Bryan Hollon: Don’t believe it, ag doesn’t use 80 percent of state’s water

Time and again as you watch TV, listen to radio or read papers and websites, the same wrong or partially wrong figures are thrown out regarding agricultural water use in California. We keep hearing about this 80 percent. That number seems like an unbelievable amount of water for agriculture. The problem is that no one is reporting the fact that the number includes only economic uses(water you make money from). If you look at the total water used throughout California, the breakdown is actually 50 percent for environmental uses, 40 percent for agricultural and 10 percent for urban uses, according to the non-partisan Public Policy Institute of California.

The problem liberals have with using these true numbers is that first they would have to admit environmental uses (their pet along) actually uses half the water in California and secondly, they couldn’t get people as enraged regarding agriculture without using the 80 percent. I agree, 40 percent is still a large amount. But how about the EPA start publishing their studies showing if the 50 percent used for the environment is helping what they say it is?

Remember, next time you see the 80 percent number, that does not include water for environmental uses.

This story was originally published April 13, 2015 at 1:51 PM with the headline "Bryan Hollon: Don’t believe it, ag doesn’t use 80 percent of state’s water."