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Doug Parker

Farmers not as impacted by Brown's new drought measures

Marco della Cava
USA TODAY
Weeds sprout at the bottom of what once was a lake in the Sierra Nevada foothills, more evidence of California's gnawing drought.

SAN FRANCISCO -- California farmers and winemakers are not likely to feel the pinch from Wednesday's new statewide water restrictions. Gov. Jerry Brown's mandatory push to cut water use by 25% in the coming year is aimed largely at water-hogging homeowners and businesses.

"Water allocations to farmers have already been set for the year, so these new measures won't really impact them," says Doug Parker, director of the California Institute for Water Resources. "But the new rules will require increased reporting on water diversions and water use."

Parker says medium and large agriculture water districts -- those between 10,000 and 25,000 acres, and those over 25,000 acres -- will need to begin submitting not only detailed water management plans but also include contingencies for future droughts. Requiring such reporting should make it easier for state officials to find those who are diverting water illegally, such as the marijuana growers in the northern part of the state, Parker says.

Roughly 80% of California's water is used by its vast network of farms. More than half of California's agricultural crop value comes from fruit and tree nut production (around $5 billion annually) and about a quarter from commercial vegetables ($6 billion annually), representing more than 60% of total U.S. fruit and tree nut farm value and 51% of vegetable farm value, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

While the new measures spare farmers, that's small consolation, says Chris Scheuring, a water attorney for the California Farm Bureau Federation.

"The drought long ago came crashing down on agriculture's head," says Scheuring, whose family farm last year got no water allocated to it by its area district. "Looking ahead to the coming decades, water is our existential threat. The state is growing, there are more and more environmental restrictions, and there are changes to hydrology and climate. I've got a pessimistic view of things. The folks in Los Angeles likely won't run out of water, but ag could end up in retreat."

One byproduct of the state's three-year-long water shortage, which has been exacerbated by a paltry snowpack this year, is the sale of water between farmers and agricultural water districts in different parts of the state. Says Parker: "That's an important medium by which farmers can help each other, when some perhaps have extra groundwater or idle farmland. Whatever it takes."

A month ago, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab scientist Jay Famiglietti made headlines when he said satellite analyses revealed that the state's reservoirs had only about a one-year supply of water left.


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