For Bart Fisher, owner of Fisher Ranch in Blythe, being part of today’s cycle of life in California means more than growing crops. It also means making the decision to not grow crops, instead fallowing land so water that otherwise would have been used for agricultural production can get transferred to Southern California’s urban areas.
Fisher says this change in decades-old agricultural routines carries with it some mixed feelings—“producing crops is what we do; there is an emotional component to seeing land lying fallow”—but also brings with it advantages of allowing land to “rest” and ultimately produce better crops, and of giving farmers compensation for not using water.
The land Fisher is fallowing is part of a 35-year transfer program, which began Jan. 1, 2005, between Metropolitan and Palo Verde Irrigation District. Meanwhile, the Imperial Irrigation District also is transferring water to the San Diego County Water Authority, and eventually to the Coachella Valley Water District, under a 45-year agreement finalized in 2003.
In California’s quest to quench its water thirst while lessening dependence on Colorado River water, such agricultural-to-urban water transfers are showing the promise—and challenges—of finding ways to meet present and future water needs of the 18 million people Metropolitan serves.
The PVID program, in particular, was part of the “California 4.4 Plan” designed to reduce California’s use of surplus Colorado River water and to keep its demands within the state’s entitlement.
Fisher, also a PVID Board member, credits a 1992-1994 pilot fallowing program between Metropolitan and PVID, as well as a strong working relationship between the agencies, for making the current fallowing program a success and enabling farmers to get past concerns about potential economic impacts.
“Water carries a lot of emotional value to farmers,” Fisher notes. “We sort of dealt with the emotional baggage” at the time of the pilot, he says, adding, “We’ve always been able to be honest with Metropolitan. The negotiators themselves have enjoyed personal bonds that have allowed for trust to exist.”
Land doesn’t benefit from intensive annual farming of multiple crops —which local farmers had done in prior years to meet their bottom-line requirements, Fisher says.
“To be able to fallow the land without suffering an economic hardship ultimately benefits future agricultural production because the land is improved,” he explains, noting that drying out land through fallowing introduces more oxygen into the soil, which helps minimize the presence of harmful bacteria and other organisms and enables beneficial organisms to flourish.
“Being compensated by Metropolitan for fallowing serves both ends: It doesn’t diminish the bottom line and it allows farmers to make the land more productive,” he says, and adds, “The community also is already seeing the benefits of the additional revenues that are flowing in.”
For Metropolitan, it’s about implementing a program that makes sense both economically and from a water management perspective. “It really tries to optimize the water resource use of the Colorado River,” says Metropolitan Program Manager Fadi Kamand. “In drought years the water is used by Metropolitan and in normal and wet years the farmers take the water for their use, so it’s business as usual for them.”
Given the historic lack of trust between rural and urban communities regarding water issues, it took years of study and trust-building measures to bring the PVID water transfer program to fruition. Elsewhere, the complex process is still evolving.
Take the IID-SDCWA transfer, part of the landmark Quantification Settlement Agreement finalized in October 2003 to help California ramp down its Colorado River allotment to its 4.4 million acre-foot base level.
Fallowing, primarily needed to meet environmental mitigation requirements for the Salton Sea, will be permitted only for the first 15 years. After that, all water must come from conservation improvements that improve the efficiency of conservation, both on the farm and within the water delivery system.
For John Eckhardt, IID’s executive program manager for the transfer program, this “efficiency conservation” represents a win-win end-game for IID and SDCWA, while fallowing brings with it many question marks.
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