TODD KRAININ PHOTO
Water flows in the Central Main Canal along Austin Road between El Centro and Imperial.
It has been called a sign of the times as the Imperial Irrigation District attempts to live within its water rights.
It has stirred up debate in the agricultural community about the how and when water rationing will begin.
Then along came the rain.
Since the IID board declared a supply demand imbalance in June, predicting to use more than 75,000 acre-feet than allowed, that number has diminished.
In the past week that number has dwindled from 10,000 acre-feet to less than 5,000 acre-feet with recent rainfall in the area.
But the IID is still pushing forward with a pilot program for water rationing, primarily affecting the farming industry, called equitable water distribution.
“Even though the risk of an inadvertent overrun has largely been removed … it would be a mistake, in my opinion, to return to the status quo,” said interim General Manager Mike Campbell.
“It is clear we are living in a changed environment,” Campbell said.
And while the district may not actually exceed its water allotment at all this year, the board is moving forward with equitable distribution for 2008.
“This is not in concrete,” Director John Pierre Menvielle said. “We’re going to work the bugs out of it with the farmers’ help.”
Disagreement over the proposed program continued at a workshop held Monday, as the district is nearing the deadline of Dec. 31 to have a plan in place.
The proposed plan calls for 5.13 acre-feet to be designated for an acre of land, straight across the board. The Imperial County Farm Bureau wants a historical method of supplying the water, giving farmers time to transition and conserve to meet the water restraints.
Other components of the program include penalties for hoarding water, and questions about a water exchange program among farmers have yet to reach a consensus.
The program is scheduled to go online Jan. 1 and some are still calling for the board to institute the program July 1, which would align with a majority of the agricultural years. Director Anthony Sanchez asked whether that was possible.
IID water attorney David Osias said unless the board cancels the supply demand imbalance the program will begin Jan. 1.
“We want to see how it works. Even on a pilot basis, we need to test the system,” Osias said.
Holtville farmer John Vessey said the implementation date of Jan. 1 would be a disaster.
“You’re going to change the historic precedence. It would cause chaos,” Vessey said.
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