Water Plan Feeds Division, Worry Among Farmers

When people in San Diego, Los Angeles and Sacramento talk about water, they are talking about a commodity -- a crucial ingredient of future economic growth.

But here in the Imperial Valley, the farmers view water as their birthright. They speak passionately about the sacrifices made by their grandparents and great-grandparents who came to this brutal desert and, with grit and copious amounts of cheap water, turned the balky soil into billion-dollar-a-year agricultural bounty.

The days of unlimited water may soon be over. The place that, before the advent of irrigation and the “taming” of the Colorado River, was known as the Valley of the Damned, is facing a fundamental and wrenching change in how water is distributed among the farmers who till half a million acres.

The Imperial Irrigation District, which holds the valley’s water rights, is on the verge of selling some of that water and requiring farmers to leave a portion of their fields dry.

“When my grandfather gave his water rights to the district, he never thought he’d lose control of them,” said Michael Morgan, whose family farms 7,000 acres. “This water sale is going to set a tone of defeatism for the entire valley.”

Morgan is among a group of farmers who are suing Imperial -- the nation’s largest agricultural irrigation district -- over the proposed water sale. They allege that they have been shut out of the negotiations, even though their livelihoods are at stake.

Despite seven years of discussion, negotiation and near-daily local newspaper coverage, farmers remain deeply divided over a water deal that would, for the first time, limit the valley’s allocation from the Colorado River and require them to leave some of their fields fallow so water could be sold to thirsty and politically influential coastal cities.

Key details -- about which farmers will be allowed to sell their water, how much they will be allowed to sell and how much they will be paid -- remain to be settled, even as the Imperial district’s governing board is scheduled today to debate, and possibly vote on, a 75-year agreement to sell water to the San Diego County Water Authority.

Although the Imperial Valley Farm Bureau is helping the district shape the plan and the “Dutch auction” -- in which farmers are to bid against one another for the right to sell water -- other farmers are challenging the irrigation district’s right to arrange the water sale without their approval.

“A majority of farmers feel disenfranchised,” said Heidi Kuhn, who, with her husband, runs a dairy ranch and cheese plant. “These are farmers who are not powerful, who do not belong to the Farm Bureau. They’re the ones in the ditch-bank working their farms.”

The San Diego authority and the Coachella Valley Water District voted unanimously last week to approve the deal. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, whose aqueduct would carry the water to San Diego, voted 26 to 1 in favor.

The Imperial district board is split. Last December a similar deal was defeated, 3 to 2.

One of the board members who opposed the deal then appears to have switched sides and to be ready to provide the vote needed for passage.

But even before any vote is taken, a member of one of the valley’s most prominent farm families has announced plans to oppose the prospective “swing-vote” member in next year’s board election.

John-Pierre Menvielle, a third-generation farmer, plans to run on an anti-water-sale platform for the seat held by Bruce Kuhn, who is Heidi Kuhn’s cousin by marriage. The Kuhns are not the only Imperial Valley family divided on the issue; in some families, brothers are at odds.

“This water deal is not good for the Imperial Valley,” Menvielle said. “The directors who will be voting for it will be voting to sell out the Imperial Valley, its water rights and its future.”

Beyond the litigation and politicking, there are indications that opposition to the water sale -- or at least, apprehension over the details -- may be pushing together two groups thought to be bitter enemies: farmers and the United Farm Workers union.

UFW members are concerned that no plan is in place to compensate farm workers who will be jobless when land is fallowed so water can be sold. A related concern is that, of six members appointed so far to a committee to distribute money to people and businesses harmed by the water sale, only one is Latino. This is in a county whose population is 72% Latino.

“We need to invest in our community,” said UFW supporter Eric Reyes. “We need to keep our community whole.”

Jesse Silva, general manager of the Imperial Irrigation District, conceded that much of the heavy lifting for implementing the water sale lies ahead. And he chuckled at city residents’ surprise at divisions among the farmers.

“Farmers are always competing with each other [for market share] and they’re always fighting -- fighting the weather, fighting the pests, fighting regulations,” Silva said. “That kind of life creates a very independent mentality. These are the last rugged individualists.”

Farmers complain that only one of five Imperial board members is a farmer. “We use 98% of the water, but we have no more right than a person who works in a store,” said Michael Strahm, whose family farms 6,000 acres

Even among farmers who appear to favor the water sale, there is little enthusiasm. A common view is that the sale is inevitable, given the increasing pressure from the state and federal governments.

The need to convince or coerce Imperial to sell some of its water is one of the few areas of agreement between the Bush and Clinton administrations, and, in Sacramento, between Gov. Gray Davis and his Republican predecessor, Pete Wilson.

After Imperial declined to sign the agreement by Jan. 1, the U.S. Department of the Interior slashed the district’s allocation from the Colorado River by 10%.

Although the water district won a round in federal court, the Interior Department used an arcane section of water law to determine that the farmers were wasting water and deserved a reduction in their allocation.

“The people who say we ought to keep-on-fighting-Notre-Dame, don’t take the deal, are either naive or misinformed,” said John Benson, a farmer and former Imperial board member. “We’ll be up against some good-sized gorillas who will chew us up.”

Under a tentative plan suggested by the Farm Bureau, farmers would submit bids to sell water; the low bidder would prevail. Farmers say the prospect of trying to underbid their neighbors is distasteful.

The Imperial-San Diego deal would be the largest transfer of water from farms to cities in the nation. Because their ancestors began diverting water from the river a century ago, Imperial Valley residents control 75% of California’s share of the river, which provides sustenance to seven Western states and Mexico.

Under the plan being considered by the Imperial board, Imperial and Coachella would agree to a limit on their allocation from the Colorado.

For legal and historic reasons, Imperial has always insisted that it has an “elastic” right to demand as much water as it wants.

For the farmers of the Imperial Valley, the pending sale is a disturbing sign that what they once thought was their unassailable entitlement to the Colorado River is being undercut by politics.

“They’re powerful,” said Andrew Roth, who teaches a course on Western water issues at Pomona College, “but their power is not unrestrained. There are limits to it.”

That the Imperial board is the last of the four agencies to consider the agreement is not unexpected.

“Imperial always had the most difficult challenges,” said Dennis Cushman, assistant general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority. “It’s a lot easier to buy the water than to forgo the water.”