Why the Delta is getting saltier and how it hurts farmers
TRACY — The Delta supplies water to farmlands in our area, but right now, parts of it are filled with salt water, preventing farmers from successfully growing their crops.
"We farm pickles, cucumbers, tomatoes, and carrots," said Booby Costa, who has farmed his land in Tracy for 35 years.
"It's our livelihood. Everything we have is invested our here," says Costa, missing birthdays, sports games, and family time to keep up with crops.
Costa continued, "We put everything on the line hoping to make enough back to pay our bills. This year it's very challenging."
He explained that this year 25% of the Costa Ag Companies cucumber crop didn't make it because Bobby tells us the water supply from the nearby Delta was too sally.
"We have to shut down eventually we can't continue down this road. So I'm looking for a job, I guess."
So what's happening to the Delta? And why is it full of salt?
"The Delta itself is ... it's both used for farming. Tens of millions of people receive at least some of their drinking water from the Delta," said Delta Water Agency counsel John Herrick, who explains the freshwater estuary also contains salt water from pacific ocean tide pools, and with the drought drying up fresh runoff from the Sierra — the salt water is taking over.
"If it doesn't rain this coming year, we're going to have catastrophic problems both for urban areas and farmland," said Herrick.
Reservoirs, including Folsom and Oroville, are used to flood the Delta when it needs more fresh water, but those are drying up too.
"The reservoirs keep going down ... If you don't have water flowing down the main rivers into the Delta, then you lose control, and ocean water will come in, and you won't have fresh water to deliver to the communities," Herrick continued.
The California Department of Water Resources tells CBS13 they're monitoring the situation — controlling freshwater flows to prepare for further drought situations.
"When storage is low, and we don't have certainty of more rain, that's when we take action to reduce the amount of water we released," said Jacob Mcquirk, with the California Department of Water Resources.
In 2020 California exported more than 20 billion dollars worth of agricultural products — it's a huge industry that could be seriously impacted, which could mean not just a loss of food but, for some people, loss of jobs and much more.