Sends Wrong Message
By
Rick Elkins
Kings County - Local ag interests say the sale of 14,000 acre feet of water by a Kings County farm might send the wrong message that agriculture is not hurting from a lack of water.
However, others point out the $77 million sale of what has become a precious commodity is just a sign of the times and a result of three years of below normal rainfall and decisions by the state and federal officials to cut water deliveries to farms and municipal districts.
Sandridge Partners, owned by John Vidovich, has agreed to sell the rights to 14,000 acre feet of water a year to the Mojave Water Agency. The sale would result in Sandridge fallowing 2,500 acres with the farm pulling out that many acres of almonds in Kings County.
According to Diana Peck, executive director of the Kings County Farm Bureau, Vidovich resides in the Bay Area and is involved in many other investments. She described him as an investor, not a family farmer. Sandridge Partners farms another 3,000-plus acres in Kings County.
Kirby Brill, manager of the Mojave Water Agency, said his district is just trying to make up for the cutbacks in State Water Project water deliveries – cutbacks that many others are facing. He said its allocation has been cut severely.
“It's a very volatile time. It (water crisis) has created a lot of anxiety, not only for farmers,” he said.
He added the water will be used to recharge the underground basin in his district, a basin that is suffering severe overdraft problems. The district, roughly 5,000 square miles, is in dry San Bernardino County and supplies water to both urban and ag users. “We get about 4 inches a rain a year,” he said, with virtually no surface storage.
The district is paying a whopping $5,500 per acre-foot, a price that farmers could never compete with, said Sarah Woolf, spokesperson for the Westlands Water District on the San Joaquin Valley's west side that has been hit hardest by the water crisis.
“Those kind of dollars are unbelievable. Ag will not be able to compete” with urban areas at those prices, she said.
Patricia Stever, executive director of the Tulare County Farm Bureau, said the price is a sign of the times. “We're going to see municipalities and those with cash paying a lot for water,” she predicted.
Woolf, and others, said they are also concerned about the wrong message the sale sends to those who say farmers don't need water and support decisions that put fish before humans. They are referring to decisions to not pump water out of the San Joaquin Delta because the pumps might harm the delta smelt, a tiny fish.
“It sends the wrong message,” said Stever. She said she had received a few calls from concerned growers, but fewer than she expected.
“The main issue is perception,” she said, adding that she can't support the sale, but recognizes the owner's right to do so.
There will not be any sending of water to Mojave. The sale is of the rights to state water. Starting next year, Mojave will get 7,000 acre feet more a year until 2015, then that will increase by another 3,000 acre feet. In 2020, the desert district will get the full 14,000 acre feet a year. An acre foot is approximately 325,000 gallons of water. The sale is forever.
However, the sale must still get approval from the state, and the water allocation will have to be redirected as for urban use rather than ag use.
Stever said an average field crop needs about 3-4 acre feet of water a year. Almonds need 3-5 acre feet.
Sale Demonstrates Crisis
Peck looked at the sale in a more positive light, saying it brings more attention to the water crisis facing the state.
“Others feel this is exactly what we're talking about. It demonstrates that farmers are hurting,” said Peck. It shows that water is more valuable to the grower than his crops, she added.
“It's unfortunate that water has become so scarce and expensive and unreliable that it makes it more valuable to sell it.”
Peck and Stever both said they have been surprised there hasn't been more of an outcry about the sale as there was 16 years ago when another such sale drew a lot of protests from the ag community.
Peck said the sale is a perfect example of the scarcity of water and the need for more water storage in the state. Brill agreed, adding the state needs to come up with a way to move water through the Delta to users in the south, including his district.
Water Wars?
Brill said his district is not looking to buy any more water rights, but didn't rule out any future purchases. He said smaller sales occur often and looking at the long-term his district will need to find more water.
He said the price does seem to be going up every day. “A shrinking supply and increasing demand drives prices up,” he said.
Many have predicted that sales of water, and battles over water, will increase until solutions are found to supply more water to all areas of the state.
Woolf said for many people, the water issue is not easily understood. If a person turns on the tap and water comes out, they don't think about it. It is when the water doesn't come out that maybe something will get accomplished.
There is not much hope in the short term. Lawmakers in Sacramento adjourned Friday without coming up with a plan to address the water crisis facing the state and Woolf said growers on the Valley's Westside have already been told to expect no more than 40 percent of their normal supply next year – even if it is a wet year. This year they got less than 25 percent.
“We think it could be much lower
than that,” she said, referring to the water that will be diverted
down the San Joaquin River to restore the salmon run. That is the main
component of the San Joaquin River Restoration Bill passed by Congress
this year.
That further cutback could see Westside growers claiming their historic
right to water out of Friant Dam that goes to Friant water users on the
east side of the Valley – those in Tulare County. The Westside growers
have not taken that water in the past because they got enough out of the
state and federal water projects in the Delta.
Still, Woolf was encouraged by the efforts in Sacramento.
“In the closing hours of the legislative session, California came closer than it has been in decades to comprehensive water reform. Getting this far required the leadership Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and key members of both parties in the State Senate and the Assembly,” said Woolf in a statement Monday.
She said the lawmakers worked on a package of bills that involve Delta policy and governance that were balanced between the coequal goals of ecosystem restoration and water supply reliability.
If enacted, the bills would advance a program of comprehensive Delta ecosystem restoration, promote a more reliable and adequate supply of water for the state, implement a new governance structure for the Delta, and clear a path for the construction of the conveyance facilities that are essential for meeting the water needs of California now and in the future, she pointed out.
“These are all critical elements in the kind of comprehensive water package that is needed to address the collapse of the Delta ecosystem and the water supply crisis that has created shortages for hundreds of communities throughout the state. Nowhere have those hardships been more severe than for the thousands of people who live and work on the Westside of the San Joaquin Valley,” she added.
That the Legislature recessed before
agreeing on the package did not deter Woolf.
“The fact that we came this close, however, should give all Californians
reason to believe that a comprehensive solution to the water crisis can
be achieved. We hope that the members of the Legislature will return within
the next few weeks to the grapple with unresolved issues with the same
vigor and perseverance that brought about agreement on the Delta policy
legislation.”
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of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit
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