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Water Management National Grain Trade Council New Orleans, LA September 24, 2004

Water Management National Grain Trade Council New Orleans, LA September 24, 2004. Dennis K, Carman, P.E. USDA NRCS National Water Management Center. Water Impacts on Your Industry. Is the water supply sufficient to maintain our current activities? What if there is growth?

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Water Management National Grain Trade Council New Orleans, LA September 24, 2004

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  1. Water ManagementNational Grain Trade CouncilNew Orleans, LASeptember 24, 2004 Dennis K, Carman, P.E. USDA NRCS National Water Management Center

  2. WaterImpacts on Your Industry • Is the water supply sufficient to maintain our current activities? • What if there is growth? • What are potential issues on the horizon for water rights? • How will irrigation practices be impacted? • Will water transportation continue to be a dependable form of transportation for agriculture commodities? • How is US water situation over the next 10-15 years affected by the practices in Canada/Mexico and vice-versa?

  3. Water Resources 101 Let’s look at: Rainfall and population Where we use water For what purposes What are the issues (where do we have conflict?) Grain – Where is it produced We will also take a quick “global water look” as some of the same relationships

  4. Rainfall Distribution

  5. People locate where there is water • Impacts the demand • Competition for water • Industrial • Agriculture • Environmental

  6. Trends in U.S. Water Use

  7. Water Resource Issues • Are we running out of water? • No …..however • Your view depends on • Where you are located • What are your interests • What is your purpose • When you ask the question

  8. Globally our water balance is static • We have no more or no less water today than during the dinosaur age

  9. We do have significant regional and local issues

  10. Let’s look a little closer at your portion of the agriculture business • Irrigated acres • Where there are significant water quantity “issues” • What changes are taking place • How does this impact your business?

  11. Regional Issue: California Imperial Valley Irrigation District (IID) and San Diego County Water Authority Water Transfer Agreement How will the water transfer agreement between IID and San Diego work?IID would conserve water through on-farm or system projects and then transfer that conserved water to the San Diego County Water Authority. Under California State law, IID may conserve and transfer water without the losing their present perfected water rights. How much water does this transfer involve?Twenty thousand acre-feet of conserved water would be transferred in the first year of the contract. Deliveries would then increase in 20,000 acre-foot increments until a maximum of 200,000 acre-feet is reached in year ten of the contract.

  12. Regional IssueOgallala Aquifer

  13. Regional IssueGeorgia/Florida/Alabama Florida to take Georgia, Alabama to court over water rights September 2003 U.S. Water News Online JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- After failing to reach a water-sharing agreement with Alabama and Georgia, Florida said it will ask the courts to decide how much water each state should receive from the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin. The issue concerns the water needs of metropolitan Atlanta, farms in southwest Georgia and the oyster-rich Apalachicola Bay in Florida, which supplies 90 percent of Florida's oysters and 10 percent of the nation's. The three states' governors had approved the tentative agreement in July, setting a recent deadline for a final plan. Instead of extending the deadline, Florida decided it would leave the water-sharing decision to federal courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. The states have debated for five years on how to solve the water-sharing issue.

  14. Regional IssueLower Mississippi Delta Groundwater Decline

  15. With this as a background let’s revisit the original questions Is water supply sufficient to maintain our current activities? What if there is growth? What are potential issues on the horizon for water rights? How will irrigation practices be impacted? Will water transportation continue to be a dependable form of transportation for agriculture commodities? How is US water situation over the next 10-15 years affected by the practices in Canada/Mexico and vice-versa?

  16. Is water supply sufficient to maintain our current activities? Yes …. but not without changes And… certain areas or industries will be impacted more than others

  17. What Changes? • Increasing crop output per unit of evaporated water • Reducing losses of usable water to sinks • Reducing water pollution • Reallocating water from lower valued to higher valued uses • Some water development • Environmental balance

  18. Many of these changes are already underway • 43 million acres of agricultural land were irrigated in the West. These lands produced 72 percent of crop sales on only 27 percent of the total harvested crop acreage • High-valued orchards, berries, vegetables, and nursery crops account for almost 60 percent of the West’s total value of sales from irrigated crops on just 15 percent of the land irrigated • Field and forage crops account for the remaining 40 percent of sales, but occupy 71 percent of the irrigated area.

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