(gentle music) - [Announcer] Funding for "Utah Insight" is made possible by viewers like you, thank you.

- [Raeann] Coming up on "Utah Insight," Utah's persistent drought.

- If you can see the water, that's not the best quality of water.

- [Raeann] Farming is the largest water consumer across the state.

Tens of millions of taxpayer dollars are going into optimizing agriculture.

- We're incredibly optimistic on the big impact that ag is going to have in reducing water usage.

- But will the new technology save enough water to make an impact, and are farmers on board?

(gentle music) Welcome to "Utah Insight," I'm Raeann Christensen.

Reservoirs are low, the Great Salt Lake is shrinking, harmful algal blooms are growing, and farms are going uncultivated.

Nearly 8% of the state is in exceptional drought, the worst it can get.

Nearly 83% of the state is in extreme drought.

Utah State University Extension reports about 80% of Utah's water is being used for agriculture.

Hoping to make a big impact on reducing water usage, the state is giving tens of millions of dollars to help optimize agricultural water usage.

And joining us in the studio tonight to evaluate this plan and discuss other possible solutions, we have Stan Jensen with Sunnyside Up Pastures, Ron Gibson, Chair of the Water Optimization Task Force with the Utah Farm Bureau Federation, and Candice Hasenyager, Director of the Utah Division of Water Resources.

Thanks so much for being here to talk about this situation.

Depending on reports, agriculture and irrigation uses 70 to 80% of Utah's water.

Candice, can you explain how this is calculated?

'Cause I know it's different.

- Sure, sure.

So, the Utah Division of Water Resources does an annual assessment of what is being grown in Utah.

We use technology to help us get there, and then we're able to put that into, we call it our water budget model, that looks at all the inflows and outflows, and then really estimate how much water is being used in agriculture.

So, one of the things that we've looked at, if you look at the 30 year average, it's about, you know, about 80%, but even if you look at the last, you know, roughly five years, about 75%.

So we are seeing a shift in how much water's being diverted for agriculture.

- That's good news.

Ron, water used in agriculture is heavily regulated, unlike the public supply.

What's the general feeling among farmers about that?

- Well, you know, first of all, we have to make sure we understand that 75 to 80% of the diverted water goes to agriculture.

So, that's not all the water that falls and all that's there, but actually water that actually is diverted from the rivers and streams goes to agriculture.

And it's just such an important thing that we, you know, I like to think that, you know, food supply is such a great thing to have local.

And I think it's very important that we maintain that level of diversion for agriculture, because the day that we have 40% of our water going to agriculture, that means that we're not gonna grow enough food for the people that live in Utah.

- Okay.

And Stan, how do regulations affect farmers like yourself?

- You know, a lot of the regulations, like in the area that I live in, they were made in the 1940s and 50s, and that, so in the 1940s and 50s, we were using dirt ditches.

Those regulations were completely based around that kind of agriculture.

Well, today we're using automation and pivots, and so it has an effect because we don't farm the same way anymore.

- And how do they determine how much water you get?

How does that work for you?

- So in our case, we are at the bottom of the San Pitch River, which starts up in Fairview and flows our way, and it's just what comes down, a certain percentage of it.

You have upstream users, and during certain times of the year, they can use the water, during certain times of the year, we can use the water.

And so depending on snow pack and when it melts and the temperatures, it all depends.

You have people that get the water and people who just don't.

- Okay, water rights for farmers are use it or lose it, from what I hear, and meaning that farmers, if they don't use all their water, they're going to not get it for the next season.

This may seem counterproductive to reducing water usage.

Ron, what impact do you think that has on the amount of water being used?

- Well, Utah water law right now is based on first in time, first in right.

And that means that if you have an 1867 right, you're the first one in line for that right.

You know, and if you're going to get somebody that has a 1959 right, you're gonna get your water, your full allotment before they do.

And there's a thing called beneficial use.

