By Don A. Wright
Anyone who has regularly attended water district meetings know they clump up on Tuesdays and Thursday during the second and third week of the month. This is the way it’s been since they shot the last pterodactyl in Madera County. So, that means this last week of the month is relatively free.
Hopefully you’re free to be at the Fresno County Farm Bureau, located at 1274 W Hedges Ave, Fresno, CA 93728, this Wednesday October 29th at 9:00am. The Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley will be holding its Large Group Meeting. There is also a Zoom Option available.
The Big Deal
Why is this a big deal? Because the Blueprint is one of the brightest hopes for bringing about sane, sustainable and dependable water supply deliveries back to the San Joaquin Valley. Surface deliveries to the Valley are at about half of what there were in the mid to late 1970s. While the tap has been relentlessly closing other pressures have been hitting the Valley’s agricultural economy.
As less water was available voices cried out for farmers to use water more wisely: Don’t grow cotton and alfalfa and other lower value crops. Invest in higher value crops such as orchards and vineyards. Don’t waste water flood irrigating – go to drip and other micro-irrigation methods.
The Valley was practicing conjunctive use. Snowmelt from the Sierra would water the farms during the summer and flood irrigation, directing water over the fields would simultaneously provide the plants with water for its evapotranspiration needs and recharge the aquifer.
Micro-irrigation could deliver the same amount of water to more acreage and the farming footprint grew. But micro-irrigation doesn’t provide for recharge and groundwater is a necessity during dry years. So, farmers are in a situation with permanent crops, at a large investment, so they had to pump since the surface supplies have been drastically cut back.
Those crying for higher value crops and savings through micro-irrigation are now crying foul. The farmers are over drafting the aquifers. So, they came up with SGMA, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and threaten to place wide swaths of the most productive farmland on earth in “probation”. In fact, the Tulare Lake and Tule Subbasins are in probation and at the tender mercies of unelected bureaucrats and the state machine. In all the Valley could lose more than one million acres of farmland due to lack of surface water deliveries. Despite the dooms sayers California has enough water, it’s just in the wrong place. Two-thirds of the state’s water supply is north of the Delta and two-thirds of usage is south.
Making Changes
Something has to give. The Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley was formed in 2019. It is a non-profit organization with the goal of bringing together all the interests impacted by surface and groundwater supplies available to the San Joaquin Valley. It’s a coalition of the willing with participation from the agricultural, labor and agency communities. That community expands to include anyone who eats food.
The Blueprint commissioned an economic study of SGMA’s impacts. The Blueprint Economic Impact Analysis: Phase One Results, by UC Berkeley economists Drs. David Sunding and David Roland-Holst was released in February 2020. See report here – it’ll chill you. Far more than just farms are at risk.
The Meeting
Wednesday’s big meeting of the Blueprint will bring together water leaders, stakeholders, and community members to discuss pressing issues including the impending completion of the Blueprint’s Unified Valley Water Plan. This plan identifies the water shortages in the valley and proposed realistic opportunities to close that gap. The guest speaker will be Adam Nickels. Nickels is serving as Acting Regional
Director, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, California Great Basin – Region 10. An archaeologist, Nickels has spent most of his career with the Bureau of Reclamation. His focus is on water storage projects, regional construction, and water supply priorities.
I’ve met Nickels many times and he’s a good guy. He understands not just the issues but the severity of the outcomes. Unfortunately due to the federal shutdown he’ll have to attend online.
Unified Valley Water Plan
The meeting will also include an unveiling of the Unified Valley Water Plan, a collaborative effort by the California Water Institute housed at Fresno State University and Stantec Engineering. The Unified Plan has taken account of the many plans and proposals throughout the Valley and helps organize them so they can receive the best promotion and change of fulfillment.
If you want to take stock of what needs to be done to prevent the state from lopping off almost a quarter of the Valley’s ag based economy through massive man-made dehydration you need to attend this meeting. See you there.
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