LOS ANGELES, Oct. 23, 2002 -- California's plan for reducing the state's use of Colorado River water gained momentum Tuesday as Metropolitan Water District's board of directors finalized a long-term program with farmers in the Palo Verde Valley to annually set aside a portion of their land, rotate their crops, and transfer saved water to urban Southern California.
Following last week's breakthrough in finalizing the California's Colorado River Quantification Settlement Agreement, Metropolitan's board authorized the district to pursue agreements with individual farmers in the Palo Verde Irrigation District that will secure 8 to 36 billion gallons of additional water each year for 17 million Southern Californians.
As part of last Wednesday's agreement, a portion of the water provided by the Palo Verde program will be used to facilitate a water transfer between the Imperial Irrigation District and the San Diego County Water Authority. PVID's board of directors approved the land management, crop rotation and water supply program Monday.
"This 35-year program establishes a new standard for agricultural-urban partnerships in California," said Metropolitan Chairman Phillip J. Pace at the special MWD board meeting on the PVID agreement. "Today's agreement is characterized by a business-like environment, free of the acrimony that was so commonplace in the history of water in California."
Gary Bryce, PVID board president, said the program would help stimulate the farm economy in the Palo Verde Valley in southeastern California, while it helped to ensure a flexible, affordable drinking water supply for urban Southern California.
"By helping farmers better manage fluctuations in the crop market, this could well be one of the best-ever stimulants to Palo Verde's slow economy," Bryce said. "At the same time, it will offer a valuable commodity for consumers throughout Metropolitan's service area."
Ronald R. Gastelum, Metropolitan's chief executive officer, said a portion of water in the Palo Verde program will be used to supplement the initial years of the IID-San Diego water transfer, following last week's agreement.
"This crystallizes Metropolitan's resolve to assure that the California plan continues to make progress toward allocating water from the Colorado River between the cities and agricultural areas and preventing future lawsuits over Colorado River water entitlements," Gastelum said.
"More importantly, this program will provide Metropolitan with a highly flexible and reliable water supply at an affordable cost, and significantly augments our portfolio of short- and long-term water supplies for the region," Gastelum said.
In today's action, the board allocated $94.3 million to initiate the program. Under the approved program, Palo Verde Valley farmers will stop irrigating from 7 to 29 percent of their land in any year at the request of Metropolitan, making 25,000 to 111,000 acre-feet of water available for urban consumers. An acre-foot is nearly 326,000 gallons, about the annual amount used by two typical Southland families in and around their homes.
The land taken out of production will be maintained and rotated once every one to five years. The maximum amount of farmland taken out of production in any year will be 26,500 acres. For each acre set aside as part of the program, farmers will receive a one-time payment of $3,170 for signing up and $550 annually.
The board action today calls for Metropolitan also to directly fund local community improvement programs at a present value of about $6 million to offset any potential economic impacts. The funds will be released to a non-profit foundation selected by Palo Verde community representatives to administer.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies serving 17 million people in six counties. The district imports water from the Colorado River and Northern California to supplement local supplies, and helps its members to develop increased water conservation, recycling, storage and other water-management programs.
