This is sad because the water district I work for has to spend millions trying to dispose of 1 million gallons of water every day at the same time growers are going to have to destroy thier crops because of the lack of water. The 1 MGD however is recycled water that has been shuned by growers due to it's high salt content. I'm not aware of any studies, but I bet if the recycled water was blended with the imported water the salinity would be down enough to keep the trees in production without any detrimental impacts on yield.

Phillip

Quote:

As if wildfires, freezing weather, fruit flies, rising gas prices and global competition aren't enough, in January citrus farmers must cut water usage 30 percent, leaving them feeling . . . By Alex Roth UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER December 9, 2007 VALLEY CENTER – Bob Polito would prefer not to cut down 1,200 of the citrus trees that are lined up in neat green rows on his 68-acre ranch. After all, citrus trees have provided his family with a living for the past quarter-century. Citrus trees helped pay for his oldest son's Ivy League education. Citrus trees gave him the chance to leave his former job as a diesel mechanic in the city and live the country lifestyle. But really, what choice does he have? Southern California is grappling with one of the worst water shortages in decades, and no one faces a more uncertain future than the region's estimated 3,500 to 4,000 farmers. By January, most of them will be under a mandatory order to reduce their water usage by 30 percent. For Polito, there is only one workable solution, and it is fairly simple: He must destroy a sizable percentage of his 5,500 trees. “They'll be mulched, basically,” he said one recent morning, sitting at his kitchen table next to a window that offers a lush view of his orange, grapefruit and lemon groves. “I'll have somebody come in and they'll just grind 'em up.” To be sure, Polito – who, at 56, has a salt-and-pepper mustache and thinning hair –finds the prospect extremely depressing. “I've watered 'em, I've fertilized 'em and they're going to be gone,” he said. “They're almost like your family. It's what's enabled you to survive. And it's hard to just cut 'em all down.” An unhappy combination of factors has conspired against Polito and hundreds of other San Diego County citrus and avocado farmers. Northern California and the Colorado River Basin – the two main sources of water for Southern California – are experiencing severe, extended dry spells. San Diego County, meanwhile, is in the midst of its own shortages, although the farming community is hoping this year's rainy season will be wetter than last year's. Making matters worse is a recent legal development that to many farmers seems nothing short of a cruel hoax. In an effort to protect an endangered fish that lives in the Sacramento Delta, a Fresno-based federal judge ordered a massive cut in the amount of water delivered from the delta to Southern California. Water officials expect the order to remain in place for at least a year, perhaps several. In the short term, at least, it is the region's farmers who will be required to make the biggest sacrifices. A 1994 agreement drawn up by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which provides water to member agencies in six counties, allowed farmers to buy water at discounted prices with the understanding that they would reduce their water use by up to 30 percent in times of extended drought. In the nearly 14 years since that agreement was signed, farmers had never been given a mandatory order to cut usage – until now. To help them cope with the potentially devastating cutback, experts have held dozens of town-hall-style meetings from San Diego to Ventura, fielding questions from stressed-out farmers. Some of the advice: Get rid of under-performing trees; thin out groves so healthy trees get more sunlight and produce more fruit. Then there is the most obvious advice of all: Be as smart and efficient as possible with water usage. Still, these experts say, there's no doubt that some farmers will see profits shrink, leading to layoffs and other changes. In San Diego County, farmers sell $1.5 billion worth of crops a year. Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau, said the situation is analogous to ordering every restaurant in San Diego County “to remove 30 percent of their tables and chairs.” “I think we're going to have some people go belly-up,” said Gary Bender, a San Diego-based farm adviser with the University of California Cooperative Extension. Particularly in avocado farming, “the profit margin is very, very, very thin,” he said. Lack of water hasn't been the only problem for the local agriculture industry. San Diego County farmers have had to face wildfires, freezing weather and fruit-fly invasion in the past year. Rising gas prices have raised expenses, and international competition has kept the market price for fruit fairly level. Advertisement The stress and aggravation of the job is starting to get to Polito. He lives with his wife, Mary, 55 (who does the bookkeeping), their 16-year-old son and the family mutt, Dulce. Another son is in college in Ohio and a third graduated from Columbia University and works in New York City. Asked whether any of his sons are interested in following his career path, Polito replied, “I wouldn't let 'em.” “I've heard from so many farmers that it's not fun anymore,” he said, sitting at his kitchen table and shaking his head. “It's just not fun anymore.” Polito has been farming since 1981, when he quit his job as a diesel mechanic in Seattle and moved to Valley Center to manage the citrus ranch his father, a Los Angeles doctor, had purchased two decades earlier. His parents, now retired, still live on the property. Fun is the reason Polito got into the business. Farming meant working outdoors, being your own boss, using all your skills in a never-ending attempt to master the ancient human endeavor of planting a crop, nurturing it to maturity and harvesting its fruit. He likes driving around in his pickup truck, inspecting the crops on his Valley Center farm and his two other, smaller ranches in the Pauma Valley. Now, however, much of his time is spent plotting how to manage with 30 percent less water. Several weeks ago, he stopped watering more than 1,000 of his trees. And soon – perhaps later this month, perhaps in January – he intends to hire a fellow who will arrive on the property with a giant machine that “looks like a big front-end loader with a grinder on the top.” Polito will go acre by acre, row by row, deciding which trees should live and which should be turned into wood chips. “I'll put it off as long as I can,” he said. Although he doesn't expect to go out of business, Polito said he will certainly take a financial hit. A really wet winter would help. But even with some rain, he figures profits from the sale of his oranges will shrink 20 percent. As for what changes he expects in his business and lifestyle, he replied, “I don't know. I've never been through this before.” Asked how he plans to cope with all the uncertainties, he grinned, clasped his hands in prayer and bowed his head. COUNTY WATER USE: BY THE NUMBERS 326,000 – Number of gallons in one acre-foot, which is enough to serve two families of four for a year 646,833 – Total number of acre-feet used in San Diego County in 2005 (latest available figures) 71,822 – Total number of acre-feet used for agriculture in the county in 2005 SOURCE: San Diego County Water Authority

The Southern California problem is not a shortage of water. Southern California's problem is to many people. Southern California was and is a semi-arid area long before people begun to pack the region.

Much of Southern California lives off of the Colorado River, which starts about 40 miles west for my farm.

In California State Constitution, any surface runoff water belongs to the state. So if you build your own dam in your own private property, and it collects water from runoff, it belongs to the state and you have to buy that water from the state.

Several years ago, a landowner fishing in his own pond got a felony charge of poaching by fishing in his own pond because the state contends that the water belongs to the state and so he must have a fishing license in order to fish from his own pond. Oh how brilliant the laws are being implemented with too much government. And to think, in the projected $10 Billion deficit, those same people are asking for raises!!!

I also posted this link on the links page, but since this thread is about water shortage-- for what it is worth, here is a link on water managment for citrus.

http://www.fao.org/ag/agL/aglw/cropwater/citrus.stm

Phillip,
I was thinking about your earlier question on ways to remove dissolved solids (salts) from water, with the value of the crops in the balance it could be worth investigating use of a large ion exchange resin beds to remove salts. The resins can be recharged using acids to remove cations or lye to remove anions. If the salt content is not too high in the first place it could be worth the effort.

---Just a thought.