Water Use
From: Curtis Knight and Glen
Spain, Sacramento Bee
Recent droughts, wildfires and
floods throughout the West point to one stark reality: An integrated approach
to water management is essential to securing our region's long-term prosperity.
A long history of divvying up water too freely among competing interests has
left none satisfied. We continue to live with an over-appropriated water system
that pits farmers against fisheries and urban users against agriculture.
If we are to thrive, or even
survive, it's time to step out of our narrow perspectives. We must embrace a
more coordinated approach that recognizes that many of our rivers are altered
landscapes. Today's working watersheds provide drinking water, produce
hydropower, grow food, provide recreational opportunities and support valuable
fisheries for commercial, sport and tribal interests. Saving these working
watersheds can no longer mean rewinding them back to some pristine, romantic
past. We must instead craft comprehensive and durable water management
solutions for the modern world.
Coalition response... The legislature of California has
directed urban and agricultural water sectors to seek quantification of water
use efficiency. Any comprehensive integrated approach to water management must
include responsible, efficient management of environmental water uses such as
fisheries as well. The people of California have a right to know that
their scarce resources, whether monetary or water are being used productively.
California's cities and farms
have committed tremendous resources developing and implementing water
management plans that seek to quantify the water use efficiency in each sector-
any federal funding of a Klamath Settlement Agreement should make provision to
ensure that water being used by fisheries and the environment are being
responsibly and efficiently managed.
Water Supply
From: Dan Lungren, John Van de
Kamp, L.A. Times
One hundred years ago this month,
President Woodrow Wilson signed the Raker Act, which allowed San Francisco to
build a dam in Yosemite National Park and convert the spectacular Hetch Hetchy
Valley into a municipal reservoir.
As native Californians who have
often visited Yosemite, we can think of no greater crime committed against the
national parks. But it's not too late to undo the damage. We should take the
opportunity of this centennial to reform San Francisco's water system and
return Hetch Hetchy Valley to the American people.
From: Jamie Hansen, The Press
Democrat
Rex Williams' sheep normally are
munching green grass in early December. But this year, one of the driest on
record, the land he leases remains mostly brown.
"We planted our winter crop
into dust, dry ground," Williams said. Hardly any grass germinated, so
Williams has been forced to feed hay to his sheep months earlier than normal.
"It's scary; we've never
been in a situation like this before," said Williams, who's been ranching
about 23 years. "We've always had some grass to go to."
Bay Delta
Conservation Plan
From: Jared Huffman, San Jose
Mercury News
The Mercury News editorial (Nov.
24) asked exactly the right question: How much water is needed to bring the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta back to health? When I served in the
Assembly, we passed comprehensive bills that recognized the need for meaningful
water conservation goals, regional self-reliance and improved groundwater
management. The linchpin of that package, the Delta Reform Act, directed state
agencies to reduce reliance on San Francisco Bay and the Delta and to develop a
plan to ensure that the bay-Delta ecosystem and wild fisheries would always
have enough fresh water to thrive.
Groundwater
From: Dennis Taylor,
Bakersfield Californian
A coalition of environmental
groups and an elderly Monterey County woman filed a lawsuit against state water
regulators for failing to protect the public from toxic agricultural discharge.
The suit, filed on behalf of
Antonia Manzo, a Monterey County resident, by Monterey-based The Otter Project
and Monterey Coastkeeper and five other organizations, alleges that the state
Water Board passed a regulation governing agricultural discharge that is so
weak it is in violation of state law.
From: Mike Nelson, Sacramento Bee
Re "Dry winter ahead,
state's experimental forecast warns" (Our Region, Nov. 30): Another year
of drought? No worries. We'll just pump more water from that infinite source,
the underground aquifer. That seems to be the attitude of the wine industry that
continues to deeply rip the land around Galt, Lodi, Elk Grove and Herald. And
these are not mom-and-pop operations at work. I am all for agriculture that
puts food on our tables, not wine on tables in China.
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