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

Farmers are not water hogs, but real question is, how much do they use?

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 30, 2007 at 8:17 pm

Here’s a guest editorial from The Vacaville Reporter:

As your editorial, “Drips and drops” (The Reporter, Sept. 21) points out, everyone can play a role in increased conservation and I agree. However, I do not agree with your statement that agriculture uses 80 percent of the state’s water. This is a myth that is repeated over and over again.

California farmers use only 41 percent of our state’s water, according to the California Department of Water Resources. The rest of the water is divided according to urban uses, 11 percent, and environmental uses, 48 percent. Why the media and others continue to trumpet this myth is beyond me.

Well, perhaps it is because of this webpage on the Department of Water Resources website:

California agriculture uses roughly 30 million acre-feet of water a year on 9.6 million acres. California’s vast water infrastructure was developed to provide water for irrigation with agriculture using 80% of California’s developed water supply.

How much do farmers use? DWR says 80%, California Farm Water Coalition says this:

What percentage of the state’s developed water supply is used by farmers? That question has resulted in multiple answers most frequently printed in the news media. The most damaging answer to farmers is 80 percent. Unfortunately, that is an incorrect answer. The correct answer is farmers use only 43 percent of the state’s developed water supply. The largest user of this water is the environment at 46 percent while homes/businesses use the remaining 11 percent.

So who do you believe. Department of Water Resources? California Farm Water Coaliton? There seems to me to be a major discrepancy here. Aqua Blog Maven is confused! Does anyone have any insights?

The editorial in the Vacaville Reporter also goes on to say this:

Your claim that farmers pay “cheap, subsidized prices” for their water is also not true. Contracts and laws require that farmers pay their full share of the costs for delivering water to their farms. Farmers have increased their water use efficiency over the years. During the last three years farmers spent more than half-a-billion dollars to install new drip irrigation systems in the San Joaquin Valley.

To read the full text of this editorial from the Vacaville Reporter, click here. To visit the California Farm Water Coalition, click here.

September 30, 2007 · Filed Under Agriculture

Comments

Leave a Reply