The start of 2013 has been dry one for South County, and the impact for farmers is difficult to predict.
January’s rain total was 0.91 inches – way below the 4.37 inches predicted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to a precipitation gauge positioned at Coyote Reservoir by the Santa Clara Valley Water District.
Gilroy’s seasonal precipitation rate is calculated from July 1 to June 30. Figures released by the City of Gilroy’s Chestnut Fire Station show the current season’s precipitation total sits at 14.3 inches – still short of the historical average of 21 inches that the South County expects in a season. Morgan Hill’s total is 15.95 inches as of Wednesday.
Gilroy and Morgan Hill have a plethora of small and large agricultural enterprises including vineyards, organic operations and giant agribusiness outfits that stand to be affected by the rain shortage, since many are forced to turn on the water pump when the sky fails to deliver.
Various growers from around the area have mixed attitudes about the situation, depending on what they’re growing and what types of farming methods they employ.
“At the moment the vines are dormant, so they’re not being adversely affected,” said Sheldon Haynie, co-owner/winemaker of Lightheart Cellars in San Martin.
Lightheart Cellars farms a total of 15 acres near Roosevelt Avenue and Monterey Road. The frugality of their traditional drip irrigation method – which only uses six gallons of water a week per vine – is a big plus for Haynie.
If baleful storm clouds aren’t on the radar for Lightheart, they are for Peter Van Dyke of Van Dyke Organics.
Van Dyke finds a recent analysis of the Santa Clara Valley – in which farmers were urged to plan for a “somewhat drier” climate in the years to come – by the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center in Washington unpalatable.
“It’s not going to be pretty. There’ll be more expenses for fuel, labor and pumping meter charges,” he worried.
For an operation such as Van Dyke Organics – which specializes in growing and then drying tree crops such as apricots, cherries and pears on 100 acres at the bottom of the foothills east of Gilroy – the extra expense could be “upwards of $10,000,” he said.
However, Van Dyke feels that his lifetime in agriculture – his family has been farming in Gilroy for five generations – has given him a seer’s knack of predicting the future.
“If the apricot trees start to bloom, then I can guarantee that rain is coming,” he laughed.
Van Dyke believes the state needs some clairvoyant ability, or at least some better planning skills, in choosing the correct policy path to go down when it comes to deciding how to use water supplies.
To him, it seems that a growing county population and the planting of water-hungry crops such as strawberries, lettuce and corn are two of the main factors that influence water availability in any given area. Gilroy, for example, “was pretty much all tree crops when I was a kid, now it’s intense crops,” he said.
The SCVWD, piling extra pressure onto the shoulders of local farmers, has opened discussion about the possibility of changes to the Open Space Credit, which sets agricultural groundwater production charges for farmers at 10 percent or less of the municipal and industrial charge.
The money required to offset the difference between the agricultural charge and a full cost service is predicted to reach $8.9 million by 2018, according to SCVWD’s website.
SCVWD Media Coordinator Marty Grimes is extremely cognizant of the concerns of local farmers who pay the same water rate – while working with lower profit margins – as agribusiness moguls.
“The (SCVWD) Board has a lot of interest in the agricultural community,” he assured.
Like many agricultural communities across the nation, South County has urbanized considerably over the decades thanks a steady influx of people straining the original rural landscape, making it harder to balance the water needs of farmers, ranchers and the ever-growing residential population.
The rub of the situation, according to Grimes is “creating policies that ensure the viability of the agricultural community.”
A major family member of that community includes Christopher Ranch in Gilroy, a garlic-growing giant that employs more than 500 employees and produces more than 60 million pounds of garlic annually. Bill Christopher, President and CEO of the company founded more than 50 years ago by his father, Don – sees good and bad in the mild, dry conditions that are steadily drying up the ground.
“We can get the beds ready for spring planting, but the garlic already in the ground needs to be irrigated,” he said.
When large-scale agricultural irrigation is needed – two inches of rain a week would nullify the problem for the 4,000-acre business – the company checkbook has to come out.
Keeping the garlic irrigated costs about $1,000 a day for the water alone, admitted Christopher.
However, if plans discussed by the SCVWD during the Open Space Credit policy discussion Feb. 12 get off the ground, the water pump meter bill could be significantly higher.
Presently, agricultural users in the South County pay $17.70 per acre-foot, or six percent of the municipal and industrial charge.
However, the SCVWD wants to increase the agricultural charge to 10 percent. This would mean an increase of around $5 every year through 2018, arriving at a final bill of $34.08 per acre-foot. Alternately, if the SCVWD adopts a 10-year plan to reach its 10 percent goal, agricultural users will ultimately pay a bill of $41.14 per acre-foot by fiscal year 2023.
Local farmers made impassioned pleas to keep the costs for agricultural water low during the Open Space Credit policy discussion Feb. 12.
Pete Aiello of Uesugi Farms in Morgan Hill was the most vocal of those individuals.
“I know that unfortunately we are sometimes vilified by the public and sometimes the media for having cheaper water,” he remarked.
But there’s a lack of insight on consumers’ end, according to Aiello. He implored customers to think about what they are actually eating.
“That fruit or vegetable that they are consuming is largely water. These folks are vilifying us for using water, yet they are the ones that are ultimately consuming it,” he asserted.
As 40 percent of the Santa Clara Valley water supply comes from the San Joaquin Delta – an area experiencing its own environmental issues that ultimately impact water availability – H20 use in Santa Clara County could become problematic as the commodity grows more scarce.
Grimes predicts a future in which water recycling and conservation become the key to safeguarding local supplies “as much as we can.”
As the battle lines are drawn between those who seek to keep agricultural water costs low and those who think farmers should pay their share, all options remain on the table to defray the cost of the Open Space Credit to the SCVWD.
These options could include reducing the level of water service to South County, or increasing the agricultural groundwater charge higher than the slated 10 percent.
