Is The Poultry Industry Skirting Cali Water Cuts?

In spite of the historic drought in California and mandatory water cuts imposed by the state, one city cannot seem to conserve water effectively.

“Residents of Livingston, California have sharply reduced their water usage during the state’s severe drought, now in its fourth year. But this summer, when state officials ranked how water suppliers had done meeting mandated conservation goals, the blue-collar town of 13,800 came in dead last,” The Express Tribune reported.

One company may be at fault. The chicken processing complex Foster Farms uses up to 5 million gallons of water each day. The complex is vital to the local economy, employing over 3,000 people. It uses two-thirds of the city’s annual water supply. Officials said this circumstance made it impossible for the city to meet its water goals.

Preventing salmonella contamination and following health regulations are a major reason such plants suck up so much water. Here’s how Foster Farms responded, per the article:

The company said it has taken steps to conserve water use over the years, and currently is working to further reduce use at the Livingston plant. It is employing new equipment that has brought the facility to 8 percent below its 2013 water use levels. And the privately-held company said it expects to spend $4.1 million as part of an on-going water-conservation plan, in hopes of cutting its overall use by 20 per cent or more in the next three months.

Still, the problem raises questions about whether residential, agricultural, and industrial water users are evenly sharing the burden of the state’s water conservation targets, pointing to some potential disparities and inefficiencies in how water cuts are imposed.

“While many farmers across the state have lost water allotments or faced intense pressure to cut back, California’s agricultural industrial sector has largely avoided such public and regulatory scrutiny,” the report said.

The amount a community needs to cut under the new rules depends on how much they have already managed to conserve.

"Some of California’s biggest water users... would have to cut their water consumption by 35 percent under the terms of a preliminary plan issued by state officials [in April] to meet a... mandatory statewide reduction in urban water use," The New York Times reported when the cutback policy was first unveiled.

"While 135 communities face the stark 35 percent order, another 18 communities, including San Francisco, face reductions of just 10 percent, reflecting the progress they have made in cutting water consumption on their own. The remainder of the 400 California water agencies...would have to make cuts of 20 to 25 percent. Los Angeles would have to reduce its water use by 20 percent," the report continued.

California’s agricultural community announced in May that it would voluntarily cut back on water use. The Associated Press reported at the time: “California regulators accepted a historic offer from a group of farmers holding some of the state's strongest water rights to voluntarily reduce their water use by one-quarter to stave off deeper, mandatory cutbacks amid one of the worst droughts on record. Officials hope the deal will serve as a model for more such agreements with growers in the nation's top-producing farm state, where agriculture accounts for 80 percent of all water drawn from rivers, streams and the ground.”

For all things California drought, visit Water Online’s Water Scarcity Solutions Center.