So when we have that water right, it's our responsibility as a water right holder to put that water into beneficial use.

That means that we need to show that we're actually using that water to grow crops over a certain amount of acreage.

And right now the way the water laws are in the state is if we don't use the water that we have that right for, for seven years, that water can be taken away from us and given to somebody downstream.

And that's why we have to be so careful with how we administer these rules and these laws and potential changes to Utah water law to protect the early right holders, but also make sure that we can optimize the water that we have so that we can supply everybody in the state with what we need.

- Do you think though, sending or having that water supply, if you don't need it, and sending it down, if you're gonna lose it, like, it seems like that the farmer would actually just use it, instead of saving water.

- Yeah.

You know, it's a pretty big misconception that the farmer doesn't need the water, and that there's extra water.

I mean, Stan was just talking a minute ago about the San Pitch River, and in his case last year they got, did you tell me 12%?

- 12%.

- 12% of their normal allotment last year.

This year, they might get double that.

So they might get a quarter of their allotment this year.

They're in a tough spot, and most of the ranchers and farmers across the state are in a tough spot.

And so it's not about having that extra and that overage, it's about optimizing the little bit of water we do have to make sure that we can get the most out of that.

- And I don't know how it works in the North end of the state, but for a lot of farmers around us, when we were dirt ditches, we would've be out of water in August, September.

Now we're able to extend our irrigation season into early October.

It allows us to grow more food by using that water more efficiently.

- Okay, no extra water.

I can understand that, considering we're in an extreme drought.

I wanna share a fast fact about agriculture and food.

According to farm bureau, one US farm feeds 166 people a year in the US and abroad.

The global population is expected to increase by 2.2 billion by 2050, which means the world's farmers will have to grow about 70% more food than what is now produced.

Candice, do you think that people, the farmers, can keep up with the population growth here in Utah?

- I think it's a real challenge.

I mean, on so many different levels, whether it's water supply for people and houses and that type of growth, or for agriculture, I mean, last year alone in our extreme and exceptional drought that we faced, you know, ag in general across this state suffered 70% cuts.

And so how do we continue to have these kind of competing needs for water, you know, water for people, water for agriculture, but obviously the agriculture feeds the people.

So it's all interconnected.

- Tough balance as well.

- It is.

- Stan, how do you feel when you hear those statistics about trying to keep up with feeding families?

- For me, it makes me want to, so for our farm, we used to sell a lot of our hay to China.

We started to, we've converted now, and now we're growing food that we're selling directly to Utahns because I, to me, I think that's more important that we have a local food supply to make sure, you know, especially with recent history, I never thought I'd see the day that you couldn't buy food at the grocery store shelf.

You know, I thought that was, you know, like a myth or something.

And now I'm like, wow, I'm, you know, farmers are the solution to that problem.

We've gotta make sure that we feed Utah first.

- It seems like more housing developments are going up, taking over the farmlands rather than the farming expanding.

Ron, can you touch on how this could be a problem for food production in the future?

- Yeah, you know, I live in Weber County and our farm's been in our family name for 153 years, and I'm the sixth generation there, and my son's seventh, and our goal is to continue to stay there.

The problem is we have homes coming from us from both sides.

And I sit on our little local Culinary Water Board, and the biggest challenge that is gonna face Utah, that is facing Utah, in my opinion, is how do we find the culinary and secondary water for those homes?

Because in a lot of situations, we're trying to put homes on places on dirt that never was farmed.

And that's a problem.

That's a challenge.

That's expanding the water right.

And with the development that's coming, I mean, I've got seven kids, I wanna see my kids be able to build a house in Utah, but look at the price of homes now.

And so it's all a great big challenge, and we've just gotta continue to work together.

And I think that's what the Utah leadership has done, from the governor to the legislature to us in agriculture, the department of water resources, farmers, and ranchers.

I think we've done a good job of trying to meet this problem head on, and I think we've gotta continue to do that.

