when the tax base is eroded due to land that is no longer growing food? The jobs California farms generate don't stop at the farm gate. They include jobs in processing, trucking, wholesale and retail as well as high-paying jobs at ports in the Bay Area and Southern California.

Alternatively, we can use today's technology to resolve drainage issues and make the land better. Last week The Chronicle ran a story on the success underway of using solar energy to desalinate poor water and return it to irrigate productive cropland. This year Panoche Water District says the project will deliver 45,000 acre feet of reclaimed water to farmers in the area. In the long run it can produce much more, keep valuable farmland in production, solve drainage issues and add to the state's water supply. That sounds much better than unemployment and food lines.

Water Bond 

California drought: So many water bonds, so little time

From: Jessica Calefati, San Jose Mercury News

As California's drought drags on, more farmers are being forced to fallow fields and a growing number of small towns run out of water. So Republicans and Democrats here finally agree on something: They need to spend billions of dollars to fix California's broken water system.

But that doesn't mean getting a water bond on November's ballot that voters will approve is a sure thing.

Gov. Jerry Brown hasn't even decided whether he supports the idea, while the Legislature has come up with seven different schemes aimed at making the next drought a lot less painful.

Coalition response... Unlike NRDC and the Sierra Club, the California Farm Water Coalition does not engage in lobbying activity of any kind. The CFWC was formed to help inform the public on agricultural water issues and seeks to keep a growing urban population connected with California's farmers who grow the food and fiber we all rely on.  While we are not a lobbying group, we believe people should understand that the Wolk bill does not provide sufficient funding to meet the new demands for storage that provide water supply and in-Delta water quality benefits.

Water Rights

California drought puts spotlight on water theft

From: Matt Weiser, Sacramento Bee

It's amazingly easy to steal water from a California stream. Even in this epic drought, the state has no way of monitoring exactly who is tapping into its freshwater supplies and how much they take. And those who do get caught taking water they have no right to often are allowed to keep taking it for years just by promising to obtain a permit.

Nearly 30,000 entities in the state hold valid water diversion permits, including individual property owners, farmers and water utilities. Some have meters or gauges to measure their diversions, but the state has no ability of its own to monitor those gauges in real-time.

Transfers

LETTER: OID's water sales benefit district

From: Steve Knell, Modesto Bee

Last Sunday's Modesto Bee focused attention on the relationship between groundwater pumping and out-of-area water transfers by some irrigation districts ("Continuing to pump districts sell surplus")

The tone of the article was less than positive and fully avoids the broader issues of resource management.

Water transfers and pumping groundwater are but two of a very complex set of resource activities available to irrigation districts. For Oakdale Irrigation District, how all these activities relate to our water business is fully covered in OID's Water Resources Plan, which was adopted in 2006 after a 21/2-year environmental review process. OID is on target with that document and our accomplishments speak for themselves in this drought.

MID revisits internal transfers

From: Garth Stapley, Modesto Bee

A debate over farmers selling each other water will resurface at Tuesday's Modesto Irrigation District board meeting.

A month ago, the board took unprecedented action by embracing an open-market approach to water transfers, agreeing on a 3-2 vote to let growers negotiate transfers at any price. But both board members on the short end of that vote have said it's not a done deal.

"I will make an argument to rescind it on Tuesday," said board vice chairman Larry Byrd. Opponents of the open-market approach think the water rightfully belongs to everyone and don't like the idea of wealthy farmers outmuscling small growers with less to spend.

Water Storage 

EDITORIAL: Sites Reservoir good for North State and California

From: Staff, Redding Record-Searchlight

If luck - and political will - holds, Sites Reservoir might just be the overnight success that was a lifetime in the making.

It's easy to grow discouraged at the slow machinations of government, and indeed the path to this point has been awfully circular for a project that makes sense on its merits, respects the environment and gains a fast-growing state about 1.9 million acre feet in new water storage capacity.

Statewide drought is drying up Millerton Lake

From: Mariana Jacob, KFSN 30

People all over the state headed outside to enjoy the warm weather on Sunday, but the dry conditions across California are also affecting water levels at local lakes and reservoirs.

At Millerton Lake, miles and miles of parched soil remain where there was once water. According to the State Department of Water Resources, the lake is currently at 32 percent of total capacity.

Congress focuses on dams amid California's drought

From: Kevin Freking, AP

California's drought has sparked a new push by federal lawmakers to create or expand a handful of reservoirs around the state, ramping up a political battle that former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger once referred to as a "holy war in some ways."

Government agencies have been studying five major water storage projects for nearly two decades, with nothing to show for the effort so far.

Groundwater

OPINION: A farmer's perspective on groundwater

From: David Mas Masumoto, Sacramento Bee

In this drought year, it's my only hope. Yet I can't see it, hear it or feel it. It lies hidden deep beneath my farm. Without it, my farm and my neighbors go thirsty. All my senses focus on groundwater.

With a depleted snowpack in the Sierra and record low reservoirs, thousands of Central Valley farms will depend on water extracted from wells to keep their plants alive and to grow food. Hundreds of pumps in Valley cities and towns also supply water to tens of thousands of thirsty households. Farmers and city folks will pray our machines will continue to suck water from aquifers below our lands.

California drought: How water crisis is worse for almonds

From: Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle

A huge shift away from annual crops to nut trees has transformed the California farm belt over the past two decades and left farmers perilously vulnerable to the severe drought that is currently gripping the state.

California farmers have spent past years busily ripping out lettuce, tomatoes and other annual crops in an attempt to sate the nation's growing appetite for almonds, pistachios and other nuts.

