The Human Health Costs of Water Management and Scarcity: Land Fallowing and Valley Fever in the Southwestern US

An evolving policy landscape is set to drastically alter agricultural land use throughout the southwestern U.S. More stringent groundwater management policies are already diminishing water allocations for agriculture, prompting significant increases in land fallowing. While fallowing supports water conservation objectives, it may also damage human health by creating soil conditions ideal for the growth and transmission of Valley Fever, a potentially severe respiratory disease contracted from inhaling soil spores. This paper empirically addresses the relationship between fallowing and Valley Fever, providing novel evidence of the potential negative spillovers and unintended consequences associated with water management policies.