BajaNews
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San Quintín and Brackish-Water Farming
http://www.miller-mccune.com/environment/san-quintin-and-bra...
Water issues inland present a challenge and a threat to agriculture and the economy.
By Kristian Beadle
Location: Just inland of Cabo San Quintín, around the corner from a huge bay/wetland, lays an agricultural complex that serves the U.S. market.
Conditions: A generator whines and whirrs in the evening air — there is no grid electricity in this beach community. High-altitude clouds cover the
night sky.
Discussion: The trans-peninsular highway cuts through innumerable small towns south of Ensenada; dusty farmlands blur in the glare of afternoon
sunlight. I tried to put my sinus-induced headache aside and focus on the goal: to reach the mother load of Baja’s agricultural valleys, San Quintín,
a place built for the noble purpose of selling America cheap food. How else could such a vast operation exist where water is brackish and the native
soil resembles parchment?
We spent the night parked in a gringo ex-pat community slurping oysters that we bought from a roadside seafood peddler. Those wondrous mollusks,
cultivated in aquaculture farms in the wetlands of Cabo San Quintín, were tempered with fresh lime and tapatio hot sauce, which did, in fact, improve
my headache. Oyster farming and sportfishing are also important industries here.
During our morning walk, we discovered the beach was actually an express highway for fishermen towing their pangas. Sand dollars littered the dunes,
like free money from another eon. Extinct volcanoes lay lumbering in the distance past the wetlands. People milled about and hopped on buses to work
in the fields.
I visited a tomato farm that was being reconstructed after this winter’s storm damage, which washed away bridges and fields alike. The valley’s labor
force of up to 25,000 people is 80 percent Mixteco, indigenous people from Oaxaca who left their eroded lands to find employment in San Quintín.
Raul and Miguel, Mixteco indigenous people from Oaxaca who left their eroded lands to find employment in San Quintín.
Sure enough, the guys I spoke to, Raul and Miguel, fit the description. “Hay trabajo aqui,” there is work here, they said, justifying the journey of
many thousand miles from Oaxaca, except in the low season, Raul added, when people migrate to Sinaloa on the northern Mexico mainland to tend fields
where “la agua es major,” the water is better.
I asked Raul what he meant by better water, remembering that my shower last night tasted a tad salty. He pointed out the two-story building next to
us: a small desalination plant that converts the salty well water into irrigation water. This is a common and serious problem in flat coastal areas:
saltwater intrusion in the freshwater aquifer.
Normally, the freshwater aquifer “floats” on top of a saltwater lens, as it is constantly re-supplied by rain and river runoff. However, saltwater is
more buoyant (as you may have noticed — it is easier to float in an ocean than a lake) so for every foot of freshwater that is removed, the salt-water
lens tends to rise several feet — and the well water starts coming up brackish with salt.
Running a desalination plant isn’t cheap — it is complex and uses a lot of electricity. If it weren’t for the hungry U.S. market across the border
paying these extra costs, it wouldn’t be financially viable. Which begs the question: What would happen if the water became saltier due to
over-drawing and/or sea-level rise? Would costs increase? What if energy became more expensive? I wondered if there could be a breaking point for
farms to operate profitably — and if people’s jobs could one day be in jeopardy.
Unemployment around here was low, according to Raul. But if the industry took a tumble, and if he lost his job, I asked, where would he go?
“Maybe America — I have family there,” said Raul.
In the disturbing but highly informative book, Endangered Mexico: An Environment on the Edge, Joel Simon discusses how traditional farmlands in Mexico
are no longer producing enough crops to support the peasant families living on them. Eroded and nutrient-depleted, it is ecological degradation, Simon
claims, that has led to a massive migration to overcrowded cities in Mexico and illegal immigration to the United States.
For the time being, the equation appears favorable for San Quintín. The local paper had a big ad encouraging people to “protect the wetland, it
supports our economy.” As we headed out of town, a sign for an RV park read, “fresh water showers, guaranteed!”
I wondered, guaranteed for how long?
----------------------
A bit more on Salt Water Instrusion: causes and solutions
Causes
Over-drawing fresh water. The agricultural coastal areas of Monterey, California, overdrew its ground water table, and had to pump freshwater back
into the aquifer to rehabilitate it, as Miller-McCune examined last year. Mexico City has overdrawn its water and the whole city is literally sinking
into the mud.
Less infiltration. The paved land in cities prevents water from percolating into the soil to recharge the aquifer (this also contributes to floods).
Reduced rainfall. Droughts may increase with climate change; arid coastal locations may not receive enough water to “push” the saltwater lens lower.
Sea-level rise. Caused mainly by the warming expansion of the ocean, and in part by increased melting of ice, higher sea level raises the saltwater
lens.
Solutions
Recharge the aquifer. Slow the water and let it infiltrate into the soil, with vegetation, trees, rocks and permeable paving.
Be more water efficient. Use native plants for a garden (lawns are not water friendly), and support businesses that are water-savvy; for example, golf
courses that use recycled water for irrigation.
Collect rain water. Your roof is a water catcher — direct it from your gutters to a reservoir for thousands of gallons worth of water.
Use grey water. Recently allowed in California. Water from the sink, laundry and other places can be re-directed to your garden for irrigation.
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Cypress
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"Once there was a river now there's a rock. River of life..... A great song.
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irenemm
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Your story hits home for me. Having lived in the San Quintin valley for almost 30 years. it has changed very much. When we bought our RV park we had 4
well all sweet.. We have only 1 now. I tell people it is salty but wet. Many times in the towns here in the area people only get water every 2 or 3rd
day. this year we have plenty of water everyone says. But before the end of the year it will be back to only getting it every 3rd day. People waste
water here. They are always wetting the dirt to keep the dust down. Many years ago this valley only farmed part of the year. All the workers would
leave and follow the crops. But now they all stay. Crops are farmed all year round now. With the Berries it is all year. In one way that is good.
People have jobs most of the year. In another it is bad everyone keeps coming and not enough water for every one.
When they have talked about building a large resort at the bay the only thing I think of is WERE IS THE WATER and the waste too. many farmers said
that they will not have to use the desalination plants this year because of all the water we got.
There are many new ways the farmers have conserved the water is HOT HOUSE. Tomatoes are farmed in them not all of them but many of them. This water
problem is a world wide problem.
We all need it and we all need to be careful with it.
For the shower that are salty bring dove. In the older days it was as some of you might remember Vel soap.
thanks for our story about our Valley. You made wome really good points.
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wessongroup
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irenemm... thank you for your long term perspective on issues within the area... and how universal it really is... the old Texas saying, "Whiskey's
for drinking, water is for fighting"... has a lot of meaning in many, many place... cuz, if you ain't got water, you got nothing...
lived in an ag area.. Madera CA, large grows came (Pacific Ag) in and planted sections of grapes... created havoc with folks with domestic wells..
they took water level down well over 100' over a period of 3-5 years... had to put another well in... but we never got the gallons per minute we had
before, as did many of our neighbors and we were down over 437' ...
the growers were using drip, but, the scale of the operations were just to large for the aquifer to handle....
can really appreciate both, the need for food and what happens in the production of same ...
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irenemm
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wessongroup
yes drip does save water but then they just put in more acreage so it is the same. Berries use a lot of water.
someday all our food will be grown in hot house like this
we can only hope so. www.hometownfarms.com
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