Everyone in ag knows how interconnected every element of the ecosystem — literal and figurative — is to the wider community. But a recent report quantified just how widely the ripple effects of water restrictions in one irrigation district can reach.
On Dec. 17, the Westlands Water District released the fourth installment of its Economic Impact Report, which examined economic data from 2022 (most recent complete). While the report found the agricultural production enabled by water from WWD directly supports thousands of jobs and billions in economic activity in the area — 20,456 jobs and $2.41 billion, respectively — plus more indirectly, it also highlighted the negative impacts of water restrictions.
“Decreased water availability reduces the number of jobs and level of economic activity within Westlands Water District,” declared the report’s executive summary.
These reductions amounted to about 7,500 fewer ag jobs in WWD’s region, which includes two of the poorest counties in the state, and a decrease of almost $25 million in local government revenues in 2022 compared to 2019.
Direct economic findings
The new impact report uses data from 2022, and updates the 2022 report, which used data from 2019. A key difference between those two data years was that 2019 was a year where WWD received 75% of its surface water allocation and 2022 was a year where WWD got no surface water allocation.
The 2019 report found that WWD “is directly and indirectly responsible for some $4.7 billion dollars of economic activity and nearly 35,000 jobs across the economy.” By comparison, that number for 2022 was $3.55 billion and about 28,000 jobs respectively.
“When that water disappeared, obviously it had significant impacts on the economy,” said Michael Shires, former professor and vice dean at the Pepperdine School of Public Policy and co-author of the report, in a preview event on Dec. 16. “Westland still has a tremendous economic impact. I mean, you can’t ignore $3.6 billion and 28,000 jobs, especially in this region.”
The report credited the lack of water allocations, plus the impact of California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act on groundwater growers can pump, for more fallowed acres in 2022 (227,563) versus 2019 (158,103) in the area served by WWD.
And more fallowed land means less production.
“Nationally, farms in Westlands provide 3.3% of the national production of fresh fruit and nuts and 2.8% of the national production of vegetables and melons,” the report notes. It added that the 2.8% share of vegetable and melon production is down from 5.4% in 2015.
“These are the fresh produce that we need, that we want to have in our system if we’re going to have a healthy economy,” Shires said.
More indirect, wider-reaching impacts
Reduced production also has other health impacts, according to the report. It means fewer jobs and less economic activity. Shires highlighted how this connects to poverty in the area.
“The reduction in availability of surface water has led to significant economic impacts, both in terms of economic production and overall activity, but more importantly, in the lives of the people that economic activity reflects,” he said. “These tend to be the poorest in some ways in our communities, but once they lose their jobs, they join the group of poverty.”
He noted that the 20,456 jobs directly supported by WWD represent about 42% of total farm employment in the region, and that Fresno County has roughly 50% higher rates of poverty than the state rate average.
“So, [water reductions] affect these vulnerable populations the most,” he said. “It also affects local tax revenues that you need to support those populations as they grow.”
Disease and pilot endangerment
The report also found potentially unexpected negative impacts associated with water restrictions and more fallowed land; increased disease and pilot endangerment through increased bird strikes.
During the preview event, Shires pointed out the association between the incidence of Valley Fever — a fungal infection of the lungs resulting in flu-like symptoms that is also called San Joaquin Valley fever — and the volume of fallowed acres in the area.
“When land lies fallow and dust blows, there are spores in the dust that infect people’s lungs and create health complications,” he said. “That is a phenomenon that is exploding across the state in the last 10 years especially.”
Another, more indirect health concern is in play as well, according to the report: Threats to pilots at area airports.
The path from water cuts to pilot endangerment has a few steps to it. Reductions in water availability for growers can result in both more fallowed land and more abandoned orchards. Both fallowed fields and abandoned orchards can host massive rodent populations.
“Then the owls and the hawks come and eat them. The raptors obviously then concentrate in those areas and you end up with a higher incidence of bird strikes,” Shires explained. This can be costly because a bird strike can damage or even destroy planes, including the very valuable military jets at the nearby Naval Air Station Lemoore, and risk the lives of pilots.
“Surface water has direct implications to the safety of those pilots and everybody that’s there,” Shires summarized.
Allison Febbo, general manager of WWD, echoed this perspective in the group’s announcement of the report.
“Thousands of families, small businesses and essential public services depend on the economic activity generated by agriculture in our district,” Febbo said. “This report reaffirms how central reliable water supplies are to keeping our communities strong and healthy.”
