Op-ed: To Fight the Drought, Cities Should Pay Farmers to Get Smarter About Irrigation

[marmar]

Op-ed: To Fight the Drought, Cities Should Pay Farmers to Get Smarter About Irrigation
Limits on watering lawns won’t solve the West’s water crisis.

BY ROBERT GLENNON, THE CONVERSATION
JULY 14, 2022


“Are you going to run out of water?” is the first question people ask when they find out I’m from Arizona. The answer is that some people already have, others soon may and it’s going to get much worse without dramatic changes.

Unsustainable water practices, drought and climate change are causing this crisis across the U.S. Southwest. States are drawing less water from the Colorado River, which supplies water to 40 million people. But levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the river’s two largest reservoirs, have dropped so low so quickly that there is a serious risk of one or both soon hitting “dead pool,” a level when no water flows out of the dams.

On June 14, 2022, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton warned Congress that the seven Colorado River Basin States–Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming–need to reduce their diversions from the Colorado River by 2 million to 4 million acre-feet in 2022. An acre-foot is enough water to cover an acre of land, about the size of a football field, with a foot of water—roughly 325,000 gallons. If the states don’t come up with a plan by August 2022, Touton may do it for them.

....(snip)....

It’s not an exaggeration to call the Southwest’s water shortage a crisis. Declining river levels are compromising electricity generation from hydropower, which affects the power supply for millions of people. Farmers are fallowing fields and using less water on their crops. This, in turn, imperils food production already under global strain from the war in Ukraine. Drought conditions could wipe out endangered species, especially salmon.

....(snip)....

Balancing Rural and Urban Needs

Helping farmers switch to high-efficiency irrigation systems would benefit the entire Southwest. I propose a two-pronged approach.

First, Congress would provide funding to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to offer farmers more generous financial incentives to switch to microirrigation systems. The 2021 infrastructure bill contains $8.3 billion to assist western states in adapting to drought and climate change. I believe that this financial aid, with support from the federal Bureau of Reclamation and the USDA, could persuade millions of American farmers to make the move. ...............(more)

https://civileats.com/2022/07/14/op-ed-fight-drought-cities-pay-farmers-smarter-irrigation/

[multigraincracker]

1. Spend more on crops for people, not the

meat industry. Just cut beef and pork production by 50% could solve a lot of it.