The lake needs to rise a lot more that 2ft to get all the land that is now exposed and becoming Haboob fuel covered back up again. As the GSL and Utah Lake have both been drying up for centuries, planning for it actually happening would be prudent. This snow season just bought us some time. Not a lot, but some.
I’m still expecting a Buffalo sighting in Magna about anytime now. I’m also expecting a rumble from Farnsworth Peak when the avalanche happens. There is quite an overhang over Little Valley right now. We’ve heard avalanches from there before, but this overhang is a really big one.
Now the state and the farmers need to address the water usage for agriculture. Alfalfa uses a lot of water. The last numbers that I saw showed that agriculture used 2/3 of the water every year. I don’t know what the answer is, but they should at least look into it, since that is where the bulk of the water usage is. Even if residents stopped using water altogether, it would only save about 15%, if I remember correctly.
I read last year, alfalfa farming represents 0.2% of the Utah economy but uses 68% of available water. That seems like a waste of a valuable commodity. In Kentucky the government both fed and state bought out Tobacco farmers. Probably cheaper to buyout the alfalfa farmers.
Alfalfa is a water sucker. Always has been. Always will be. When I wrote a position paper on this issue almost 10 years ago, there was a lot of agricultural water along the Wasatch Front that was no longer in use (not that there was a lot of it in the first place, but I digress). Since the costs to make it potable were astronomical, one idea was to repurpose it to metered landscape irrigation water (Secondary Water). My water district is also using treated and cleaned sewerage water. Crazy enough the sewerage water is actually cleaner and more sanitary than the water we get from the Utah-Salt Lake Canal Company to fill our secondary system. What’s driving all the BS about building more reservoirs and pipelines is the fact most of these communities are using drinking water to irrigate their landscaping. Keeping outdoor water outdoors, and making wasters pay more keeps the secondary water demand down and the drinking water demand down.
When I first got married - late 80s - there were tobacco fields and those long tobacco curing houses all over western Kentucky, around my wife’s home town. Now it’s all soy.
Alfalfa is a low maintenance crop - plant once, add tons of water & it produces.
They need to find other crops, and will probably need to work the land a lot more.
Right now there’s a delegation from the State and a few legislators who are in Israel to see some innovative irrigation techniques they use in their desert, as well as to talk about the Dead Sea and how they’re approaching the pressure on it.
We’ve never really had to think real hard about how to maximize water efficiency, and droughts have been something you get through, they weren’t lifestyle killers.
Fortunately, we have a LOT of innovation & smart change upside to pursue. We’re not anywhere close to being at the end of the rope.
While this is true it’s also a function of local custom and the principle in place of using all of your water allowance or risk losing it. In speaking to relatives who grow alfalfa they could get a decent crop with much less water use but that would put them in jeopardy of losing the amount of water they could use in future years. Most alfalfa grown in Southern Alberta where I grew up is not irrigated.
The average rainfall in the Lethbridge area is 14.97 inches while Sanpete County rainfall is 14.22 inches. The biggest difference is Sanpete County usually gets one more cutting of hay each year vs S Alberta but also irrigates much more hay. In S Alberta more things like potatoes, corn, sugar beets, peas, green beans, and lentils get irrigated as they provide higher value and irrigation water costs more than here in Utah.
If farmers had to pay more of the actual cost of irrigation water we would see less usage. But the Ag lobby here is very strong so nothing will change.
I’m going to apologize in advance for my ignorance, as I know nothing about agricultural economics, but…
I think that it is true, that virtually all of the alfalfa grown in Utah is used to feed livestock animals, largely cattle I further think it is true that Utahn’s raise cattle both for meat production and there is still some dairy production in the state, although I think that has declined in the last several decades.
If all of the above is true, does anyone know the percentage of Utah’s consumption of beef and dairy that is supplied by Utah agriculture?
I’m curious to understand a little better what indirect value Utahns derive from the land and water use invested in alfalfa.
One other question is where that alfalfa ends up. May have already been raised on the board. I think it was in an article in the Trib recently, that one alfalfa farmer ships most of his outside the country. It’s his livelihood, but I wonder if he is also an “America Firster?”
However much is shipped internationally makes me think twice about how much pressure can be put on those farmers to consider economically feasible alternatives.
This is California-centric but it’s a good summary of good news:
Two months ago, the winter rains and snowfall were on a path to only slightly mitigating the long-term consequences of the drought, and the water levels in reservoirs such as Lake Powell and Lake Mead were getting so low, state officials warned that hydroelectric plants might no longer be able to work normally.
