Reports From My Nanocosm

California is getting some much needed rain in the lowlands and snow in the mountains. We need it badly. In fact, it would be very nice of mother nature to drop some snow onto the mountain snowpack everyday from now until May. That might help make up for our drought and fill our nearly empty reservoirs. Last I read, this has been one of the driest Januaries on record in California.  Most troubling is that the snowpack, our biggest reservoir, is below normal. An inadequate snowpack means less water for consumers come summer and fall.

In addition to a thin snowpack, California is entwined in a series of ecological and legal battles affecting our water supply. The most contentious are the battles over water from the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers Delta, affectionately and simply called “The Delta” by Central Californians. The Delta supplies water to irrigate more than 3 million acres of farmland and two-thirds of California residents. The Delta ecosystem is in distress due to a number of causes including from the pumps that extract huge volumes of water for use elsewhere in the state. Those pumps have been turned down in recent months after a recent string of legal wins for Delta environmental interests and, as a result, less water is now sent West to the San Francisco Bay Area and South to farmers in the San Joaquin Valley and cities in Southern California.

Needless to say, water agencies are now scrambling to find alternative supplies and convince water consumers to use less. Come summer we are all likely to see large scale water rationing. That might include limits on what water can be used for (such as landscaping) and even no deliveries to some water users.

I expect (or should I say hope) that the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) also gives a serious look at what it considers a reasonable use of water. The California Constitution requires that water be used for beneficial and reasonable purposes. If not reasonable, a person’s water rights can be voided.

Consider, for example, the case of alfalfa a perrenial crop used as feed for cows and other grazing animals. Each acre of alfalfa requires 5 acre feet of water per year. An acre foot is the measurement used for large volumes of water. Each acre foot per year can support about 4 people in an urban setting.  Agriculture consumes 80% of water in California and alfalfa farming constitutes 15% of that amount. In other words, 12% of water consumed in California is used to grow alfalfa. The SWRCB should ask whether alfalfa farming during a drought is a reasonable use of water. I won’t make a decision without more information but think a formal review should at least be undertaken. Farmers who grow alfalfa argue that alfalfa is actually more efficient than other crops with comparisons such as: “303 pounds [of alfalfa], vs. 109 pounds for rice and 31 pounds for almonds, per inch of applied water.” The problem I have with that argument is they compare an item humans cannot consume to two other items we do. Scientific studies should determine the amount of human consumable food stuff, such as beef or milk, attributable to each pound of alfalfa and through that per inch of water. Without reliable scientific studies it sounds like growing alfalfa wastes water. To be fair, SWRCB also needs to look at urban landscaping (lawns mostly) which also consumes about 12% of water in California.

I wrote a paper last semester** on the precarious nature of one water agency’s water supply – Westlands Irrigation District. Westlands is the largest and one of the richest agricultural districts in the country but has a dirty little secret. Its soil drains poorly and contains high levels of salts and trace elements such as selenium and arsenic. If not drained properly (farmers want to drain their land into the Delta) then the land eventually becomes unusable and ground water too contaminated to use. In addition, the trace elements and salts are toxic to wildlife in high concentrations such as what is found in drainage water. Westlands is hardly alone in the Central Valley when it comes to poor drainage and salty soil. So the question is whether it is reasonable for the Central Valley Project (Federal reclamation project) to provide water to irrigate land with bad soil that drains poorly.
My conclusion:

“California is reaching the limit of its water supplies and will collectively need to readjust who gets water and for what purpose. By exploring the precarious nature of water availability to the largest water customer, Westlands Water District, of the largest federal reclamation project, I demonstrated just a few of the many ways access to water by a water user might be threatened by our changing times. In truth, Westlands is a proxy for any other water user, big or small.

In short, Westlands is likely to come out on the short end of the battle over Delta water. It has low priority and is subordinate to the established water rights of riparians, appropriators senior to the CVP, and exchange contractors. In times of shortage, which sound more likely with global warming, it will share the lesser amounts of water available on a pro-rata basis with other water service contractors. Furthermore, there is a chance the SWRCB finds the irrigation of salty soil with poor drainage to be an unreasonable use. Westlands can force the Bureau to create a drainage solution but any plan to complete the San Luis drain is likely to run into obstacles. And, if the Bureau has too hard a time building a drainage solution, it may back out of the contract through section 11(a) which spares it liability for decreasing water allocations. Regardless of whether the drain is ever built, environmental interest groups and government agencies tasked with protecting wildlife and keeping water clean will be watching for potential violations of laws such as FESA.”

** I should note that, although I did hand it in, I consider this paper a rough draft. It is not my best paper. I only have myself to blame as I wrote it in less than two days using the ream of research I compiled after finishing my tax paper.

BTW: Are you feeling smug because you’re in a Great Lake state where there is plenty of water? Don’t be. Not taking care of the resources you have might give parched Western states a way to void the recently signed Great Lakes compact. The compact can be improved and your water resources even more protected than they are. In fact, consider the damage you’re doing to your waterways by using salt on your roads during winter. The argument that you are likely to hear again in your lifetime is that “Look at those Great Lakes folks with too much water. They just want to hoard the water and keep it to themselves. But look at them, they don’t manage or use the water properly and let it go to waste. We can do better.”