NRCS ‘listening session’ takes comments on enhancing water quantity in the West.
A stronger focus on groundwater recharge, fixes to crumbling infrastructure and the continuation of a federal Water Subcabinet were the most popular requests from growers and organizations speaking in a USDA-led online forum on getting the most from limited water supplies in the West.
In an open-ended “listening session” hosted Dec. 17 by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, speakers from California to Oklahoma pushed for projects that would improve their access and efficiency with water as droughts are expected to worsen in the coming years.
Many called on federal officials to boost support for groundwater basin restoration projects such as one underway in Washington state’s declining Odessa aquifer, where agencies are building a network of surface-water conveyance to reduce the roughly 100,000 acres of irrigated agriculture relying on deep wells.