Water is valued greatly on our family farm and we have spent many years trying to improve the efficiency of our water use here. And this time of year is interesting in relation to water because we have about four to five inches of water in the field right now, but we’ll be harvesting these fields shortly.

Recently, the California Rice Commission released the Environmental Sustainability Report, highlighting the efforts rice growers are undertaking to enhance land use benefits and protect the environment. Included in the report is an analysis of water use by ricelands over the past 30 years. This historical analysis provides an excellent example of increasing and sustained efficient water management for the industry. In the 1980s, average per-acre water application for rice was approaching 6 acre-feet. By the mid-1990s, that number had dropped to below 5 acre-feet per acre and for the past decade, average water application is 4.1 acre-feet per acre.

Being a water district located in the foothills, we are blessed with elevation. And with our source water at the upper end (read higher elevation) of the District, we can take advantage of that elevation to assist in the delivery of water. It is that change in elevation that allows us to have pressurized pipelines (without pumps and the required energy charges) and also allows for opportunities to generate electricity.

Once a month I discard the office attire and pull on my jeans and camo fat baby cowboy boots, jump into a district pick-up to collect groundwater measurements.