<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1458" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<P class=sl-headline><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/v-printerfriendly/story/6375439p-7319866c.html">http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/v-printerfriendly/story/6375439p-7319866c.html</A></FONT></P>
<P class=sl-headline>It's time to mop up west side's water debacle</P>
<P class=sl-subhead>Years of irrigation have taken a toll, and now political,
environmental and economic forces may soon put an end to the vision. </P>
<P class=sl-byline></P><!--/STORYHEADLINE--><!--STORYBODY-->
<P class=sl-body><EM><FONT size=2><FONT color=#999999><SPAN
class=sl-pubdate>(Updated Monday, March 17, 2003, 5:33 AM)</SPAN><BR><BR><!-- BEGIN Component: FresnoBee : component/z_CodeBlue/storylevel/image_main.comp --></FONT></FONT></EM>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=240 align=right border=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD>
<TABLE class=sl-ph-tbl cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=240 border=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD>
<DIV align=center><EM><FONT color=#999999 size=2><IMG height=133
alt="(Mark Crosse / The Fresno Bee)"
src="http://www.fresnobee.com/ips_rich_content/323-vision5.jpg"
width=225 border=1></FONT></EM></DIV></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD><FONT size=1><FONT color=#666666><SPAN class=sl-ph-cut>Toxic
foam bubbles out of a pipe where the San Luis Drain empties into Mud
Slough, which in turn empties into the San Joaquin River. The drain
contains tail water contaminated with selenium and other toxic
minerals that drain from ag land on the west side.
</SPAN><BR></FONT><SPAN class=sl-ph-cred><FONT color=#cc6633>(Mark
Crosse / The Fresno Bee)</FONT></SPAN></FONT></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD><FONT color=#cc6633 size=1></FONT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><BR
clear=all>
<TABLE class=sl-tool-tl cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=240 border=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD colSpan=3><FONT color=#cc6633 size=1><IMG
src="http://www.fresnobee.com/static/img/story/story_resources.gif"
vspace=1 border=0></FONT></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=center width=32 colSpan=2><A class=sl-tool-tl
onclick="window.open('http://fresnobee.com/cgi-bin/mailastory/mailastory.cgi?http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/v-printerfriendly/story/6375439p-7319866c.html', 'preview', 'width=420,height=320,resizable=1,scrollbars=1').focus();"
href="http://fresnobee.com/cgi-bin/mailastory/mailastory.cgi?http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/v-printerfriendly/story/6375439p-7319866c.html"
target=preview><FONT color=#cc6633 size=1><IMG
src="http://www.fresnobee.com/static/img/story/email_article.gif"
align=middle vspace=1 border=0></FONT></A></TD>
<TD vAlign=center width=208><A class=sl-tool-tl
onclick="window.open('http://fresnobee.com/cgi-bin/mailastory/mailastory.cgi?http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/v-printerfriendly/story/6375439p-7319866c.html', 'preview', 'width=420,height=320,resizable=1,scrollbars=1').focus();"
href="http://fresnobee.com/cgi-bin/mailastory/mailastory.cgi?http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/v-printerfriendly/story/6375439p-7319866c.html"
target=preview>E-mail This Article</A></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=center colSpan=2><A class=sl-tool-tl
href="http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/v-printerfriendly/story/6375439p-7319866c.html"><IMG
src="http://www.fresnobee.com/static/img/story/printer.gif"
align=middle vspace=1 border=0></A> </TD>
<TD vAlign=center><A class=sl-tool-tl
href="http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/v-printerfriendly/story/6375439p-7319866c.html"
target=_new>Printer-Friendly Format</A></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=center><A class=sl-tool-tl
href="http://www.fresnobee.com/now/v-z_CodeBlue/"><IMG
src="http://www.fresnobee.com/static/img/story/bulletin.gif"
align=middle vspace=1 border=0></A> </TD>
<TD vAlign=center> </TD>
<TD vAlign=center><A class=sl-tool-tl
href="http://www.fresnobee.com/now/v-z_CodeBlue/">Receive the Daily
Bulletin</A></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=center colSpan=2><A class=sl-tool-tl
href="https://ecom.fresnobee.com/circsales/"><IMG
src="http://www.fresnobee.com/static/img/story/subscribe.gif"
align=middle vspace=1 border=0></A> </TD>
<TD vAlign=center><A class=sl-tool-tl
href="https://ecom.fresnobee.com/circsales/">Subscribe to
Print</A></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=center colSpan=2><A class=sl-tool-tl
href="http://forums.centralvalley.com/"><IMG
src="http://www.fresnobee.com/static/img/story/forum.gif"
align=middle vspace=1 border=0></A> </TD>
<TD vAlign=center><A class=sl-tool-tl
href="http://forums.centralvalley.com/">Join a Forum</A>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE class=sl-tool-tbl cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=240 border=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD><!-- BEGIN RELATED STORIES --><!-- END RELATED STORIES --><!-- BEGIN USER DATA FIELDS --><!-- BEGIN Component: FresnoBee : component/z_CodeBlue/storylevel/udf_logic1.comp --><!-- BEGIN Component: FresnoBee : component/z_CodeBlue/storylevel/udf_logic2.comp --><!-- BEGIN Component: FresnoBee : component/z_CodeBlue/storylevel/udf_logic3.comp --><!-- END Component: FresnoBee : component/z_CodeBlue/storylevel/udf_logic3.comp --><!-- END Component: FresnoBee : component/z_CodeBlue/storylevel/udf_logic2.comp --><!-- END Component: FresnoBee : component/z_CodeBlue/storylevel/udf_logic1.comp --><!-- END USER DATA FIELDS --><!-- /content_attribute, attribute=>'user_data:ibox' --></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- END Component: FresnoBee : component/z_CodeBlue/storylevel/image_main.comp -->Large-scale
farming on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley grew out of a grand vision:
make a parched desert bloom and fill its barren acres with small family farms.