- Governor Cox, in his most recent news conference here on PBS Utah said they have already closed the first round of funding for the agriculture optimization program, with a second round to come.

- These are major projects, and all of which will save millions of gallons of water.

Ag will be the biggest contributor to saving water in this state.

And they are at the table.

They're very excited about this program.

It allows them to upgrade their technology.

It will actually allow them to increase yield while using significantly less water with the new technologies that are available.

- Candice, can you explain for those who may not know what agriculture water optimization is?

- Sure, so in its simplest form, it's really trying to explore and investigate, is there a way for agriculture to be able to continue to produce and use less water?

And so whether that's done through new technologies or changing crop types or those type of things, you know, that's really the goal of agricultural optimization.

- Stan, I know you said you've done some changes in your farming.

Have you gone through this program with the governor yet?

- So I personally haven't, but I'm also, I also sit on a board of an irrigation company and we've applied for that grant, because as a company, once the water gets into our irrigation system, we lose at least 10% of that water to evaporation shrink, leaks in the system, and also inefficiencies in our system.

Our system was built for dirt ditches.

Now, almost everybody's under pressurized irrigation, and we're still operating on a system built for dirt ditches.

So we need to upgrade our system and get those efficiencies that we can get.

I mean, if we can save 10% of our water, that's thousands of acre feet that will help us either, you know, in a drought year like this, grow more crops, or in a good year will actually leave more water in the reservoir or send it down to the severe sinks.

- More water in the reservoir.

I like that option.

Stan, do you feel that this state is investing enough to save water and preserve agriculture?

- Well, I think that it's kinda new, you know.

This last legislative session was a big step for Utah, and I just wanna say that, you know, I wanna make sure everybody understands, the investment in ag water optimization is a public thing, you know, because the state owns the water.

We're taking a state resource and trying to protect it and stretch it as far as we can stretch it.

And, you know, even though agriculture uses a lot of that resource, you know, it's a percentage of the state's resource that they use.

And so it's very important that we do that.

And I am proud of the legislature.

And I'm excited for the projects that we've worked together to develop.

And, you know, what I love about it is the title, because when we talk about ag water optimization, what we're seeing is we want to take that finite resource and optimize it so that we can make more yield, more food, less water.

- Investing in our future, so we actually have water.

- I think Ron is right because, you know, it's not just that, but I think we're also recognizing that today's water that Ron puts on his fields is tomorrow's water that will be pumped out of the aquifers, and as we recognize those correlations, I think that we will be able to better utilize the water and make sure that not only do we use it for the first time, but we reuse it the second time even better.

- One thing that I think is really important is flood irrigation is something that happens a lot up in my area, happens out in the Western part of the state, and flood irrigation isn't a bad thing.

You know, there's a lot of people that think that that's just a total waste of water, but remember that when we flood irrigate, we are doing exactly what Stan just said.

We are recharging the aquifer underneath.

And so in my specific situation, when we flood irrigate, we are filling the aquifer and sending water into the Great Salt Lake by doing that.

It's not wasted just because it's not put out with the sprinkler.

So we gotta make sure that the technologies that we adapt and the stuff we talk about, we gotta make sure that we're talking about real science and not just what we perceive to be water savings.

- Okay.

Multimillion dollar project is underway to help restore parts of the Great Salt Lake's largest tributary.

Funding for ecological restoration and a future interpretive center at the Bear River Massacre Site has stalled a bit, due to the pandemic and rising inflation.

"Utah Insight's" Liz Adeola shows us how and why project leaders are moving forward with the goal to finish within five years, despite the setbacks.

- It's the largest Indian massacre that's occurred in United States history, but not a lot of people know about it.

- We're here to honor them.

History has always been one sided, and now we have a voice that can tell that story.

- [Liz] The story of more than 400 women, children, and elders who drew their last breath here on a bitter cold winter's day.