California drought to drive up food prices for Marin shoppers

From: Dana Hull & Megan Hansen, Marin Independent Journal

With 2013 the driest year on record and 2014 possibly worse, the devastation of California's drought is trickling down to crops, fields, farmers markets, grocery stores - and Marin residents' kitchen tables.

While it's too early to tell precisely how much the drought will push up household grocery bills, economists say consumers can expect to pay more for food later this year because fewer acres of land are being planted and crop yields are shrinking.

Food costs increase as farmers pay more for water

From: Christien Kafton, KYVU 2

California farmers are saying the drought means they're paying more for water, and have no choice but to pass those costs on to consumers.

Miguel Cuevas works for Cipponeri Farms in Turlock. He says one of the major canals that brings water to Central Valley farms is bone dry, and that his farm and others will have to pay more for water in the months to come.

Meetings 

LETTER: Firebaugh water rally deserved news coverage

From: Amanda Carvajal, Merced Sun-Star

California is in the midst of the worst drought on record. Even when the region was blessed with a little precipitation, much of the water was forced out to the ocean instead of stored because of federal protections of the Delta smelt. Farmers who have been making every effort to conserve, while still managing to produce large quantities, are left scratching their heads in frustration. When the State Water Resources Control Board declared it would make one of the most significant water grabs in history, the contracted landowners' frustrations peaked.

Why did over 1,200 California farmers sign a letter to Congress?

California farmers recognize the dire situation this year’s drought brings. So much so that more than more than 1,200 of them signed a letter to the state’s Washington, D.C. delegation insisting that they set aside political differences and work together to address the water supply crisis. With State and federal water projects announcing an initial allocation of zero for the first time in history and statewide, on average, farm water users expecting only a third of their normal supplies, it is understandable that thousands have stepped forward to make their voices heard.

What used to be a vibrant almond orchard

In 2011 California’s water system was all but overflowing. At the start of 2013 water storage levels were above average but allocations were below average. That should have been a wake-up call to our Washington representatives but it wasn’t. Today, with environmental allocations driving down storage levels and hydrology as bad as it is we have reached a crisis in record time. And still, political paralysis is preventing actions that could provide relief.

“As we speak this very moment there’s 25,000 (cubic feet per second) flowing as outflow out to the ocean. At the same time, we’re pumping 4,400 cfs,” said Dan Nelson, head of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, at a drought meeting held at U.C. Merced yesterday, as reported by Stockton Record writer Alex Brietler.

San Luis Reservoir

“I ask you,” Nelson said, addressing State Water Resources Control Board Chair Felicia Marcus, “is this the balance that you anticipated? Is this the balance that you’re working for? I don’t think so. We knew this storm was going to happen last week. Why didn’t we prepare for it?”

Marcus responded that the state board is waiting for an emergency request from the state and federal water projects, which could alter how much water can be pumped south.

“My understanding is they’re talking about it,” she said. “We can’t do it on our own.”

But the spike in flows will probably last only another four or five days, Nelson countered. “While we set up forums to talk about it, water’s flowing to the ocean.”

In the ancient fable, Nero fiddled while Rome burned. In California, more than 1,200 farmers are demanding that that doesn’t happen again.  They are insisting that their elected representatives address the imbalance between water users and the environment and to move forward on storage projects that would lessen the impact of future droughts.

Their message to Washington politicians about working together to solve the water crisis is this: “Anything less will be your collective failure.”

A tour of Baker Farming Co.

This past Friday I had the opportunity to visit Baker Farming Co. in Firebaugh, CA. Baker Farming Co. is a family farm and is managed by Sergio O. who has worked for on their farm for almost 28 years. Sergio was my tour guide and a great one at that! The farm is in the midst of harvesting grapes and almonds, their two main crops.

We started off by driving through a small portion of their 11,000 acres until we reached rows and rows of grapes. Baker Farming Co. grows 7 different varieties of grapes including Merlot, Muscat and Cabernet Sauvignon. The farm has about 2,600 acres of grapes. Baker Farming Co. sells their grapes to local company The Wine Group who then makes the wine and bottles it under a variety of labels. Here are some pictures of the grape harvest:

Grape Harvester

Harvesting in progress

Grapes on the vine

Then it was off to a quick stop to check out some pomegranates. They had already completed the first pomegranate harvest of the season and are awaiting the second. Sergio explained that the first harvest is used for the fresh market which means those are the pomegranates sold in stores. This second harvest is used for pomegranate juice.

Pomegranate

After enjoying a pomegranate fresh off the vine, we headed over to see the almond harvest. Baker Farming Co. has about 6,500 acres of almonds. Last year they produced 16 million pounds of almonds and are on track to produce about 12-13 million pounds this year. Having never seen an almond harvest before I was amazed at the process. First, a machine called an almond shaker grasps the trunk of the tree and literally shakes the almonds off the tree. From there they are “swept” into a nice line, called a window, down the center of the tree row and then another machine comes by and collects them. Baker Farming Co. has a processing facility on site so once collected the almonds are taken there where they are hulled and shelled and eventually ready to send to stores. Sergio told me that nothing is wasted at Baker Farming Co., so the shells the almonds are in are ground and sold to ranchers for feed.  And now, pictures from the almond harvest:

Recently shaken almonds

Almonds collected in a field cart

As we all know, without water these crops would not grow. According to Sergio, water is one of their largest expenses on the farm. Baker Farming Co. pays anywhere from $300-$450/acre foot. Sergio says Baker Farming Co. finds that it is just as cost efficient for them to buy their water than to run wells because of the cost of diesel and electricity.

I’d like to thank Baker Farming Co. and Sergio for being such great hosts and for teaching me about their farm and for providing me with a first hand look at harvesting. It was a morning well spent!