Tuesday, February 11, 2014

News articles and links from February 11, 2014


Water Supply

From: Chris Austin, Maven's Notebook

Senators from California and Oregon today introduced the California Emergency Drought Relief Act of 2014, a bill to help California and Oregon farmers, businesses and communities suffering from historic drought conditions. The legislation-which comes on the heels of weekend rain in California and Oregon and snow in the Sierra-was introduced by Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer (both D-Calif.) and Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley (both D-Ore.).

From: Tom Birmingham, Westlands Water District

Westlands Water District is encouraged with the introduction by Senator Dianne Feinstein and Senator Barbara Boxer of the California Emergency Drought Relief Act of 2014, and Westlands supports the passage of the legislation. Notwithstanding the rainfall and snow California has enjoyed over the last week, the State is facing unprecedented drought conditions. Water supply reductions resulting from these extraordinary dry conditions have been exacerbated by the implementation in prior years of regulations imposed under federal law on the operations of the federal Central Valley Project (CVP) and the California State Water Project (SWP). The legislation introduced today would provide much needed relief for the public water agencies that receive water from these projects and for the people, farms, and businesses they serve.

From: Lenny Bernstein, Washington Post  

Without help from the heavens, Joe Del Bosque figures that 2014 will be the last year before many family farmers in California's vast San Joaquin Valley begin to go bankrupt.

From: Garth Stapley, Modesto Bee  

Because of minimal mountain snow, Modesto-area farmers this year would get half of last year's amount of water under a proposal to be weighed this morning - and they would pay a lot more for it.

From: Blain Roberts and Ethan J. Kytle, NY Times     

Every Saturday in late December and January, as reports of brutal temperatures and historic snowfalls streamed in from family in Vermont, New York and even southern Louisiana, we made weekly pilgrimages to our local beer garden to enjoy craft brews and unseasonably warm afternoons.

From: Debora Villalon, KTVU 2    

The pounding rain in the North Bay caused its fair share of problems over the weekend with floods, fallen trees and slides. But for water managers and winemakers, there's no question that the trouble was worth it. Napa received more rain in three days on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, than in all of 2013.

From: Scott Sonner, AP

Sierra ski resorts and drought-stricken farmers are rejoicing after a weekend storm dumped up to 5 feet of snow on top of the mountains and brought near-record rainfall to Lake Tahoe.

From: Tony Botti, Your Central Valley  

President Obama has not been to Fresno since taking office in 2009.  He's heard lots of outcries from the west about our water woes and now growers and city leaders hope seeing is believing.

Water is what fuels business in the city of Mendota.

From: Rabu Chebium, Visalia Times-Delta 

President Barack Obama's visit to Fresno on Friday will shine a spotlight on California's long-running drought and underscore its impact on the Central Valley, one of the worst-hit regions in the state. Obama is scheduled to discuss his administration's response to the arid weather and additional steps that can be taken to cope with the drought, which threatens to inflict more economic pain on California this year.

From: Jay Lund, California WaterBlog  

With California in a major drought, state and federal regulators will be under pressure to loosen environmental flow standards that protect native fish. This happened in the 1976-77 and 1987-92 droughts, and today's drought could become

No comments:

Post a Comment