Drought leaves growers desperate for water

It’s being called the most significant water crisis in California’s history. A combination of drought, court rulings and an aging, inadequate infrastructure is severely squeezing the state’s water supply. Things are looking grim for everybody, especially growers who need water for their crops.

“It’s looking as dire as it can look,” said Ara Azhderian, water policy administrator for the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority.

On Feb. 20, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced that farmers supplied by the Central Valley Project – a federal water system that stretches hundreds of miles through California’s agricultural breadbasket – would receive none of their allocated water this year. Not one drop.

Growers supplied from state water sources won’t fare much better. Azhderian said their allocation would be 15 percent of normal.

It’s too early to fathom the full impact these massive shortages will have on California agriculture – including the state’s millions of acres of vegetables and fruit – but it’s safe to say it’s going to be disastrous. A University of California study estimated the state could lose $2.8 billion in revenue this year to the drought, and 95,000 jobs.
Growers in the Westlands Water District – which covers 600,000 irrigated acres in the San Joaquin Valley – have already destroyed thousands of acres of almond orchards and will fallow more than 300,000 acres of land in response to the shortages. The city of Mendota’s unemployment rate has soared to 40 percent, according to Tom Birmingham, the district’s general manager.

Westlands Water District is part of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, which is part of the Central Valley Project. Azhderian, the authority’s water policy administrator, said growers wholly reliant on federal water would bear the brunt of the current crisis. Those who supplement their federal supply using groundwater or other private sources will limp along, but won’t have nearly enough to cover all their needs. They’ll be lucky if they can keep their orchards alive, he said.

According to California’s Department of Water Resources, precipitation and river runoff in California have been below average since fall 2006. Key reservoirs are at one-fourth capacity. The shortages have been compounded by court-ordered reductions in water diversions to protect fish.

Add all that to an infrastructure that is decades old and was designed for half of California’s current population, and it’s no surprise the state is running out of water. People have seen this coming for some time, Azhderian said.

“The impacts of the drought are exaggerated by a broken water system,” he said, a system that is “structurally incapable of dealing with the needs of today.”

New storage reservoirs and canals are needed and existing facilities need to be repaired. In short, California’s water system needs a complete overhaul. The state’s regulatory construct needs to be fixed, too; it needs more flexibility, according to Azhderian and others.

Plans are in the works to do those things, but it’s going to take years. In the meantime, growers are going to have to do whatever they can to survive.

Of course, survival can be difficult when you have bills to pay but no crops to profit from. Some growers are shifting their crops to the northern part of the state, where there’s more water. Others are drilling more wells, but sensitive crops don’t react positively to the high salinity of groundwater, said David Zoldoske, director of California State University’s Center for Irrigation Technology.



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