The Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors conducted a formal dedication of its newest water conservation and operational reservoir located just east of here on Wednesday, October 11, named after longtime Division 3 Director Lloyd Allen.
Twenty years ago, in October 2003, water officials from across the Southwest signed the largest water conservation-and-transfer agreement in U.S. history, the QSA, or Quantification Settlement Agreement. The agreement has provided decades of water security for San Diego County and benefits for numerous partners across the Southwest. In total, that pact supplies more than half of the water that sustains San Diego County’s 3.3 million residents and $268 billion economy.
The 2003 QSA, provides more than 30 million acre-feet of high-priority conserved water to the San Diego region over multiple decades. It helped stabilize demands on the Colorado River and reduced California’s overdependence on surplus supplies. The historic set of more than 20 agreements resulted from years of negotiations between the San Diego County Water Authority, Coachella Valley Water District, Imperial Irrigation District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, State of California, and the U.S. Department of the Interior that culminated in a signing ceremony at Hoover Dam.
“This landmark water deal has stood the test of time, providing numerous benefits both in the San Diego region and more broadly across the Southwest,” said Mel Katz, chair of the Water Authority Board of Directors. “One of its most important accomplishments is that it brought water agencies together as collaborators. We’ve had disagreements along the way, but history has validated the value of our collective efforts to provide water security.”
Key components of the QSA included limiting how much water California would take from the Colorado River and a water transfer based on voluntary conservation. The agreement between the Imperial Irrigation District and the Water Authority, the cornerstone of the QSA, remains the largest agriculture-to-urban water transfer in the nation.
Under the agreement, the Water Authority pays the IID to implement a variety of irrigation system and on-farm conservation measures that collectively save 200,000 acre-feet a year, which is transferred to San Diego County. Conserved water will continue to flow to the San Diego region through 2047, but that agreement can be extended through 2077 if both parties agree. (An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, or enough to serve three single-family homes for a year.)
In addition, the Water Authority secured $257 million in state subsidies to help pay for lining portions of the All-American and Coachella canals. As a result of those projects, the Water Authority is receiving 77,700 acre-feet of conserved water annually for 110 years.
The QSA settled long-standing disputes over water inside California, and it provided a means to better manage the river through voluntary conservation programs and a storage program in Lake Mead. Today, the agreements continue to meet the primary goals of ensuring Colorado River water in California and the Lower Basin is put to beneficial use, that agricultural water-use efficiency improvements are adequately funded, water rights are protected, and the environment is addressed, most notably at the Salton Sea.
“The QSA, through its mutually beneficial formula of providing secure water supplies through voluntary conservation, offers a template for other regions of the Southwest as we collectively seek to live within the reduced flows of the Colorado River,” said Dan Denham, Water Authority general manager. “I’m very proud of the work we and our QSA partners have done to get to this point – and I recognize that more collaboration, resilience and vision will be needed to thrive in a hotter and drier future.”
Twenty years ago this week, water officials from across the Southwest signed the largest water conservation-and-transfer agreement in U.S. history, providing decades of water security for San Diego County and benefits for numerous partners across the Southwest. In total, that pact supplies more than half of the water that sustains San Diego County’s 3.3 million residents and $268 billion economy.
The 2003 Quantification Settlement Agreement, better known as the QSA, provides more than 30 million acre-feet of high-priority conserved water to the San Diego region over multiple decades. It helped stabilize demands on the Colorado River and reduced California’s overdependence on surplus supplies. The historic set of more than 20 agreements resulted from years of negotiations between the San Diego County Water Authority, Coachella Valley Water District, Imperial Irrigation District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, State of California, and the U.S. Department of the Interior that culminated in a signing ceremony at Hoover Dam.
“This landmark water deal has stood the test of time, providing numerous benefits both in the San Diego region and more broadly across the Southwest,” said Mel Katz, chair of the Water Authority Board of Directors. “One of its most important accomplishments is that it brought water agencies together as collaborators. We’ve had disagreements along the way, but history has validated the value of our collective efforts to provide water security.”
The San Diego County Water Authority and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California have traditionally bumped heads on many fronts – particularly over the cost of transporting Colorado River water to San Diego. But their new leaders quite literally bumped fists on our Politifest stage – a universal gesture of respect, approval, maybe even agreement?
Josh Kane didn’t know a lot about avocado farming 10 years ago, but he does now.
