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Bill Reis-Knight responds to an article in The California Farmer http://californiafarmer.com/index.aspx?ascxid=fpStory&fpsid=34453&fpstid=2 Central Valley Water Emergency Compiled By Staff June 23, 2008 This is my take on (the California Farmer) water story... Let's get real here. There is not enough water. Transshipping it around the state is not the solution, and, having grown up in farming country, I know there is MUCH that can be done to reduce water consumption on farms. The problem is a few go to the extreme, a few more do a decent job on reduction, but nobody else seems to do what they can because of the capital hump. Then there are those who think water is endless. Like the westside cotton growers. Been there. Seen it. Walked the rows all day with a hoe in the good old summertime. It ain't cheap, but the farming universe needs to find a way to stop farming those SUPER WATER HUNGRY CROPS. Growing grapes in the Lost Hills to Taft region is not smart. Especially when the water is delivered by sprinkler. And they need to find a way to cooperatively fund the gear to deliver water in a more conservative manner. Running sprinkler systems on crops during the hot hours of the day will result in 20 to 50 percent loss by direct evaporation. 90 plus degrees and a realitve humidity of 10% to 20% will see to that. Add a 10 to 15mph breeze, and evaporation rates can triple. Teach the farmers to sprinkle from 8pm to 8am instead of 8am to 8pm. And if crop damage from "wet nights" could result, just don't sprinkle. Find a better way to deliver the water. Growing Cotton on the West side in the old Lake Tulare bottomland is a waste due to the soil conditions... too much leaches down and poisons the water table, or is lost due to surface evaporation because the fines and alkali conditions keep it too close to the surface. I remember trying to walk those fields as young person with a hoe. We grow $$ crops where the conditions are decent to marginal, and pump too much water as a result. What wonderful water quality there was in the early part of the 20 century is long gone. There is salt and chemical incursion into the upper 20 to 50 feet of water table, and we keep drafting deeper to avoid that layer, which pushes it deeper. For much of the past century, especially the last 50 years, we have stripped the rivers of all water and pumped fossil water. It must change. Bill |
