Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
January 26, 2009
Top Items –
Farmers feel squeeze, which could worsen
Calif farmers idle crops, veggie prices may rise
Associated Press
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Farmers feel squeeze, which could worsen
By Michael Gardner
Not so in the state's heartland.
“Right now is the most critical time the (area) has ever faced,” said John Harris, whose family has farmed and raised cattle off Interstate 5 near Coalinga since 1937. His company has laid off 80 full-time workers and reduced plantings by 9,000 acres over the past two years.
On Friday, federal water officials issued a statement describing the upcoming season as “challenging,” given plunging reservoir levels. Farmers will be told what their initial water allocation will be on Feb. 20, which will help guide planting decisions. The amount can be modified based on changing weather conditions.
The Westlands Water District, which provides irrigation water for a half-million acres of cotton, produce and nuts along the west side of the
Separately, state water deliveries to other farm and urban customers are shrinking. The Department of Water Resources has already told the Metropolitan Water District and its other customers that deliveries out of
“We're barely holding on to 15 percent,” said Lester Snow, director of the Department of Water Resources. The State Water Project serves more than 25 million Californians and irrigates 750,000 acres of farmland.
Water shortages are so acute that pressure is growing on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to formally ask the Obama administration to convene the so-called “God Squad” – a panel of Cabinet secretaries who have the authority to sidestep provisions of the Endangered Species Act.
That unusual step could fundamentally alter a federal court ruling that requires the state to reserve about 600,000 acre-feet of water – enough for 1.2 million households a year – to protect rare smelt threatened by pumping water out of the Sacramento Delta.
“That has been brought up as an action of last resort,” Snow said. The panel's review could take as long as 18 months, so it's no panacea for the immediate problem, he added.
Jeffrey Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District, said his board is not one of those pushing for that approach. “It's a very tough road,” Kightlinger said. “It's much better to try to work our way through this first.”
More immediately, unless a steady stream of snow-packed storms arrive within the next few months, Metropolitan and its customers, among them the San Diego County Water Authority, could be forced to impose rationing beginning July 1 for the first time since 1991.
Kightlinger said his board is moving deliberatively, hoping for late storms. Weighing heavily, he said, is history. In 1991, Metropolitan's initially ordered cutbacks ranging from 30 percent to 50 percent during the early winter, drawing sharp criticism from many quarters. Then, after a “Miracle March” of downpours, Metropolitan canceled the reductions.
Dennis Cushman, assistant general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority, said the board agrees with an “orderly progression” rather than rushed implementation.
“The fundamental principle the water authority looks at is what is going to be the impact and minimizing that impact on our economy,” Cushman said.
Both agencies are expected to determine by April whether rationing will be necessary, giving agencies time to implement the reductions by July 1.
But rationing has already become a way of life in the
The state blames water shortages for $308 million in lost farm income across
Richard Howitt, an economics professor at the
In the Westlands district, officials estimate that nearly 1,500 jobs were lost in 2008. If no water is delivered this year, 2,000 more could disappear.
Stuart Woolf, president of a diversified family operation in Huron, said his company has already taken out 1,000 acres of lettuce, pulled 850 acres of almond trees and shut down its cotton gin.
“We just bit the bullet and walked away from the investment,” Woolf said.
Piling on the woes, bankers have issued a warning: no water, no loans. “My assessment is prepare for the worst,” said Cornelius Gallagher, an agricultural specialist for Bank of America.
Consumers won't be immune either. Another year of idle fields and dry cattle pastures could lead to an increase in prices at the grocery store. A more long-term fear, growers say, is that food companies will turn to foreign suppliers if they cannot count on
Making matters worse: Cities and farmers may not be able to readily turn to once-reliable standbys for additional supply – reservoirs, transfers and groundwater – to bail them out. Just about every major reservoir in
Environmental restrictions on pumping have stymied some plans to transfer water into Metropolitan's
Groundwater basins are being seriously depleted, and the cost of drilling wells to as deep as 2,000 feet is fast becoming prohibitive.
