In this water-starved California town, one citrus farmer is trying to hold on

Citrus groves spread out in rows across the desert in Borrego Springs, forming a lush green oasis against a backdrop of bone-dry mountains. 

When the grapefruit and lemon trees bloom on Jim Seley’s farm, the white blossoms fill the air with their sweet scent.

His father founded the farm in 1957, and Seley has been farming here since 1964. He and his son, Mike, manage the business, and they hope to pass it on to the next generation of Seleys. 

But the farms of Borrego Springs, like the town and its golf courses, rely completely on groundwater pumped from the desert aquifer. And it’s unclear whether farming will be able to survive in this part of the Southern California desert west of the Salton Sea in San Diego County.

The aquifer beneath Borrego Springs has been declining for decades due to overpumping. Under California’s law regulating groundwater, the community needs to reduce pumping by an estimated 75 percent over the next 20 years. 

That reduction will drastically shrink, if not eliminate, the farms in the Borrego Valley, which use much of the water that’s pumped from wells. The mandatory restrictions could eventually put many farmers out of business, drying up their potato fields, tangerine groves and palm-tree farms. 

Seley is determined, though, to keep his farm alive. He’s preparing to downsize water use by 20 percent between 2020 and 2025. That will involve replanting some areas with fewer trees per acre, which he has begun doing, and leaving portions of the farm dry and fallow, letting the trees die. 

“We know we’re going to have to farm less acreage,” Seley said. “We’re going to have to see what we can do to adjust, to make sure that we can survive.”

Some people in Borrego Springs would like to see the farms be bought out and shut down to save water. But Seley and his son have no intention of walking away from their farm — at least not before they try to meet the challenge of making the business work with much less water. 

Their dilemma parallels similar trends that are playing out across the West, in farming areas including California’s Central Valley and the Paso Robles wine country, Arizona’s pistachio orchards and vineyards, and cornfields atop the Ogallala Aquifer in Kansas. In each of these areas, groundwater levels are dropping. And in places where wells have gone dry, people have been left with costly hardships.

The pressures on groundwater are compounded by climate change, which is shrinking the average snowpack in the mountains in many areas and taking a toll on surface water in streams, rivers and reservoirs.

The situation in Borrego Springs is particularly dire. Its groundwater basin is one of 21 across California that state officials have determined are in “critical overdraft.” This means the community is in line for some of the most aggressive measures under California’s groundwater law. The aim of these measures is to halt the declines in the water table and dial back pumping to a sustainable amount over the next two decades. 

Stopping aquifer depletion will not be easy. It will require a radical remaking of the town’s economy. And Seley said he hopes that he and his son will find ways to keep their business viable. 

“Can agriculture survive? Yes, but not in its present form. We’re going to have to adapt,” Seley said. “I think that a challenge is good. That’s how we learn. A time may come when we can’t meet a challenge. But I don’t know, we’ll keep trying.”

There are about 370 acres of citrus groves on Seley Ranches, including grapefruit, lemons and tangerines. 

Standing among rows of shoulder-high trees that were planted two years ago, Seley motioned to an adjacent grove of taller trees.

“We’re thinking that this block over here will be gone,” Seley said. “But this block will stay.”

Taking a ripe grapefruit in his hand, he cut into it with a knife and inspected the juicy red flesh. 

“It’s a very flavorful fruit,” Seley said. “It’s a sweet variety.”

The town of Borrego Springs sits surrounded by stunning desert vistas, including the rugged mountains and badlands of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The town’s remote location in the northeastern corner of San Diego County is both a blessing and, in some ways, a curse. 

In the winter and springtime, visitors roll down the main street in cars and RVs. They go hiking in the state park. They camp in the desert under the stars. Some stop at the Seleys’ roadside stand to buy a bagful of red grapefruit. 

When the right weather triggers a wildflower bloom, people park along the roads to marvel at the desert transformed into meadows teeming with colors.

During the cool months, the full-time population of about 3,500 often swells to more than 8,000 people.

The small-town feel of the community, which has a traffic circle instead of stoplight, has attracted retirees and others who are searching for a quiet place to call home.  

But unlike many communities in Southern California, Borrego Springs gets no imported supply of water in a canal or pipeline.

In an average year, 5.8 inches of rain falls in this part of the desert. 

Water flows down from the mountains through canyons, sinks into the sandy soil and replenishes the aquifer.

As the water is pumped from wells, it flows to houses, hotels and six golf courses. It also nourishes about 3,500 acres of farmlands on the edge of town, where the crops range from herbs to palm trees.

Because the farms use an estimated 70 percent or more of the groundwater, people in Borrego Springs have been talking for years about the role growers will have to play in shrinking the community’s water footprint.

One resident who has been vocal in calling for rapid action is Ray Shindler, who moved to the town from Olympia, Wash., in 2003. Shindler grew up farming wheat and cattle in eastern Washington. He retired in 2002 after working for years as a political consultant and a lobbyist for agricultural groups. 

Shindler said he and his wife chose to move Borrego Springs for the sun and the wilderness. When they arrived, they learned about the declining aquifer and the role farmers are playing. And Shindler said as much as he likes farmers, his message to them has been: “If you’re not sustainable, you’re not viable.”

When he started speaking up at town hall meetings, he soon made enemies. After a meeting years ago, Shindler recalled, he walked up to Jim Seley and told him: “If was your lobbyist … I would begin to look for exit strategies in Borrego.”

“He didn’t like that. He said, ‘Who are you to tell us?’ ‘We know our water rights,’” Shindler said. 

Seley recalled the same exchange, though he declined to say who suggested he consider leaving. As Seley remembered it, the man walked up to him and another farmer and said: “If I were you guys, I’d get out of town.”

“I said, ‘Well, you’re not me and I’m not getting out of town,’” Seley said. “We’re staying.”

Seley said the community’s different sectors should share equally in the water cutbacks, and the burden shouldn’t fall disproportionally on agriculture. “You can’t put it all on one group,” he said. 

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Community leaders have been talking about the problem of groundwater overdraft for decades, but they’ve delayed taking steps to reduce pumping. 

Starting in 2012, a group called the Borrego Water Coalition began holding meetings where representatives of farmers, golf courses, the water agency and local businesses discussed potential solutions. 

Then came statewide legislation, which brought new requirements and timelines. In 2014, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which for the first time requires local agencies in groundwater basins deemed “high-priority” or “medium-priority” to come up with plans for halting overdraft and achieving sustainability.

Government agencies and water districts that are charged with managing critically overdrafted basins will have until 2040 to achieve sustainability by reaching balanced levels of pumping and recharge. Other areas that fall under the rules will have two more years, until 2042. 

Shindler said on the positive side, the legislation will force the community to become sustainable for future generations, which is what he’s been advocating for years. But the process will be difficult, Shindler said, and the water issue is one of the reasons he’s now planning to sell his home and move away. 

Shindler said he’s also noticed that climate change is affecting Borrego Springs, making it too hot to go hiking during longer periods in the fall and spring. Shindler is thinking of moving to Sedona, Arizona, which offers a milder climate — and, as he puts it, “no water issues.”

“The uncertainty about Borrego's water will last, in my opinion, for many years,” Shindler said. “Home values will suffer.”

He said he hopes he’s wrong but doesn’t want to take a chance. 

The family farm was founded in the late 1950s by Hal Seley, who bought an active vineyard and started growing grapes. But he didn’t get good yields with grapes, so he switched to citrus. 

His son Jim joined the operation in the early 1960s when a partner wanted out of the business.

At the time, Lyndon B. Johnson was president and citrus groves still covered patches of California from Orange County to Riverside to San Bernardino. Urban growth was rapidly overtaking the citrus groves, however, and Jim Seley said his father sensed opportunity in Borrego Springs.

“My dad figured it was going to be another Palm Springs,” Seley said with a chuckle. “I think that’s one thing that he missed on the boat.”

While the Interstate-10 freeway helped make Palm Springs a get-away destination, Borrego Springs’ location on a lonely road near the Salton Sea kept the desert valley mostly undeveloped and rural. And while Palm Springs got water from the Colorado River Aqueduct to replenish its aquifer, Borrego Springs remained dependent on its wells. 

As Jim Seley hired workers and learned about overseeing the farm in the 1960s, he looked at ways of conserving water. The family started switching from flood irrigation to drip irrigation. 

Until the late 1960s, the Seleys also farmed in the Highland area. But that farm, like so many others across Southern California, was devoured by the encroaching suburbs. They sold part of the land to an apartment developer and focused their efforts on the orchard in Borrego Springs.

At first, they owned 160 acres. Then they bought another 160 acres. Seley said as the farm expanded, workers removed creosote bushes and leveled the desert with tractors. 

Seley Ranches eventually grew to 400 acres — all but 30 acres of which is covered with row after row of citrus trees. 

The Seleys have several full-time employees. During harvest, they take on an additional crew of farmworkers to pick the fruit. 

The orchard produces Daisy and Minneola tangerines, Lisbon and Eureka lemons, and its namesake red grapefruits, which are sold in stores as Seley Reds. The family company says on its website that they also have customers abroad in “the selective markets of Japan, Europe and Australia.”

During the harvest, grapefruits are laid out at the farm’s roadside stand, where people leave $3.50 for each bagful of fruit.

As the farm has grown, it has proven to be a good business.

“It’s like any other farm crop. You have your good years and you have your bad,” Seley said. “It’s been profitable for us, but there have been years where we’ve had losses.”

Seley is now 77. He has been running the business since his early 20s. 

He lives in the affluent community of San Marino and works with two of his sons at an office in South Pasadena, where they manage the orchard as well as a business that sells livestock feed in seven western states. 

Seley often drives out to check on the orchard. He’ll talk with his manager about whether there are signs of insects, about the quality of the fruit, or about whether the trees need to be sprayed to prevent the leaves from be being burned in the sun. 

“I like what I do,” Seley said. “You’re seeing it progress the way that it should, and it makes you feel good that you’ve got a crop coming off.”

He has also attended local water meetings for years. Lately, he represents the San Diego County Farm Bureau on an advisory committee that is reviewing portions of a draft groundwater sustainability plan. 

“It’s our lifeblood," Seley said. "And it’s important that we are involved in it so that there is a voice for agriculture.” 

He and other farmers have formed a group called the Agricultural Alliance for Water and Resource Education, and they’ve hired a hydrologist to review the data used by consultants who are helping to prepare the groundwater plan. 

The farmers also have lawyers watching the process. But Seley said he hopes the matter never ends up in court. 

“Nobody wants to see it go into adjudication because the only ones who get rich will be the lawyers,” Seley said. “We are working together. We’re trying to come up with a solution.”

And he said if the burden doesn’t fall on farmers alone, the effort should work. 

“It’s my thought that if we’re all on this together, then we’ll come to a conclusion. If it’s all on one industry, we won’t,” Seley said. “Because then it will be all against ag. And that’s not going to be good for anybody. Because it’s got to be a shared thing to work on if it’s going to be successful.”

His son, Mike, has been strategizing ways of keeping the farm going with less water. Mike grew up in Pasadena and has been visiting the orchard regularly for decades. Nowadays he goes at least once a month, often taking his three boys.

“They just love the freedom of the place,” he said. “They get outside and we’ll go have a little bonfire in the desert at night, and just have room to run and ride a little dune buggy around and just play.”

Sometimes, he and his family take a night walk around the ranch in the moonlight. 

And every spring, Mike looks forward to the trees blooming. When the orchard is in blossom, he said, “the air just smells like honey.”

He said he sees the orchard as part of his identity. Seley Ranches is the oldest continuous farming operation in the Borrego Valley, and he intends to keep it that way. 

“It’s part of our family. It’s not just a business operation. So, we have no plans on leaving,” Mike said. “We’re trying to figure out how do we sustain the operation.”

In addition to brainstorming ways of using less water, he’s been testing other crops and studying new products the farm might sell, such as juices or oils.  

He’s been looking into ag tourism, toying with the idea of starting farm tours and offering visitors fruit and other products — and perhaps a special local cocktail. 

“We’re going to give it a go and try to reinvent ourselves,” Mike said. The idea, he said, is to try to survive with an orchard covering as little as a third of the acreage that it does today. 

He said he expects many growers will shut down and leave if they’re compensated, but he hopes to keep ag going and help the community’s transition.

“The hard part, I think, is sustaining the valley and transitioning to a different economy,” Mike said. “It won’t be an easy transition, but I think it could be a very positive one. And I’m just looking to be a part of that, and keep our orchard working for my kids.” 

According to the Borrego Water District, groundwater levels in the valley have been declining, on average, between a foot and a foot and a half per year. 

In the northern part of the valley, water levels have declined by as much as 125 feet since the early 1950s — an average of nearly 2 feet per year. 

With the aquifer falling so rapidly, the possibility of importing water to Borrego Springs has repeatedly been considered. But government agencies have found that piping in water would be too expensive. 

In a 2015 study, the federal Bureau of Reclamation examined options for building a pipeline to bring water from the Coachella Valley or the Imperial Valley. It found that the three pipeline alternatives would cost between $504 million and $695 million to build and maintain, and to buy water over a 50-year period.

The bureau said the options “are not economically viable at the current time and further study is not warranted.” It said conservation programs could probably address the issue of groundwater overdraft at a lower cost. 

The federal report laid out the situation in stark terms: “The aquifer has an estimated life expectancy of 30-50 years. However, as the upper aquifer is depleted, the lower aquifer geology will require increased pumping to sustain current production rates and will result in reduced water quality.” 

It said as temperatures continue rising due to climate change, shifts in precipitation may also affect the recharge into the aquifer. 

In a 2015 assessment, hydrologists from the U.S. Geological Survey said overpumping has already led to higher pumping costs, “reduced well efficiency, dry wells, changes in water quality, and loss of natural groundwater discharge.” 

They said tests on water samples show that in most areas of the valley, the water has been underground for thousands of years.

USGS hydrologist Claudia Faunt said the recharge is sporadic and varies greatly each year, depending when thunderstorms send runoff coursing down Palm Canyon and Coyote Creek. For years, she said, people have been pumping out three to five times the amount that has flowed into the aquifer.

“They kept asking when I was out there, when are they going to run out of water? And I don’t know that it’s going to be that they’re going to run out of water,” Faunt said. “Wells are going to go dry. They’ll have to drill more, and at some point, it becomes uneconomical to keep pumping, and then even treating water as the water quality deteriorates.”

The aquifer has an upper, middle and lower layer, and naturally occurring contaminants tend to accumulate deeper underground. Some parts of the aquifer contain arsenic and nitrates, and it’s not clear how quickly the concentrations might become a problem if groundwater levels continue to drop. 

“They basically need to bring their bank account into balance,” Faunt said. “And how you make those hard societal decisions on who gets cut back and whose livelihood is affected is going to be hard.”

Some initial decisions have been made by San Diego County and the Borrego Water District, which together formed the new Borrego Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agency. Officials sent letters to well owners last year notifying them of preliminary “baseline” pumping allocations, which for each well was based on the year with the highest pumping between 2010 and 2014. 

For the many wells without meters, officials calculated estimates of water use. As the pumping restrictions take effect next year, installing meters will be key for enforcement. 

Meanwhile, the consulting firm Dudek has been working on the groundwater sustainability plan. A draft is due to be released in January or February. The plan will detail the state of the aquifer and proposed steps to bring it into balance. 

The Borrego Water District says the valley’s wells have been pumping out a total of about 22,000 acre-feet, or 7.2 billion gallons, a year. Based on the latest estimates, becoming sustainable will require a nearly 75-percent decrease in pumping by 2040 — a target that will be reassessed every five years as incremental reductions are phased in.

“It’s a big number,” said Geoff Poole, general manager of the Borrego Water District. “And what we’re doing is just trying to make sure that as the water use transitions from one use to another, which has to happen… that we still do have an effective labor pool out here.”

As some farmlands are left dry and fallow, Poole said, a major concern will be ensuring that jobs don’t disappear. He said the farms now employ about 60 people full-time. 

“It’s important to maintain a viable community and to provide employment opportunities for those workers,” Poole said. “I’m remaining optimistic that we can definitely come up with solutions.”

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If tourism businesses grow, that could help absorb workers. Poole said the town’s two large resorts together employ about 150 people.

Other unresolved questions revolve around funding. If California voters had passed Proposition 3 in November, the statewide bond measure would have freed up $35 million to support Borrego Springs’ groundwater plan. That money would have helped buy up farmland. 

Since the ballot measure was rejected, it’s now unclear where local agencies will find the funding. 

Poole said officials are looking into state and federal funding. They’re also considering water rates and well-pumping fees, while looking to avoid saddling customers with the burden.

“We’re looking for every possible alternative funding source,” he said. 

Mark Jorgensen started working at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park when he was 20, and he finished his 36-year career when he retired as the park’s superintendent in 2009. 

Jorgensen said he’s concerned that with the water table dropping fast, the state law’s timetable for full implementation by 2040 is far too long. He said if farms and golf courses are permitted to continue overpumping for two decades, he expects the water table will fall at least 50 feet more.

“It’s extremely clear that all agricultural pumping has to come to a halt to reach us anything close to sustainability,” Jorgensen said, “and so that means farmers are probably going to have to be fairly compensated for their property. Basically, buy them out.” 

He worries that the longer it takes to reduce pumping, the worse the problem will become. He also worries that the community has only an estimate, not detailed measurements, of the natural recharge into the aquifer. And he thinks the latest estimate seems overly optimistic. 

“You’ve got a bank account with a known amount of money in it, and you’re spending a large proportion of it every year. If this were your bank account at home, you’d be in dire straits,” Jorgensen said. “In a lot of ways, it’s not too much to say we are in a water emergency.”

Seley disagrees with that description, saying he doesn’t consider the situation a crisis but simply “something that needs correction.” And when Seley advocates an incremental approach, he’s going up against critics like Jorgensen, who argue that bigger steps are long overdue and that it’s time for the community to live within its means. 

Jorgensen has been voicing these concerns for years. As a naturalist, he often emphasizes that the overpumping has consequences not only for people but also for the desert streams, plants and wildlife. 

He points out that in the desert next to town, many mesquite trees have died because their roots can no longer reach the falling water table. 

The gnarled skeletons of honey mesquites stand among dunes next to the town’s airport. Their dry branches collapse on the sand, where the brittle wood snaps underfoot.

Last month, Jorgensen recorded a video while sitting on a dune beside a dead mesquite. 

“Around 50 percent of the mesquite in Borrego Valley have died or are in the process of dying, much like this one right behind me,” Jorgensen said in the video, which he posted on YouTube. “These are very long-lived plants. It’s thought they likely live a couple of centuries, and they’re largely responsible for the formation of these dunes.”

Speaking into the camera, Jorgensen said the mesquites have unusually deep roots, which have been found poking into mineshafts 150 feet underground. 

“Despite the fact they have some deep roots, they still can’t keep up with the declining aquifer,” he said. “This is a direct example of the impacts that groundwater pumping is having here.”

And he said it shows water consumption by farms and golf courses will have to be sharply curtailed for the area to achieve a “water balance.”

Some residents say they feel uneasy about the future and hope the changes aren’t too drastic. 

Juana Sánchez, who works in a restaurant, said many families depend on jobs that seem vulnerable. Her husband works at a golf course, and her brother is a farmworker. 

“If they cut the water on the farms, for example, where a big part of the population works, particularly the men, they’d be left without jobs,” Sánchez said. “And these families wouldn’t have income and it would be something very serious. Many people would have to leave.” 

Other people have raised similar worries during town hall meetings. At one meeting several months ago, more than 100 people sat in folding chairs while a moderator jotted notes on a large pad of paper.

Claudio García, a resort worker, stood and spoke in Spanish. He said he’s been living in Borrego Springs for 18 years.  

“I’d like my kids to grow up in this town, and to not be turned away from here, because it’s a lovely, tranquil town,” García said. “We all support each other, and we don’t want to lose our jobs. We don’t want our families to leave here.”

Other workers echoed those concerns. A retiree said he doesn’t want water rates to go up. Other residents said pumping should be reduced more quickly, not over the next 20 years.

Then Jim Seley took the microphone. Wearing a plaid shirt, jeans and dusty boots, he introduced himself and told the story of his family’s farm. 

“We began farming here in 1957, when we were told that it was a lake underneath and we had water for 500 years,” Seley said, peering over his glasses at the crowd. “Farming has evolved. We’ve noticed that our wells were going down and going down about a foot a year. And we started changing.”

He explained how the orchard converted to drip irrigation in the 1960s, and how his workers now use systems that track heat, wind and soil moisture. Two years ago, he said, he spent thousands of dollars on a new water-saving filter system for his wells.

“We have continued to work to reduce our consumption of water,” Seley said. “And it’s our intent to continue to do this, and to work with the community.”

He pointed out that some farmers have already sold their land and left. 

“I guess what we need to look at is, we have one aquifer here, we have many straws in it, and we have to work together,” Seley said. “And we have been.”

On a recent morning, Seley rode through his orchard in the passenger seat of a Toyota pickup, saying he hopes agriculture will continue to play a vital role in the economy.

“That’s part of the reason we’ve got to work something out as a community,” Seley said, “because it doesn’t just affect us. It affects everybody.”

Driving the pickup was his manager Zane Smiley, who grew up on the orchard while his father was the manager during the late 1990s and 2000s. Smiley said the job involves overseeing everything from controlling weeds to checking the irrigation system. 

“Efficiency in irrigation is what I think about all day long,” Smiley said, “because that is a pressing issue for us.” 

Stepping out of the truck, he showed micro-jet sprinklers spraying rows of trees. The fine water droplets pattered on leaves and pooled beneath the trees.

As for the future, Smiley said he’s optimistic about facing the challenges. 

“We’re going to have to approach it in a way that keeps our business profitable but at the same time satisfies the reductions that need to be made,” Smiley said. “We have a responsibility to our employees as well.”

He said four of his employees have 10 kids in school here. His wife, Justine, teaches at the middle school, where many students come from families who work in agriculture or on the golf courses.

If those jobs disappear, Smiley said, “then Borrego becomes a much smaller community — not a dead community but a much smaller community.”

Seley said he’d like to see agriculture stay and thrive. But he doesn’t know in what form exactly. And there are some big unknowns. 

For one thing, while he knows he’ll have to reduce water use 20 percent by 2025, he doesn’t know how the targets might evolve in subsequent years. He hopes the total reduction might turn out to be significantly less than 75 percent.

Seley said the water levels in farms’ wells show the groundwater situation is complex.

His orchard, for example, has four wells. In one well, which is older and not being used, the water level has come up about 25 feet over the past decade, Seley said. 

In his three other wells, the water level is dropping about a foot per year. 

The wells are drilled 1,000 feet deep, he said, and they’re drawing water from about 300 feet underground. The water, which is naturally heated underground in an area bordered by fault zones, comes out warm at about 90 degrees.

Describing what he knows about the aquifer beneath his farm, he said: “We’re in water all the way from 300 down” — to the bottom of the well. 

Some neighboring farmers, he said, have seen the declines in water levels slowing down. 

And as the initial pumping restrictions kick in, he said, the next five years should reveal to what extent the cutbacks help stabilize the water table. 

“We’ll see what it shows, because it could be that we don’t have to reduce by 70 or 75 percent. It could be that we have to reduce by 45,” Seley said. “So, we have a lot yet to learn.”

Sitting outside a farmhouse beside rows of citrus trees, Seley talked hypothetically about scenarios his family might face, and about “the circle of farming” in California, where many growers have sold land and moved elsewhere as cities have moved in and gobbled up the countryside.  

Something similar might eventually happen in Borrego Springs, he said, since there are about 3,000 residential lots where homes have yet to be built.

“And this is probably something that my kids are going to be more concerned with than I, given the present age structure,” Seley quipped. “But I could see where eventually we have to leave, one way or another, whether it’s through these means or the property gets too valuable, or the water gets too valuable.”

But he said he’s not thinking much about scenarios that far into the future. For now, he’s focusing on the immediate: keeping the orchard going with less water.

And while his son is studying options under a worst-case scenario, the elder Seley stressed that key questions about the coming years have yet to be answered.

“We don’t know how it’s going to turn out yet,” Seley said. “We’ll just have to wait and see what the water situation tells us.”

And while the unknowns remain, Seley said he’s not worried. He’ll take things as they come.

Ian James is a former Desert Sun reporter who now writes for The Arizona Republic. Reach him at ian.james@arizonarepublic.com or on Twitter at @ByIanJames.

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