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Agricultural Stakeholder Committee August 3, 2011

Agricultural Stakeholder Committee August 3, 2011. Proposed Methodology for Quantifying the Efficiency of Agricultural Water Use Proposed by : Thaddeus Bettner, GCID. Legislative Intent – Unclear. Unspoken Assumptions Water use efficiency – easy and cheap

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Agricultural Stakeholder Committee August 3, 2011

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  1. Agricultural Stakeholder Committee August 3, 2011 Proposed Methodology for Quantifying the Efficiency of Agricultural Water Use Proposed by: Thaddeus Bettner, GCID

  2. Legislative Intent – Unclear • Unspoken Assumptions • Water use efficiency – easy and cheap • Ag is efficient, just not efficient enough • Ag is wasting water, its going where? • Unspoken Outcomes • Ag will be more efficient – a number? • New water goes to environment – how, when, where? • Legislation – Phase 2 • A1 – Need Values and Objectives • If methodology only meets the legislation, a great disservice will be done

  3. General Overview of the Proposed Method • Establish a Priority of scales • Basin then District/sub-region then field • Ag Waiver Process – looking upstream • Water community initiated • Costly but affordable • Established targets for a basin/watershed • If exceedences, looks upstream to smaller scale • Avoid Confusion/Duplication - Must fit into Planning and Reporting activities (A1 data should match other data) • i.e. Basin/Watershed and Water Plan should match • SBX7-7 measurement/reporting • SWRCB Diversion Reports

  4. Basic Procedures to Quantify the Efficiency of ag Water Use • Learn from the A2 Process. • Form subcommittee(SC) of A1 consisting of SME’s • Allow SME SC to develop white paper on quantifying a methodology of ag water use. • SME SC makes presentation to A1 • A1 determines if white paper does the following: • Is understandable and sensible. • Meets legislation. • Can be implemented if mandated. • Can address assumptions or outcomes. • Fits into existing planning processes

  5. Consideration of efficiency levels based on crop type and irrigation system DU • OK to say leg author had no clue - used buzz words • Likely becomes a non-issue because of huge data and interpretation lift • Could do…..time consuming and costly • Data in a vacuum could result in unintended consequences and impacts • New Mexico Report (Brinegar & Ward 2009) • Irrigation Sagacity (Solomon and Burt, 1999)

  6. Estimate of implementation costs • Depends on our values and outcomes • Be efficient at any cost? (impacts to other users) • Respect other uses of water and then be efficient? • Where do we want efficiency improvements to show up? • At field level, may just be shifted to another field or crop • At District/sub-region, water rights, permits, contracts often require water not leave that region • At basin, often intersects major water bodies (rivers, streams) where water can be realized • Based on above responses, can identify local, regional, and basin actions needed • DSC Delta Plan – regional water balance

  7. Types of Data needed to support the methodology • Utilize existing data if possible. • Water Plan • Basin/sub-basin • Districts • Need Regional candidates to test data • What about models? Can they answer efficiency changes and benefits? • CALSIM II • SWAN

  8. Other Considerations

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