As the single largest water-consuming industry, agriculture has
become a focal point for efforts to promote water conservation.
The drive for water use efficiency has become institutionalized
in agriculture through numerous federal, state and local
programs. Since the 1980s, some water districts serving
agricultural areas have developed extensive water conservation
programs to help their customers (From Aquapedia).
… By most measures, the Imperial Valley is not a great
place to grow food. Yet carrots, cauliflower, sweet onions,
honeydew, broccoli, and alfalfa all grow here, incongruous
crops that spread across half a million acres of cultivated
land. … Given the lack of rain in the region, Ronald
Leimgruber says he has “about seven” different irrigation
projects on his farm, where he grows an array of crops,
including carrots, lettuce, watermelon, and hay. Leimgruber, a
third-generation farmer whose grandparents helped build the All
American Canal, estimates he has spent millions of dollars on
various water conservation techniques over the years. Some of
that spending was subsidized by the federal government; some
came out of his own pocket. He’s not sure it was worth it,
especially because the government does not fund the upkeep of
new systems.
The Imperial County Board of Supervisors is expected Tuesday to
approve a letter to express its concerns about the Imperial
Irrigation District’s 2024-2026 System Conservation
Implementation Agreement. … The IID Board of Directors
approved a significant conservation agreement with the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) to leave up to 700,000 acre-feet
of water in Lake Mead, by conserving up to 300,000 acre-feet of
water a year through 2026. In exchange for the conservation
agreement, the IID will receive millions in federal funding for
the implementation of conservation programs … This agreement
also unlocks the balance of other funding for Salton Sea
mitigation efforts; however, the County is concerned that due
to the lack of direct engagement and consultation from the IID
during the negotiations process with USBR, other potential
health and economics impacts related to agricultural water
conservation were not considered nor addressed in the agreement
or with the associated funding.
It was an idea crafted by the Utah State Legislature to help
ensure that water saved through conservation and other efforts
could make it downstream to places like the Great Salt Lake and
Colorado River. But so far, no farmer has taken the state up on
it. “The truth is that we haven’t had the upswelling of support
and the response for a lot of change applications. And it’s
something, I think, that we are looking into, making sure that
we understand why,” said Great Salt Lake Commissioner Brian
Steed. The Utah State Legislature has spent hundreds of
millions of dollars on “agriculture optimization,” which
are incentives to get farmers and ranchers — Utah’s top water
user — to switch to new technologies that grow crops with
less water. … “Change water applications” then allow a
water rights holder who saves water through conservation to
donate or lease it to someone downstream or places like the
Great Salt Lake or Colorado River.
… Imperial Valley farmers agreed to leave many hay fields
unwatered for seven weeks this year in exchange for cash
payments from a federally funded program designed to alleviate
the water shortage on the Colorado River. Many farmers decided
that the payments — $300 per acre-foot of water conserved —
would pencil out for them this year, in part because hay prices
have recently fallen. But while the three-year deal is helping
to save water in the river’s reservoirs, some people in the
Imperial Valley say they’re concerned it’s also accelerating
the decline of the Salton Sea and worsening environmental
problems along its retreating shores. With less water running
off fields and into the sea, growing stretches of dry lakebed
are being exposed to desert winds that kick
up lung-damaging dust. At the same time, the lake is
growing saltier as it shrinks, bringing changes to a habitat
that is a vital stopover for migratory birds.
California has unveiled an ambitious plan to help combat the
worsening climate crisis with one of its invaluable assets: its
land. Over the next 20 years, the state will work to transform
more than half of its 100 million acres into multi-benefit
landscapes that can absorb more carbon than they release,
officials announced Monday. … The plan also calls for
11.9 million acres of forestland to be managed for biodiversity
protection, carbon storage and water supply protection by 2045,
and 2.7 million acres of shrublands and chaparral to be managed
for carbon storage, resilience and habitat connectivity, among
other efforts.
It was exactly the sort of deluge
California groundwater agencies have been counting on to
replenish their overworked aquifers.
The start of 2023 brought a parade of torrential Pacific storms
to bone dry California. Snow piled up across the Sierra Nevada at
a near-record pace while runoff from the foothills gushed into
the Central Valley, swelling rivers over their banks and filling
seasonal creeks for the first time in half a decade.
Suddenly, water managers and farmers toiling in one of the
state’s most groundwater-depleted regions had an opportunity to
capture stormwater and bank it underground. Enterprising agencies
diverted water from rushing rivers and creeks into manmade
recharge basins or intentionally flooded orchards and farmland.
Others snagged temporary permits from the state to pull from
streams they ordinarily couldn’t touch.
Across a sprawling corner of southern Tulare County snug against the Sierra Nevada, a bounty of navel oranges, grapes, pistachios, hay and other crops sprout from the loam and clay of the San Joaquin Valley. Groundwater helps keep these orchards, vineyards and fields vibrant and supports a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy across the valley. But that bounty has come at a price. Overpumping of groundwater has depleted aquifers, dried up household wells and degraded ecosystems.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
Groundwater helped make Kern County
the king of California agricultural production, with a $7 billion
annual array of crops that help feed the nation. That success has
come at a price, however. Decades of unchecked groundwater
pumping in the county and elsewhere across the state have left
some aquifers severely depleted. Now, the county’s water managers
have less than a year left to devise a plan that manages and
protects groundwater for the long term, yet ensures that Kern
County’s economy can continue to thrive, even with less water.
As California embarks on its unprecedented mission to harness groundwater pumping, the Arizona desert may provide one guide that local managers can look to as they seek to arrest years of overdraft.
Groundwater is stressed by a demand that often outpaces natural and artificial recharge. In California, awareness of groundwater’s importance resulted in the landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2014 that aims to have the most severely depleted basins in a state of balance in about 20 years.
The message is oft-repeated that
water must be conserved and used as wisely as possible.
The California Water Code calls water use efficiency “the
efficient management of water resources for beneficial uses,
preventing waste, or accomplishing additional benefits with the
same amount of water.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
As the single largest water-consuming industry, agriculture has
become a focal point for efforts to promote water conservation.
In turn, discussions about agricultural water use often become
polarized.
With this in mind, the drive for water use
efficiency has become institutionalized in agriculture
through numerous federal, state and local programs.
