A drop in the bucket. While there is much uncertainty surrounding drought-stricken areas of the country, the irrigation industry is hard at work solving water problems both new and existing.
As California and much of the southwestern United States continue to cope with record drought conditions, irrigated agriculture throughout the country awaits clarity on new regulations coming from the EPA regarding clean water.
Will the Republican-led Congress alleviate any of these restrictions? Will the new groundwater regulations in California help secure this resource for current and future generations? And finally, what water-focused curveballs will irrigated agriculture see in 2015?
First, let’s look at California. Specifically, let’s look at the issues surrounding the drought and what’s in store for 2015. The drought of 2014 was the worst California has experienced in generations. In many cases, farmers dealt with a water allocation of 0 percent (yes, zero percent) and were forced to drill for groundwater in order to keep their farms alive. It just so happens that California is one of the few states in the country that does not regulate groundwater (or at least hadn’t throughout the worst of the drought conditions). Now that we are in a new year, California is in the beginning stages of regulating groundwater, and we are finally seeing rain and snowpack coming in (knock on wood). The $10 million question is whether this will be enough to bring California out of its record drought. One thing is certain: Regardless of the amount of rain and snow the state receives over the winter months, major policy changes need to happen in California.
California has approximately 7.5 million irrigated acres in production. Yet farmers use approximately 23.4 million acre-feet of water each year. This is the most of any state. This is mainly due to the fact that approximately 4.5 million of the 7.5 million irrigated acres are irrigated using gravity, or flood, irrigation. Many of California’s farmers rely on neighboring farmers using flood irrigation as a source for their irrigation water. However, in a state that has a shrinking water supply, California needs to invest in major changes to its water infrastructure to allow for the more efficient use of water by its farmers.
Endangered species continue to take center stage in California as the amount of water set aside for the delta smelt drives a bigger wedge between environmentalists and farmers who rely on water pumped from the Bay Delta.
Everyone who counts on California agriculture for food or jobs has a stake in this discussion. This is why Congress will once again take up a California drought-relief bill, which will focus mainly on the implementation of the Endangered Species Act in the Bay Delta.
Now let’s move eastward to the Ogallala Aquifer, otherwise known as the High Plains Aquifer. This aquifer continues to be a focal point for many federal and state policymakers. Recently, the U.S. Geologic Service released a report that highlighted the fact that the levels of the Ogallala are continuing to decrease. However, in Nebraska, which has approximately 8.3 million acres of irrigated farmland (the most in the United States), the Ogallala levels are either rising or staying the same, even though many Nebraska farms rely on groundwater as their water source for irrigation.
Finally, we end in Washington, D.C., where all eyes will be on the EPA and whether the Obama Administration continues to move forward with the proposed Waters of the United States rule, which provides clarity to the Clean Water Act. Since the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, the scope of its authority has been tied up in various court cases. The central component to these cases was to determine what exactly a “navigable source” of water is. With this in mind, the EPA determined that the scope of the Clean Water Act should encompass “all waters” and outlined various exemptions throughout the proposed rule. As one can imagine, regardless of the exemptions, this expansion of authority caused great concern for U.S. agriculture. Specifically relating to irrigation water use, the Clean Water Act does not apply to groundwater. However, once groundwater is pumped and stored on-site, the new rule may provide jurisdiction over this water under the scope of the Clean Water Act.
The EPA received more than a million comments regarding this proposed rule. We at the Irrigation Association anticipate the Republican-controlled Congress to stop this new rule from taking effect as well. With these two key factors in play, we anticipate that this battle is far from over.
All in all, the irrigation industry has much to be proud of. Whether it’s assisting farmers with producing a better yield or helping conserve our natural resources, the irrigation machines, systems and technologies used in agriculture are getting better by the day. It’s an exciting time for the industry and we are looking forward to working with policymakers, regulators and our customers in telling our positive story.