A Win-Win Water Deal

For the last century, the city of Los Angeles has tried to live down its grab -- some called it theft -- of the water that had given the Owens Valley a lively farm and ranch economy. Whenever anyone suggested later that California’s cities might turn to the farms for the water they needed to develop, the cry went up, “Remember the Owens Valley.� Farmers spoke with solemn anger about their sacred water rights.

Such cries of protest were heard as recently as a year or two ago, when city and rural officials concluded a difficult and complex water deal that will send up to 200,000 acre-feet of water -- enough to meet the household needs of 400,000 families for a year -- from Imperial Valley farms to urban San Diego County. Even this was carefully called a “trade,� or an exchange. Imperial Valley farmers insisted through most of the negotiations that the transfer would come from water saved through conservation, not by idling cropland.

Now, finally, the corner has been turned. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which wholesales water to Los Angeles and other cities throughout the region, has cut a deal to buy outright up to 111,000 acre-feet of water a year from farmers in the Palo Verde Irrigation District in Imperial and Riverside counties.

Farmers can volunteer to fallow up to 29% of their land for an upfront payment of $3,170 an acre, plus $602 an acre for every year after that. Farmers would rotate the fallowed land at least every five years.

This region has the oldest rights to the use of Colorado River water, going back as far as 1877. Current farmers would not cede those rights but would lease them for the 35 years of the contract.

To the farmers, it’s a matter of good economics. Jill Johnson, a fifth-generation Blythe-area farmer, told The Times’ Jerry Hirsch and Marc Lifsher that income from her grain and alfalfa crops ranged from only $50 to $400 an acre a year, depending on commodity markets.

For California, it’s good public policy. Alfalfa and cotton, popular crops in the area, are notorious water users. Cotton prices have suffered because of competition from China. Other crops are battling imports under trade agreements.

As the cities grow beyond their water supplies, they are willing to pay more for new sources. There are no more giant dams to be built. Supplies can be stretched only so far by reuse and conservation. Without tough curbs on growth, cities can look only to the farms. And as water prices escalate, many farmers find they can’t afford not to deal.

The Palo Verde agreement can be a model. It preserves prime farmland and water rights. Periodic fallowing should benefit the land. And farmers can continue to farm without fear of losing it all in a bad year -- a risk that often takes any romance out of working the land.