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 Responsibility for the poor showing, city officials said, lies
with Livingston's biggest water user, Foster Farms, the largest
poultry producer west of the Rocky Mountains.
The company’s sprawling chicken processing complex employs about
3,200 people and is the backbone of Livingston’s economy. It also
sucks up roughly two-thirds of the city’s annual water supply, which
has made meeting state mandated water-reduction targets virtually
impossible, Livingston officials said.
While many farmers across the state have lost water allotments or
faced intense pressure to cut back, California’s agricultural
industrial sector has largely avoided such public and regulatory
scrutiny.
Foster Farms’ Livingston operations offer a rare glimpse into that
sector's water use and raise questions about whether food
processors' water needs are compatible with conservation goals in
drought-stricken areas.
Agricultural industrial users that draw from their own wells were
asked this year to cut water use by 25 percent or limit outdoor
watering to two days per week.
 But according to regulators, the state's agricultural industrial
users are essentially on the honor system. They haven't had their
water use surveyed by state agencies in more than a decade, despite
the severe drought. Because Foster Farms' plant draws from town
water supplies, it was not included in that mandate, regulators
said.
“There has to be a strategy for getting these big water users to set
and meet targets for improving their water use,” said Peter Gleick,
president of the Pacific Institute, an environmental group. “I bet
that we could produce more chicken per gallon if we wanted to.”
But that goal is complicated, in part because of federal rules
mandating food safety measures in poultry processing – steps that
typically use a lot of water.
California poultry processors slaughtered 244 million broilers last
year – about 3 percent of the U.S. total, and plants use about two
to 10 gallons of water per bird, according to industry data.
Livingston officials said Foster Farms' plant uses 4 to 5 million
gallons of water per day. The company declined to say how many birds
it processes at the plant, nor how much water it currently uses per
bird.
WATER AND FOOD SAFETY
Part of the challenge for Foster Farms and other food processors in
California is how to conserve water without sacrificing safety.
Federal regulators in 2014 started requiring poultry processors to
boost measures to control the spread of salmonella in poultry
products - and such measures can heavily tap water supplies for
cleaning equipment, sanitizing carcasses and other steps. As a
result, Foster Farms told Reuters, its total water use increased by
6 percent from 2014 to 2015.
During the same time period, the company rolled out a $75 million
project to reduce salmonella contamination from farm to
slaughterhouse. The improvements came amid a salmonella outbreak
that sickened hundreds of people, and which U.S. regulators linked
to three of Foster Farms’ plants, including Livingston.
Today, Foster Farms says its plants’ salmonella rates are the
poultry industry’s lowest.
The company also said it has taken steps to conserve water use over
the years, and currently is working to further reduce use at the
Livingston plant. It is employing new equipment that has brought the
facility to 8 percent below its 2013 water use levels.
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And the privately-held company said it expects to spend $4.1 million
as part of an ongoing water-conservation plan, in hopes of cutting
its overall use by 20 percent or more in the next three months.
FAILED WELLS
Even with increased conservation from its chief water user,
Livingston faces major water problems.
The town’s water table has dropped 40 feet over the last year,
straining old wells, said Gurpal Samra, Livingston’s mayor pro tem.
And the drought has revealed the vulnerabilities of historically
underfunded infrastructure.
Foster Farms sued after Livingston raised rates in 2009. In the
midst of the legal battle, the city council was recalled and the new
leaders rolled back rates to 1995 levels.
In 2014, a city-funded study reviewed by Reuters showed Foster
Farms’ annual water bill in Livingston was far lower than in most
California cities where it operates. The report concluded that
service and water quality in Livingston had suffered from years of
very low rates, which had also made the city ineligible for certain
financial help.
City officials revisited the issue and, in 2014, roughly doubled
water rates.
As California’s drought intensified, three city wells that either
supply water or back-up Foster Farms’ plant began to fail. The
company, which told Reuters it has partnered with the city on system
upgrades and maintenance in the past, said it spent more than
$140,000 to help fix those wells.
“The well system is critical to ongoing operations at our Livingston
facility,” Foster Farms said in an email to Reuters.
WATER WOES
After being called out by the state this summer, Livingston applied
for and was granted a waiver to pursue different conservation goals.
The alternative was untenable: If Livingston residents were forced
to further cut back so the city could meet its 32 percent reduction
target, people there would be left an estimated 11 gallons per
person per day, an amount deemed unrealistic for basic health and
safety needs, a state official told Reuters.
Now, Livingston must take other steps, including teaching residents
about water conservation and creating a water saving plan with
Foster Farms.
But some residents expect they will continue to shoulder most of the
burden.
“I’ve been seeing a day of reckoning coming for a long time,” said
Schell-Rodriguez, who has replaced her lawn with less-thirsty
succulents. “You can only kick the can down the road for so long.”
(Reporting By P.J. Huffstutter; Editing by Sue Horton)
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