Len Wilcox talks about a misleading distortion of the truth in the current water war.
With all the facts and figures flying around about California’s water, there’s one number that misleads people, and it matters. One word added to the definition of available water makes a big difference in perception.
News reports are telling the world that agriculture uses 80 percent of the developed water supply in the state. This number doesn’t tell the real story. The number for the amount of water that agriculture uses of total water is 40 percent. The difference is the word, developed.
It is true that ag takes 80 percent of the water sent south from northern California. That’s “developed” water. That number ignores water used for environmental purposes, and that’s half of all the water in the state.
Environmental water is the amount of water allowed to flow unhindered to the sea. Some of it can’t be captured for other uses due to location. Some of it is needed to keep the ocean salt water from infiltrating the delta and poisoning the fresh water source. Some of it keeps wild rivers wild, allows the salmon to swim upstream, and maintains wetlands and estuaries.
These are all good and valid uses, but they are not sacred uses. Including these uses changes the formula and the discussion about water. These environmental uses take about 50 percent of the available water. Agriculture gets 40 percent and cities get 10 percent.
By only talking about “developed” water, and not including environmental uses, we make the environment a sacred cow that cannot be cut. It takes reducing flows for smelt and salmon purposes off the table — we don’t even get to discuss it.
While the cities are reeling over yet more cuts in water use, agriculture has become a natural target. It takes a lot of water to grow crops, and as the governor was quick to point out, agriculture has taken the brunt of the pain of the current drought and continues to suffer. But now we need to take a hard look at environmental uses.
I’m Len Wilcox and that’s the Western View from AgNet West.