A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 21, 2008
2. Supply –
Editorial
Our Opinion: Shortage declaration requires work
Now that the Imperial Irrigation District board has taken the first and early step of declaring a water shortage, it has the task of reconstituting a water-rationing program that couldn’t even get off the ground earlier this year for lack of participation.
The district unanimously voted to declare a supply-demand imbalance Tuesday after it was projected that the district would overrun its allotment of
With a continuing Western drought and the Imperial Valley struggling to live both within the confines of the Quantification Settlement Agreement while still trying to make money as the country’s winter breadbasket, the IID board trumpeted the idea that the way farmers do business must change.
We agree, but agreeing on how that change will occur is a whole other ballgame.
Last year, when the IID declared a water shortage (which was later rescinded because of significant rainfall in the latter half of the year), IID started a series of public workshops to decide how the water-rationing program would work. The program became a voluntary pilot program set to launch this year as a trial run but failed due to the lack of response when only two dozen farmers signed up.
The program’s failure stemmed from disagreements between the farm community and IID over how the equitable distribution of water would occur. IID wanted a straight-line method in which farmers were allotted so many acre-feet of water per acre farmed. Some in the farming community, however, wanted the water divvied up based off historical usage.
Now, with the SDI already declared, IID must restart the process to find an agreeable method of water-rationing, and that process will start in the next few weeks when the first workshops begin.
No matter what method is decided upon, something has to give in the way farmers use water on a daily basis. The projected overrun is such that the SDI isn’t likely to be canceled, as it was last year.
Farmers must find new and innovative ways to still grow their products while living within the parameters of the QSA. It just has to happen; there is no other way.
Water rationing isn’t something to be taken lightly, but it is something that probably should have started years ago, at least in the sense of getting a head start on finding common ground between water users and the IID.
This will be an important next few months in trying to establish a water-rationing program. We hope it can be done civilly and effectively. More importantly, we hope it can be done at all … period.#
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2008/08/21/our_opinion/ed02_08-21-08.txt
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