In 2001, Kane’s mother bought a 60-acre avocado farm, the Rice Canyon Ranch, in Fallbrook, thinking it would be a good investment. But, some not-so-good advice, and the 2014 drought, had the business in a nosedive. Rice Canyon took a long-term investment perspective and invested in innovative measures, including tree stumping and grafting. Those strategies, along with smart irrigation, helped turn the farm around.
Josh Kane didn’t know a lot about avocado farming 10 years ago, but he does now.
In 2001, Kane’s mother bought a 60-acre avocado farm, the Rice Canyon Ranch, in Fallbrook, thinking it would be a good investment. But, some not-so-good advice, and the 2014 drought, had the business in a nosedive.
So, Kane quit his job in commercial real estate and stepped in to help his mom turn the farm around, or “they would have lost the investment,” said Kane.
During that time, the Fallbrook area had been a hub for agriculture, specifically avocados. But many farms ceased operating due to a complex suite of factors that include increasing water and labor costs, competition from imports, and climate volatility.
Rice Canyon took a long-term investment perspective and invested in innovative measures, including tree stumping and grafting. Those strategies, along with smart irrigation, helped turn the farm around. But challenges remain.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Water Savings Incentive Program, or WSIP, helped Kane to increase water-use efficiency at the farm. Rice Canyon Ranch and Kane were recognized with an award. He was one of six honorees selected based on their remarkable water-saving projects and facility upgrades funded by the WSIP.
Each unique project was recognized in a May 2023 ceremony for its technological innovations, environmental stewardship and water sustainability.
Metropolitan’s One Water Awards ceremony at the California Endowment in Los Angeles honored organizations that used funding from the WSIP to make major improvements to their water management operations and equipment, such as installing smart irrigation technology, water recirculation systems and soil moisture sensors.
The Rice Canyon Ranch avocado farm. Photo: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
“The transformation of daily operations for these organizations translates into long-term, sustainable change for entire communities,” said Metropolitan General Manager Adel Hagekhalil. “The ceremony demonstrated that when everyone does what they can to use less water, we produce real water savings that benefits millions.”
Named for Metropolitan’s approach to water management that values and acknowledges that all water resources are connected, the One Water Awards program amplifies the success of participants in its WSIP. The program provides funding to commercial, industrial, institutional and agricultural customers that make water efficiency upgrades to their facilities but may not qualify for Metropolitan’s standard commercial rebate programs. It pays up to $0.60 per 1,000 gallons of water saved annually through customized projects that are developed by each organization to fit its needs.
The WSIP program and incentives were critical to implementing Rice Canyon’s strategies and have helped significantly reduce costs.
Rice Canyon replaced existing, or old trees, with “high-density planting.” How did removing old trees and high-density planting save water and money?
Kane says Haas avocado trees reach up to “40 feet and out 50 feet, it’s a massive tree and older trees would climb higher and higher in the old way of growing.”
Instead of planting trees like the typical spacing for avocado farms in the past, the new trees were planted on 10 feet by 10 feet spacing. Kane says that change to smaller spacing allowed reduced water usage, reduced loss due to deep percolation, inhibited weed growth, and excessive evaporation loss through overgrown canopies. Plant “material changes” meant using mulch to save water.
“Avocado roots are only about six inches deep, so they require a lot of water,” Kane explained. “But adding a layer of mulch keeps the roots wet, reducing irrigation and saving water.”
The 60-acre Rice Canyon Ranch avocado farm is supplied with water from the San Diego County Water Authority and the Rainbow Municipal Water District, one of the Water Authority’s 24 member agencies. Photo: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
“With the fruits on the canopy – and all the water needed to pull the water up to the canopy – a 9-foot-tall tree, cutting and pruning it back, is more efficient with the sun, space and way more efficient with the water,” said Kane.
Kane says before the changes in tree spacing, use of mulch, and smart irrigation, the water costs for the avocado farm were about $250,000 a year.
“Our water costs are about $62,000 a year now, a cut of roughly 75-percent, which is huge,” Kane said.
He said the farm received $238,000 from the WSIP program for the water-efficiency project and the operation now saves about 34-38 million gallons of water a year. Kane says the 10-year projected water savings is 350 million gallons.
Even with the grant, and all the changes to the farm – including smart irrigation techniques, Kane says competition from outside the U.S. is a big factor in making a profit.
