Drought Relief

Published March 26, 2014 in Tulare County's Foothills Sun-Gazette


     My desk is still covered with books on California water and news articles on the current drought after last week's writing binge for the Bee.  Bill McEwen, the editorial page editor, has made space for me there because "it's giving our readers a look at ag, water, people and towns that they can't get anywhere else."


     I wasn't sure their readers would care to hear about our lives here in the small-farm, small-town citrus belt.  His generous editing of the first two pieces, however, makes it clear that we have at least one listener, and a very tender ear at that.


     For Saturday's edition (Mar. 23,) I wrote about the forgotten law, expanding what we published here two weeks ago.  It seems to me that the coalition of groups seeking drought relief is in particular need of reminding.


     "We don't want handouts - we want H2O!!" screamed signs from a rally in Firebaugh pictured on the Bee's cover last week.  Water is one of the handouts those huge landowners have been getting for fifty years through the San Luis Unit of the Central Valley Project, plus a mobile labor supply for their plantations subsidized by the public through state and federal food, health and education funds.  But there was no one in Firebaugh that day to tell them that, or to remind them of the strings attached to that water.  That's probably good:  there might have been a lynching.


     While feelings flared in Firebaugh, nine farmers testified about the drought's impact before a US House Natural Resources Committee in Fresno.  A Kern County farmer told of his decision to "dry up" 1,000 acres of almonds, blaming "shortages that were created and controlled by regulations that have been imposed and brandished like weapons."


     That would be State Water Project water he's missing.  Do you know what it costs us, the state taxpayers, to store water in Oroville, ship it through the Delta, and then pump it UPHILL all the way to Kern County so he can grow almonds where sagebrush normally reigns?  So he can compete against almond growers in the Sacramento Valley, where they normally would have received Feather River flows stored at Oroville?  Some almond growers should be singing Hallelujah.


     Then there's Harris Ranch, vitriolic opponents of the acreage limitation since they first got whiff that it applied to "their" water from San Luis Unit.  An article in Sunday's Bee described Harris's plans "to idle thousands of acres of cropland" in order to "coax a respectable bounty of almonds, pistachios and asparagus, permanent crops that can't be fallowed."  (So much for Hallelujah, you other nut growers.)  One Harris executive said "In a normal year, 72 million heads of lettuce would come out of this ground."


     After reading that, I started having daymares as I scanned groceries at the market, mentally seeing the produce prices this summer skyrocket beyond my customers' ability to buy. "Enjoy those tomatoes," I encouraged them, wondering what we'll do for salsa and salad by June.  But maybe that will make a window of opportunity for our local produce growers and backyard gardeners who can make every spare drop of water count.  We'll see.


     The real relief we might get from this drought is from the dominance of the industrial food growers - if we can keep them from taking their unfair share of water.  I know that's a big IF, but if we don't, we'll be even more subject to their demands when this is over.


     The drought relief we really need comes only from above and from within:  measurable precipitation and hearts willing to share the shortage.  That's not what those water coalition people are clamoring for.  For me, it would be a big relief if they'd just stop talking.
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Trudy Wischemann is a water researcher who writes.  You can send her your drought relief ideas c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a message below.