Eighteen water districts in the arid U.S. West will receive a share of $400 million from the USDA for local projects that pay farmers to reduce water consumption while keeping land in production, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday. Irrigation use could drop by 50,000 acre-feet on 250,000 acres in 12 states, from Texas to California and Oregon.
“Agricultural producers are the backbone of rural communities across the West, and many of them are struggling under prolonged drought conditions,” said Vilsack. “We want to scale up the tools available to keep farmers farming while also voluntarily conserving water and expanding markets for water-saving commodities.”
The past 25 years were the driest quarter-century in the West in 1,200 years, notwithstanding two wet winters, according to a UCLA climate scientist. “The dryness still wins out over the wetness, big time,” said UCLA professor Park Williams in a Los Angeles Times story.
The USDA’s so-called water-saving commodity program is the latest step by the administration to conserve water and increase water efficiency in the West. The 2022 climate, healthcare, and tax law included $15.4 billion to enhance water resources in the Colorado River basin. In March, the White House announced agreements with states, tribes, and water users to conserve at least 3 million acre-feet of water in the Colorado basin through the end of 2026. The administration said it was looking at drought resilience in several river basins in the West.
An acre foot is enough water, about 326,000 gallons, to cover an acre of land one foot deep.
Each of the preliminary districts selected by the USDA will receive $15 million for voluntary programs in which producers will reduce water consumption while maintaining commodity production. Discussions were ongoing on details of each district’s water-saving plan, the commodities to be produced, and the budget for the project. The USDA said it expected to “learn from the diversity of strategies and identify additional opportunities to maintain and expand water-saving commodity production in the future.”
Five of the 18 irrigation districts are in California: the Corcoran, Glenn-Colusa, Imperial, Solano, and Sutter Mutual districts. Also selected were two districts apiece in Arizona and Washington State, and one each in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
“Our top priority is providing efficient and dependable irrigation water to our constituents, and we look forward to working with USDA to explore new water-efficient practices in the Columbia basin,” said the Greybull Valley Irrigation District in northern Wyoming.
“Family farmers, water users, and communities across the American West are facing the effects of a 1,200-year drought and a changing climate,” said Sen. Michael Bennet, Colorado Democrat. Said Sen. Jeff Merkley, Oregon Democrat, “My colleagues and I urged the administration to take action earlier this year, and I applaud the USDA for creating this new program to fund innovative water solutions.”