Environmental groups are demanding that the Trump administration exercise the federal government’s authority to curb wasteful water use in an effort to address the Colorado River’s chronic water shortages.
In a petition submitted Tuesday, the Natural Resources Defense Council and nine other groups called for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to enforce a provision of federal regulations stating that water deliveries in California, Arizona and Nevada “will not exceed those reasonably required for beneficial use.”
The petition takes aim in particular at wasteful water practices in agriculture, which accounts for about three-fourths of water diversions from the Colorado River, said Mark Gold, the council’s director of water scarcity solutions.
“There is definitely a great deal of room for improvement in the agricultural sector,” Gold said. One example of waste, he said, is flood-irrigating farm fields year-round in the desert to grow water-intensive crops such as hay.
Alfalfa and other types of hay are used to feed cattle and other livestock, and in recent years they have been exported in growing quantities to China, Saudi Arabia and other countries.
“The export of these water-intensive crops is akin to exporting water itself, a resource that is urgently required domestically,” leaders of the environmental groups wrote in the petition. They added that much of the Southern California farmland that relies on Colorado River water is “either fully or partially irrigated via flood irrigation, which uses much more water than drip and sprinkler irrigation.”
Farmers and managers of agricultural water agencies, such as California’s Imperial Irrigation District, have taken part in water-saving programs. Growers have said they are willing to shift to more water-efficient irrigation systems to free up water and boost reservoir levels, so long as they are paid enough to help foot the bill.
Those in agriculture, however, also have pointed out that in many areas…