Calif. farmers want to sell water

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Source: Associated Press

FRESNO, Calif. - With water becoming increasingly precious in California, a rising number of farmers figure they can make more money by selling their water than by actually growing something.

Because farmers get their water at subsidized rates, some of them see financial opportunity this year in selling their allotments to Los Angeles and other desperately thirsty cities across Southern California, as well as to other farms.

"It just makes dollars and sense right now," said Bruce Rolen, a third-generation farmer who grows rice, wheat and other crops in Northern California's lush Sacramento Valley.

Instead of sowing in April, Rolen plans to let 100 of his 250 acres of white rice lie fallow and sell his irrigation water on the open market, where it could fetch up to three times the normal price.
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Environmental restrictions, booming demand for water, and persistent drought along the Colorado River have combined to create one of the worst water shortages in California in the past decade, and prices are shooting up in response.

The would-be water sellers include farmers who grow rice, cantaloupes and tomatoes around Sacramento and the San Joaquin Valley. Rice, in particular, requires a lot of water; the fields have to be flooded.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080125/ap_on_re_us/farming_water

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I have to say I have a problem with this. Farmers get reduced rates for waters because they are farming - something in our heritage that we don't want to lose, and we want to help the farming community. This was not the intention of the reduced water rate. I'm all for their getting a reduced rate for farming, but not for this.

[msongs]

1. california farmers WASTE a lot of water nt

[Phred42]

2. If they don't produce food with that water take away their rights

this stupidity has to stop

[Tumbulu]

3. I agree with you

Back in the late 80's I heard of a person working for the USDA near Bakersfield who was pretty much asked to leave because he was proving how cotton could be grown with 30 % less water. The good old boys were freaked because it was their big plan way back then to hold on to all the water rights they could with the idea of selling those rights to the southern California cities sometime in the future. They have been working on this a very long time.

[dicknbush]

4. Well this might be a mute point considering the weather we are having...

WE are getting hammered with rain this weekend out here which is GREAT!!! We haven't had this kind of rain..and more importantly Snow for a very long time. With each inch of rain and each foot of snow that falls the value of the water these farmers have assigned is dropping in price so they may wnat to reconsider their options.

[kimmylavin]

5. And then what?

What do they do next year when there's no food, and no seeds with which to grow crops?

[jasmine621]

6. There will be plenty of water after this week-end. nt

[LiberalFighter]

7. How do the farmers get their water?

Was the water diverted from somewhere for their benefit with govt funds?

[kineneb]

11. some from the Central Valley Project

It consists of the dams on the major rivers draining into the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys. There are a bunch. Reading "Cadillac Desert" is helpful to understanding water in the west; it is also extremely well written (the author died far too young). Water is a touchy subject in CA, and probably will remain so forever.

Example- Shasta Dam: built during the Depression, both to provide electrical power and control water flow in the Sacramento River. In addition, it employed many of the out-of-work locals, including my grandfather. There is a diversion dam in Redding which goes up each summer to shunt water off to various farms in the valley.

Farmers do get lower cost water from the CVP, which, you guessed it, is subsidized by us, the US taxpayer. It was one of the deals brokered when the dams were built.

The water issue is different for those on the other side of the Tehachapis. That area is a different drainage and does (or at least did) have water rights to some of the Colorado River (I have not been involved in state water issues for some time, so do not know where they get water today).

[Fawkes]

13. Diversion dam

I think the diversion dam you're referring to is at Red Bluff. I live in Redding and it's not here. Other than that, you're right on.

[kineneb]

18. nope, there was one

right below Destlehorst Bridge, at the east end of the park. It was made of wooden boards inserted into a frame each spring and diverted water to farms below Redding. The canal runs right near the new city hall.

Grew up there and the parental units still live there; grandparents lived there about 50 years. Still visit occasionally.

