California farmers play to avoid water-sucking crops amid drought

Published 10:15 am Tuesday, June 2, 2015

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Dozens of California farmers aiming to meet voluntary water conservation targets submitted plans to the state saying they intend to plant less thirsty crops and leave some fields unplanted amid the relentless drought.

Farmers in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta devised the plans filed Monday as part of a deal last month that would spare them deeper mandatory cuts in the future.

Under the agreement, they must turn in plans for using 25 percent less water, fallowing 25 percent of their land or other strategies to achieve the necessary water savings. Officials hope the deal can become a model for other farmers around the state.

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California cities and businesses also have been ordered to reduce water use by 25 percent. The state Water Resources Control Board on Tuesday is expected to release its report for how communities met the goal in April. That was the month Gov. Jerry Brown ordered sweeping conservation measures, including mandatory urban water reductions, following the worst snowpack measurement in recent years in the Sierra Nevada.

California depends on that snow to melt its way into rivers and reservoirs and meet nearly a third of the state’s water demand.

Regulations stemming from Brown’s order require communities to cut water use by as much as 36 percent compared with 2013, the year before the governor declared a drought emergency. The rules took effect this week.

The shift to mandatory conservation followed lackluster voluntary savings, with water use slipping just 3 percent in February and 4 percent in March. Overall savings have been only about 9 percent since last summer, falling well short of Brown’s 20 percent goal.