From News Line, a daily compilation of farm water news distributed to CFWC members and others upon request. To receive News Line, click here.

Letter: Tunnel project ignores 40 years of scientific understanding

Coalition response…Over the past seven years the Bay Delta Conservation Plan has evolved using the largest body of scientific evidence for any project of its kind in California – more than 18,000 pages. That information is available for review at  www.baydeltaconservationplan.com. The letter-writer’s criticism of the so-called “insatiable thirst” by agriculture is simply wrong. Between 1967 and 2000 the volume of farm production rose 89 percent while applied water remained almost flat, according to data from the Department of Water Resources and the National Agricultural Statistics Service. And more improvements have occurred since then as well. Between 2003 and 2010, San Joaquin Valley farmers invested more than $2.1 billion upgrading the irrigation systems on 1.8 million acres, enhancing their ability to efficiently grow food for much of California, the U.S. and consumers abroad.  How is that a bad thing?

Individuals and organizations too often use the term of “subsidized water” without fully understanding or explaining its meaning or benefits. The only “subsidy” that exists today is the result of action by Congress in 1935 when it waived the interest costs on building the Central Valley Project. That investment has returned billions more in new tax revenue from the farming operations and related businesses that depend on CVP water.  Find out more about the economic benefits farm water brings to the economy at www.moneygoeswherewaterflows.org.