[Fawkes]

19. Diversion dam in Redding

I'm sorry, you're right. You're speaking of the Anderson-Cottonwood diversion dam. My apologies.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

8. Nevada's and Arizona's?

Cali only provides about 50% of its own water, iIrc.

[Trajan]

9. More dishonest dealing ....

Against the public good ....

FUCK THEM ..... Pull the plug, and close the spigot to these deceivers .....

[Fawkes]

10. Subsidized water

California water districts negotiated new 50-year contracts with the Bureau of Reclamation about a year ago. They get water for ag uses at highly subsized rates (compared to what cities and individuals pay). Those who get the subsidized rates include mega-corporate-owned farms in the Westlands Water District that grow water-intensive crops such as cotton. I know because I worked on the environmental analyses for these water contracts. Environmental groups argued that multi-million dollars "farmers" shouldn't be able to sell their subsidized water, but the repugs know who votes for them over and over so this argument went nowhere. So we're stuck with this lousy deal for the next 50 years. And now Westlands is arguing that it shouldn't be responsible for fixing the problem that caused deformed birds at Kesterson Reservoir. Westlands owns California politicians, including some Democrats like Feinstein.

I suggest that all DUers who live in California become familiar with Westland Water District.

[kineneb]

12. I am well aware of Westlands

"Chinatown" still lives on... and on... from the districts that gave us such creatures as Pombo.

Want an argument? Just introduce the topic of "water"... then duck to avoid flying objects. :hide:

(Native Californian; grandfather worked on Shasta Dam)

[nealmhughes]

14. The same thing, as has been documented in the press for a while is going on in Atlanta.

Only there it isn't farmers v. city population, it is nature v. the city.
The Chattahoochie isn't nearly large enough for supplying Atlanta, then downstream Alabama and the Appalachicola Bay in Florida.
The Tennessee is fairly close, but there is no way that the commissioners will allow water be diverted by Atlanta by the TVA! Just trying to do it would be astronomical in cost: the Tennessee Valley is precisely that, a valley, while Atlanta is uphill from the river and the Appalachians bound the Tennessee Valley to the north and east, forcing it to flow south, then west, then finally north to get to the Ohio/Mississippi.

Frankly, cities withered both literally and proverbially in ancient and modern times due to lack of water or overdependence upon one source which has a long drought. The question that needs to be asked is honestly, "Are Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Atlanta too large for their continued viability?", but no one wishes to broach the question out of fear of being labeled a fear monger or a Luddite.

We had a 100 year drought this summer, fall, and now continuing into the winter in the SE. Our spring fed creek nearly went dry several times, and lots of wells and small water systems did. I could wade across a major tributory of the Tennessee River that normally required one to swim or boat across this summer. We are blessed with a normally over abundance of water around Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Huntsville, but not this past year. If we were suffering, and the crops surely were, I can't imagine what the people out West deal with annually.
In 2006 the farmers here made 5 crops of hay and sold it west. Last year, the lucky ones who had an irrigation system made two. Instead of cattle being sold south and east, they were being sold at a loss west this past year, and many of the calves were slaughtered locally -- no feed, and the wheat did not make, nor did the corn. The cotton was pathetic, and I was surprised to see any even get picked as it was of such poor quality.

This continent is the richest piece of real estate on the face of the earth, and we had better start appreciating what we are blessed with and use it wisely, a long drought, and it all goes to dust. . . and the cities are abandoned.

[Fawkes]

15. question

For you dedicated DUers. how do we get this discussion on a California forum (if there is such a thing)?

[bulloney]

16. This is our whole economy in a nutshell.

Don't produce or sell anything that generates new wealth. Just sell anything without thinking about the long-term consequences.

That's the stock market today. It's not selling and buying real tangible assets. It's buying and selling the hedge funds to cover your ass when stocks move in an unfavorable direction. No real wealth being generated here.

[alittlelark]

17. Very WRONG... that water is for crop production.

We need some new laws in this state that make that crystal clear. H2O you do not need for your fields continues downstream.