Article from SF Chronicle.
“Why California grows hay in the desert in a drought” (Insight, April 17) by Christopher Thornberg highlights the irrationality of growing low-value hay during California’s drought. He also points straight at harsh arithmetic: Reducing urban use by 25 percent only saved 5 percent of the developed water in the state. Agriculture needs to use less water.
Thornberg gets sidetracked, however, when he equates the system of allocation with control by water districts and proposes water markets as the answer. The question is not simply what water districts do with water once they get it. The problem is how much water they get in the first place. Selling over-allocated water to other water users doesn’t solve over-allocation, it just redistributes water toward money.
Statewide, there are two major paths toward cutting agricultural water use.
First is the State Water Resources Control Board and its update of the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan. However, this has dragged on since 1995. The second option is adjudication by a court; lengthy and expensive, but definitive. In 2009, the legislature required urban water users to reduce use by 20 percent by 2020. The Gov. Jerry Brown administration could jump-start the water board by ordering an equivalent 20 percent aggregate reduction by agriculture.
Chris Shutes, Berkeley
SF Chronicle, Insight Section, May 1, 2016
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