Learning to Grow Without the Flow : High Tech Helps Farmers Cope With High Cost of Water

Although San Diego County residents have been asked or forced to reduce their water use, several area farmers say it would be impossible for them to cut back more without hurting their crops.

Henry May, an avocado and citrus fruit grower in Fallbrook, said he has tried to use alternate sources of water, as well as less imported water, but that he has cut back on irrigation as much as possible without stressing his trees.

“I’m pumping more water from my own wells,” he said. “I don’t know how much longer that’s going to last. The wells are dropping.”

May said high water prices forced him to make changes a few years ago, resulting in a cut in use of about 25%, but he says there isn’t much more he can do.

“With the different sprinkler heads that we have, I think we’re just about as efficient as we are going to get,” he said.

Paul Ecke of Encinitas, one of the nation’s largest growers of poinsettias, said he has used water-saving irrigation equipment for years, and would even if his water rates were substantially lower.

“It’s just the right thing to do,” he said. “It’s standard in the industry to use as little water as possible. It has been a high priority for years.”

Dejoca Co. grove manager Charley Wolk said farmers are getting a bum rap as big water wasters.

“There is a perception that agriculture wastes water,” he said. “When someone talks to me about agriculture wasting water, I just laugh about it. You don’t have to be altruistic. It just costs so much.”

In the Southwestern coastal plains

region of California--which extends from Oxnard south to the Mexican border and east to include parts of San Bernardino and Riverside counties--farmers pay as much as 40 times more for water than in other areas of the state, according to various water district figures.

Water accounts for about 60% of production expenses in tree crops in that area, said Wolk, who manages groves in North County and southern Riverside County.

“Because of the high cost of water in this area, growers are going to pay a lot more attention to how they use water,” he said.

But not all farmers have given up hope of finding new ways to conserve. Al Stehly, a grove manager in Valley Center, believes he has found a high-tech means of getting more out of every gallon.

He installed a state-of-the-art system about a month ago that monitors the conditions of the avocado and citrus trees he tends to, then relays the information through infrared beams to his home.

A computer sorts, displays and stores the information to help Stehly maintain maximum harvests with minimal water waste.

Although it may sound like “Star Wars Meets the Family Farm,” Stehly’s system is not significantly different from the way most farmers operate. The principle measurements--soil moisture and tree temperature--are factors all growers must monitor.

The difference is that the computerized system does it quickly, automatically, continuously and accurately.

“This will give me more confidence in my data, not different data,” Stehly said. “My goal is to wake up in the morning and pull up a complete report.”

Stehly said he expects the improved monitoring to save him at least 10% on his water bills, enough to pay for the system in three months.

“There is a fine line between over-watering and stressing the trees,” he said.

California’s drought has exacerbated an already difficult situation in the coastal plains. Agricultural water rates in San Diego County are by far the highest in the state, and possibly in the nation, said John Fraser, executive director of the Assn. of California Water Agencies.

Specific rates vary widely depending on such factors as the source of the water and how many feet, if any, the water must be mechanically elevated.

For example, farmers in Imperial Valley pay just $10.50 for each acre-foot of untreated water. (An acre-foot is the amount of water that would cover an acre with water one foot deep.) In the Cordura District in Yuba County, farmers pay even less--$5 per acre of land they farm that season, regardless of how much water they use.

Coastal plains farmers, however, pay hundreds more per acre-foot, the amount varying among the dozens of local districts. The final cost in the Yuima Water District in North County, for example, ranges from $238 to $375 per acre-foot, depending on the elevation of the property and whether local water is available.

The reason water costs so much in this region is that most of it is imported from other areas of the state and must be pumped uphill for part of the journey, which adds to the expense of pumps, maintenance and electricity, according to Bob Gomperz, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Water District, which serves the six-county area that encompasses the coastal plains region.

In any part of the state, it would be difficult to find farmers who admit they are water wasters. Ron Hull, a spokesman for the Imperial County Irrigation District, said farmers there are just as conservation-minded as those who pay substantially more for their water.

“We live in a desert down here,” he said. “We’ve learned how to be conservative in the use of water.”

But Gomperz said farmers in Imperial Valley and Northern California do not have the economic incentive to encourage them to save water.

“By virtue of the fact of the rates they pay, farmers conserve water more in the coastal plain than farmers in the Imperial Valley,” Gomperz said.

Imperial Valley farmers have been slower to make use of water-saving irrigation measures, such as drip irrigation, than farmers in the coastal plains, he said.

There are major differences in climate, soil and crops among the regions of the state that make water-use comparisons difficult. Imperial County farmers usually rotate their crops seasonally, while coastal plains farmers often grow trees that are in place for decades, making the installation of sophisticated irrigation equipment more practical.

Stehly, the grove manager with the infrared monitoring system, said farmers may be reluctant to spend thousands of dollars on new systems, but that they will still have to keep looking for new ways to save water.

Despite all the high-tech equipment, Stehly’s system is relatively inexpensive. He received a $26,000 grant from the California Energy Commission to rent the system for three years. Such equipment can be purchased for as little as $10,000, depending on how large and sophisticated a system is needed, Stehly said.

“I expect all farmers with large operations will have to have equipment like this,” he said. “If you talk to other farmers now, they will poo-pah it, but they will have to go this way.”