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Drought may cut off federal water to California farms, devastate farmers

Posted by: Maven on February 22, 2009 at 8:22 am

Here’s the obligatory third-day posting on the drought, with links on the bottom for more drought stories posted in recent days. From the Capital Press:

State and federal water officials delivered dire news Friday, saying users would receive anywhere between 0 and 15 percent of contracted deliveries in 2009.

California’s recent rains, along with those forecast for the coming week, will prove barely a drop in the bucket, said Lester Snow, director of the state Department of Water Resources. Snow announced that the state’s early estimate of 15 percent of contracted water deliveries would remain unchanged.

“The message here today is California remains in a very severe drought condition,” Snow said. “These storms have been great, but they have done nothing to alleviate the drought conditions in this state.”

The low deliveries from the State Water Project could cause thousands of acres in the San Joaquin Valley to be taken out of production this year, Snow said.

Of water from the federal Central Valley Project, agricultural users will receive anywhere from 0 to 10 percent of contracted allocations, said Donald Glaser, regional director of the Bureau of Reclamation’s Mid-Pacific Region.

As many as 1 million acres of Central Valley land will not receive any federal water this year, Glaser said.

“The Central Valley Project would (normally) deliver between 6 and 7 million acre-feet of water to water users north and south of the delta,” Glaser said. “This year we will probably deliver about 3 million acre-feet. Bottom line, it’s going to be a tough year for us.”

Read more from the Capital Press by clicking here.

The drought and the water cutbacks were the subject of NPR’s All Things Considered:

The long-running California drought has so parched water resources in the state that federal water managers announced Friday they would likely completely cut surface water deliveries to some key growing areas. The state estimates the water cutoff could cost $1 billion in lost farm revenue and cost 40,000 jobs.

Click here to listen to the 4 minute segment from NPR’s All Things Considered.

An editorial in today’s Manteca Bulletin reminds us that wasting water is wasting our economic wealth:

California as we know it was made possible by the ability to transfer water from areas of the state with great abundance to the Mediterranean-style dry climate regions of the state that lacked adequate precipitation. It is what created our agricultural production that is second to none on earth. It is also what created our great coastal cities. It is what made towns like Manteca, Ripon, and Lathrop possible.

The experts say the drought in 1976-77 wasn’t as severe as what we’re experiencing today. That’s scary for several reasons. First, there are 15 million more Californians today – 38 million in all – than there was in 1977. The reason we have been able to get as far as we have in the current three year drought without major cutbacks to this point has to do with conservation efforts, particularly among the farming community.

Pumping water costs money. If you doubt that ask a farmer how much his PG&E bill is each month. Irrigation water from surface sources is also costly. So farmers – particularly those who aren’t corporate endeavors such as down the west side of the Southern San Joaquin Valley – have come up with innovative ways to use less water. The same is true of urban users although their water reduction numbers aren’t quite as impressive as the farming community.

And by all indications, we can still cut water use further by doing everything from watering lawns less – the first drought we learned we had been overwatering them and helping keep them a bit unhealthy – to cutting down on the length of showers.

Water is California’s lifeblood.

Spilling it in waste is the same as squandering our future.

Read the full text of this editorial from the Manteca Bulletin by clicking here.

FOR MORE DROUGHT COVERAGE ON AQUAFORNIA:

Coverage wrap up from yesterday (Saturday): Drought still on tap; rain did little to fill major Northern California reservoirs; Farms and cities prepare for the worst

Check out California’s drought in pictures and graphs by clicking here.

Read DWR’s press release announcing that State Water Project allocations will remain at 15% by clicking here.

Read the Bureau of Reclamation’s press release, announcing the CVP’s allocation of 0 (to 10%) for ag this year by clicking here.

Even more stories by clicking here (category page for Drought, Weather & Snowpack articles), or simply keep reading the scroll.

February 22, 2009 · Filed Under Drought, Weather & Snowpack

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