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investments of similar magnitude could however be redirected in 

 ways which would accomplish these objectives by concentrating on 

 labor-intensive water conservation efforts among smaller farmers, 

 improving water quality, employment opportunity and enhancing 

 hydropower production in the bargain. 



BPA, Conservation and Irrigated Agriculture 



In the following comments we use the term "water conservation" in 

 two senses: Water may be conserved in irrigation through its 

 retirement from agricultural production, temporarily or 

 permanently, by means of mechanisms such as water marketing. In 

 this sense the Soil Conservation Service "conserves" water and soil 

 through cropland retirement programs. A second sense in which water 

 may be conserved is through improvements in the efficiency of its 

 application. Only in the first sense is the water conserved 

 certainly recaptured for in-stream uses. Water conserved through 

 improvements in efficiency may or may not be recaptured in stream. 

 Most of the following comments deal with the latter case. 



As a hydropower marketing agency, BPA investments in efficiency- 

 induced conservation should, as a threshold condition, be made only 

 where instream flow recapture is guaranteed. We offer no comments 

 on the question of how recaptured water should be distributed. 

 Potential instream benefits for both hydropower and salmon can be 

 realized through a water conservation program containing a 

 mechanism for the recapture of water. How these benefits are 

 allocated among fish and hydropower is beyond the scope of the 

 Institute's testimony. We generally agree with our colleagues in 

 the Northwest Resources Information Center and the Natural 

 Resources Defense Council that water conservation does not by 

 itself offer a solution to the resource management crisis 

 precipitated by the listing of salmon species under the ESA. Water 

 conservation is one among many instruments available for 

 restoration of the Columbia Basin's natural and public resources. 



Socioeconomic Externalities of Irrigated Agriculture 



Decades of public stibsidy have evolved an agricultural industry in 

 the Columbia Basin highly dependent on cheap water, power and 

 labor. Inexpensive water and power attract labor-intensive forms of 

 commodity production and processing which import large numbers of 

 impoverished and underemployed Mexican-American workers into rural 

 communities lacking investment in infrastucture sufficient to 

 adequately house, educate and service the ethnic workforce 

 recruited. Workers are imported from Mexico, while hay is grown so 

 cheaply that it can be exported to Japan. 



Federal investments in irrigation and public power have not brought 

 prosperity to the Basin's rural communities, which now manifest the 

 socioeconomic characteristics typical of industrialized 



