There can be no doubt in any informed person’s mind that a serious overdraft situation exists in the Borrego Valley. Commendably, the community stakeholders have come together to seek out ways to ensure both short term and long term water security for the valley. These efforts include the adoption of a GW Management Plan by the Borrego Water District, an aggressive grant solicitation program to secure funds to study the technical aspects and economic feasibility of a Conjunctive Use water banking project in the basin, and most recently, the adoption of a GW Mitigation Policy on New Development.

What is most significant is that the community has banded together to work toward solutions to the overdraft problem in ways which respect the rights and interests of all the stakeholders. This is a very different dynamic than that which existed just two or three years ago.

A prominent element of the GW Management Plan is conservation. While it is generally conceded that water conservation alone will not end the overdraft, the effect of well developed conservation program should not be minimized. Such a program will result in a reduced need for pumping which in turn will extend the useful life of the aquifer while more comprehensive long term solutions are developed.

Water conservation needs to become an engrained mindset of every resident in the Borrego Valley. In light of the recently released average household water use data, this is clearly not the case presently. Hopefully, through such measures as public education and the implementation of tiered water rates, people will begin to change their behavior with regard to domestic water use.

Agriculture is the largest water user in the basin and as such offers the most potentially significant benefits in terms of water conservation. For example, a 20% increase in irrigation efficiency valley wide could result in as much as 2,500 acre feet per year that would not need to be extracted from the aquifer. Irrigation efficiency must be maximized. Through educational "Field Days" and technological upgrades, farmers can become mcfre water thrifty than they currently are. If this requires funding and technical assistance from the District, then these expenditures might be considered the cheapest water the District can save.

One concept put forward in the GW Management Plan as an alternative program was the idea of paying farmers not to farm. Presumably, funds generated by the GW Mitigation Policy could be used for this purpose as well as for buying ag land outright. How significant an effect this proposal might have on the overall aquifer depletion depends on several factors which are hard to speculate about. But if the financial incentives were attractive enough to interest owners of large tract of farmland, it could be a viable concept.

However, after all is said and done, the reality is that there will probably be some form of agriculture in the Borrego Valley for the foreseeable future. Therefore, it seems to me that the main focus of any effort to reduce agricultural water use in our valley should be to encourage farmers to raise crops which need less water to produce economic returns. Such crops could be anything from ornamental plants for xeric landscaping, Opuntia cactus for fruit and nopal consumption, agaves for mescal production, guayule for natural latex, or jojoba for its unique liquid wax. Undoubtedly there are other arid-adapted crops out there just waiting to be discovered. My experience with jojoba has shown me that it can be farmed profitably with half the water citrus takes. The challenge will be to find ways to encourage growers to take the risk to change the complexion of the crop mix in Borrego.

What follows is a specific program which intends to motivate farmers to use less water in their operations. It is based on a positive reward approach as opposed to punitive penalization measures such as a pump tax. The general concept is that farmers would be rewarded financially for achieving certain target reductions in their water use. The financial reward may take the form of cash awards from the District, which could fund the program through grants, assessments or funds gleaned from the GW Mitigation Policy. An alternative form of reward could be property tax reductions much as is done in the California Land Conservation Act, better known as the Williamson Act. This would of course require interaction with county and state government. Another obvious requirement would be that farmers install meters on their pumps and allow monitoring of their usage. This may prove to be a difficult stumbling block as many farmers are reluctant to reveal their actual water extractions. This reluctance may be overcome by guarantees of confidentiality with regard to any participant’s specific data.

I envision the program would work something like this:

A. A farm’s baseline water use is established using current metering and historic data.

B. Target water use reductions are established. For example, 20% less in 5 years; 35% less in 10 years; 50% less in 15 years. A farmer who is enrolled in the program can meet these targets in a variety of ways. One way is to become more efficient in their irrigation techniques. Another way might be to retire or fallow acreage. Thirdly, they may choose to change to a more arid-adapted crop such as jojoba. Or a farmer may achieve these targets by combinations of all these choices and others.

C. The rewards are issued retroactively for the specific target and time period. For example, if a farmer meets the 20% reduction target in five years, the reward would be issued retroactively for the five-year period. If the cash award is $100/acre/year, the farmer would receive $500/acre for however many acres are in the program. If the reward is a specific property tax reduction and the target water use reduction is met, then the property tax reduction would be refunded retroactively for the five-year period.

D. The nature of the relationship between the farmer and the District with regard to the program would be contractual as is the case in the Williamson Act. The Williamson Act binds the parties for 10 years and can be automatically renewed indefinitely. A similar arrangement is easy to envision in this case. Contingencies such as ownership changes would have to be accounted for as well as penalties for opting out of the program early.

The conservation of water needs to become a focused endeavor of everyone residing in the Borrego Valley. Residents, businesses and farms all need to be made so conscious of water conservation that it informs every decision they make from turning off the water while brushing teeth, to deciding what turf (if any) to plant in a golf course retrofit, to irrigation scheduling in a citrus grove. It is something we all need to live with, now and forever because it will extend the longevity of the aquifer and allow us all to co-exist amicably here in the desert. It is hoped that the concept presented here to encourage agricultural water conservation can be used as a starting point or framework which will result in significant pumping reductions on the valley farms.

19 September 2005

Steve Smiley is the Manager of Seeley Ranch in Borrego Springs, CA, and a member of the Borrego Springs Community Sponsor Group.

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