Strawberry, flower fields fret at threats to water supply

By: BARBARA HENRY - Staff Writer | Saturday, August 18, 2007 10:21 PM PDT ∞

CARLSBAD ---- The city's two biggest consumers of agricultural water say they are worried about a proposal by the region's main water provider to cut agriculture water use by 30 percent, a move that county farm bureau officials say means some growers are going to have to reduce their crops.

In the case of The Flower Fields ---- Carlsbad's famed floral tourist attraction ---- the water cuts may mean starting to use reclaimed water, or intensively treated sewage water, next spring to keep the flowers at their prime, said Fred Clark, general manager of The Flower Fields.

"We have our fingers crossed that we're going to have a nice rainy year next year," he said.

Meanwhile, Carlsbad Strawberry Co. General Manager Peter Mackauf said he won't be making any decisions until he attends a presentation by the region's farm bureau next month on the local water situation.

The situation doesn't look good right now, Metropolitan Water District spokesman Bob Muir said last week. The Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District, which provides most of the water that Southern California residents drink and farmers use on crops, announced months ago that it is likely to order agricultural water users to cut back on their irrigation starting Jan. 1.

The district's board is expected to vote on the current proposal for a 30 percent water cutback in October.

A discount water deal

Metropolitan officials say the reduction is one of several proposed ways to combat a series of water supply troubles. Those problems include several years of dry weather locally, smaller snowpack levels in the Sierra Nevada mountains and continuing difficulty in obtaining water from the Sacramento Delta region. Farmers who obtain their irrigation water through the agency's agricultural program are first in line for cutbacks, because that's the deal they made when they signed up for the program, which offers them water at discount prices.

Regular wholesale water from Metropolitan costs $331 per acre-foot. Agricultural customers pay $241 an acre-foot. A single acre-foot equals about 326,000 gallons, or enough water for two average families for a year, Muir said.

The price that individual farmers pay varies depends on where they live, Muir said.

In addition to Metropolitan's pipes, the water must pass through the San Diego County Water Authority's system and ultimately through local distribution systems before arriving at the farms.

If the cuts go through as planned, this will be the first time in the agricultural program's 13-year history that its users have been ordered to cut water usage, officials said.

Making the cut

Carlsbad has 25 participants in the regional agricultural water program. The Flower Fields and the strawberry fields are the city's two biggest users, Carlsbad Water District Director Mark Stone said.

In all, the city's top five participants consumed 100 million gallons of agricultural water during the fiscal year ending June 30, said Cari Dale, the water district's assistant general manager.

Carlsbad's participation rate is far lower than that of the inland agricultural areas of Fallbrook and Valley Center, said Eric Larson, head of the San Diego County Farm Bureau.

"In Valley Center, the vast majority of the water sold by the (local) water district is agricultural water. ... This is huge for them, as it is in Fallbrook and Rainbow," he said.

The farm bureau is putting together plans for a "water summit" Sept. 27. The event will begin with an assessment of regional water supply levels, with best- and worst-case scenarios, Larson said. Next, participants will move into a trade show where they can meet with manufacturers of irrigation equipment and other water-saving items, he said.

Improving the efficiency of irrigation is likely at best to cut only 5 percent to 15 percent of a farmer's water usage, Larson said. Most growers already use plenty of water-saving equipment, because water costs so much in Southern California, he said.

In order to reach Metropolitan's currently proposed, 30 percent cutback, growers are going to have to reduce their crops ---- say, for example, plant fewer strawberries this year, Larson said.

Seeking other sources

Those decisions are going to have to be made soon. Carlsbad's strawberry crop, which is concentrated along the north side of Cannon Road just east of Interstate 5, has its heaviest watering periods in the fall and spring, Mackauf said.

The Flower Fields, which occupy the highly visible northeast corner of Palomar Airport Road and Paseo del Norte, draws much of its water during the winter and spring months, Clark said.

"Right now, most of our fields are bare," he said.

There is a backup plan in place for The Flower Fields. The area is already plumbed for reclaimed water, Clark said. Reclaimed water ---- intensively treated sewage water ---- flows through pale purple pipes in a number of parts of town, particularly in the city's central region. It's used for landscaping irrigation in roadway medians.

Some agricultural crops can be hypersensitive to reclaimed sewage water because it typically contains more minerals than regular irrigation water, Clark said. However, he added, The Flower Fields' famed ranunculus blooms don't have that problem.

Reclaimed water won't help the strawberry fields, though. Because they're an edible crop, they can't be irrigated with reclaimed sewage water, Mackauf said.

He and other growers also can't choose to drop out of the agricultural water program and pay full price for their water in effort to avoid the cutbacks. In order to prevent that tactic, Metropolitan and the other water districts have a system of fines and other measures.

The point of having a discount program where people agree to cutbacks in times of water shortage would be defeated if participants had the option of avoiding cutbacks by switching over to the regular program, Muir of the Metropolitan district said.

Contact staff writer Barbara Henry at (760) 901-4072 or bhenry@nctimes.com.

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