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Federal Water May Be Cut off From Calif. Farms
If drought deepens, state to make drastic move; revenue, jobs affected
SACRAMENTO - Federal water managers said they may have to cut off all water to some of California's largest farms as a result of the deepening drought affecting the state.
Shawn Coburn, left, and his foreman, Juan Guadian, inspect an almond orchard in Mendota, Calif. A double whammy of drought and a cutback of water supplies has cost California's agricultural heartland millions of dollars in lost planting, affecting workers in the nation's produce capital. (Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP file)
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials said Friday that parched reservoirs and patchy snow and rainfall this year would likely force them to cut surface water deliveries completely. It would be the first time in more than 15 years such a move was taken.
The move would be a blow to farmers, who say the price of some crops would likely rise if they have to rely only on well water. The state estimates it would cause $1 billion in lost revenue and cost 40,000 jobs.
'We're talking about a huge band of area that will be affected," Richard Howitt, professor of resource economics at UC Davis, told msnbc.com in an interview Friday. "I heard these predictions coming down the line, the $1 billion loss in revenue and 40,000 jobs, so I ran the numbers again. "
He delivered the grim statistics to the state Board of Good and Agriculture last week. He said new figures to be released later Friday showed even more trouble head for the state.
"As far as job losses? The answer is the majority of losses will be related to farms and farm work, the processing done for all farm commodities, and all those secondary jobs that roll through the valley economy," Howitt said.
California's sweeping Central Valley grows most of the country's fruits and vegetables in normal years, but this winter thousands of acres turned to dust as the state hurtles into the worst drought in nearly two decades.
Water woes
The giants of California agribusiness are the biggest economic engine in the valley, which produces every cantaloupe on store shelves in summer months, and the bulk of the nation's lettuce crop each spring and fall.
This year, officials in Fresno County predict farmers will only grow about 6,000 acres of lettuce, roughly half the acreage devoted to greens in 2005.
That alone could cause a slight bump in consumer prices, unless lettuce companies can make up for the shortage by growing in areas with an abundant water supply, or the cost of cooling, packaging and shipping the crop suddenly goes down, experts say.
Last year, federal water deliveries were just 40 percent of the normal allocations, fallowing hundreds of thousands of acres and causing nearly $309 million in crop losses statewide. That prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to issue a disaster declaration, ordering state water managers to expedite any requests to move water around the state, in part so high-value crops like wine grapes, almonds and pistachio trees would stand a chance of surviving.
Federal reservoirs are now at their lowest level since 1992.
Federal officials said conditions could improve when they announce new projections factoring in recent storms.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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18 Comments so far
Show Allwater being weaponized, interesting. throughout history wars have been fought over natural resources. the one thing more precious that oil is water. which iraq has plenty and israel has none of. water rights or lack of have been fought over in the west before. this could get very very ugly.
Use all that water they're wasting in Las Vegas on a DAILY basis to make water fountains for tourists.
Use all the water that Californians regularly flush down the toilet to move 3 ounces of sterile urine.
THEN tell me there's a water shortage.
Farming and building cities in a desert has never been a good idea.
The last 100 years have been the wettest in California in it's history going back thousands of years. Drought is the norm for the region. That said, North America has plenty of fresh water, but much of it ends up in the oceans or flushed down the toilet, and there has been no real effort to prepare for the droughts or floods and storms that have always been and always will be. Levees fail and farms are told no water for their crops. Unbelievable.
A lot of the stream water in Northern California has been diverted to the grape growers further south.
Joe
Hmm, among all of the states California is the most diverse in terms of its climatic zones. Furthermore California is only a small part of North America.
The article concerns the Southern portion of the central valley which has historically, from its first cultivation, been reliant upon irrigation projects.
The natural outcome for rainwater is to finally end up in the ocean, its called the hydrological cycle, but some rivers e.g. the Colorado no longer make it.
We shall go out with a whimper; we've already been banged.
