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As River Runs Dry, Desert Region is at a Crossroads
/in Home Headline, Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Mike Lee /AgAlertby Caleb HamptonAs early as midnight, scores of Mexicali residents with U.S. citizenship or legal status line up at the port of entry. They cross into Calexico, walking past darkened storefronts, and gather near a 24-hour donut shop. Before dawn, they board buses for fields across the Imperial Valley.
Every year, some 15,000 people legally cross the border to work on farms in the region. In the winter, they join local residents in harvesting as much as 90% of the nation’s vegetables.
Snow Readings Give Reprieve to Colorado River Shortage
/in Home Headline, Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Mike Lee /The Desert Reviewby Betty Miller“It’s snowing!” is how Imperial Irrigation District Water Manager Tina Shields began her hydrology report at the March 21 regular meeting. The water manager’s monthly reports have taken a turn to the positive after years of dire Lake Mead elevation readings.
Although Central California irrigates with water from different sources other than the Colorado River, the Valley’s sole source of water, Shields reported the continuous atmospheric rivers have been devastating to the Central Valley farmland with reports of flooding and washing out of ground.
“Every drought is followed by a flood,” she said. “They have had 250% above average of rain, the photos of two-story houses buried in snow and ski lifts unusable because they are covered in snow are crazy. They are actually talking about Fourth of July skiing and that fields will stay flooded for months. It is all time record breaking.”
Opinion: Western Water Crisis Solutions Inevitably End With a Lot Less for California Farms
/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /CalMattersby Jim NewtonA modest proposal for western water: Turn off the spigot to the Imperial Valley and let the farms go fallow. In return, provide a water future for Arizona, Nevada and Southern California.
Sure, there would be a price to pay. California’s Imperial Valley, which sits in the southeastern corner of the state, bordered by Arizona and Mexico, produces alfalfa, lettuce, corn and sugar beets, among other crops. It’s home to more than 300,000 head of cattle. Cutting off the water would end all of that, along with the livelihoods of the farmers and ranchers who produce it and the communities that depend on it.
Desert Farmers Defend Maligned Alfalfa Production
/in Home Headline, Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Mike Lee /Ag Alertby Caleb HamptonThe Imperial Valley, a vast grid of greens, browns and yellows, produces dozens of crops. But two visual features define the valley: open channels carrying water from the Colorado River and blocks of hay that tower above the irrigation channels.
Forage crops such as alfalfa, sudangrass and bermudagrass cover more than half the Imperial Valley’s farmland. “From the growers’ perspective, alfalfa is their best crop,” said Ali Montazar, University of California Cooperative Extension irrigation and water management advisor for Imperial, Riverside and San Diego counties.
Opinion: Western Water Crisis Solutions Inevitably End With a Lot Less for California Farms
/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /CalMattersby Jim NewtonA modest proposal for western water: Turn off the spigot to the Imperial Valley and let the farms go fallow. In return, provide a water future for Arizona, Nevada and Southern California.
Sure, there would be a price to pay. California’s Imperial Valley, which sits in the southeastern corner of the state, bordered by Arizona and Mexico, produces alfalfa, lettuce, corn and sugar beets, among other crops.
Future of the Salton Sea is Tied to Fate of Imperiled Colorado River
/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /WBURby Peter O'DowdA shortage on the Colorado River has put tremendous pressure on the water supply that serves more than 40-million people in the Western United States.
But a punishing drought and the over allocation of the river have also created an urgent problem for California’s Salton Sea.
In California’s Imperial Valley, Farmers Brace for a Future With Less Colorado River Water
/in Home Headline, Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Mike Lee /Los Angeles Timesby Ian JamesJust north of the California-Mexico border, the All-American Canal cuts across 80 miles of barren, dune-swept desert. Up to 200 feet wide and 20 feet deep, the canal delivers the single largest share of Colorado River water to the fertile farmlands of the Imperial Valley.
Growers Brace to Give Up Some Colorado River Water
/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /CalMattersby Alastair BlandAcross the sun-cooked flatlands of the Imperial Valley, water flows with uncanny abundance. The valley, which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border, is naturally a desert. Yet canals here are filled with water, lush alfalfa grows from sodden soil and rows of vegetables stretch for miles.
Within this grid of greenery, near the desert town of Brawley, Mark McBroom grows 6,000 acres of hay crops, like alfalfa, and fruit orchards, all irrigated by water imported from the Colorado River.
IID Director Appointed to California Farm Water Coalition
/in Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Mike Lee /KYMAby Dillon FuhrmanThe Imperial Irrigation District (IID) announced that the company’s director, Gina Dockstader, will join the California Farm Water Coalition (CFWC). In a news release, Dockstader’s fellow IID board members selected her to serve as a liaison.