Farmers are reluctant to further cut back on the amount of water they use to keep their fields green, despite pressure from policymakers looking to reduce strain on the Colorado River.
$880 million of hay overseas each year, with most going to China, Japan and Saudi Arabia.John Hawk stepped out of his own white pickup and pulled on a ballcap to keep the sun out of his eyes. Hawk, who also serves as a county supervisor, comes from a long line of local growers. “Four generations going on five,” he said, and noted that his dad helped build the All-American Canal, which carries Colorado River water to Imperial’s fields.
“We could use drip or sprinklers,” Hawk said. “But you got to remember that the cost goes way up in a crop. And so how are we compensated for doing that?” It’s also a system that greatly benefits farmers in Imperial Valley. Their water rights are among the oldest, and thus the most legally untouchable. That has imbued the area’s farmers with a legal entitlement to that water and a sense of indignation. The law says their water should be the last to get cut, and Imperial farmers say the law should be followed to the letter now that it’s time to make those cuts.
“If you go back and get your grandma’s car that had a big V8 in it – not very good gas mileage, made out of steel, very heavy, clunky – nowadays you look at that car thinking, ‘Oh my god,’” Jack said. “Well, unfortunately, a lot of farmers are still driving their grandma’s cars, so to speak, when it comes to irrigation.”
The Salton Sea, a manmade lake mainly filled with agricultural runoff, sits behind Imperial Valley farms on Oct. 19, 2018. Local water users are wary about cutting back on agricultural water use, which could exacerbate ecological and health problems caused by the shrinking lake. The district may soon see an influx of federal money. IID just signed on to a proposal for new water cutbacks, and would receive an unspecified total from the Inflation Reduction Act in exchange. The exact number has not yet been announced, but those funds would come out of a $4 billion chunkfor Colorado River projects, and could amount to tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, if the proposal moves forward.
“You can’t make everybody happy,” said Tina Shields, IID’s water department manager. “If you have 10 farmers, you have 10 different opinions on what the best program is, because they’re going to advocate for what works for their business model. But the district has to look at it more programmatically and implement manageable programs and try to satisfy as many people as possible.
An unusually wet winter lifted some weight off the shoulders of water managers, but that could be quickly reversed by a string of dry years. States and observers alike are optimistic that any cuts in any part of the Colorado River Basin will most likely be voluntary, as mandatory water restrictions levied by the federal government would probably end up in court, creating messy legal battles that states say they want to avoid.
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