Pajaro Valley Growers Water Forum - November 29!

“If we’re embarrassed about what we’re doing, we should stop doing it!” 

This was overheard in reference to the Pajaro Valley aquifer overdraft at the last Community Water Dialogue meeting held on October 26^th in Watsonville.  The statement was made by a grower to inspire participants to work together to solve the overdraft problems plaguing the Pajaro. About forty stakeholders consisting of growers, irrigators, city planners, the Resource Conservation District and others convened in the Watsonville City Hall Community Room to discuss the latest progress and to share perspectives on addressing the overdraft. The Community Water Dialogues are ongoing and for any grower in the Pajaro concerned about changes to their water bill, they are a key resource for information and solutions.

There is a consensus among growers at the Community Water Dialogue meetings that agriculture should and will adopt best practices to reduce overdraft of the Pajaro aquifer. Many growers are already using best practices and insist that measurement is key in understanding how much water crops need and when they need it. Growers feel that water use must be addressed by all sectors of the community, including for example, the city’s water use, but the purpose of the Dialogue meetings is to determine what agriculture is going to do to reduce it’s water use.

The vision of the Dialogues taped to the wall of the last meeting stated the following idea: To create long term solutions for the aquifer by bringing water use and replenishment into balance while protecting the agriculture vitality of the Pajaro Valley.

Also posted, were the three principles by which the Dialogues hope to reach their vision: 1) A commitment to protect the Pajaro Valley as an important agricultural resource; 2) A recognition that the solution will not be an importation pipeline; 3) A willingness to pursue diverse strategies which entail costs & sacrifices in order to bring the aquifer into balance.

While there are a number of growers already involved in the discussions, ongoing since 2009, smaller growers from the organic mixed veggie sector are mostly missing from the dialogue. These growers will be every bit as affected by the outcome of the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency (PVWMA) Process and by the suggestions adopted by the Agency from the Community Water Dialogue group. How are the concerns of these growers to be addressed if they are not brought up to date on the dialogues and brought into the discussion?

To this end, Community Alliance for Family Farmers (CAFF) and EcoFarm are hosting a forum on November 29^th at 10am at the Corralitos Grange, Watsonville and inviting all agriculture producers in the jurisdiction of the PVWMA to attend. The forum will address the PVWMA process and the Community Water Dialogue water management projects underway. These projects include managed aquifer recharge and remote soil moisture monitoring. If you are a producer in the Pajaro unaware of the history of the overdraft situation and forthcoming water regulations, you are strongly encouraged to attend and learn about what’s at stake. There will be ample time for questions and ways to give your feedback. We hope to see you there!  Register online: http://www.eco-farm.org/programs/cawsi/

Water and the Pajaro Valley

The Pajaro Valley is a fine place for growing things. Berries, broccoli, artichokes, lettuce, kale and many other vegetables are grown in abundance in the rich alluvial soils. The Valley watershed empties into the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and includes 1,300 square miles, four counties, over 90,000 residents, and a distinctive economic and social identity. Farmers familiar with the Pajaro know the increasing fragility on which their abundant harvests rest: the water supply is shrinking due to severe overdraft of the Pajaro aquifer. In dry years the overdraft exceeds 22,500 acre-feet, while in wet years it is as little as 2,500 acre-feet. The consistent overdraft leads to a single conclusion, if water continues to be used at this rate, future generations will not have an aquifer to draw on, and this highly diverse agricultural community will lose their livelihood.

At EcoFarm, we’re concerned not only about the Pajaro Valley, one of our nearest neighbors, but with the severe water shortage situation all over California. For 32 years we’ve worked to find innovative and ecologically sound solutions for farmers managing their water use, soil, crops, and livestock. Mounting evidence shows that the best approach to any one type of resource management is a whole farm approach that respects the surrounding ecology. EcoFarm champions this perspective in every project we undertake.

In association with our partners and allies from the California Water Stewardship Initiative (CAWSI), EcoFarm has been holding educational forums around California for farmers to discuss their water concerns and to learn about ecological techniques for on-farm water management. In collaboration with the Community Alliance for Family Farmers (CAFF), we are gathering farmers to discuss the Pajaro Valley water situation and to disseminate water conservation information in a Water Forum to be held in November, 2011.

Community talks on the Pajaro Valley water shortage are on going and businesses, such as Driscoll’s, have played a leading role in gathering farmers together in quarterly Community Water Dialogues. The Community Water Dialogue discussions involve Pajaro Valley farmers mostly from the conventional berry and vegetable sectors interested in developing new best practices for on-farm conservation and in hearing about salient research on managed aquifer recharge. Other stakeholders invested in the dialogues are the Santa Cruz Resource Conservation District and the local branch of the National Resource Conservation Service. Stakeholders have organized themselves into four working groups: recharge, big projects, land management & irrigation best practices, and communications. Each working group researches and reports back to the group as a whole.

 EcoFarm and CAFF see an opportunity to extend this dynamic and important discussion to more organic, diversified, and small and mid-scale farm operations so that they too are well versed in the issues, the strategies to overcome the overdraft and the imminent regulations coming from the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency.

Conservation practices to address overdraft such as tension based crop irrigation are quickly becoming available and farmer education will be critical to their widespread adoption in the Pajaro. If you’re interested in becoming a part of the discussion and part of the efforts to bring on the ground, accessible solutions to reduce Pajaro aquifer overdraft, please get in touch by emailing recharge@eco-farm.org. You’ll have the opportunity to help us plan the event scheduled for November 2011. In addition to this local gathering, EcoFarm will be working with partners throughout California to develop on-farm water management resource guides.

More to come on EcoFarm’s next installment of Recharge!