IID passes conservation plan over farmer objections

EL CENTRO — While the Imperial Irrigation District board approved its 2019 conservation program relating to its on-farm e ciency conservation program Tuesday afternoon, members of the ag community were not happy with the new plan.

IID Director James Hanks took the two original proposals and put parts from each one to come up with the third proposal that the IID board voted on and approved.

Currently, farmers are reimbursed $285 per acre foot for their participation in the IID’s water conservation programs. The problem is the $51.3 million that was budgeted for conservation payments this year exceeds the amount of water the district actually needs. What’s more, payments were on pace to exceed that budget by $11.7 million.

The plan Hanks proposed, which would only be in e ect this fiscal year, would cut that budget down to roughly $30 million.

Whereas previously farmers have been accustomed to earning $285 per acre foot for their conservation e orts, now only those already under contract (accounting for about 25,000 acre feet) will be reimbursed at that rate.

The rest will earn $125 an acre foot for the expected 185,000 acre feet of uncontracted water conserved.

Several farmers did not like this part of the plan, with a few of them saying for $125 an acre foot it would not be worth their time to conserve. Other said it would require them to lay o workers.

What also upset several members of the ag community is they had no opportunity to review the proposal and asked for the item to be tabled for a future meeting

The board also implemented a nearterm financial gap that reduces funding for the 2019 on farm e ciency conservation program for this calendar year.

The accepted proposal is only for 2019, and the directors directed staff to work with a board subcommittee to develop recommendations for 2020 and future years

One of IID’s dilemmas is that it has very little available storage for excess water, and this year’s conservation programs could leave it with as much as 137,000 acre feet of it.

The conservation requirements for 2019 include the 160,000 acre feet of water to the San Diego County Water Authority, 68,000 acre feet of water to the Coachella Valley Water District Transfer and 1,600 acre feet to the Lake Mead annual ICS evaporation replenishment

“We are caught between a rock and a hard place,” said IID General Manager Henry Martinez when talking about its lack of water storage.

He said IID is working on an agreement with the Metropolitan Water District in Los Angeles to store water, but added MWD is not going to do this for nothing.

Belen Valenzuela, finance manager for IID, said the staff and the board needs to be held accountable in coming up with a financial plan that works.

Larry Cox, whose company farms 3,300 acres in Imperial Valley, said he thinks the board did conservation without a contract and did not keep its word.

“Let yes be a yes and no be a no,” Cox said. Executive Director of the Imperial County Farm Bureau Brea Mohamed read from a prepared statement after her board discussed the two initial proposals and asked the IID board to table the item.

Brian Strahm said Hanks proposal was a compromise, as the original offer had nothing for the farmers.

Farmer Ed Hale said the board has lost a lot of trust — again — with the ag community, recalling when the on-farm conservation program began, IID was not sure it would save water.

“IID came to us to ask us to embrace the water (conservation plan), and now you are cutting me off the water,” Hale said. “The next time you come to the Farm Bureau to ask for something, the reception is going to be frosty. I would like the board to do some small things.”

Hanks said if the IID board did not react to what’s happening, it would be malfeasance on its part.