Approaching the fall planting season in the grips of drought, growers of Ventura County's famed strawberries are considering whether to cut back acreage.
The county's Farm Bureau expects to see a reduction on the order of between 1,500 and 2,000 acres due to a number of factors, including the drought's impact on water for irrigation, said CEO John Krist.
Irrigating crops in Ventura County relies almost entirely on well water.
"Because of the drought, we've been pumping the daylights out of those aquifers," Krist said. "And that's caused water levels to fall."
For more than half a century, there has been a system for using surface water to replenish much of the region's groundwater as it is withdrawn. But the drought has dramatically reduced the amount of surface water available to do so.
"Groundwater is at its lowest level in 25 years," said Anthony Emmert, assistant general manager of the United Water Conservation District, which is the entity responsible for replenishing the groundwater in much of the county's agricultural zone.
Piru Creek was dammed in the 1950s to create Lake Piru specifically to store mountain runoff for the District's groundwater replenishment. But in this third year of drought, the lake's level has plummeted, and now contains less than 18,000 acre-feet, about 20 percent of capacity.
The District historically has released a large flow of water in September and October to riverbeds and spreading basins where the water can percolate through the soil into the groundwater aquifers below.
This fall, for an unprecedented second year in a row, there is not enough water for a recharge release, Emmert said.
The only water being released for Lake Piru is a small flow for habitat preservation in lower Piru Creek.
Another entity, the Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency, serves in effect as the watermaster for the region. Earlier this year, its board adopted emergency regulations requiring cutbacks in water pumping, and enabling surcharges to be imposed on pumpers who fail to do so.
The first year calls for consumption to be cut 10 percent. For agricultural users, this took effect in August.
October historically sees the biggest demand for irrigation crops, to help establish newly planted berries, Krist said. Friday he met in the Bureau's Ventura office with a committee of member growers in an ongoing effort to develop courses of action for dealing with water issues that have been exacerbated by the drought.
Growers are expected to respond differently to the groundwater limits. Some may fallow fields. Some may rotate crops. "I think others just might make the decision to use the same amount of water they need and just pay the fine," said Krist.
Though water cost is a factor in a grower's overhead, it is typically much less than other costs, particular land and labor cost. Strawberries are picked by hand.
In years past, United has augmented the runoff available for replenishment with water imported from Northern California via the California Aqueduct. But this year there has been none available.
A major concern with falling groundwater in coastal regions is the increasing risk of contamination from intruding saltwater moving inland.
"As the (groundwater) pressure goes down, that seawater moves in," Emmert said.
Groundwater replenishment programs in some coastal regions, such as Orange County and the south Santa Monica Bay region of Los Angeles County, have built recycling plants.
Water obtained by filtering contaminants out of sewage cannot be distributed directly in municipal water systems, but can be injected to replenish groundwater.
The recycling adds cost, more easily borne in regions where groundwater is consumed primarily for residential and commercial users, who use far less water than agriculture, but typically pay a much higher price per unit.
Recycled water can cost on the order of $1,000 an acre foot. Growers are accustomed to paying under $30 an acre foot, though dropping well levels mean increased cost for the additional electricity to pump the water farther to the surface.
The city of Oxnard has built a recycling plant as part of a program it calls GREAT -- Groundwater Recovery Enhancement and Treatment. Lack of agreement over distribution and cost sharing has slowed its rollout.
