Water Bond
From: Patrick McGreevy, Los
Angeles Times
The state Senate deadlocked
Monday on a $10.5-billion water bond measure proposed for the November ballot
when Republicans opposed it for not providing enough for water storage and to
protect water rights.
Supporters of SB 848 could not
muster the two-thirds vote needed to put the measure on the November ballot as
a replacement for an $11.1-billion water bond that senators believe has too
much pork to win voter approval. The vote on the measure was 22-9, with some
members abstaining.
From: Dan Walters, Sacramento
Bee
With the state budget behind
them, the Capitol's politicians are turning to water, always California's most
divisive political issue - but particularly so during a very severe drought, as
a state Senate debate and vote demonstrated Monday.
They are trying - some harder
than others - to write a new water bond to replace an $11.1 billion proposal
placed on the ballot in 2009 but already postponed twice and widely believed to
face voter rejection.
From: Jeremy White, Sacramento
Bee
With the governor's controversial
Delta tunnel project a key part of the debate, lawmakers on Monday failed to
advance a leading Senate proposal to put a revised water bond on the November
ballot.
From: Sharon Bernstein &
Jennifer Chaussee, Reuters
A long-awaited plan to shore up
California's drought-parched water supply stalled in the legislature on Monday,
amid Republican complaints that the proposal does not do enough to send water
to farms and cities in the state's breadbasket.
Water Supply
From: William Palazzini,
Sacramento Bee
If California is in such an
extreme drought and farmers are not receiving any irrigation water, why is the
Bureau of Reclamation emptying Folsom lake at such a rapid rate? Where is the
water going other than into the ocean?
From: Philip Karlstad,
Sacramento Bee
Recently an article in The Bee
reported that water releases from Folsom Dam would be increased to reduce the
water release temperature and prevent salt water intrusion in the Delta. The
Bureau of Reclamations is wrong.
From: Richard Mazzucchi, Red
Bluff Daily News
As one of the most productive
agricultural regions in the world, California produces more than 400 different
farm products and is the nation's largest agricultural producer. In 2012,
California farm output was valued at a record $45 billion, or about one-tenth
of the total for the entire nation, and the state is also the nation's largest
agricultural exporter, with exports reaching a record $18.2 billion in 2012.
From: Lisa Krieger, San Jose
Mercury News
When a single snowflake falls
peacefully atop a Sierra peak, it begins a turbulent journey to help quench the
thirst of a drought-stricken state.
In most years, Sierra snow
provides a third of California's water supply. But it is by far the least
reliable portion - and now, after three years of historically low snowfall,
tensions are soaring over how we share the shrinking bounty of this great frozen
reservoir.
Drought
From: Meagan Clark,
International Business Journal
A prolonged drought in California
that spread to nearly 33 percent of the state this week is expected to dry up
thousands of jobs in the state's agricultural sector and could push U.S. food
prices higher this year.
The state's
"exceptional" drought is the worst recorded in the 14 years that the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been collecting such data. The Golden
State, the world's eighth-largest economy, produces nearly half of the nation's
fruits and vegetables - 95 percent of the country's broccoli, 81 percent of its
carrots, and 99 percent of its artichokes, almonds and walnuts - along with
cattle and dairy products.
From: Lauren Sommer,
KQED
Farmers who lack water in
California are facing a tough summer ahead, but for those who do have water, it
can be a windfall.
Water is hitting record prices on
the open market, prompting some farmers to pump groundwater and sell it - what
some call "groundwater mining." With groundwater already at
record-low levels in parts of the state, concerns are rising that these water
sales, known as water transfers, may put pressure on California's overtaxed
aquifers.
From: Chris Roberts, KNTV
It's a great time to be a seller
of water.
As California's drought enters
its third summer, some Central Valley farmers and ranchers lucky enough to have
groundwater to sell are raking in epic profits, according to KQED. Some 60 billion
gallons of groundwater could be sold via the practice that's called
"groundwater mining," the news source reported.
From: J.N. Sbranti, Modesto
Bee
Few of the 7,910 landowners who
were ordered last month to stop diverting water from California's rivers have
complied. So the state is proposing to "put some teeth" into its
emergency drought regulations.
The State Water Resources Control
Board next week will consider imposing hefty fines on farmers and other water
users to "ensure timely compliance" with curtailment orders.
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