[env-trinity] LA Times - Farmers Fill Up at Federal Water Trough

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-subsidize15dec15,1,338149.story?coll=la-headlines-california 
Farmers Fill Up at Federal Water Trough 
Big growers on Fresno County's west side reaped at least $24 million in 2002 
water subsidies, an activist group says. 

By Mark Arax 
Times Staff Writer 

December 15, 2004 

HURON, Calif. - This is a valley that wears its mistrust of the federal government proudly. 

>From Bakersfield to Modesto, handmade signs planted firmly in San Joaquin Valley farm soil call for 
the death of activist federal judges. Bumper stickers shout the primacy of private property and gun 
rights. 

But the payments that flow into the valley from Washington, D.C. - those are a different matter. 
Nearly a third of the population in this farm belt relies on some form of federal public assistance, 
figures show, one of the highest such dependency rates in the nation. 

And then there is the federal support that few locals like to talk about: the water and crop subsidies 
that keep the wealthiest citizens in tall cotton. 

Each year, a score of big farmers on Fresno County's west side receive millions of dollars in price 
supports and subsidized water for their cotton, nut, tomato, garlic, onion and grape crops. 

A report by the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit trying to reform 
the agricultural subsidy system, shows that farms in Huron and the surrounding area received, by 
the most conservative measure, $24 million in water subsidies in 2002. That figure does not include 
millions more in cotton and wheat subsidies. 

The report comes as the federal Bureau of Reclamation is renegotiating its long-term contracts with 
agricultural users in the Central Valley Project, the nation's largest irrigation system. 

The negotiations have raised concerns among environmentalists, who say that the U.S. government is 
about to give farmers another sweetheart deal. Farmers respond that the inexpensive water allows 
them to compete in a global market flooded with cheap foreign crops. 

The report, released today, measures the water use of each farm tied to the Central Valley Project. The 
biggest farming operation in Fresno County, run by the Woolf family, used 29,000 acre-feet of water 
to irrigate 19,000 acres of crops. That is enough water to fill more than 37,000 Olympic-sized 
swimming pools, the report said. 

"The figures show very clearly that despite the fact that the CVP was conceived as a way to support 
small family farmers, that subsidy today is overwhelmingly going to the largest and richest farms," 
said Bill Walker, one of the report's authors. 

The amount of water that each farm draws from the project is a matter of public record. The watchdog 
group, which each year assesses crop subsidies to farms nationwide, calculated the value of the water 
by using three different formulas. Farmers who saw only excerpts of the report didn't take issue with 
the most conservative formula, which yielded the $24-million-a-year subsidy figure. 

But one formula, which based the water's value on what it would cost to replace it in today's market, 
was criticized by farmers. That formula calculated the total yearly subsidy to farmers on Fresno 
County's west side at $110 million. For farmers throughout the Central Valley Project, the figure was 
$416 million. 

"This is a supposed analysis that is based upon false assumptions and some hypothetical fair market 
value for water that doesn't exist," said Tom Birmingham, general manager of the Westlands Water 
District, the biggest irrigator in the California Valley Project. " A lot of our farmers are using drip 
irrigation. They are among the most efficient water users in the world, right up there with farmers in 
Israel." 

The debate is hardly new. Over the decades, as the San Joaquin Valley has grown into the most 
productive agricultural region in the world, politicians and bureaucrats have grappled with the issues 
of water and the size of farms. The old Jeffersonian ideal held that cheap water was a means to develop 
the West with small and mid-sized farms. The Central Valley Project, which began construction in the 
mid-1930s, grew out of that ideal. 

But the economies of scale - efficient big farms swallowing up inefficient small ones - have dictated 
otherwise. Reclamation law no longer prohibits cheap federal water from going to farms larger than 
160 acres. Farms up to 960 acres can qualify. 

Even so, prominent farm families in western Fresno County have found a way to obtain subsidies for 
even larger holdings. By dividing their 10,000- and 15,000-acre operations into 960-acre chunks, 
many growers in the Westlands district have managed to receive a lion's share of the project's water - 
more than 25% in many years, the report said. 

The Britz family, for example, has divided its Westlands holdings into nine separate entities, each one 
receiving crop and water subsidies. In 2002 and 2003, the Britzes received more than $1 million in 
crop supports and nearly $300,000 in water subsidies. The Britzes could not be reached for comment. 

The Woolf family has weaned itself from crop subsidies by replacing cotton and wheat - crops that 
receive price supports - with vegetables, almonds, pistachios and grapes. But the family's water 
subsidy in 2002 was at least $710,000, the report found. 

Stuart Woolf, president and chief executive of Woolf Enterprises, said his family has spent millions of 
dollars to convert from flood irrigation to more efficient drip irrigation. 

"This study gives the impression that we're big water wasters," Woolf said. "The reality is, we don't 
have enough water to use, and we have to manage every drop." 

"The Environmental Working Group is raising some good questions, but I would encourage them to 
come visit our farm and learn a little bit about the careful way we manage water resources. We're 
good stewards." 

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Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times 

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