Editorial: Water Sale Rained Out ... For Now
You Can't Say the Rain Gods Don't Have a Sense of Humor
Chico Enterprise Record - 5/2/03

In the 76 days since the Metropolitan Water District decided it would go ahead and buy water from north state irrigation districts, there has been rain in the neighborhood for 26 days.

The south state's had it even wetter, with almost 10 inches of rain recorded at the LA Civic Center in the last three months, three full inches over what's normal for that period.

So it really didn't matter that Mid-Valley farmers weren't jumping at the Met's offer of $100 an acre-foot for water that would ordinarily have been used to grow rice.

Farmers in the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District, the biggest in the north state, only signed up to sell two-thirds of the 60,000 acre-feet the south state water wholesaler had contracted to buy.

The first call in the Richvale and the Western Canal districts also came up short, although farmers signed up to provide the full 37,200 acre-feet wanted from those two districts when asked a second time.

Water district officials say rising prices for rice probably prompted the shortfall of water sales. That's undoubtedly part of it, but we suspect many rice farmers were uncomfortable with the idea of selling water to the south.

People don't go into farming without a true love of the profession. It's too hard, too harsh, too uncertain and the rules keep changing.

There is a satisfaction that comes from working with the soil and the sun and water to produce crops, but it's a satisfaction not everyone can understand. That's why so many people don't really appreciate the farmers that feed and clothe our nation and the world.

But those who do get it don't get the idea of sitting on the porch and watching the dust blow off their fields because they sold the water they'd need to produce crops.

The Enterprise-Record has been wary of this deal, perhaps more wary than we needed to be. After all, those who use the water probably appreciate it more than we do, and they may well provide an appropriate amount of resistance to make sure any deal doesn't hurt the north state.

The Met doesn't care that the water buy came up short - this time. State Water Project contractors have been told they'll get 70 percent of their allotment, up from the 45 percent prediction earlier this year that prompted the purchase. So the Met really doesn't need the water it bought.

But it's an interesting question what would have happened if the skies had stayed clear. Glenn-Colusa could probably have rung another 20,000 acre-feet out of its growers, but we wonder what would have happened if too many farmers had just said no.

We can't help but think this "new era of cooperation" between north and south that everyone in the water business has been touting will come to an abrupt, litigious end someday. We don't know when, but we won't be surprised.

But not today. Today we can just look at the cloudy skies, and appreciate the rainbows a bit more than usual.

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