U.S. Water News Online
PHOENIX -- Jim Henness leveled his fields and fixed all his irrigation ditches back in the 1970s, turning his Pinal County farm into a model of efficient water use, even if he was growing acre after acre of thirsty cotton plants.
The thanks he got?
A set of water-conservation rules that, as near as he could figure, penalized him for using so little water and rewarded farmers who'd been taking much more.
That's why Henness is so willing to talk up a pilot program started by the Arizona Department of Water Resources, one that gives conservation-minded farmers more flexibility in what they grow, how they grow it and how much water they use.
To participate, a farmer proposes a best management program, choosing from a lengthy list of practices designed to use water more efficiently. It could be something as simple as lining ditches with concrete, using lasers to level fields, which eliminates wasteful runoff during irrigation, or using computerized weather data to better schedule water turns.
The plan could include more involved improvements as well, such as installing underground drip irrigation systems, which target the water on a plant's roots, monitoring soil moisture or planting established seedlings instead of thirstier seeds.
State officials must approve the overall plan before allowing a farm to join the program. Not everyone will qualify, and Henness and others say that's a good thing.
"It should be a high bar," Henness said. "I can't imagine from a cost standpoint why anyone would be wasting water."
The program is likely to gain the strongest hold in Pinal County, where farmers have fewer water sources, but operators in Buckeye and Queen Creek have signed up as well.
If it works, the program could help some farmers begin growing crops on land they'd idled to comply with the old rules. It will help some survive water cutbacks imposed because of the drought and could prove even more valuable when their rights to water from the Central Arizona Project begin to expire.
There are no estimates of how much water the program could save, if it saves any at all. Farmers account for 68 percent of the state's annual water consumption &emdash; 80 percent in Pinal county &emdash; so a pilot program isn't likely to put much of a dent in the overall use.
And critics of desert farming have suggested the state shouldn't encourage high-water use crops like cotton or alfalfa at all. Cotton, for example, uses about 3.5 acre feet of water per acre of plants grown, compared to just over 2 acre feet of water for an acre of corn. The water used to grow 100 acres of cotton could serve a neighborhood of more than 100 homes for one year.
But farmers say they're producing needed products and contributing to the economy. The water conservation program, they say, is evidence that they're trying not to waste Arizona's water.
"It makes a huge difference for me," said Henness, whose family farms about 3,000 total acres near here.
"It allows me to make decisions in the farm's best interests. After 25 years, we've arrived where we should be."
It was just about 25 years ago when the Arizona Legislature adopted the state's landmark groundwater code. The new laws focused sharply on urban water use, but included a long list of new rules for farmers in Prescott and in Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties.
The most sweeping new rule appeared to be the ban on any new irrigated lands in the affected areas. But farmers were much more interested in the conservation guidelines, which assigned them a level of water use based on what they had grown historically and how much water they used.
That's what irked Henness. He was stuck with a smaller base line than other farmers and that meant when lower use levels were triggered every 10 years or so, he and others would find themselves squeezed even more.
The new program attempts to remedy that problem. It's based on best management practices and it frees farmers who are willing to adopt those practices from the one-size-fits-all water budget. For many, that means the chance to return acreage to production while still conserving water.
"The key concept here is working lands conservation," said Bruce Knight, chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "We're trying to put an end to a concept that to conserve water, you have to idle the land."
Knight flew to Arizona in September to award the state Water Resources Department a grant to run the best management practices pilot program. The grant, $503,092, is part of a nationwide program that recognizes the use of innovative technology and ideas to encourage conservation.
"It's difficult to conserve water in agriculture," said Herb Guenther, director of the Water Resources Department.
"This grant will enable us to do more. We will be able to monitor, advise and look at new techniques."
Henness hopes programs like this will draw attention to efforts by farmers to conserve water, battling the image that because they use so much overall, they must be overusing it.
"The commitment of farmers to use conservation technology is remarkable," he said. "It's very expensive. You put in a drip irrigation system and you've bought the farm again."
And using too much water isn't good for crops, which hurts the harvest and the farmer's bottom line.
"Arizona agriculture need make no apologies for its use of water," Henness said.
"It's just too precious of a resource."
Return to the U.S. Water News Archives page Or Return to the U.S. Water News Homepage
Editor@uswaternews.com
*Your Name:
*Your Email:
*Friend's Email:
Use a comma to separate e-mail addresses:
*Your Comments:
Hi, I thought you might like to read this article.
*Required Fields