[env-trinity] Western San Joaquin - Trinity River Water

[Byron]

Feds May Let Salty Farmland Go Fallow

San Francisco Chronicle - 7/12/06

By Olivia Munoz, Associated Press

 

Dry, brittle grass is all that pokes through earth that once grew tons of
tomatoes, garlic and lettuce.

 

Poor drainage has left land on the San Joaquin Valley's west side salty and
worthless, a nightmare for farmers and the federal government, which
provides irrigation water here.

 

Over the years, numerous efforts to drain the poisoned land and salvage it
for agriculture have failed. Now, the government is considering spending
hundreds of millions of dollars to pay off farmers and get out of its
obligation to irrigate the land - effectively letting the 300,000-acre swath
go fallow.

 

That's the preferred alternative among the latest set of proposals from the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Another calls for pumping the water out to sea,
an idea opposed by officials in coastal cities.

 

"It's a very complex issue. We've been trying to figure this out for a long
time," said Jerry Robbins, a project manager with the reclamation bureau.

 

Drainage problems on the land stretching along a 90-mile stretch from Los
Banos to Kettleman City are caused by a natural layer of clay beneath the
surface that keeps water from draining through. The small amounts of salt in
the water builds up over time, leaving the fields unsuitable for crops.

 

When the government agreed to irrigate the San Joaquin Valley in 1960, both
growers and federal water officials knew drainage would be an issue. The
government agreed to build a drainage system from the beginning.

 

But a partially completed drainage system that funneled the salty water into
1,200 acres of ponds at Kesterson Reservoir became an environmental disaster
in the early 1980s, due to high levels of the mineral selenium, which is
toxic in large quantities.

 

Residue from the evaporating water caused deaths and birth defects in
millions of waterfowl, including missing eyes and partially developed limbs.
The Kesterson drain was shut down in 1985 and the ponds were filled in with
dirt.

 

Many fear a similar tragedy if farmers take the buyout and the water is left
to gather in "evaporation ponds."

 

According to Robbins, it would cost the taxpayer-funded reclamation bureau
at least $750 million to buy out the water rights. The farmers would still
own it and could theoretically grow on it, but with rain water only, and
that's scarce for most of the year.

 

A few farmers, like John Diener, have found ways to squeeze a livelihood
from the land.

 

At his Red Rock Ranch in Five Points, the water is naturally filtered when
it gently trickles down his sloping fields of alfalfa and grasses. 

 

>From high to low, each crop is more salt-tolerant than the last, and a
little salt is removed from the water at each stage.

 

He has other ways to convert the otherwise poison water into a more valuable
product. He pumps it through a sprinkler, which sprays the water on a bed of
slate chunks. They help separate the salt crystals from the water. Those
salt particles are used to make dry laundry detergent.

 

"I opted to find a way to keep farming," Diener said. "I thought we could
find a way to do what Americans do best and that's be innovative."

 

The Bureau of Reclamation has given the public until July 31 to comment on
its proposals.

 

Gabriel Gonzalez, city manager of nearby Mendota, said the retirement of all
that land would devastate his residents. Mendota, which has about 8,700
people, has a steady unemployment rate of about 25 percent, even during peak
harvesting season, Gonzalez said.

 

"We are already a community that almost totally relies on agriculture for
jobs and a tax base," he said. "There have already been thousands of acres
retired and we've seen the impact."

 

 

Byron Leydecker

Chair, Friends of Trinity River

Advisor, California Trout, Inc

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810 ph

415 383 9562 fx

bwl3 at comcast.net

bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org

http://www.fotr.org

http:www.caltrout.org 

 

 

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