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Friends of the River commentary on the other great debate going on right now - that over agricultural water use

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 3, 2008 at 1:30 pm

From Friends of the River, this commentary by Executive Director Paul Tebbel:

There is a great debate going on at the moment, but you probably have not heard about it. No, we are not talking about last night’s Biden-Palin moderated argument. We are talking about the debate surrounding California and agricultural water use. How big is the issue? What’s at stake? Well, agriculture uses roughly 80% of the water consumed in California. That water mostly comes from rivers… places you probably care about like the Sacramento River, San Joaquin River, Feather River, Trinity River… the Tuolumne, Mokelumne and more. The more water used for crops the less water stays in those rivers.

Agriculture is important. Agriculture is a big part of the economy of California, which is a big part of the economy of the country. Agriculture actually produces something of value (no credit default swaps or collateralized debt obligations are grown in the Central Valley fields). Still, a year of drought like we’ve had also draws sharp attention to the fact that there simply is not enough water to go around. What can be done?

The Pacific Institute has written a wonderful report that outlines possible solutions and charts a path towards a more sustainable water future for California. Unfortunately, it’s pretty dense stuff and hard to get through. I’ve written a Cliff-Notes summary of the report and we’ve put in on our website here. We hope you take a few moments to read our condensed, lay person version. We think it’s important information for those tens of thousands of people who love rivers. We also think it’s important for people that may not love rivers but simply like to drink water, and by last count there are about 37 million people that fit that description in the Golden State.

Click here for the Friends of the River take on the Pacific Institute report on agricultural water conservation.

October 3, 2008 · Filed Under Agriculture, Conservation

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