Water Equity? A Single Irrigation Authority Gets More Water than All of Los Angeles
June 6, 2022
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Governor Gavin Newsom recently stated he might institute mandatory water restrictions on California ratepayers in response to the catastrophic drought afflicting the state. From one perspective, his declaration seems reasonable: despite an extremely dry winter and dwindling water supplies, water use in the state shot up almost 20% in March compared to the same month in 2020. It’s clear that ratepayers must shoulder their share of the responsibility for water conservation.
But Newsom’s position ignores a baseline reality: even if ratepayers let every plant in their gardens die, flush their toilets once a day, and forego five-minute showers for sponge baths, the water savings won’t be that great. That’s because cities only use 10 % of the state’s developed water. Fully 80 percent goes to agriculture.
The Governor has diligently avoided any talk of imposing deep cuts to the farming sector. But if he’s serious about saving water, said Carolee Krieger, the executive director of the California Water Impact Network, he’ll need to change his talking points – and fast.
“It’s mystifying that Governor Newsom refuses to engage on this issue,” said Krieger, whose organization advocates for greater water allocation equity. “The main reason we’re in such deep trouble today is because state reservoirs were drawn down precipitously during the past three years to benefit agriculture. But ratepayers are now expected to bear the brunt of the restrictions – and it still won’t be enough to avoid a deepening crisis.”
Krieger said Newsom’s “mid-20th century approach to water” won’t work in the 21st century.
“Water rights claims already exceed the amount of available water in the state by five times,” said Krieger. “This is water that exists on paper, not in the real world – but it results in overexploitation of our scant water supplies, particularly by industrial agricultural. We can’t have a workable distribution policy until we acknowledged this unsustainable oversubscription of our public trust water resources.”
In addition, said Krieger, “Climate change means there will be more droughts and less snowpack in the Sierra, and ultimately, less water in our reservoirs.”
Given this grim reality, Krieger observed, the Newsom administration must reconsider the basic way water is distributed – not just impulsively impose draconian cuts on ratepayers.
“Agriculture contributes only 2% to the state GDP, but it gets the lion’s share of the water,” she said. “We must allocate the water where it will provide the greatest benefit to our ratepayers, the economy, and the environment that sustains the high quality of life we all enjoy.”
Barbara Vlamis, the executive director of AquAlliance, a North State environmental organization, cited the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors as a prime example of California’s skewed water policy.
The contractors are long-established agribusiness beneficiaries of a settlement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation that cleared the way for the construction of Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River. The four irrigation districts that participated in the settlement swapped their claimed rights to divert water from the San Joaquin River for water from the California Delta delivered via the federal Central Valley Project (CVP).
During average years, the exchange contractors are allocated about 865,000 acre-feet of water from the CVP. That’s more water than Los Angeles uses in a year. But they typically get plenty of water even during catastrophically dry years. In 2020, 2021 and 2022, the contractors got 75% of their standard allotment (650,000 AF) – an outrageous amount, said Vlamis, given the West Coast is struggling with the worst drought in 1,200 years and California ratepayers are being urged to take three-minute showers.
“Fewer than 2,000 irrigators are signatories to the Friant Dam settlement,” said Vlamis. “It’s both irrational and morally indefensible that they can wield so much influence in Sacramento and Washington and lock up so much water. We support agriculture. Farming is clearly essential to both California’s rural economies and, depending on the crop grown, national food security. But we must have some parity. It’s not just a matter of fairness – it’s about survival, plain and simple”
Krieger observed there is a remedy to the inequity.
“The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has a five-year contract renewal window with the San Joaquin irrigators,” she said. “The agency can alter the terms of the contract, making it more reasonable. Given the urgency of the current drought and the grim long-term implications of climate change, we’re asking the Biden administration to revisit the contract, and give the people of California the water they need and deserve.”
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