News articles and links from March 18, 2014

Drought  

Drought expected to idle 800,000 acres

From: Staff, Manteca Bulletin

The California Farm Water Coalition has upgraded its estimate of acres farmers will leave idle this year to 800,000 acres, up from 500,000, because of a lack of water.

"Farmers are still waiting to the last minute to determine their planting schedules this year in hopes that the water situation will improve," said Mike Wade, Coalition Executive Director. "But if dry conditions continue the number of unplanted acres will go up and as each day passes the prospects of returning to a normal water year evaporates."

California drought: Solar desalination plant shows promise

From: Kevin Fagan, San Francisco Chronicle

Quietly whirring away in a dusty field in the Central Valley is a shiny solar energy machine that may someday solve many of California's water problems.

It's called the WaterFX solar thermal desalination plant, and it has been turning salty, contaminated irrigation runoff into ultra-pure liquid for nearly a year for the Panoche Water and Drainage District. It's the only solar-driven desalination plant of its kind in the country.

Groundwater

Scientist says north state groundwater is good quality now, but could change

From: Andre Byik, Chico Enterprise-Record

Groundwater dependency in the North State, because of population, climate change, and environmental regulations, is likely to increase, and so to could groundwater impairments, an environmental scientist with the state's Department of Water Resources said last week.

Perry Lebeouf, who works out of the Northern Region Office in Red Bluff, gave a presentation Thursday to the Farm Bureau on Northern California's water quality. The question posed at the Sacramento River Discovery Center's evening program talk was, "How do we know our water is safe?"

Water Supply

North Valley farmers may sue for more water

From: Davd Bienick, KCRA 3

Farmers in the northern Central Valley said Monday they may sue the federal government for failing to provide the minimum amount of water they said a 50-year-old contract requires.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced last month it planned to provide farmers along the Sacramento River with 40 percent of the water they normally receive.