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Farmers fear dry future It was once part of the Gulf of California but was cut off millions of years ago by sediment carried into a narrow neck by the Colorado River. Much of the valley sits below sea level, tilting down to a low point of 235 feet below. Water towers and cinder -block buildings chart the elevation, the numbers scrawled in paint on their sides. Farmers in the valley were among the first to tap into the lower Colorado River and claimed rights that still dwarf the rights of any other user. They fought floods in the early years - the worst, which caused a dam collapse, created the inland Salton Sea - and supported the construction of Hoover Dam and others downstream to control the water. No one questioned the farmers' share of the river until coastal cities started running short. Los Angeles and San Diego were the first to sign deals with farmers to use water. The farmers are compensated, but they resent suggestions that it's their obligation to give it up or that they're wasting it. "It sounds to me that people think farmers use the water on something that doesn't produce anything," said Silva, whose district distributes water across more than 500,000 acres of farmland. "We need to publicize what this water produces." Imperial farmers grow alfalfa, barley, cotton, melons and other fruits during the warmer months, but they're better known for their winter vegetables, including lettuce, broccoli, cabbage and peppers. Fields there and in Yuma supply the nation with almost all of its winter lettuce. But the Imperial farmers have been unable to shake the image that they're using too much water. In 2003, Interior Secretary Gale Norton accused them of wasting water and reduced their river allocation, a decision the farmers successfully fought in court. Bennett Raley, assistant Interior secretary for water and science, struck again this year when he suggested agricultural water was a natural backstop for cities if drought further reduces the supply on the Colorado. That doesn't mean the end of agriculture, he says. It means taking advantage of agriculture's cycles, perhaps shifting water to cities when farmers don't need it. "The question is not whether the West will survive or prosper," he said. "The question is, to be blunt, what will the future of ag look like? What do we want irrigated agriculture to look like, and how do we prepare for the inevitable transitions to occur ?" Fighting waste One way to stretch the Colorado River and find more water, even in a drought, is to reduce waste. With every gallon of the Colorado spoken for these days, anything that runs down the river unused is considered waste by water managers. In 2000, U.S. states squandered more than 300,000 acre - feet of water, the equivalent of Nevada's share of the Colorado, by allowing it to run into Mexico on top of Mexico's basic allocation. The total water lost since 2000 is approaching 600,000 acre -feet, which by itself lowered Lake Mead by about 6 feet. Much of the waste can be traced back to the way water is moved on the lower river. It can be a slow, cumbersome process because of the three -day lag time between orders and deliveries. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is working with farmers to use the water more efficiently and place more accurate orders. Partly as a result, the total water lost fell to an estimated 60,000 acre -feet last year. An additional 100,000 acre -feet a year is lost from Lake Mead because the water at the border is too salty. The United States agreed to reduce the salinity level, but the solution, a desalter plant in Yuma, failed. As an interim measure, the bureau must draw from Lake Mead the amount of water the desalter would have treated, about 100,000 acre -feet. Page 3 of 6 http:// Www. azcentral .comispecialslspecia1061 articles /0722colorado- future.html 7/27/2004