CALIFORNIA DROUGHT
DEEPENS
ECONOMIC WOUND
TO FARMERS

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February 28, 2009.  California, the nation's largest supplier of produce, is in a "state of emergency" mandated by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as a result of extremely low water reservoirs. Urban citizens are required to reduce water consumption by 20 percent or face more extreme cutbacks, including reduced water capacity.

OVER-POPULATION
AND
DROUGHT

This drought results from decreasing rainfall coupled with the expanding population growth. Three consecutive years of below-average rainfall has not allowed sufficient time for recovery of the water supply system. The last drought was in 1991 and has been challenged by an exploding population growth of over 9 million who receive their water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and some runoff from the spring melting snow of the Sierra Nevada Mountain but which is expected to be 57 percent less this year.

Farmers have been hit twice as hard from both the nationwide economic hard times and now the local drought. Even though some farms have historic water rights, the drought has set a priority for the people over the plants. The Governor has temporarily denied diverted water use by the farms which has caused massive layoffs of farm workers and wilted crops with severe farm revenue losses.

The California Farm Bureau Association is seeking legislative bills to enact a long-term protocol including plans for new surface water storage facilities, improved water delivery systems, and water conservation and desalination projects, and other methods of water acquisition and management.

Environmentalists are concerned about the expedited projects that will bypass sufficient environmental approval, and the opportunists in the rural areas who are not subject to the current reduced water consumption mandate and are diverting water into storage facilities and canals.

Governor Schwarzenegger announced several remedies in the state of emergency plan:  (1) citizens voluntarily reduce urban (city but not rural) water consumption by 20 percent; (2) expedite regulatory approval on desalination and water recycling and other drought relief projects while bypassing standard environmental review; (3) prioritize financial aid and new skills job training to laid-off farm workers; (4) state agencies to conserve water at their facilities, including landscaping; (5) Department of Water Resources to expedite water transfer between agencies and assist farmers.

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5009 + 1.5 x 10 ¹⁰ Universal  | Chérie Phillips, Editor

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