- [Brad] When you hear the The Northwestern Band of Shoshone, you think 1863 Bear River Massacre.

- [Liz] Historians say only about a quarter of the people from the tribe survived.

- We would cry and we would feel the pressure and the weight of what happened here.

We could feel that the bodies were trapped here and that their souls were kind of trapped here.

- [Liz] Now, the descendants of those survivors are reclaiming their story by reclaiming the land.

What does it mean to have the ownership once again, to go to the places and spaces that were once gated off or closed off, 'cause someone else owned this area?

- It's powerful.

I've always felt like I was a visitor, and I don't feel that way anymore.

It's a sacred place.

I mean, our people died here.

We're fortunate enough to have our families live through it.

So, I think it's our responsibility to become the caretakers.

- They survived.

And I would like to think that those types of feelings and those types of values were given to us, a gift of being more resilient, more determined than anything else to continue on, and hopefully we can give that to our children.

That's our gift to you.

- [Liz] So that's what she was talking about right there.

- Yeah, a lot of that foam and stuff end up in the river.

- [Liz] Brad Perry serves as the project manager and vice chairman of the Northwestern Band of Shoshone Nation.

- It's been extremely important to us to be here and to have this place.

- [Liz] One that could be the site of a new cultural center, amphitheater, and interpretive walking trail, if funding for Perry's plan comes through.

- It's a rebirth of the place, but there are significant ecological benefits from what we're doing.

- [Liz] The ecological plan is to turn back the clock, so to speak, so the land can look more like it did when Perry's ancestors were drawn by the natural hot springs to camp here during winter months.

- We're quite literally just reversing irrigation, which, we're not farmers, so we don't need to use the water like they do.

They do a really great job here of doing that, but our people would've been used to trout flowing through these things.

So, you can see this today, no trees, no river water.

Hopefully in five years, when you come back here, this thing will be full of creeks and ponds and animals and different things.

We'll have pushed enough dirt outta the way to let the water meander its own way back to the Bear River.

That will clean the water.

It will increase the water flow, the water quality, and so everything that empties into the Bear River is taken back down to Utah.

So, this helps the Great Salt Lake, because our water, without raising consumptive use, will be flowing back into into the Bear River, so users downstream can use it.

- [Liz] The first phase of the process is happening now, the removal of invasive species of plants.

- [Brad] A Russian olive will take up to 75 gallons of water a day out of the system, and then what it leaves is pollutants of salt and sulfur.

- [Liz] Perry estimates there are somewhere between 200,000 to 250,000 Russian olive trees here that need to be destroyed to fix water quality issues in the river.

- [Brad] This is the largest polluter to the Bear River in the entire Bear River Watershed, this section from up there through here.

We're hoping that it's cleaner, there's more volume, it's better for drought control.

- [Liz] The project is paving the way for a clearer path to what was, so the next generation can fully grasp what they can be.

- [Brad] It's coming back home, and to hear the nature, you know, you can kind of get a sense of how peaceful it is here and what a really happy place it was until the event.

- Maybe this will give insight to the rest of the people that are around that it's possible, that we need to clean the water and we need to take care of what we have, what we've just destroyed.

- So great to see people investing in a project to give back water.

And we also wanted to get to some social media comments from viewers.

We asked you on social media, "How can Utah balance a shrinking water supply with a rich heritage of working the land?"

John Meredith says, "Stop.

Farming.

Alfalfa.

In.

The.

Desert."

Mary Miera added, "If you plan on eating then the farmers need water."

Luke Burton responded to Mary saying, "Much of Utah's thirsty crop of alfalfa is sold to China."

And Stan, you touched on that a little bit earlier.

It seems like alfalfa is a heated topic of discussion.

Can you say why?

I know you talked a little bit about this, but why the switch for you?

- Sorry.

I think a lot of it started with the work by the NRCS, you know, this government program to educate farmers on soil health.

