34 Almond Facts
JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2015
During the 104th Annual Meeting of
Blue Diamond Growers
held
last November in Sacramento, members had a chance to hear
an informative presentation from Mike Wade, executive director
of the Farm Water Coalition. The Farm Water Coalition is a
non-proft educational organization formed in 1989 to provide
fact-based information on farm water issues to the public.
Wade reminded the audience that history is often our best
predictor of what is to come as the water issues that California
farmers, and the state as a whole, are facing are not really new.
Wade gave a brief timeline of water use beginning with the
Spanish mission era when Padre Fermin Francisco de Lasuen
oversaw the construction of a dam and aqueduct system
at Mission Santa Barbara that represented the frst use of
diverted water in California.
Since then, water use in California has been dictated by
changes in crop production, population growth and the
redirection of water to environmental purposes. “The
completion of the Transcontinental Railroad represented a
real shift in California agriculture,” said Wade. “The farmers
that were growing grain in and around Sacramento found that
the rates the railroads were charging to ship it back east were
too expensive to make it cost-effective. That led to the frst
crop shift in California where a lot of farmers started growing
higher value crops, such as fruits and vegetables that justifed
the freight to ship to larger population centers in the east.”
In the 1940s, the federal Central Valley Project was completed.
The project, which was initiated in the 1920s, but didn’t come
to fruition until after the Depression, was built to address
large-scale groundwater overdraft. “The project accomplished
its goal as the effects of overdraft were reversed, but we are
seeing that same thing happen today due to the lack of reliable
surface water delivery.”
According to Wade, groundwater was traditionally seen as
the “dry year” water supply; but, because of the drought
experienced by the state, and increasing regulatory restrictions
that rededicate surface water to other uses, groundwater has
become an “every year” need to fulfll agriculture’s purpose.
That reliance has increased, according to Wade, from about
38 percent in an average rainfall year to approximately 53
percent in 2014.
“Governor Brown was correct in a statement he made recently
in that we have an ‘engineered water supply,’” said Wade.
“He’s correct in that we need to get over the fact that we no
longer have a pristine ecosystem driven, natural water system,
and work to manage it accordingly.”
It is a new era that will require groundwater and surface water
management to go hand in hand. California’s drought and
future water management has international repercussions as
other nations rely on the crops the state produces for their own
food security.
While the Farm Water Coalition does not participate in
policy activities, they do keep a close eye on the regulatory
changes that will redirect water use in the state. In looking
ahead to future issues, Wade touched on the recent passage
of Proposition 1 by two-thirds of California voters that
included a $7.5 billion bond package, of which $2.6 billion is
directed towards storage projects. Adding to the discussion is
the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act that was just
signed by Governor Brown.
“As we see agencies move forward, many of their actions are
predicated on our ability to deliver surface water,” added
Wade. “We have so many competing uses for the same water
that all of them add up to a reduction in the reliability of the
capacity to deliver surface water, which conversely impacts
groundwater. California’s agricultural success is built upon
on adequate water supplies. It is important that consumers
understand those issues.”
It’s A New Era for Surface and
Groundwater Management