By SARA HOTTMAN 

H&N Staff Reporter

July 22, 2010 

     MERRILL — For the first season in five years, Jim Carleton has used groundwater to irrigate his nearly 2,000 acres. Even after water was released into the A Canal in May, five weeks into his growing schedule, he continued to pump from his well, replacing the surface water he used from the A Canal.

   A well pumps water from the ground to an irrigation system that distributes water to sprinklers, all of which takes electricity. Carleton said electrical costs are upward of $4,000 a month to water his land via his well, 550 feet deep with a pump 80 feet down.

   Government subsidies distributed through the Klamath Water and Power Agency mitigate that cost with the Water User Mitigation Program.  

   Reimbursement

   Carleton is among the farmers who are reimbursed for their electricity bill, plus $10 per acre foot of water pumped to offset operation costs. On the 15th of each month he reports his power and water readings and submits a copy of his power bill for reimbursement. Carleton and other irrigators using emergency wells are limited to pumping what their supplemental and drought permits allow.

   “It is less costly for a well owner to use surface water first, then when it’s gone to go to well water,” said Hollie Cannon, KWAPA director. “This program is an incentive to get the well owner to use his well instead of surface water so those who don’t have that groundwater option can irrigate.”

   Installing a high-production farm well can cost up to $400,000, “so it’s a huge investment for a farmer,” Cannon said.

   Carleton said the subsidies are equivalent to the government “paying rent on my well so I produce water … and I’m hoping like heck I don’t have a problem.”

   Some wells in the program have failed, Cannon said. One farmer’s well casing blew out, “and now it’s junk,” he said. “If that farmer wants a well in that location, he’s got to move   over 10 feet and start over.”

   Critics of the subsidies have a range of objections, from its funding source traced to taxes to its impact on domestic well users.

   ‘Taxpayers are paying for it’

   Al Fronsdahl, a hay and grain farmer in the Midland area, said he has not and will not use government subsidies because “taxpayers are paying   for it.”

   “How much money is coming out of your check every week or two weeks to pay for government subsidies?” he said.

   Cannon said many complaints are legitimate, but ultimately the government is concerned with stability. A sure water source allows banks to lend to farmers for operating capital, allows farmers to fulfill production contracts, and allows seasonal laborers to keep their jobs.

   “These are three very important aspects of reliable water,” Cannon said. “This program is designed to stabilize the surety of the water supply so those factors hold together.”

   Carleton’s family has farmed in Merrill for more than a century. With 18 employees, he farms alfalfa, wheat, potatoes and grain, and raises cattle.

   “The goal,” Cannon said, “is to keep the Basin as whole as possible.”