California prepares for historic mandatory cutbacks on water

[MineralMan]

19. Makes no sense to me, either.

Over the years, I've watched the citrus and avocado farmers adopt measures to cut water use and make the water they use as effective as possible. When I was a youngster, irrigation was done by running water down ditches and furrows between orchard rows. Very inefficient and wasteful of water. Today, those orchards use precise sprinkler irrigation, excellent moisture measurements and even surfactants to make the water absorb quicker into the soil. Irrigations are closely controlled and water use is down dramatically from the old days. Installing those systems is very expensive, but is offset somewhat by higher water prices and reduced labor requirements.

In the old days, an irrigation required at least two workers to start and monitor it. Keeping the ditches running often required a lot of time and labor. Today, one person essentially opens a valve. That's it. The orchard has to be checked to make sure all sprinklers are working, but that takes just one guy with a bucket of sprinkler heads a couple of hours to walk the rows. I know, because I used to work irrigations back in the early 1960s. A lot of work, and before the irrigations all of the furrows and ditches had to be checked and repaired, if needed. Weed control was done by spring-toothing the orchard, and a completely new ditch and furrow system had to be created each time.

No more. Now, non-cultivation is practiced by everyone, and weed control is done with a tool that is towed behind the tractor that cuts off the weeds just below the surface. You can do the entire 15 acres in half a day, all sitting on top of a tractor. My 90-year-old dad is still doing that.

Build out that 15 acres on typical residential lots and the total use of water will go way up. Orchard farming the way it is done today uses less water than homes on the same acreage. So, there would be a net increase in the amount of water being used.