Water Source for Almonds in California May Run Dry (NYTimes)

[petronius]

SACRAMENTO — California’s almond orchards have been thriving over the past decade and now provide an $11 billion annual boost to the state economy. Covering 860,000 acres, they account for 80 percent of world production. But the growth coincides with another record development here — drought — and the extensive water needs of nut trees are posing a sharp challenge to state water policy.

Farmers in the area where almond production has been most consistent have relied on water from a federally controlled project that draws its supply largely from the Sacramento River. But that source is less reliable because of legal requirements that in a time of scarcity, waterways that nurture California salmon must also get available water flows.

Growers, some very wealthy, tried to get Congress to change those rules but failed. Also, new state groundwater legislation may eventually constrain farmers’ well drilling.

--- Snip ---

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/28/us/water-source-for-almonds-in-california-may-run-dry.html?ref=us&_r=0

[KamaAina]

1. Westlands AGAIN?!

This is the area of the Central Valley marked on early maps as "desert". And yet people thought it was a good idea to grow thirsty crops like almonds, as well as lettuce (which should come from the wetter Salinas Valley over the Coast Range) and cotton (which should come from the much wetter South). Oh, and rice, which basically has its own special water district that covers two counties in the Sacramento Valley, which locked up its water rights just after Gold Rush days.

Herein lies the problem: Westlands is at the bottom of the water food chain, behind private rights (an even bigger deal in SoCal, including Kern County (Bakersfield and vicinity)), districts like the one in rice country, and state rights which serve the rest of the Central Valley. It's bad enough that Ahh-nuld (remember him?) tried to gin up a "Latino Water Coalition" out there!

[handmade34]

2. something is awry...

it would be a tremendous help overall if people cut meat consumption dramatically...

Although California produces nearly half of the fruit and vegetables grown in the U.S., when the water usage stats for these crops are compared to the amount of water needed to produce animal products, one can clearly see who the water guzzlers are. Pork consumes 121,000 gallons of blue water per ton of meat produced; beef, about 145,000 gallons per ton; and butter uses some 122,800 gallons per ton...
Surprisingly though, leading California’s water consumption comes from a single plant — alfalfa. The majority of alfalfa is not grown for human consumption but to feed livestock. Over a million acres of California land and tons of blue water is used to cultivate alfalfa, which is fed to beef and dairy cattle.…the alfalfa is not even being consumed by livestock here in the U.S., it’s being shipped to Asia. “Alfalfa growers are now exporting some 100 billion gallons of water a year from this drought-ridden region to the other side of the world in the form of alfalfa...

When Robert Glennon... author of the book Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What to Do About It, first learned that the U.S. was exporting alfalfa crops that had been grown with the very limited western irrigation water, his reaction was "utter disbelief."

Glennon crunched some numbers and figured that in 2012, roughly 50 billion gallons of western water—enough to supply the annual household needs of half a million families—were exported to China. Not literally bottled up and shipped, but embedded in alfalfa crops grown with irrigation water. And that's just to China, which still trails Japan and the United Arab Emirates as a top destination for American alfalfa....The concept of exporting "virtual water" is not new. And for decades the United States has exported trillions of gallons of it.

According to a UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education report published in 2011, the United States exports more than twice as much virtual water, about 82 trillion gallons, as any other country. That's largely because American farms feed the whole world.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140123-colorado-river-water-alfalfa-hay-farming-export-asia/

[roody]

3. If you need water in California,

you better catch it when it falls.

[Lordquinton]

4. This is media manipulation at it's finest

"Water Source for Almonds in California May Run Dry"

instead of "Water Source for millions of people in California May Run Dry"

can tell where their priorities lie.

[The River]

5. More Than 75% of Water Usage

in California goes to agriculture. When it comes down to thirsty people vs nut farms
I trust the people will speak up. Drinking water is essential, pistachios are not.
There is no reason why many of these water intensive crops
can't be grown in other parts of the country.