MWD, Farmers Near Deal for Water

A proposed water deal unveiled Friday would pay farmers in this hot and desolate stretch of eastern Riverside County to not grow crops on up to 29% of their land to free up water for Los Angeles and other thirsty coastal cities.

The proposed arrangement between the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and farmers in the Palo Verde Irrigation District is the latest in a series of moves by the MWD to prepare for the day, possibly as early as 2016, when the state will be forced to severely reduce its use of water from the Colorado River.

But the multimillion-dollar proposal--which farmers and water district officials drafted without the help of lawyers--is controversial in the Palo Verde Valley, where some fear it will make farmers rich at the expense of workers and small businesses.

For more than a decade, state water policy has called for water-rich agricultural regions to voluntarily sell water to cities. But farm communities, often afraid of the economic effect of letting land lie fallow, have often balked.

For example, one strategy to rescue the polluted, silt-choked Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in Northern California, the largest watershed in the Western United States, calls for voluntarily leaving farmland fallow, with the water shifted to environmental uses.

Although they would be paid for the water they would otherwise use for irrigation, farmers there have been reluctant--in part from fear that it might enrich a few people at the expense of the many by ruining the small businesses that depend on farming. Another concern is that leaving land fallow will mean a loss of farm labor jobs.

In the mammoth Imperial Irrigation District, south of Blythe in Imperial County, farmers had to be assured that no fallowing would be required, or even permitted, before they backed a plan to sell water to San Diego County. With fallowing off-limits, Imperial Valley is struggling to devise ways to save enough water through conservation to meet the San Diego deal.

“Fallowing is a dirty word in the Imperial Valley,” said Dave Nuffer, a San Diego civic leader and Imperial Valley historian.

The deal between the MWD--which provides water to local agencies in six counties serving 17 million people--and the Palo Verde farmers is an attempt to prove that small farm towns can prosper, not wither, by selling water saved by fallowing.

A study of a 1992-94 fallowing project here concluded that although there was a modest loss in jobs, the overall local economy was bolstered as farmers used their water payments to invest in better equipment for their remaining acreage. Farmers say the same will happen with the new deal.

“Palo Verde farmers are not going to run off and live in luxury in Mexico,” said Bart Fisher, a third-generation Palo Verde farmer.

“If we get money, it gets spent here,” said farmer Dan Robinson.

Still, officials of the Blythe Chamber of Commerce are worried that fallowing will mean higher unemployment and slumping sales tax revenues for an already struggling local economy.

“The farmers have made a good deal for themselves without thinking of the other businesses,” said Mark Fulton, the chamber’s executive vice president. “The farmers are looking out for themselves, but the business community is very worried.”

The Palo Verde Valley, population 27,000, has not seen the economic bonanza some expected with the opening of the Chuckawalla and Ironwood state prisons. Blythe, the area’s only city, is lined with boarded up stores and abandoned businesses.

Under the 35-year deal, the MWD would pay an immediate fee of $3,170 per acre to every farmer willing to leave up to 29% of his land fallow in any year. For each acre, the farmer would receive $550 a year.

For a farmer willing to allocate 1,000 acres, that would mean an immediate payment of nearly $3.2 million and an annual payment of $555,000. For a business in which it is not unusual to lose money or barely break even due to pest problems, plummeting prices or other unforeseen events, that kind of deal is tempting.

The MWD has also pledged to pay $6 million for use in community projects, possibly involving education or retraining efforts, to be decided by Palo Verde officials.

Some farmers who are leaning toward taking the agreement concede that there is risk.

“Twenty or 25 years from now, we could be the dumbest guy on the block, but today it looks good,” said Gary Bryce, vice president of the Palo Verde Irrigation District governing board.

The amount of land left fallow would range from 7% to 29% depending on the MWD’s needs. At most, the MWD would receive 111,000 acre-feet of water--enough to supply 800,000 people--per year by farmers leaving 26,500 acres fallow. The water would be either for immediate use or storage.

California is racing against a federally imposed deadline to reduce its take from the Colorado River by up to 800,000 acre-feet. Much of that water belongs to Arizona and Nevada, and those states, experiencing rapid development, want it back.

Although lesser known to the outside world than its neighbors to the south--the Coachella Valley Water District and the Imperial Irrigation District--Palo Verde is first in line to get Colorado River water.

Because Palo Verde pioneers staked their water claim in 1877, the district is assured of up to 400,000 acre-feet before any other water agency in Southern California can take a drop. Palo Verde has also remained apart from much of the litigation and political wrangling that has marked Colorado River water disputes.

Aside from its isolation--Blythe is 112 miles east of Palm Springs--Palo Verde’s most distinguishing characteristic among water agencies may be its aversion to lawyers.

“You get a bunch of lawyers together and nothing happens,” said Bryce. “I think farmers are smarter than that.”

The deal must still be approved by the water district board, the Palo Verde board and by individual farmers. The MWD would get the water by taking some of Palo Verde’s share of the Colorado River and shipping it west through the 242-mile Colorado Aqueduct.

“If this deal goes through, it could create a model for the way the state handles its water management,” said Adan Ortega, assistant to the MWD general manager.