WG: Early take on "More with Less"

The Pacific Institute released a 69-page report today on ag water efficiency called "More with less"

From the summary and conclusion:

Agriculture is important to our economy, culture, and environment but is subject to mounting pressure from uncontrolled urbanization, global market pressures, and threats to the reliability and availability of fresh water. Actions are needed to both ensure a sustainable agricultural sector and to reduce the water required for it.
-- Better combined land and water planning is needed. For example, strengthen recent legislation, such as the Costa and Kuehl Acts (SB 610 and SB 221) to ensure all new developments have an adequate water supply for at least 100 years. In addition, the number of new housing units required to trigger implementation of these acts should be reduced.

- Modify and expand the Williamson Act to encourage protection of prime agricultural land from urban and suburban development. Water conservation and efficiency improvements can reduce water use and improve water quality while maintaining or increasing crop yield. Yet these improvements often entail significant investment (capital and operation and management costs), which can be a
barrier to implementation. Smart policies can reduce this barrier. More with Less: Agricultural Water Conservation and Efficiency in California Special Focus on the Delta

-- Provide sales tax exemptions or rebates on efficient irrigation equipment to help offset capital
investments for these systems.
-- Provide property tax exemptions for farmers who upgrade to more water-efficient irrigation systems. Exemptions apply to the value added to a property by the irrigation system and be valid for 5 to 10 years.
-- Develop new legal mechanisms by which municipal water or state or local wildlife agencies could invest in farmers’ irrigation systems in exchange for some portion of the water conserved.

-- The state, federal government, and/or energy providers should offer rebates or incentives to farmers who implement on-farm conservation measures that result in a net energy savings.

-- The state and/or federal government should investigate and establish other mechanisms that encourage water-use efficiency if they achieve broader social or environmental benefits. Agricultural commodity-support programs typically subsidize field crops, inadvertently encouraging the production of low-value, water-intensive crops. These programs should be refocused on the potential to save water.
-- Reduce or realign subsidies from low-value, water-intensive crops to less water-intensive crops.
-- Provide greater emphasis on water conservation and efficiency improvements within the federal Environmental Quality Incentives Program and expand funding for these initiatives.

-- Implement new water rate structures that encourage efficient use of water.

Federal and state government has invested substantially in the construction of irrigation systems, without full repayment. By creating an artificially-inexpensive supply of water, these indirect water subsidies provide a disincentive for water conservation and efficiency improvements. Eliminate programs that encourage inefficient use.

-- Ensure federal contracts for the Central Valley Project achieve full repayment by 2030 or
sooner.
-- Avoid inappropriate public subsidies for new water-supply options that are more expensive than efficiency improvements. The existing water rights system in California provides disincentives for water conservation and efficiency improvements. More aggressive efforts are needed to apply the constitutionally mandated concepts of reasonable and beneficial use in ways that encourage improvements in water-use efficiency.
-- Give legislative, regulatory, and administrative support to developing a more rational water rights system. In particular, the State Water Resources Control Board’s authority and funding should be expanded to include groundwater and to challenge inefficient use as neither reasonable nor beneficial

Here is the early take on the report from Western Growers:

IRVINE, CA (September 8, 2008) - Today, the Pacific Institute released a detailed report entitled, “More with Less,” Agricultural Water Conservation and Efficiency in California. Western Growers is studying this report in more detail and in the coming weeks plan to release an official analysis of the study.

Jasper Hempel, Western Growers Executive Vice President and General Counsel, made the following statement today:

“On first read, we appreciate the Pacific Institute’s acknowledgment of all that California’s family farmers have done to increase water use efficiency. There are specific proposals within the report that may merit our support, but there are others we find very troubling. We are troubled by the many broad assumptions the report makes about the realities of agricultural commodity supply and demand, the profitability, or lack thereof, of some crops citied in the report and the omission of discussion of the largest segment of developed water use — the environment.

“The State Water Plan has officially characterized the developed water supply as the total of three segments: urban, agricultural and environmental. Simply subtracting the segment of environmental water and then saying that agriculture uses 80 percent of the remainder is deceptive. We believe this labeling methodology has caused legislators, journalists and the general public to think that agriculture is the biggest water user in the state, when in fact, according to Bulletin 160-05 (State Water Plan update of 2005), in a normal year of precipitation (like 2000) the environment uses 48 percent, urban uses 11 percent and agriculture uses 41 percent of the state’s dedicated water supply. We think the time has come for the Pacific Institute, or another scientific organization, to research and publish a report on ‘Environmental Water Use Efficiency in California,’ complete with accurate statistics in line with official state records on the quantities, sources and outcomes of all water that comes from the 82.5 million acre feet of developed water (out of a total of 200 million acre feet annually in a normal year of precipitation). We are all part of the environment — people, homes, farms and wildlife.

“The report also acknowledges the tremendous investment in increased water use efficiencies made by California farmers over the last decade. We appreciate that, but at this moment, in a time of drought and federal court order decreasing Delta water supplies to Central Valley farmers by 30 percent, those very expensive investments ($500 million dollars in the years between 2004 and 2006 alone) today cannot be sustained. Without adequate water supply, the debt on those water efficiency investments cannot be serviced.

“Farmers will continue to increase water use efficiency. It is the right thing to do from a business standpoint as well as an environmental standpoint. But increased water-use efficiency is not a substitute for the needed improvements in water storage or conveyance. This need cannot be disregarded by any well-intentioned desires or dreams that conservation alone will answer California’s water needs for decades to come. “