Local farmers hope drought declarations come with extra support
Anthony Botelho is a fourth-generation farmer in San Benito County. He'll tell you farming is getting harder, then you throw in a drought and costs begin to soar.
“My farming operation depends on well water-primarily it's deeper cost more to pump it I start irrigating sooner I've already irrigated a couple of times and on normal years I don't even think about it until the end of May,” said Botelho, an apple farmer near San Juan Bautista.
Botelho gave us a tour of his 75-acre farm a day after Gov. Gavin Newsom expanded his drought declaration to 41 counties including San Benito County.
“It is good a declaration is good and hopefully the state and federal government puts some money behind for some assistance because farmers do take a real loss,” Botelho said.
On Monday, the governor expanded his drought declaration in large part because of low reservoir levels. Extreme temperatures led to a quick melting of the Sierra Nevada snowpack and a loss of half a million acre-feet of water. Enough water to supply a million households for over a year.
“That was snowmelt so acute that it didn’t actually runoff into reservoirs or rivers but actually seeped into the dry parched ground beneath much of it evaporating completely,” the governor said.
The governor made those comments Monday at San Luis reservoir which is currently sitting at 49% capacity.
The governor used the occasion to push a $5 billion drought package that includes increasing water capacity, relaxing state regulations to get water where it's needed at the same time balancing the needs of consumers, the environment and farmers.
“There's enough (water) if you're planning well to make sure all those needs are met… but let’s all of us try and work together and meet the needs and work through this cycle and hopefully we get through it,” Botelho said.