Today, the U.S. Drought Monitor, which measures conditions from California to Montana and from Washington to New Mexico, is at its lowest level in years. One year ago, almost 70 percent of the American West was at drought levels rated “severe,” “extreme,” or “exceptional.” (Those are drought levels two through four; level one is “moderate.”) This morning, less than 13 percent of the American West is in “severe,” “extreme,” or “exceptional” conditions.
Repeated deluges of rain, described as “atmospheric rivers,” have drenched California, offering a dramatic turnaround to a state that was frighteningly parched when the year began. California’s snowpack has reached record levels; the state Department of Water Resources reports that the southern Sierra snowpack is at 289 percent of normal for this date.
We have a little house in Sanpete County that is the only dwelling on 50 acres of alfalfa. We don’t farm it, our neighbor does. What I’ve learned from him and other local farmers about why they grow alfalfa:
It’s lucrative. Most years they get three cuttings and sometimes even four.
It doesn’t need to be replanted. It’s perennial. (The roots also go three feet or more deep, and it takes a lot of water to get all the way down. In the spring our neighbor runs his water wheels for two weeks straight, 24-7. I was amazed the first time I saw that.)
(Our neighbor annually devotes 5+ acres to growing potatoes, which he donates to the county food bank. There’s a big party every fall for volunteers—mostly kids—who come to harvest the spuds. But he can’t compete with Idaho farms so he doesn’t try to make money off of potatoes.)
The coals tell me they used to grow other crops (corn, wheat, even cotton) but can’t compete on those crops with mega farms in other states. So they grow what they can at least always break even on—alfalfa. It’s the number 1 crop in Utah, you see it everywhere.
It seems to me that this is not a situation where we can say, “OK farmers, grow something else now.” It’s clearly not that simple. That would require a massive statewide change in our agricultural industry. It would probably require massive government subsidies to keep farming alive during the transition.
It’s just a more complex problem than it seems. So are golf courses, but that’s a pretty powerful lobby too. And most Utah legislators play golf.
Until I see an aquifer report (not just a surface water report) that shows those have recharged, I will feel more comfortable about whether we have water. As most of the potable water used n this state comes from underground wells, this number matters.
My brother does some work with recharging wells. I haven’t got a clue on details or what not. But like you, I’d like to know more about the recharge of aquifers and related water sources.
What I really hope is that everyone living in the West continue to treat their water like they’re still living in danger of not having any tomorrow. I don’t see how population growth can continue as things stand as of the end of the last water year. I see this past winter as a one off, not the start of a new water trend.
Wow this seems rather wasteful and speaks to my earlier post about how alfalfa irrigation here is as much about local traditions and the maintaining their water allowance than it is about necessity.
And I expect they are running traditional wheel lines with the standard sprinkler heads above the pipe which are the most common in Sanpete County. More modern systems have sprinkler heads below the line which puts the water closer to the crop and lessens the amount lost to wind before it can hit the plants. Even better are the linear systems which are structured like a pivot but move laterally along the field with the heads very close to the ground. Those systems are more expensive and as long as water is cheap there is no incentive to invest in more efficient systems. I had a job irrigating alfalfa when I was in HS. I did one field of around the same size as the 50 acres you mention but it was all hand move where you pick up each section of pipe and walk it to the next part of the field. The other field I did had a wheel line which was much easier to manage.
Also 40% of water intake in Alfalfa is in the top few inches below surface level and less than 10% is taken in by the lower parts of the taproot. I bet they could get very similar yields with less water if the rules were changed to get rid of the “use it or lose it” rules around irrigation water and passed more of the actual cost to the water user.
They will scream bloody murder and make all sorts of excuses and lobby very hard for the status quo if anyone were to even suggest making any changes. So nothing will change at all and we will face another massive drought in short order.
In addition to being a farmer he raises and sells beef cattle and sheep. He runs a large enterprise. What he doesn’t use himself he sells. A lot of his alfalfa is purchased by Chinese companies, I understand. (So is a lot of the turkey produced by Norbest, based in Moroni, another Sanpete metropolis.)
I was surprised. I’d love to see you and this guy talk about this subject. I’m sure he’ll have opinions.
Another thing I don’t understand is how agricultural water works. In a major part of Sanpete the Horseshoe Irrigation Company controls access to non-culinary water; Here’s their website:
When someone buys property in Horseshoe’s district they need to purchase water shares–if they want non-culinary water. There’s quite an active trade going on in water shares. If you over-use your shares you are fined. If you don’t use them all I’m not sure what happens, if anything. It may well be that my neighbor feels like he must use all his shares in order to keep them.
Another thing I don’t know: It’s not as if water in the state is in one giant bucket. Does overuse of water in the Horseshoe district take water away from Cache County farmers? Does water saved in the Horseshoe district mean the whole state benefits?
