[env-trinity] Findings of farmer-funded water conservation research criticized

[Mark Dowdle - TCRCD]

    Farmer-funded water research criticized


OAKLAND
December 4, 2011 9:01pm


.  It used old theories of water-use efficiency, says new study

.  'It is time to move away from a focus on practices that only produce 
'new' water or new supplies'


A paper released in November by Fresno State University's Center for 
Irrigation Technology and paid for at least in part by Central Valley 
farmers and the Bureau of Reclamation, is being criticized by scientists 
on the other side of the water allocation question.

The earlier report concluded that farmers have nearly exhausted 
conservation methods of agricultural use of irrigation water in the 
Central Valley and only new supplies of water will stave off economic 
disaster.

/(Please see the link at the end of this story for the earlier CVBT 
article, which includes an audio recording of the study's authors' press 
conference.)/

But the Fresno State paper "uses old theories of water-use efficiency to 
argue that the potential to improve efficiency of water use in 
California agriculture is tiny," says Peter Gleick, president of the 
Pacific Institute in Oakland, which describes itself as "a nonpartisan 
research institute that works to advance environmental protection, 
economic development, and social equity."

In a peer-reviewed paper published by the journal Water International, 
which also published the earlier study, Mr. Gleick, and two colleagues 
at the institute, Juliet Christian-Smith, senior research associate and 
Heather Cooley, program co-director, write that "common water 
conservation practices -- including urban indoor and outdoor efficiency 
programs, precision irrigation systems, improvements in soil moisture 
monitoring and management, deficit irrigation, and other approaches -- 
have enormous potential to conserve water."

They criticize the Fresno State paper as pushing a "one-size-fits-all" 
solution to water management and offering "simplistic, 'universal' answers."

The Pacific Institute authors say that water conservation and efficiency 
practices should be considered along with increased water storage, water 
recycling, desalination, and other choices to reduce pressures on scarce 
water supplies.

"It is time to move away from a focus on practices that only produce 
'new' water or new supplies, on theories that ignore or underestimate 
co-benefits, and on narrow definitions of conservation and efficiency 
that misrepresent the potential for improvements in other measures of 
productivity and environmental sustainability," they write.

In a separate column published in the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday, 
Mr. Gleick says "there is great untapped potential to increase the 
productivity of California agriculture while reducing water and energy 
use, reducing serious water-quality contamination in the Central Valley, 
and increasing the reliability of water supplies during droughts and 
other water shortages."

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