irrigate

"Because we don't put a value on water, you can irrigate and not pay much at all for the water that you're using," said Kuzma, who runs the water data program at WRI.

“We still need to see if the program impacts our yields in the following months. We can use this time to apply fertilizer or compost and hopefully have strong plant stands when we irrigate again,” Miller said.

So volunteers wrapped many of the plants in chicken wire and shade cloth for protection and carried in water to irrigate the survivors.

Margaret and Phil’s happiness about their yard dimmed after they got their first water bill — roughly $3,000 for two months — and discovered they had used nearly 108,000 gallons of water during that time, mostly to irrigate their lawn.

Farms in the area depend on groundwater to irrigate hay, corn, grapes, almonds, pistachios, oranges and other crops.