Farming News
From: Donald Anthrop, Contra
Costa Times
Several recent columnists and
writers for this paper have argued that cotton and alfalfa are
"water-intensive" crops and should not be grown in California.
Let me first dispel the myth about
cotton being such a water-intensive crop. The consumptive water use by a crop
basically depends upon four factors: the percentage of the field covered by
green foliage; the length of the growing season; the temperature during the
growing season; and the humidity during the growing season.
Water Bond
From: Staff, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles has begun a historic
drive to decrease its dependence on imported water. The Sacramento-San Joaquin
River Delta, the state's precarious water switching station and the key to the
survival not only of salmon and other threatened species but of the state's
agriculture industry, is in crisis. California is in the midst of a continuing
drought. It is hard to fathom a higher priority than safeguarding the state's
precious water resources, or a more crucial time to do it. That means an
investment in the form of a carefully crafted water bond.
From: Staff, NBC- LA
[VIDEO] A major policy decision
hearing in the California legislature next week...it's all about water or lack
of. NBC4's Conan Nolan talks with senate leader Darrell Steinberg about why the
senator no longer supports the the water bond that is on the November ballot..a
ballot measure that was innitiated by then-Governor Arnold Scwarzenegger. A lot
has changed in five years, says the Steinberg. He tells us why.
From: Michael Gardner, San Diego
Union-Tribune
Even while mired in a drought,
Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers have been unable to strike a compromise on
a new water bond that will have far-reaching implications for the San Diego
region in the decades to come.
The latest in a string of bond
proposals also reflects the sharp disagreements between the region's primary
players seeking to influence how much money is spent where.
Drought
From: Sharon Bernstein,
Reuters
As California enters summer with
a below-normal mountain snowpack to feed its streams and reservoirs, the
portion of the parched state experiencing exceptionally severe drought
conditions is growing, experts said.
The most populous U.S. state is
in the third year of a crippling drought that has forced ranchers to sell
cattle for lack of grazing land, and farmers to let an estimated 400,000 acres
normally devoted to crops go fallow. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said
Thursday that while all of the state remains in a severe drought, the portion
of the state in what is considered an "exceptional drought" increased
in the past week from about 25 percent to about 33 percent.
From: Laura Anthony, KGO 7
Saturday is the first day of
summer and it's expected to be long hot dry one.
California is in the third year
of a devastating drought and farmers near Brentwood are getting some pretty bad
news -- they might be getting far less water than they had counted on.
Groundwater
From: Staff, UC Davis Center
for Watershed Sciences
As California strains under a
third straight year of drought, Gov. Jerry Brown and many legislators have
shown strong interest in modernizing management of groundwater - the state's
most important drought reserves. At the same time, a group of nearly 40 leading
water professionals and scholars has been exploring ways California can move
forward with more effective groundwater management.
Colorado River
From: Michael Hiltzik, Los
Angeles Times
Once upon a time, California and
Arizona went to war over water..
The year was 1934, and Arizona
was convinced that the construction of Parker Dam on the lower Colorado River
was merely a plot to enable California to steal its water rights. Its governor,
Benjamin Moeur, dispatched a squad of National Guardsmen up the river to secure
the eastern bank from the decks of the ferryboat Julia B. - derisively dubbed
"Arizona's navy" by a Times war correspondent assigned to cover the
skirmish. After the federal government imposed a truce, the guardsmen returned
home as "conquering heroes."
Bay Delta
Conservation Plan
From: Marc Lifsher, Los
Angeles Times
A bold, $25-billion plan to ship
more water to Southern California could create tens of thousands of new jobs a
year for decades, a Brown administration study says. And even though the plan
is at least two years from possible final approval, it is generating plenty of
controversy..
The proposal, which still needs
to be endorsed by federal and state wildlife agencies, calls for two enormous
tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta that would deliver water
to Central Valley farmers, Los Angeles and other cities.
From: Gary Polakovic, Los
Angeles Times
It's been 40 years since the June
20, 1974, opening of "Chinatown," the fictionalized drama about
power, corruption and what is arguably L.A.'s most crucial resource: water. The
iconic film was Hollywood's make-believe version of an undying reality: In
L.A., you have to follow the water..
Water in the West has been
something of a fantasy since the first wagon trains. It's a drink mixed from
equal parts Manifest Destiny, hubris and engineering derring-do. Aspiration
would find a way to trump aridity; water would inevitably flow to our will, not
nature's. Now the make-believe at the heart of Western water is withering, as
the reality of drought and global warming take hold.
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