And Utah grows the best alfalfa in the world.

And that's why it's such a hot commodity to ship all over the world.

At the same time, alfalfa's really hard on the land.

It constantly is pulling nutrients outta the land.

It constantly diminishes your soil organic matter.

And I wanted to reverse that.

I wanted to build organic matter.

I wanted to have soil that would be healthier into the next generation.

And that was a big part of my decision to switch.

- Ron, how do you respond to criticism that more of Utah's water should be used for farming activities that benefit Utahn's rather than an export crop?

- Well, you know, we talked earlier about actual science and reality and myths, and, you know, only 6% of the alfalfa grown in the State of Utah is actually exported.

So, you know, that means 94% of that alfalfa stays at home.

And we, for example, on my farm, I have a dairy farm.

I have 1,500 cows, and guess what they have to have every day?

They have to have that alfalfa.

We have 90,000 dairy cows in the State of Utah, and that's an important thing, and we have a great livestock market here in the state.

And so I think we have to be careful in this whole process that we're not telling, you know, we believe in the free market system.

I think in America, I know at farm bureau we do, and we have to make sure that we're not telling our producers what they can and can't grow.

We just need to help them see the realities of what that does.

There are certain places in the state of Utah that an alfalfa crop is the very best thing you can grow.

You know, and as Stan said, you know, alfalfa brings some things out of the soil.

One thing it puts back into the soil is nitrogen.

And so, you know, you can plow up a crop of hay, and the nitrogen that the alfalfa put in it will make a crop of corn just absolutely awesome.

So there are a lot of benefits to rotating our crops throughout the state, for sure.

- And we have a few minutes left, so I wanna get some final thoughts for you.

Candice, he's talking about how it's the livelihood of the farmers with alfalfa, but drought is an obvious incentive.

How do you incentivize the farmers to stay within Utah?

- Yeah, well, I, you know, that's a trick, it's a tricky one, right?

Like, because they are individual business owners, and I have to say, farmers work is hard.

I mean, they're out there working the land and working with, you know, cattle and all the different things.

And I think recognizing that the work that they do is hard and that they're on a shoestring, their livelihood and the work they do is, they're living on a shoestring.

So we need to support them.

I think looking for ways to create incentives like the governor's program and the legislator committing $70 million to go toward agricultural optimization projects, NRCS and others, is a great way to help agriculture stay in business.

And one of the other things I'd mentioned is, you know, the water that agriculture use is not always where the people is.

So, we just gotta consider that, and not the water is not always the quality the people need.

So it's not like a one-for-one all the time.

- And Stan and Ron, I wanna ask you in your final thoughts, what can we do as residents who are not farming?

How can we help?

What do we do as Utah residents?

Go ahead.

- You know, I don't know I have a great answer for that.

You know, I mean, we are, you know, in it to make money, but we all, I don't know a farmer out there that doesn't have a deep respect and love for the land that they are on, and we really are just doing our almighty best to raise our families and to serve the communities that we're in.

And I, that's... - Yeah, I think what we can all do is just be cautious about what you do.

I mean, when you're out irrigating your yard, think about that, you know, how important is that, you know.

There's new programs about taking out our parking strips and stuff like that.

I mean, there, you know, that one social media comment that said quit growing alfalfa in the desert.

You know, maybe we don't need all the lawns that we have in the desert either, you know.

There's, you know, the value of that lawn.

I mean, I love to play with my family on the lawn, but maybe we can do that just a little bit smaller and do some other stuff with that other area and be all just fine.

I think that we can all do our part to conserve.

Remember that agriculture uses a large share of that water because that's how it was designed to be.

I mean, that's how we grow our food, but all of us have a share in that, no matter what part we live, we all have a share in that conservation.

- Okay, thank you guys so much for being here and giving us all of this great information.

I know we could probably talk another couple hours on this topic.

And thank you so much for joining us for "Utah Insight."

We will see you back here next week.

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