Sorry MiMi, but I just couldn't resist posting a relevant climate change study. You know, from those know-nothing researchers at Scripps, U Cal and U Colorado. Rain and a snowpack aren't the same thing.
http://wwa.colorado.edu/admin/announcement_files/2095-uploaded/announcement-2095-6225.pdf
You can believe the propaganda pretending to be science if you want. But the whole thing is a con to manage resources, energy, food and water for private gain.
http://www.citizen.org/documents/Water_Heist_lo-res.pdf
"NATURE PROVIDES ENOUGH WATER for California to meet all of its needs: to sustain water-efficient family farms and industries; to provide safe drinking water to present and future generations; and to restore and maintain California’s much-abused environment. Nature provides enough water; that is, unless mismanagement and greed intervene and allow for the state’s public water supplies to be manipulated for profit. Too much is at stake to let this water heist continue."
Most of the climate scientists get their funding from corporate controlled federal government and those corporations seeking to profit from carbon cap and trade and the privatization of resources.
The Feds threatening to cut water off to california farms coming as it does days after Chu says farms will be extinct in California is very interesting. Climate terrorism.
Plans have been on the books since the 1960s, for economical, nuclear-powered water desalination and diversion of fresh water that now flows into the Arctic and Pacific Oceans from Alaskan and Western Canadian rivers. These plans were known decades ago as the North American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA)—would allow all the nations of the continent to survive in drought conditions, especially the western areas which have been more prone to drought historically, for example a drought in the 1500's lasted 50 years.
Yet nothing has been done. Why? And how do farms not get priority over what water is available?. Surely the neo-malthusians will welcome the coming food shortages and depopulation of the west.
MiMiCcS, my first impression was that you were one of those climate change deniers. Why? You make sweeping statements such as "The last 100 years have been the wettest in California in it's history going back thousands of years." (really? I'm not sure where you got that info. Even so, increased rainfall is one of the effects of global warming) and the trademark allegation that climate scientists make up all this stuff because their funding depends on it! But still, before posting my response, I did read through "Water Heist" - most of it, anyway. You know what I think? You are seriously mixing up issues.
"Water heist" through privatization is a serious threat, and it's been going on all over the world. It is criminal, and it must be stopped. HOWEVER, to link that with your "climate change denial" and using phrases such as "climate terrorism" is a seriously bad idea. You know what the real "climate terrorism" is? It is the arrogant behavior of western countries in precipitating this crisis, knowing that the people who will be worst (and first) affected will be those in poorer countries who contribute least to this problem. Seriously man, you need to stop using sentences such as "Surely the neo-malthusians will welcome the coming food shortages and depopulation of the west"! Come on, it's bizarre. That sentence would make sense if you replace "the west" by "poor countries".
This article on CD does not talk about climate change. It talks about drought and plans to "cut off all water to some of California's largest farms". Now read "Water Heist", which you yourself referenced, again. It says: "And what happens when the water isn’t there? With the houses built and the new dwellers moved in, the developers will push for new dams and more pumping of water from the north to save the stranded residents from drought. The losers will be the same: the rural communities in the north and throughout the valley, the tax and ratepayers who ultimately have to pay for it all, and the environment upon which all Californians depend."
So, the way I understand it, there is a real problem of water availability in California. Climate scientists have nothing to do with that. Developers? Yes. Unscrupulous businessmen and shady politicians on the take? Certainly. Why? Because everyone - the farmers as well as the developers - wants to do things that require lots of water where not enough water exists naturally, and hence needs to be pumped around over long distances. Privatization by stealth makes the situation worse.
It is really long past the stage where climate change deniers can keep on repeating the same old stuff - do you even realize that you are being fed such information by vested interests? The hallmark of deniers is that they would cry "conspiracy" on the part of climate scientists for funding reasons - but, sadly, it doesn't occur to them that the real conspiracy was on the part of the "denial industry". (Google "denial industry" with the quotes). And I said "was", because even the "denial industry" is winding down, and switching tactics to one of "delay" and "avoidance" of the steps that need to be taken, by citing economic reasons, and blaming it on China and India. Man, you seriously need to move with the times! :)
"The Feds threatening to cut water off to california farms coming as it does days after Chu says farms will be extinct in California is very interesting. Climate terrorism."
