By Vincent Ballantine, WikiLeaf.com
The current California water shortage is the state’s worst drought in 1,200 years.
Since 2012, dramatic decreases in both rainfall and snowfall have left the state’s reservoirs at a fraction of their normal capacity. And although utilities managers have artificially widened these reservoirs and drilled deeper into the water table to access backup sources of water, such measures aren’t exactly sustainable.
What Caused the California Water Shortage?
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This water shortage has dramatic implications for California’s agricultural industry.
The Golden State (and Central Valley in particular) is not only a major agricultural supplier for the United States; it’s the fifth-largest food producer in the world.
The bulk of our almonds, lemons, artichokes, and tomatoes come from California. They have all have been hit with state-mandated water conservation measures, driving down crop yields and driving up costs. Another extremely popular local crop is cannabis, with thousands of acres grown in Humboldt County alone. Now, with the state’s residents having voted to legalize recreational use and sale, cannabis will become even more integral to California’s economy. So how will California’s water shortage affect its cannabis production?
The drought is due in large part to an area of high atmospheric pressure that was situated in the Pacific Northwest and nicknamed the “Ridiculously Resilient Ridge.” The ridge hung over the region for a good part of 2014 and diverted storm patterns away from the West Coast, pushing them up towards Canada and then towards the Eastern Seaboard. This caused Washington, Oregon, and California to miss the winter snowfall that ordinarily would have built up their mountain snowpacks and then melted into Southern California’s lowlands.
The East Coast was hit with an unusual number of winter storms, leaving the West Coast dangerously dry
Although some rainfall in October 2016 has relieved drought in northern parts of the state, much of California remains parched. On top of that, a weather phenomenon dubbed La Nina could cause a warm and dry winter, prolonging drought conditions.
California’s Conservation Plan
California has resorted to drastic measures to make sure its scant water keeps flowing. Beginning in 2015, Governor Jerry Brown instituted mandatory conservation policies to cut water consumption by 25%, restricting communities from irrigating non-essential grass on football fields, front lawns, and roadway medians; Brown later extended the restrictions to household appliances, mandating low-flow shower heads and hose nozzles. The state’s agriculture industry has also been hit with restrictions. In June 2015, the California Water Resources Control Board required farmers to cut water usage by 25% — resulting in hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland lying fallow and a 17% decrease in agricultural sales.
The state has had significantly more trouble enforcing these water austerity measures for cannabis farmers.
California currently allows permits for farmers who can document that their product is sold to medical consumers
These legal farmers must follow the Control Board’s best practices, which include rainwater collection systems and drip (rather than flood) irrigation.
But black market cannabis crops still exist, and they can consume a lot of water — depending on its size, a cannabis plant can consume anywhere between one to ten gallons of water per day. Illicit growers have no reason to abide by the stated usage limits, and can turn to illegal measures like drilling or diverting streams to access as much water as they need. Some conservation officials have said that by using water irresponsibly, illegal cannabis farmers are responsible for threatening California’s endangered salmon.