Water Development
* Peter H. King’s June 7 column, “A Modest Proposal on Water,” portrays Californians who believe the state must develop new water supplies as either dotty, hysterical or both. While lionizing a think-tank academic who suggests solving the state’s water crisis through conservation alone, King snidely portrays water development advocates as backers of “loopy notions.”
Farmers agree that conservation can be a significant help, and have backed that belief by investing millions of dollars in water-saving technology. The effort has succeeded: California farmers used about the same amount of water in 1990 as they did in 1967, but irrigated 8% more land in 1990 and produced 60% more crops.
But farmers are also the first to feel the grip of tightening water supplies, in the form of reduced water allocations. That problem will worsen as California’s population grows unrelentingly, and conservation alone will not provide the state with the water it needs.
Only by developing more water can the state supply its increasing urban population, maintain its thriving agriculture, improve its business climate and protect its environment.
BOB L. VICE, President
California Farm Bureau Federation
Sacramento
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