Wow the warming deniers are getting rather deranged. Do a Google images search of ‘Lake mead water level’ they sure aren’t hiding the water there. Maybe with Google earth you can find the secret river the water has been diverted to. LOL
The fact is with Global warming, rain fall patterns are changing; the south and the west and south west are going get less and less. The upper mid west (from Wisconsin east ward is going get more and more)
Twenty years ago you could intelligently argue against the evidence we might see global warming, now that all those predictions are coming true it seems beyond insanity.
This GW business is nothing but a grand conspiracy being carried out by all of the major institutions of science around the world. They are the same damn bunch of people who trying to convince us that the world wasn't created in a day 6,000 years ago and that evolution is anything other than junk science.....As for pics showing all the reservoirs empty, apparently you have never seen the movie China Town. Every night when no one is watching, the water in all of the reservoirs in Texas the SW United States, Argentina, Australia, China, Northern and Eastern Africa, and in the south of Europe is being emptied out into the ocean just so that they can convince us that we are undergoing climate change.....As for Chu, if you didn't know, like Obama he is a recipient of affirmative action--his Nobel doesn't mean a damn thing.....I just wish all of you scare mongers would shut the hell up so that I can get back to listening to Rush and watching Hannity, Greta, and Nancy Grace.
You know, I'm not looking forward to going hungry, but the climate, and the humanity and pollution aspects of farming in AmeriKkkar and an honest assessment of the values, principles, lifestyle and morality (what I mean is the lack thereof) of USAers indicates that these people who inhabit North America, 98% of them don't deserve to eat.
:-(
Mike Morin
www.peoplesequityunion.blogspot.com
Nietzsche,
Building hundreds of Golf courses in the desert (Palm Springs) was a real bad idea. I would rather eat wild Salmon and fresh vegetables than play golf.
Try La Romanella sun-dried tomatoes. They are about the same price/pound as fresh tomatoes after accounting for the water, (under $1/lb). Fresh tomatoes vary widely in price, with mom n pop markets selling for under $1/lb, while supermarkets charge $2/lb to $4/lb. None of the fresh tomatoes have much taste, which means not much nutrition either, because they are the wrong variety, picked unripe, and stored for many days before you eat them. The sun-dried tomatoes are delicious, the taste jumps out at you. The difference in taste is huge. You can smell them across the room. You couldn't smell a fresh commerical tomato if it splattered in your face. They seem to consist of water, styrofoam and industrial red dye #9. The sun--dried tomatoes get their amazing taste/nutrition from the proper selection of variety and vine-ripening. I tried another source of sun-drieds that had no taste. It's very likely they chose the wrong variety and ripening strategy. Let your nose choose. Sun-drieds are cheap to ship and store and go a long way. You can sun-dry your own tomatoes in summer and have them all winter. Meanwhile California will maybe invade and conquer Oregon to steal its water so the mighty godzilla styrofoam production can continue.
Don't understand how this is a GW issue at all. Increase the population of people in a desert, and you are very prone to water shortages as a desert is a desert because of lack of rain. I know, that is a hard pill to swallow.
It must be a hard pill to swallow that you have no earthly idea what you are talking about!
"Lettuce shortage..." Grow your own; it's very easy. Decades ago, there were many suggestions regarding slowing the evaporation rate from California's thousands of miles of irrigation canals; none were implemented. Composting toilets ought to be made the standard through the building code. Food not Lawns; the logic is painfully obvious.
As the economy goes down the drain, unlike the 1930s, there's no Golden State to migrate to. But you can be sure hoards of Californians will be streaming north and east, along with their Nevada and Arizona neighbors. This in turn will put pressure on other states who cannot even take care of their current populations.
Global Warmming Denialists are becoming the lowest of the lowest types of individuals.