Water Education Foundation
This is just one post in the Imperial Valley Category
Click here to view all posts

Monday’s top of the scroll: Empty fields fill urban basins and farmers’ pockets

Posted by: Maven on October 24, 2011 at 7:24 am

From the New York Times:

“Three generations of Al Kalin's family have worked their 2,000 acres of carrots and sugar beets, wheat and alfalfa for almost a century in the Imperial Valley, a scorching swath of Southern California desert that was unfit for farming until water from the Colorado River was diverted here in 1901.

The Salton Sea is fed by irrigation runoff from farms. Environmentalists say the Imperial Valley’s water transfer deals are harming the shrinking lake.

But now Mr. Kalin and his brother enjoy a choice that their parents and grandparents never had. They can continue to farm all their land, or they can stop farming some of it and earn more than $500 an acre more than the market value of a crop like alfalfa in a given year simply by not using the water required to nourish those crops. Water saved is sent on to thirsty cities and suburbs to the west: San Diego, Los Angeles and Palm Springs. … “

Continue reading from the New York Times by clicking here.

October 24, 2011 · Filed Under Imperial Valley

Comments

Leave a Reply