WASHINGTON, D.C. — As drought conditions continue in the Southwest, water conservation was a focus for the 91st annual USDA Agriculture Outlook Forum.
Water scarcity has become an issue as a result of lack of attention to water – considered a renewable resource, said Tom Brown, an economist with the Rocky Mountain Research Station’s Social and Economic Values Group. Most research in past years assumed there would be no water shortages.
"There are gradual improvements in the West. They’re withdrawing less water per acre," he said. But the decreased water use is not enough, he added.
James Richardson, an AgriLife research senior faculty fellow and co-director of the Agricultural and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University, said Texas has recovered some from the drought in 2011, but not enough.
Most of the water reservoirs in New Mexico and Texas are alarmingly low, with one reservoir in New Mexico at less than 25 percent expected levels.
"We’ll be the demonstration of what happens in the United States when you run out of water," he noted.
In the Austin area, water supplies are getting scarce enough that in 2011, farmers were told they did not get water for crops. Richardson said the farmers decided to rest their fields that year. But the same thing happened in 2012, and in 2013 they planted using only ground water for irrigation. "Thousands of jobs were lost each year they were not producing," he pointed out.
He said tracking is adding to the problem. While the process uses very little water compared to the state requirements, it is using large amounts of water in the region where the tracking occurs. In the Texas Eagle Ford Shale water area, tracking is using about 50 percent of the water in the region.
"Across the country, 47 percent of tracking is in extremely high water-stressed regions," Richardson said. "We’re just adding to our diminished water supplies and agriculture will be the first hit because (industry) can pay more for water."
Glenda Humiston, California state director of USDA Rural Development, said the urban and rural areas of her state are working together to try to decrease the damage the drought has caused. Different programs are in place, including building facilities that will reuse water, constructing more reservoirs to prevent water from flowing into the ocean and reclaiming water when possible.
"When farmers implement water conservation programs, don’t tax them for it … We’ve had that happen," Humiston said.
In the Sacramento area, more than 200 crops are grown. When data were collected for urban planners, it was discovered the knowledge could be used for agriculture and water resources.
"The urban region is supporting agriculture," she said.
Snowpack provides the region with most of its water, but is providing less runoff each year.
"If those upper watershed forests where healthy, they could be producing 9 to 16 percent more water a year in those areas and that is huge in California " Humiston said. "Everything I’m talking about costs money … we’re trying to convince people that an investment in rural is a good investment."