“We’re giving it a go and trying, but the price per pound – with competition from a lot of overseas fruit, from Mexico, Argentina, Peru – is a key factor for us,” said Kane.
“Farming is not easy by any means,” said Kane. “The price we get for our avocados is about the same per pound today as we got 10 years ago. There are no guarantees, but the way we had to make it work was to reduce water expenses as much as we could.”
Kane has this advice to remain profitable for other growers of avocados or similar crops for smart irrigation.
“You have to think outside the box to make it, decrease expenses and increase profits – never stop learning,” said Kane. “Any old time farmer growing avocados the same way as 40 years ago, must change and adapt with the times.”
He says despite the water cost savings, use of water sensors and other changes, growing avocados for Rice Canyon is a tough business.
“It is a labor of love, not a business of income, but the water grant gets us closer to making it work,” said Kane.
(Editor’s Note: The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a water wholesaler. Since 1990, Metropolitan has invested nearly $1 billion in conservation programs, saving about 3.5 million acre-feet of water. Rice Canyon Ranch is supplied with water from the San Diego County Water Authority and the Rainbow Municipal Water District, one of the Water Authority’s 24 member agencies.)
The states that share the Colorado River need to negotiate new rules to better manage the dwindling river so it can continue to meet the needs of millions of people across the Southwest. That means finding ways to keep more water in the river and reservoirs, which means less water to go around.
The high-stakes, multi-year negotiation process between the states — Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico in the upper basin and Arizona, Nevada and California in the lower basin — along with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, officially kicked off in June.
By the start of 2027, the states and the federal government are expected to have a new agreement on rules to manage the river so that Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the country’s largest reservoirs, don’t hit critically low levels. Climate change and overuse have stressed the river system and helped drive both reservoirs to drop to record-low water levels.
Federal officials said Tuesday they will ease water cuts for Western states reliant on the Colorado River in 2024, thanks to a slightly improved outlook, but long-term challenges remain.
The river serves seven U.S. states, Native American tribes and two states in Mexico. It also supports a multibillion-dollar farm industry in the West and generates hydropower used across the region. Years of overuse by farms and cities, and the effects of drought worsened by climate change has meant much less water flows today through the Colorado River than in previous decades.
The U.S. government announces water availability for the coming year months in advance so that cities, farmers and others can plan. The first mandatory cuts that magnified the crisis on the river went into effect in 2022, followed by even deeper cuts this year due to drought, poor precipitation and less runoff from the headwaters in the Rocky Mountains.
Conservation measures and a wetter winter have improved the river’s health, leading to cuts being dialed back, starting in January. It won’t lead to dramatic changes because those affected have been living with water cuts for two years — or are voluntarily conserving water.
California was so dry and its water supply so precarious by May 2022 that the State Water Resources Control Board issued an emergency order: No drinkable water could be used to irrigate grass that had no function other than to look nice.
The regulation does not apply to residential lawns, although they were already turning brown due to local restrictions on sprinkler use.
It does apply to all purely ornamental lawns — “nonfunctional turf,” in regulatory parlance — at commercial, industrial and institutional sites, such as shopping centers and corporate headquarters.
That order was recently extended for another year.
It’s time for California to follow Nevada’s lead and permanently remove decorative turf.
To be clear, we’re talking only about nonfunctional turf. That means grass that no one walks on, except to mow it. It doesn’t apply to playing fields, picnic grounds, parks, meeting areas, schools, cemeteries or any place where people gather, play, loll, visit or frolic. It won’t keep anyone from feeling wet grass under their bare toes. Instead, think fenced areas with “keep off the grass” signs, plus street medians, mall landscaping and the like.
(Editor’s Note: For rebates, classes, and water-saving tips: sdcwa.org/your-water/conservation/.)
One of the West’s top water kingpins is back, and in an unlikely new spot.
Jeffrey Kightlinger, retired general manager for the powerful Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, has been hired as a consultant by the Imperial Irrigation District, which in the past has been his bitter rival on Colorado River policy. The contract comes at a critical juncture, as seven states and federal officials ramp up negotiations over a long-term agreement to keep the massive but dwindling river and its reservoirs functional. IID holds the rights to by far the largest share of that water.
Kightlinger, 63, said of his new client, “It’s an intriguing thing … IID is obviously a big player, and I’ve been doing this for a long time, so I think it could work out well for both of us. “
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
