U.S. May Tighten Rules on Subsidized Water to Farms

Rules may be tightened in the wake of a report that shows subsidized federal irrigation water flows to 120 Western farms--two-thirds of which are in Central California--that are larger than the law allows.

Many farmers on the San Joaquin Valley’s west side have long depended on cheap federal supplies as they developed large land holdings.

Reforms adopted by Congress almost a decade ago barred farmers from receiving subsidized water for holdings above 960 acres.

However, a report compiled by a consultant to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said some growers got around that restriction by technically dividing land among several individuals, then continuing to farm those pieces as one property.

Reclamation officials will study whether to provide a clearer definition of eligibility for subsidized supplies and penalties for violating rules, said Assistant U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Bill McDonald.

“We think the program is fundamentally sound, but possibly some improvements can be made,” McDonald said.

He conceded that failure to penalize violators “has made enforcement less smooth than it might be.”

McDonald cautioned that reclamation officials and Congress need to be careful not to penalize operations that may share some farming services but still qualify as individual family farms.

“‘The mere fact that you own more than 960 acres and are receiving subsidized water is not by itself illegal,” McDonald said.

Reclamation critic Hal Candee of the Natural Resources Defense Council said “it is hard to believe” that only 120 farms receive subsidized water for land they own above the 960-acre limit.

The private consultants found 1,400 farms in the West that are larger than 960 acres. McDonald said all but the 120 cited in the report comply with the law by paying higher non-subsidized rates for land they irrigate above the subsidy limit.

As an example of a large operation receiving subsidized water, officials have criticized California’s largest grower, J. G. Boswell Co., for selling 23,000 acres in Fresno and Kings counties to a trust composed of 326 employees.

Each employee received fewer than 960 acres from the trust, making each of the individual pieces technically eligible for subsidized water.

The government contended that Boswell receives subsidies of more than $1 million a year in this way.