MJC students briefed on the region’s water issues

A free-flowing forum on Stanislaus County water issues attracted more than 60 Modesto Junior College students and community members Wednesday night. While most of the students showed up to collect extra credit for their college classes, they likely left with increased insight into the complex water problems facing the region.

From falling groundwater levels and escalating agricultural pumping to shrinking fish populations and increasing environmental demands, water wars are raging.

And one way or another, everyone in Stanislaus will be impacted by what’s happening to the region’s water resources. That was the overarching message speakers repeated several times.

“Water is about as public of a resource as you can get. We all own it. It’s like air,” insisted Michael Frantz, a Turlock Irrigation District board member.

Frantz sounded alarms about a state proposal to dramatically reduce how much water can be diverted out of the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers. Those rivers provide the bulk of agriculture’s water through the Modesto, Turlock, Oakdale, Merced and South San Joaquin irrigation districts.

If the state gets its way, Frantz said, twice as much water would flow down the Tuolumne River each February through June. He said that would dramatically reduce the amount of water available to irrigate farms, which would cause the loss of 1,200 jobs and $187 million in agricultural revenues.

About 210,000 acres of farmland would have to be fallowed because of water shortages, Frantz said. “It would be the most significant reallocation of water in this region ever.”

Why? To help save the region’s dwindling number of salmon and trout.

That, at least, is the stated reason to increase river flows. But some of the forum’s speakers were skeptical about that.

“Increased river flow has not proven to increase fish population one bit,” countered Steve Knell, the Oakdale Irrigation District’s general manager. He said reducing the number of predator fish – which eat young salmon and trout – and improving river habitat would help more than increasing river flows.

And if the state reduces how much water can be diverted from the region’s rivers, the speakers insisted that would trigger increased groundwater pumping.

Overdraft of groundwater resources already is a concern in Stanislaus, particularly because of increased planting on the east side of the county. In recent years, “40,000 acres of formerly dry grazing land has been converted into orchards and vineyards, and it’s all being served by groundwater,” said county water resources manager Walt Ward.

A new state law requires groundwater basins to be sustainably managed, and Ward explained how Stanislaus is working on ways to do that. “It’s probably the most significant water legislation in 100 years,” he said of California’s landmark groundwater act signed into law this fall. He said it gives the county the chance to create “a multigenerational blueprint” to protect its groundwater supply.

Restructuring water resources isn’t new in California, assured Mike Wade, director of the Farm Water Coalition. He said the first water project dates back more than 200 years to the California Mission era, when a creek was dammed near Santa Barbara.

“We engineered California. It is no longer a natural water system,” Wade said. He noted how the state’s water delivery priorities have shifted several times over the decades to serve competing agriculture, urban and environmental needs.

But the three-year drought has put water issues in the spotlight. “If we have another dry year,” Wade warned, “we’re in deep, deep trouble.”

This story was originally published November 12, 2014 at 9:52 PM with the headline "MJC students briefed on the region’s water issues."