"The settlement agreement is an effort to put everybody together, working towards the same final result of sustaining the valley." Seley's father first bought land here in 1953, and Seley's sons want to farm here for years to come. "We know that there's a shortage of water, but we wanted to get away from the pointing fingers and blaming each other, between all of the farmers and golf courses and the community at large," said Jim Seley, 79, owner of Seley Ranches. Unlike Los Angeles or the Coachella Valley, there are no huge pipes or canals shipping imported water here, just a rapidly shrinking aquifer below their feet. Now, with the water agreement, many landowners think they will not only be able to save what makes the place unique but also the community itself, which has struggled for decades with shrinking water supplies. That's been changing in recent years, with some farmers opting to fallow fields or sell and move out.
Retirees enjoy rounds of golf on emerald green courses surrounded by spectacular, heat-blasted mountains. Visitors and residents have long been able to grab a bag of fresh grapefruits or oranges from one of several roadside stands in town - a desert novelty. "It's going to be hard on agriculture and on recreational services like golf, but it should not affect small landowners out here." "It’s drastic, but it's necessary to make sure Borrego Springs survives and is a vibrant community," said Kathy Dice, president of the Borrego Water District. Within 19 years, that is required to plummet to about 5,700 acre-feet.
Together with the town, their share of water rights total more than 75% of an estimated 24,000 acre-feet of water pumped annually out of the desert floor. More than a dozen major landholders, including ranchers and developers who've long grown crops and created lush golf greens in the parched desert by pumping large amounts of water from a rapidly depleting aquifer, signed on to the settlement agreement. Officials say the cuts are needed to keep the town of 3,000 alive. Borrego Springs, the small desert town at the entrance to California's sprawling Anza-Borrego State Park, has won a judge's approval for an agreement under which large farmers, resort owners and its own water district will slash water use by 74% by 2040.
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