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Floodgates Open for Irrigators by John Stucke - Staff writer The Spokesman Review, March 20, 2001

Some farmers exchange their water for money from BPA

The water began flowing Monday through irrigation ditches, en route to central Washington's orchards, vineyards and vegetable fields.

These waterways are empty during the winter months. Cracks cover the sun-baked mud channel bottoms.

But the spring growing season has arrived and water is needed.

While the West struggles with an energy crisis and a winter drought that keeps lake watchers nervous, the people in charge of delivering water to farmers calmly turned the valves and flipped the switches, feeding the region's multibillion-dollar agricultural industry.

"We anticipate a normal year here," said Don Olson, speaking loud enough to be heard over water rushing into a canal. As supervisor of field operations for the South Columbia Basin Irrigation District, he ensures that, beginning Monday "If farmers in this district need water, they'll get it."

Mountain snowpack and reservoirs may be low this year, but Olson said he has no worries about the availability of water to grow crops. It will be delivered through concrete-lined canals and smaller ditches that have been scratched into the desert.

Apple, pear and peach trees will get their dose of water. So will grape vines, and fields of potatoes, corn, onions, carrots, asparagus and alfalfa.

Yet vegetable farmers are considering withholding water from some fields this summer, weighing low crop prices against a government plan to pay for water conservation and energy.

The Bonneville Power Administration wants to pay farmers for the electricity they use to irrigate fields. The price: $330 an acre.

The offer was so tempting that farmers arrived en masse to irrigation offices to learn more and sign up.

"We had in excess of 100 people interested," said Dick Erickson, who manages the East District of the Columbia Basin Project. "I wasn't sure what to expect, but we had people come here and spend the night in campers."

Basically, BPA is prepared to pay about $24.7 million to farmers to keep 75,000 acres dry.

For many farmers, it's an offer too good to refuse.

Crops have been steady money-losers for several years and the outlook for this year isn't good, said Pasco farmer Ed Schneider. Instead of burying money in the field, the offer should help farmers break even on the acreage enrolled in BPA's buy-back program.

The average rental fee for an acre of ground in the Columbia Basin is between $270 and $280 an acre, he said. Add annual irrigation maintenance and delivery fees and the cost per acre to the farmer approaches $330.

Schneider said the buy-back offer won't be a windfall for farmers.

Each of the three irrigation districts -- the South, East, and Quincy -- will be allowed to idle 25,000 acres. Most likely, the acreage left fallow would be for rotation crops such as sweet corn, wheat, beans and alfalfa.

Potatoes, usually the most lucrative crop in the basin, would likely be planted because of earlier contracts with regional french fry processors.

The offer is comparable to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Payment-In-Kind program, a scheme used to erase crop surpluses by paying farmers not to plant.

Spreading the affected acreage across the basin is expected to help soften the ripple effect to local communities dependent on the crops farmers grow.

To BPA, the $24.7 million may be money well spent as the prospects grow for a worsening energy crisis this summer.

"This is potentially worth 200,000 to 300,000 megawatt hours of generation to BPA," Erickson said. A megawatt hour is enough electricity to meet the power needs of about 600 homes for an hour.

By paying the farmers about $330 an acre, BPA will save power normally used to pump and deliver water. Furthermore, the water that is kept in Lake Roosevelt can be flushed through the power generating dam turbines.

"It's a complicated way for them to get power, but it should work," said Erickson. "And nobody is going to lose their water rights for having done this. Our lawyers have looked at everything very closely."

BPA finds itself in a power predicament because of energy shortages and skyrocketing electricity prices. It has to shop the now-costly open market for energy just to fulfill its supply contracts.

The price for electricity is so extraordinary, Erickson said, that the $330 per acre may be a good deal for BPA. Under BPA's normal wholesale rates, he said, a farmer might fetch $75 to $80 an acre.

The buy-back proposal isn't unique.

Idaho farmers are enrolling in a similar type agreement with the Idaho Power Co., and Avista Utilities is drafting its own buy-back plan for its Washington and Idaho water pumpers.

Back along the irrigation ditches, Olson said he doesn't pay much attention to the BPA offer.

Instead, he's making sure that his irrigation district is ready for the growing season.