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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=4 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>Editorial <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=4 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>Farmers must monitor, reduce water use<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><font size=4 face=Tahoma><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>The <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">San Francisco</st1:City></st1:place> Chronicle-
9/14/08<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>Drought, population growth, global warming, a
collapsing Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta environment - it's no secret that
California's water challenges are only going to get more challenging in the
near future. So you'd think, at the very least, that the state would measure
how much water farmers - who use about 80 percent of the water drawn from the
ailing delta - use each year. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt;display:none'><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/15/EDLP12TB1O.DTL"
title="blocked::http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/15/EDLP12TB1O.DTL"><font
color=black
title="blocked::http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/15/EDLP12TB1O.DTL"><span
title="blocked::http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/15/EDLP12TB1O.DTL"><span
style='color:windowtext;text-decoration:none'>Pelosi views on abortion in synch
with most Catholics</span></span></font></a> 09.15.08 <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>And you'd best think again.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>There's no system to measure or monitor how much of
our water is being used by agricultural interests - and therefore we have no
idea what our state's water needs and policy should be going into the future.
(Think about that, voters, before you approve any more water bonds.) That's
just one of the surprising revelations of researchers at the Pacific Institute
in <st1:City w:st="on">Oakland</st1:City> in their new study about the
potential for agricultural water conservation in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State
w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place>. The other big surprise in their
report is the fact that <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place>
farmers could save billions of gallons of water every year by expanding
practices they already use - sparing the rest of us the cost and environmental
damage of at least some of the new dams being discussed by legislators and the
governor. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>The report lists a number of ways in which farmers
cannot just conserve water but save money in the process: installing drip
irrigation (about 60 percent of California agriculture is still irrigated using
flood-irrigation methods), switching over to crops that require less water and
yield higher prices (it's pretty hard to justify growing rice and cotton in
what is, after all, a desert climate), and managing irrigation with technology
instead of visual inspections. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>This is good news: Who likes wasting money? And who
wants more dams? So it's disheartening to watch farming interests try to tear
the report down. A spokesman from the California Farm Bureau Federation
declared that farmers are already increasing their efficiency. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>Jasper Hempel, executive vice president for Western
Growers Association, the trade group whose members grow 90 percent of <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place>'s fruits and
vegetables, said in a statement that his organization was "troubled"
by a report he described as "incomplete" and added that he hoped a
"more serious study" would soon emerge.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>There are a few reasons why farmers might take umbrage
to the suggestion that they could be doing things better, but they all go back
to money - money and perceived control. Regarding the money, it requires quite
a bit of up-front cash to, say, shift from flood irrigation to drip - $1,000
per acre. But that initial capital outlay is usually recouped within two years,
and there's no reason why the state couldn't offer farmers rebates to do the
right thing.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>The other reason for farmers to resist change is that
it could upset the infrastructure, delivery systems and financial plans they've
already created. But change, like it or not, will have to come to <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place>'s water
policy. We simply can't continue along the path that we're traveling. Just as
urban dwellers in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place>
have had to adapt to low-flush toilets, short showers and mandatory reduction
programs, farmers, too, need to step up the efforts to use less water.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>For the sake of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place>,
that day needs to come sooner rather than later. The first step is for the
Legislature and the governor to insist on a measuring and monitoring system for
agricultural water use. That system must be approved before voters offer <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Sacramento</st1:City></st1:place> yet another
check for dams and other water infrastructure.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>The second step is for our state leaders to go to the
farmers and ask them what kinds of changes they're willing to make if they're
to continue getting so much water at such a great cost to the state. Will they
work with the state to update their irrigation systems? Phase in different
crops? And if they say that they won't change a thing - if they say that <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>'s
environmental sustainability and future growth are less important than their
ability to continue farming rice or cotton using wasteful methods - well, then,
they'll have to explain that to the voters themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Byron Leydecker, JCT</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Chair, Friends of <st1:place w:st="on">Trinity
River</st1:place></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:address w:st="on"><st1:Street w:st="on"><em><i><font
size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:gray'>PO Box</span></font></i></em></st1:Street><em><i><font
color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='color:gray'> 2327</span></font></i></em></st1:address><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><em><i><font
size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:gray'>Mill Valley</span></font></i></em></st1:City><em><i><font
color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='color:gray'>, <st1:State w:st="on">CA</st1:State>
<st1:PostalCode w:st="on">94942-2327</st1:PostalCode></span></font></i></em></st1:place><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 519 4810 cell</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net">bwl3@comcast.net</a></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org">bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</a>
(secondary)</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a href="http://fotr.org">http://fotr.org</a>
</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net"></a> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'> </span><o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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