California Farm Water Coalition - Rural Communities Hit Hard From Water Cutbacks

Comments from the town's leaders are included in "IMAGINE-A California without family farms," a new addition to the California Farm Water Coalition's website at www.farmwater.org.

"People do not connect the disastrous effects water cutbacks to farms can have on our rural communities," said Mike Wade, coalition executive director. "The IMAGINE presentation provides an understanding of these impacts by the people who are directly affected."

The IMAGINE presentation includes a 5-minute video detailing the impacts on Mendota and other rural communities from water reductions. Federal District Court Judge Oliver Wanger, Fresno, is expected to issue an order soon that will finalize his earlier ruling on implementing protections for the Delta smelt through reduced water deliveries from the Delta.

The judge ruled in August that deliveries would be reduced next year from January through June to prevent the endangered fish from being sucked into pumps that send Delta water southward. His final ruling could result in a loss of 1 to 2 million acre-feet of water for cities and farms.

Mayoral Perspective

Mendota Mayor Robert Silva manages a grocery store in the community that is dependent on a healthy farming economy. He explains in the video that when water supplies are cut back, there is less commerce for the town's businesses.

"Lately when they had those cutbacks (on the farm) it has affected the businesses. We've had to do some cutbacks on the labor force," he said of the grocery store's workers. "Others in the business world have also done cutbacks. It affects us dramatically when we don't get those water allocations."

One impact that goes largely unnoticed is rural schools struggling with a declining attendance when families are forced to move because of reduced employment caused by less farm acreage being planted. Relocation also means fewer students attending local schools, placing students at a learning disadvantage.

Miguel Arias serves on the Mendota Union School District's board of trustees and he explains that historically 80 percent of the district's students were children of migrant families that might move during the school year. That number had dropped in recent years as an increase in permanent crops-orchards and vineyards-on surrounding farms created year-round jobs, thus reducing the need for families to move so often. But the looming water cutbacks could change all that.

"When families move from one city to another city they pull their child from the school district and the school system," he said of the anticipated drop in student enrollment, "so the school system doesn't have the time needed to adequately educate them."

Arias pinpointed students who are English language learners as being hit the hardest from the family moves caused by job losses resulting from water cutbacks.

While some families are forced to move, others remain but may suffer severe economic hardships, Arias added.

Leap of Faith

"The ones who have a permanent stake in those communities...the ones who have taken a leap of faith and purchased property and made it a permanent home and had their children in the same educational system for years, those are the ones left behind," he said. "They are left behind without the supplemental income that came from the migrant farm worker coming through the city."

Roger Palomino, executive director of the Fresno County Economic Opportunities Commission, echoed the potential loss of home ownership when farm workers are forced to move and take their spendable income with them. He explains that the new housing has created increased opportunities for home ownership.

"There has been significant development in the rural communities in recent years," explained Palomino. "There has been a boom in construction; primarily in affordable low income housing."

"They feel an investment in the community," he said of the new homeowners. "Why should they have to move because we're not taking care of a serious issue like water?"

"The lives of families in rural communities are threatened when the flow of water to nearby farms is reduced or cut off," emphasized Wade, coalition executive director. "Decisions that reduce the water supply and the lack of decisions by our policy makers to provide a reliable water supply hurts the people who live in rural California."

The California Farm Water Coalition is the largest organization in the state that deals solely with the issue of farm water. Its voluntary membership represents 6 million irrigated acres, or two-thirds of the irrigated acreage in California.

Mayoral Perspective

Leap of Faith

Videos

California Water Facts Handout