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<br />SignQnSanDiego.com > News> Special Reports -- A prominent family is tom by the battle over water <br /> <br />Page 3 of3 <br /> <br />His father nods. "What they do in Sacramento and Washington affects <br />us as much as this thing does," Don Cox says. <br /> <br />Mike Cox brings a different perspective as one of dozens of farmers <br />who rent the land they plow. He wonders, will landlords reject offers to <br />idle the land or take the money and run? <br /> <br />''I'm going to have to work out an arrangement," he says. "One of my <br />concerns is whether all of the money will go to the landlord." <br /> <br />The family agrees that those who provide direct goods and services to <br />farmers - the seed dealers and crop dusters, for example - are likely to <br />feel the pinch of fallowing. <br /> <br />Farm workers may not be in as much danger, the Coxes suggest. Labor- <br />intensive but profitable vegetable crops are less likely to be scaled back, <br />they say. <br /> <br />There are other misgivings. The district may be forced to assume more <br />debt to pay for water conservation systems over the years. <br />Environmental safeguards may fall short of what the law requires. And <br />there is a nagging fear that urban California will come back with a new, <br />bigger straw. <br /> <br />As a Dec. 31 deadline approaches to sign the agreement, the Imperial <br />Valley community and farmers like the Coxes are asking themselves <br />hard questions. Most dominant is whether the benefits of holding onto <br />the water outweigh any repercussions that could be inflicted by the <br />federal government, state or ecourts. <br /> <br />"I'm amazed," Larry Cox says, "at how many guns are trained at our <br />heads." <br /> <br />Site Index I Contact SignOn I UTads.com I About SignOn I Advertise on SignOn I Make Sign On your homepage <br />About the Union-Tribune I Contact the Union-Tribune <br /> <br />@Copyright2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. <br /> <br />http://www.signonsandiego.comlnews/reports/water/20021208-9999- farmers.html <br /> <br />12/10/02 <br />