The plastic lined pond, in the background, receives rain water from a network of black plastic drain pipes; then the pumping station (left) can blend sterile reclaimed (purple pipes) and recharge water from Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency (PVWMA) and/or ground water wells on the properties of Kitayama Brothers, Inc. (KBI), then used in the 40 acres of green houses plus outdoor fields in Watsonville, CA, on Thursday, August 27, 2015. Agriculture has been a part of the Kitayama family for three generations, since before WWII, when family patriarch Takeshi Kitayama began growing flowers an
The plastic lined pond, in the background, receives rain water from a network of black plastic drain pipes; then the pumping station (left) can blend sterile reclaimed (purple pipes) and recharge water from Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency (PVWMA) and/or ground water wells on the properties of Kitayama Brothers, Inc. (KBI), then used in the 40 acres of green houses plus outdoor fields in Watsonville, CA, on Thursday, August 27, 2015. Agriculture has been a part of the Kitayama family for three generations, since before WWII, when family patriarch Takeshi Kitayama began growing flowers and vegetables on Bainbridge Island, in the Pungent Sound, of Washington. In 1945, after WWII, and the family’s internment at the Manzanar camp, in California, Takeshi’s sons Tom and Ray, returned to wholesale flower growing, and established their own nursery business in 1948. The family became leaders in the industry and more family members joined with their California operations in Hayward and San Jose. Additionally they were able to acquire other local operations. Kitayama Brothers, Inc. currently produces a variety of lisianthus, lily, Gerbera, snapdragon and others, additionally; land is leased to other growers for strawberries and a variety of other crops. Located ¼ mile from the Pacific Ocean (Monterey Bay) Kitayama Brothers, Inc., employs 100 - 300 people depending on the time of year. To water all the flowers, the business uses a combination of irrigation water sources that include ground water wells; sterile reclaimed and recharge water from Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency (PVWMA), a rainwater collection system and a hydroponics water system. Over the past 15 years, the amount of water from PVWMA has been reduced by 2/3s, making onsite ground water wells ever more important, and a factor in groundwater deletion. Today, there is a high demand on well; this has been a factor in (seawater) salt intrusion in all of their wells, one having to be shutdown, bec
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