After being locked for years in a legal battle with
farmers in California’s Central Valley, the federal
government has decided to buy its way out. Westlands Water District
irrigates more land than any other district in the country. But the
salty, selenium-laced ground has grown increasingly less
productive, because the district lacks adequate drainage for
irrigation water, a service promised to the farmers by the Bureau
of Reclamation in 1960. The Bureau has explored a number of
drainage options, including a 197-mile aqueduct to the San
Francisco Bay Delta that proved politically and environmentally
infeasible (HCN, 11/19/01: Will Salt Sink an Agricultural
Empire?).
In February, a federal judge approved a
settlement that frees the government from draining some of the
land. Instead, the government will pay $107 million over three
years to help buy out farmers and retire 33,000 acres of irrigated
farmland in the district.
While most people agree that the
land should be taken out of production, not everyone agrees on the
settlement’s terms. “The $100 million in direct damage
payments is just the tip of the iceberg that taxpayers will shower
on these highly subsidized farmers,” says Rep. George Miller,
D-Calif., citing another $150 million in costs and subsidies hidden
in the details.
Others believe that the settlement is a
good deal, considering that the farmers claim to have lost $400
million. “The claims for damage were far higher than what we
will pay out,” says the Bureau of Reclamation’s Kirk
Rodgers.
This arrangement may set the tone for future land
settlements in the district; Westlands plans to retire another
170,000 selenium-contaminated acres from farming.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Westlands farmers sell out.
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