Federal Legislation
From: Staff, Stockton Record
Following through on a pledge
made last week, three south San Joaquin Valley congressmen introduced
legislation Wednesday to increase the amount of water pumped south from the
Delta and to block the restoration of the San Joaquin River.
While the language of H.R. 3964
was not yet available, Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, said the bill would
restore the reliability of water supplies from the Delta and would reform
federal environmental laws that have sometimes restricted how much water can be
pumped south.
Bay Delta
Conservation Plan
From: Betty Jo Toccoli,
Sacramento Bee
California is entering the third,
critical year of a severe drought. Communities north and south are bracing for
potential water shortages, and the state's economy is at risk just at a time
when it is recovering from recession.
After members of our board of
directors and I visited some of the state water system's key facilities in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta - the heart of the state's ongoing water crisis -
we came away with a much better understanding of the need for long-term
solutions.
From: Stoshu Larkin-Nabozny,
Bakersfield Californian (Subscription required)
"I am bemused to hear so
many proponents of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta diversion plan comparing
the farmers of the Central Valley to the farmers in Owens Valley during the
California water wars. They've got the analogy backward.
It's more correct to analogize
valley farmers to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, since they're
demanding that other parts of the state surrender water to them in order to
accommodate their excesses.
Drought
From: AP Staff, KOVR 13
President Barack Obama is telling
California's governor that the federal government will do what's necessary to
help with a historic drought afflicting the state.
Obama called Gov. Jerry Brown on
Wednesday for an update on the drought. California is in its third dry year and
17 communities are in danger of running out of water within four months.
From: Todd Fitchette, Western
Farm Press Blog
Proof that nothing escapes the
realm of the political - especially water and drought, an effort to better use
very limited water resources in California apparently died during the Farm Bill
debate.
California Representatives Devin
Nunes, Kevin McCarthy and David Valadao, all San Joaquin Valley Republicans,
successfully inserted language into the House version of Farm Bill to
ostensibly help California residents during an unprecedented drought.
From: Michael Doyle, Merced Sun-Star; Modesto Bee
California congressional
Republicans escalated the anti-drought pressure Wednesday, introducing an
ambitious California water bill that includes controversial provisions
immediately dismissed by the state's two Democratic senators.
Fisheries
From: Staff, Redding
Record-Searchlight
"How you can favor a fish
over people is something the people in my part of the world would not
understand."
So said no less an eminence than
House Speaker John Boehner, of Ohio, last week while visiting California to
promote a measure that would waive various federal protections of rare fish and
halt an effort to restore salmon to the San Joaquin River. Why? To get every
drop of possible water to farms in the parched Central Valley.
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