For some farmers, the loss of the canal water could be more impactful compared to others whose crops are fully irrigated and safe from the drought at this time.
“The collection system is at bare-bones. We don’t make the water, we just move it around and we’re trying to kind of split down the middle for the hottest temperatures,” said the president of the TID, Mike Winters.
He says normally the collection system has up to 3 years’ worth of water, but it’s dropped drastically with less rainfall the last few years, “We could see a situation where we don’t make August, and what you’ll see are wells drying up.”
Luckily for Ron Meyer, owner of Meyer Orchard in Talent, his pears are fully irrigated.
Meyer has taken care of his orchard for the last 65 years.
He says this year’s drought is the worst he’s ever seen.
“Now that they’re going to shut it down for a couple of weeks, that’ll extend it [the season] to August, so we’re getting close. Now, if we can get a couple more rains and extend it we’ll be fine… it just depends on mother nature,” said Meyer.
He says water is needed more than ever, especially since demand for larger fruit is in. He says years ago a box of 135 pears weighing 42 pounds could be sold and shipped out.
42 pounds is still the standard but… “Today, they want 80 size, they want them much bigger, so the water is much more important to get them that size.”
Meyer says his younger pears will be fine this summer, but if the water runs out later this summer, it will affect his older, maturing pears.
“The food supply doesn’t just come from Albertson’s, and there’s a lot of people working hard to produce it, but they got to have water to do that,” said Winters.
TID says it may extend the closure if more rain falls soon in the valley.
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.