That vision was driven - and greatly altered over the years - by political and
economic forces. It was America’s public policy to move people westward, and it
was America’s pride that we could rearrange nature to bring the water where we
wanted it. Later, during the Great Depression, it was a national policy to
employ as many people as possible on great public works projects.
<P>Out of those forces came the Central Valley Project. It supplies water to the
Westlands Water District, which distributes it to member-growers. That has made
the desert fertile, and created vast wealth.
<P>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width=228 align=right bgColor=#ffffff
border=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD align=middle width=228 bgColor=#cccccc>
<P>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=10 width=226 bgColor=#ffffff border=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD align=left width=226>
<DIV align=center><FONT face=verdana,arial color=#cc0000
size=-2><B><SUP>_____</SUP> Related item
<SUP>_____</SUP></B></FONT><BR></DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica
color=#cc0000 size=2>• </FONT><FONT
face="verdana, ms sans serif, arial" size=-2><A
href="http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/story/6371737p-7319886c.html"><B><FONT
color=#4a7194>The history of the Westlands Water District.
</FONT></FONT></B></A></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></P></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD width=228 height=1><FONT color=#4a7194><SPACER type="block"
width="226" height="1" /></FONT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P>Now a harsh reality intrudes: We are likely to see the end of west-side
farming in the next 25 to 50 years, at least on its present grand scale. That
would mean the end of $1 billion in annual production of cotton, fruits,
vegetables and feed, and the loss of some 25,000 jobs, or at least most of them.
A whole string of west-side communities could become the 21st-century equivalent
of Gold Rush ghost towns.
<P>If nature has a sense of humor, it’s probably laughing at us now. This was
the deal: Farmers on the east side of the Valley would get the San Joaquin River
water that once flowed all the way to the sea. West-side growers would get other
water from up north, by way of the CVP, at a subsidized rate.
<P>But water applied to the topsoil on the west side carries salts and metals
with it down through the ground until it hits a nearly impermeable layer of
clay. There it backs up, and builds up toward the surface again. When it gets
too close to the crops’ roots, they die, and the soil is poisoned.
<P>The used water must be drained somehow. The scientists and engineers knew
that all along. They started to build the San Luis Drain to carry contaminated
water to San Francisco Bay, and got as far as the Kesterson Reservoir in western
Merced County. Then a combination of increasing costs and rising environmental
concerns put a halt to the drain. The water just sat there at Kesterson.
<P>In the mid-1980s came a shock: Thousands of birds began dying at Kesterson,
deformed by selenium the irrigation water carried.
<P>It is galling to many growers that a solution - the drain - is known to exist
but hasn’t been built. And it’s not likely to be built, either. The fiscal,
political and environmental concerns that halted the San Luis Drain in the early
1980s are even larger now.
<P>Another alternative, drilling through the Coast Range to carry the
contaminated water to the Pacific Ocean, is even less appealing to taxpayers and
environmentalists. A third alternative, evaporation ponds, is freighted with
awful images of Kesterson’s dead and deformed birds.
<P>Some count on technology to provide an answer. That’s possible, but it isn’t
on the horizon. And right now is when we have the problem.
<P>Some growers sued the federal government for its failure to complete the
promised drain. They won a lavish settlement, but it may be a pyrrhic victory.
Under the settlement, some 33,000 acres that have become too contaminated to
farm will be taken out of production. That may presage the future for the entire
Westlands district, or much of it.
<P>Today Westlands is not crowded with family farms, as in the early vision, but
instead has about 600 growers on 600,000 acres. The costly water subsidies that
keep it alive make less and less sense in a changing global economy.
<P>Taking most of the district’s land out of production, as in the recent
settlement, is the best course. The current water contract with the federal
government expires in 2007. That may be too soon to craft a workable retirement
solution, but the next contract, if there is one, should be for only about 10
years.
<P>Landowners should be fairly compensated for their land, but they shouldn’t be
handed the sort of bonanza some of them got in the recent settlement. The
greater concern should be for the people in the small communities of the west
side, whose lives and livelihoods could be devastated by land retirement. Their
voices are seldom heard in these discussions. That must change.
<P>Nor should Westlands end up owning the retired land, as in the settlement.
Above all, when the land is retired, the water should go back to the federal
government for other uses. Westlands shouldn’t be permitted, as many suspect it
intends, to turn itself into a water broker, marketing water instead of crops.
<P>Humans have made a costly mess of the west side. Give it back to nature to
redeem. </P>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML>