Western Growers Takes Aim At Lost El Niño Water
March 7, 2016 
(Photo credit: David Eddy)
Western Growers has launched a digital media campaign aimed at intensifying awareness among urban Californians about the water being lost to the sea this winter and the need for federal and state leaders to exert pressure on water system operators to capture and store those El Niño waters before they are lost.
With another blast of El Niño’s rains coming in, the fish agencies in charge of regulating the Sacramento Delta pumps must be challenged to immediately begin operating them at the maximum levels allowed under the Endangered Species Act.
Founded in 1926, the association represents growers of fresh produce in Arizona, California, and Colorado. The members and their workers provide half the nation’s fresh fruits, vegetables, and tree nuts, including nearly half of America’s fresh organic produce.
The centerpiece of the digital program is a two-minute video educating Californians on the amount of water currently being lost to the ocean and calling on them to leverage social media to demand action from Governor Jerry Brown, as well as Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.
Among other facts, the video states: “Three billion gallons of extra water are passing under the Golden Gate Bridge every single day. We’re not talking about water we need to protect fish or the environment. That water is already being accounted for. No, this is additional water that could be captured and stored for use by farms and cities.”
Over the course of the next 10 days, the video will be heavily promoted on Facebook and as premium pre-roll (commercials that run prior to news content).
Viewers of the video will be directed back to the new website where they can learn more about the drought and why we’re at risk of losing the potential benefits of El Niño.
A running counter at the top of the page aggregates in real time the amount of water that has escaped to sea since the beginning of the year. The number is quite staggering. At the time of this writing, over 210 billion gallons of water have been lost in 2016.
Page visitors will be prompted to get involved in the conversation by tweeting their thoughts using popular hashtags, including a new hashtag created specifically for this campaign: #lostCAwater.