News articles and links from January 8, 2014

Water Supply

California water officials call drought outlook 'scary'

From: George Warren, News10

California water officials said it's almost certain they won't be able to meet their obligations in the coming months.

"It's scary, to put it bluntly," said David Guy, president of the Northern California Water Association, which represents rural water districts. "It's the combination that the 
reservoirs are at all-time-low levels as well as the fact that we simply do not have inflow coming into the reservoirs."

Brown administration 'actively considering' drought declaration

From: David Bienick, KCRA

The head of the California Department of Water Resources said Tuesday that the Brown administration is "actively considering" an emergency drought declaration, perhaps by the beginning of next month.

OPINION: Learning to adapt to droughts

From: Timm Herdt, Ventura County Star (subscription required); Contra Costa Times

State hydrologists made their annual early-January trek up into the Sierra last week to measure the snowpack and its water content. What they found was that conditions today are tied for the driest on record.

On its own, that finding would be disconcerting enough in this water-deficient state. More unsettling is that the dismal snowpack is a repeat of what was measured just two years ago. In other words, the two driest measurements on record were taken in 2012 and 2014.

Bracing for the worst

From: Staff, ABC30

Farmers across the Valley are now bracing themselves for a potential water crisis. (Video)

State water officials considering drought declaration

From: Matt Weiser, Sacramento Bee

The California Department of Water Resources is planning to draft an emergency drought declaration for Gov. Jerry Brown's consideration as dry winter conditions continue.

DWR Director Mark Cowin told the California Board of Food and Agriculture at a meeting Tuesday that his agency is weighing whether to present the governor with a drought declaration. Spokeswoman Nancy Foley said that declaration could be forthcoming "within a couple weeks."

OPINION: Valley farmers are not the bad guys

From: Rita Silva, Modesto Bee

In response to "CVP not built only for farmers" (Letters, Dec. 23): The writer was replying to a letter from David Silva about water allocation. My husband and I never said that all of the water should go to farmers, or that duck clubs and refuges should not get water.

We simply feel that farmers should get the same deal as the other groups. If the drought continues, there is a good chance that farmers relying on federal allocations through the Central Valley Project will get no water this year. This would mean that all of the thousands of people who plant, grow and harvest our crops, dairy products and meat will be unemployed. The people who process our food, the truckers who haul it, the stores that sell it will also suffer.