Currently, no water is running through pipes and canals for some farmers in Northern California.
It’s not even June.
Farmers there have experienced this before, but the concern of that happening is starting to trickle into the Coachella Valley.
AJ Carrillo farms 18 acres outside of Hotchkiss, Colo., in the high desert of the Western Slope about an hour southeast of Grand Junction. When he irrigates his peach orchard, water gushes from big white plastic pipes at the top of the plot and takes half a day to trickle down to the other end of his five-acre orchard. Carrillo is planning to convert his Deer Tree Farm from flood irrigation, which is commonly used in Western Colorado, to a new and much more efficient style of irrigation – microsprinklers.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
