It might be premature to start writing the epitaph for the
agriculture industry in our area.
While it’s harder to calculate for South Valley, since it
represents just a portion of Santa Clara County, the numbers in San
Benito County speak eloquently.
It might be premature to start writing the epitaph for the agriculture industry in our area.
While it’s harder to calculate for South Valley, since it represents just a portion of Santa Clara County, the numbers in San Benito County speak eloquently.
Certainly, the face of agriculture has changed. Gone are most of the orchards, and the sweet perfume coming from prune dehydrators in Morgan Hill and San Martin. It’s hard to find a pear in the San Juan Valley these days.
But here’s the fact: in San Benito County, roughly 18,500 acres were under cultivation in 1960. In 2005, nearly 31,000 acres were being tilled. The most dramatic growth has been in row crops, which exploded from 7,018 acres to 26,584 in that 45-year period, according to the San Benito County Agriculture Commissioner’s office.
It’s probably safe to extrapolate that trend into neighboring southern Santa Clara County.
In 2004, the gross value of agriculture in San Benito County alone was $266,007,000, making it the runaway leading industry in the region.
And even though we’re producing more food on more acres than ever before, we’re using less groundwater to do it.
There are two reasons. First, our area is a global leader in irrigation technology, second only to Israel in innovative application of drip irrigation. Second is the San Felipe Project.
Most people living around here don’t even know it exists, but those cobalt blue valves scattered around the South Valley and San Benito County are part of a massive undertaking on the part of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation the likes of which this area has ever seen.
The San Felipe Project makes possible farming on areas thought to be waste ground.
The San Felipe Project makes it cheaper to irrigate with purchased water than with water pumped from your own well.
The San Felipe Project means that a few drops of the water in your drinking glass may have originated as snow on Mt. Shasta.
I was a reporter covering agriculture and resource issues in the area as the San Felipe Project neared completion. One day I was invited to tour it by the late George Thomas, who was manager of the San Benito County Water District at the time.
It was in large part Thomas’ lobbying that brought the project to the area.
San Felipe begins at San Luis Reservoir, which stores enormous quantities of water brought there through the Central Valley Project. That water rises largely in the Cascade Range of far Northern California.
From San Luis, a series of pumps, each the size of a small house, lift the water into a tunnel bored straight through the fractured rock of the Diablo Range.
Thomas and I entered that 16-foot diameter tunnel one day long ago. Laser beams used to ensure the tunnel remained absolutely straight offered an eerie glow. As we walked along the edges of the tunnel, a narrow gauge track containing speeding carts pulling loads of rubble paralleled our path. Hard rock miners drilled to set charges before blasting another few feet into the tunnel and starting all over again.
Working on both sides, the two crews eventually met in the middle. The alignment was perfect. From there, a pipe carries the water to a junction near Casa de Fruta, where the conduit forks bringing one line into San Benito and the other into Santa Clara.
The entire network of valves in both counties can be controlled via computer from the water district office. Need a few acre-feet? Place a call and schedule delivery.
The water is sweet and not heavily mineralized like our groundwater. As a result, it’s possible to farm areas that had heavy concentrations of mineral salts.
It’s also possible to improve the quality of our drinking water, by blending it with this newer source.
Because it’s often cheaper than the cost of running pumps and it’s of higher quality than pumped water, pumping has been reduced.
As a result, seasonal lakes and wetlands in our region have become perennial. Water tables have risen. Many wells are now artesian.
The scope of the project is almost inconceivable, as are its benefits. I can still vividly recall seeing those enormous pumps and walking that cavernous tunnel more than 20 years later. It’s as if the Egyptians built the pyramids underground, where the wonder of the accomplishment was hidden to all.
The vision that created San Felipe is something to celebrate. Some lacked the vision, much to their regret today.
Santa Cruz County’s decision-makers opted out of the project. Today, as Pajaro Valley towns and farms battle seawater intrusion into the groundwater there, the San Felipe Project is looking like a very good investment, indeed.
Mark Paxton is publisher of The Pinnacle. His e-mail address is [email protected].
