Would Village Farms affect water quality in the rest of Davis?

By Matt Williams

Regarding Measure V, one of the issues the Village Farms development brings to the forefront is the availability of water.  

The water right of the Woodland Davis Clean Water Agency (WDCWA), which serves Davis, is a “junior” permit not a “senior” permit.  In “perfect” years (years without drought or low snowpack impacts) the permit authorizes WDCWA to utilize UP TO 45,000 acre feet of water per year. 

The words “up to” are wiggle words, just like the wiggle words “may” and “if” in the Baseline Features of Measure V.

However, 45,000 almost never happens because very few years are absent any drought impacts. As a result, WDCWA’s surface water diversions have been consistently and significantly limited during summer months and other dry periods. 

During these times, to backfill what it isn’t allowed to divert, WDCWA utilizes up to 10,000 acre feet of water under a “senior” water right purchased from the Conaway Preservation Group. 

However the 10,000 acre feet are significantly less than the number of acre feet that are not allowed to be diverted under the terms of WDCWA’s “junior water right.”

How does that affect Davis water users … humans and plants alike?

The City’s water production reports show the following percentages of surface water and well water delivered each month.

January 98.4% surface 1.6% well

February 89.5% surface 10.5% well

March 97% surface 3% well

April 96.5% surface 3.5% well

May 93.1% surface 6.9% well

June 95.1% surface 4.9% well

July 91.1% surface 8.9% well

So far so good because of the availability of snow melt runoff.  But the proportions quickly deteriorate.

August 67.6% surface 32.4% well

September 62.2% surface 37.8% well

October 62% surface 38% well

November 57.7% surface 42.3% well

December 62.6% surface 37.4% well

Bottom-line, our surface water rights are limited, and the added demand for water from Village Farms will increase the already problematic well percentages in August through December.

Current evidence of the degraded quality of blended well and surface water appears in your daily teacup after you have drunk the tea down to empty.  What is left behind is brown mineral scum deposited on the porcelain interior of your cup.  Those are mineral contaminants from the well water.  

Surface water does not have those contaminants.  Many of those contaminants are toxic to plants.  Plants that wouldn’t successfully grow here until 2014 when we first got surface water.  If you have noticed your plants not doing as well recently, it is probably because of the blended water.

It is worth noting that for most of the City’s wells the mineral contaminants level is so high that the wastewater treatment plant would be in violation of state environmental standards if that well water were discharged directly into the Yolo Bypass.

In an “everyone contributes equally” world, new developments like Village Farms would bring “senior water rights” to WDCWA so that they are contributing surface water to all of us just like every other Davis resident is.  They can get those senior water rights from Conaway Preservation Group just like WDCWA currently does.

If the quality of water matters to you, vote No on Measure V.