All of this has sent the state, water agencies and farmers searching for additional supplies.
Snow, the state's water czar, said he is looking for 600,000 acre-feet that could be transferred to the most thirsty regions. “We're having difficulty finding sellers to match that,” he said. Instead, the state may have to settle for a quarter of the goal, he said.
The San Diego County Water Authority, which bought 23,000 acre-feet in 2008, wants to double its purchases this year. So far, it has almost locked up 12,500 acre-feet.
To add to the gloomy outlook, the prospect for storms that could provide much-needed relief is not good. But Snow said the late-winter and spring months can sometimes yield surprises, as the rains of March 1991 proved.
“Miracles can happen,” he said. #
Calif farmers idle crops, veggie prices may rise
Associated Press – 1/25/09
By TRACIE CONE and GARANCE BURKE Associated Press Writers
MENDOTA, Calif.—Consumers may pay more for spring lettuce and summer melons in grocery stores across the country now that California farmers have started abandoning their fields in response to a crippling drought.
Federal officials' recent announcement that the water supply they pump through the nation's largest farm state would drop further was enough to move John "Dusty" Giacone to forego growing vegetables so he can save his share to drip-irrigate 1,000 acres of almond trees.
"Taking water from a farmer is like taking a pipe from a plumber," said Giacone, a fourth-generation farmer in the tiny community of Mendota. "How do you conduct business?"
The giants of
This year, officials in
That alone could cause a slight bump in consumer prices, unless lettuce companies can make up for the shortage by growing in areas with an abundant water supply, or the cost of cooling, packaging and shipping the crop suddenly goes down, experts say.
"Lettuce comes off the field and goes straight into the market, and if there's nothing coming off the field then the marketing chain goes dry, and prices go up," said Gary Lucier, an agricultural economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service.
While the dry weather has exacerbated the problem, farmers' water woes are not all drought-related.
Supplies for crops and cities also have been restricted by several court decisions cutting back allocations that flow through a freshwater estuary called the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the main conduit that sends water to nearly two-thirds of Californians. Environmental groups and federal scientists say the delta's massive pumps are one of the factors pushing a native fish to the brink of extinction.
Last year, federal water deliveries were just 40 percent of the normal allocations, fallowing hundreds of thousands of acres and causing nearly $309 million in crop losses statewide. That prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to issue a disaster declaration, ordering state water managers to expedite any requests to move water around the state, in part so high-value crops like wine grapes, almonds and pistachio trees would stand a chance of surviving.
Federal reservoirs are now at their lowest level since 1992.
With such a grim outlook, many
Depending on how much it rains this winter, federal water supplies could be slashed down to nothing this year, forcing farmers to rely solely on brackish well water. But the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation won't make an official decision until late February, said Ron Milligan, the agency's
The state Department of Water Resources, which also ships farmers water, has promised to deliver 15 percent of the normal allocations in October, but conditions are so dire that that's now in doubt, too.
"The consequences are expected to be pretty horrible in terms of farmers' revenue, but what's really disconcerting are the possible job losses," said Wendy Martin, who leads the agency's drought division. "Those communities that can least weather an economic downturn are going to be some of the places that are hit the hardest."
Richard Howitt, a professor of agriculture economics at the
Analysts haven't yet provided any estimates of crop losses this year. But Bill Diedrich, an almond grower on the valley's parched western edge, said he's already worried he may lose some of his nut trees in the drought.
"The real story here is food security," Diedrich told Milligan and other officials speaking at a conference in
In the meantime, the forecast appears to be worsening: Meteorologists are predicting a dry spring, and a new state survey shows the population of threatened fish is at its lowest point in 42 years, more imperiled than previously believed.
"This has devastating effects not only for the guys out there in the fields with the weed whackers, but it affects the whole farming industry," said Thomas Nyberg,
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_11551097?nclick_check=1
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