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Hey FlyGuy, here is a response from our Conservation Director. We do really appreciate you raising the questions. This whole line is new for us in that we are trying to take it more mainstream, so seeing where folks have questions is really important to us.
B-
1. Salt -- Some soil shouldn't be under irrigated agriculture at all, regardless of whether its drip, spray, or flood. For example, there are several thousand acres of land in the Westlands Water District with high selenium content with clay pan underneath it. The soil soon becomes saturated. The solution was to drain the polluted run-off into the Kesterson Wildlife Refuge, which ultimately caused deformation of waterfowl from selenium poisoning. There have been various stop-gap measures applied but the farmers want to drain their polluted run-off to the Delta or to the Coast and into the ocean. A federal judge found the federal government to be responsible for solving the drainage problem because they caused it by issuing the water contracts to Westlands in the first place. We think the ultimate solution will have to be to take a couple of hundred thousand acres of land out of production, which will reduce the pollution problem and save water. But farmers and Feinstein are against this solution.
2. We can't have a rational water policy in California without some kind of government control over groundwater. Storing water underground is the simplest, most effective, and cheapest solution, except for the fact that under current law anyone with the money can dig a well and tap into that water. Groundwater basins used to store water must be adjudicated and carefully managed to prevent water mining. Even with the policy problems with groundwater management, California has established more than 5 million acre feet of groundwater storage in the past decade, which is 10 tens the amount of water the state projects would be supplied by new dams.
I bet that neither the Gov nor 99% of the Legislature know that we have established 5 MAF of groundwater storage in the last decade (out of sight, out of mind) or for that matter nearly 1 MAF in storage behind new dams that supposedly haven't been built in years. Our "leaders" and most of the public have really swallowed the water speculators' factoids hook, line, and sinker. The strong push for dams is based on both emotion and greed. Emotion in that people seem to need some "concrete" solution visible to everyone like a dam and greed in that, if you can get Uncle Sugar to buy you a new car, wouldn't you make the case that life as you know it will end unless you get that new, free car?
Steven L. Evans
Conservation Director
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