In an effort to stretch California's use of the Colorado River, the Metropolitan Water District's (MWD) reports that its board of directors recently approved principles for a 35-year water deal that would pay farmers in the Palo Verde Valley to annually set aside a portion of their land and rotate their crops - taking as much as 29 percent of valley farm land out of production. The saved water will be transferred to urban Southern California. In effect, the deal allows farmers within the irrigation district to be able to sell about 25 percent of their rights to Colorado water, according to the Palo Verde Valley Times.
The proposed program would complement the existing and proposed water transfers with the neighboring Imperial Irrigation District and would be the largest and longest water transfer of its kind in California history, providing up to 3.63 million acre-feet of water over the term of the proposed program.