Video
From: Press Release,
California Farm Water Coalition
Businesses and cities lose money
when neighboring farmers do not receive water to grow their crops. That is the
message of "Farm Water and the Business Crisis," a video that
portrays the reliance that communities have on a healthy farm economy that is
now available at www.farmwater.org.
The short video includes business
owners and community leaders from Firebaugh in western Fresno County explaining
what happens when farmers are forced to cut back on their planted acreage when
water deliveries are reduced.
Delta
From: Alessandra Bergamin, Bay
Nature
Seated in a wooden kayak at the
mouth of Sycamore Slough, Danny Slakey peers through his hand lens at a plant
no bigger than a sprig of thyme. Carefully, he inspects the small purple
flowers growing along its stem, turning the specimen in his hand.
In the Delta, the state is
proposing a huge construction project centered around twin tunnels dug under
the Delta to deliver water from the northern part of the watershed to farmers
in the San Joaquin Valley and urban consumers in Santa Clara County and Southern
California. The proposed "peripheral tunnel" project is paired with
the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, which aims to improve habitat for native
species as mitigation for the tunnels. Having baseline data for what is here
now is an essential prerequisite for understanding what species need to be
taken into account and Slakey, so far, is optimistic.
"It seems there should be
minimal impacts to the rare plants in the Delta," Slakey says.
"Overall, it sounds like the Bay Delta Conservation Plan may help to make
for improved habitat restoration."
From: Matt Weiser, Sacramento
Bee
Water diversion gates near Walnut
Grove in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta will close Monday morning, sealing
off a shortcut important to boaters.
The closure of the Delta Cross
Channel Gates is expected to occur at 9 a.m. Monday, according to the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the gates.
From: Bob Moffitt, Capital
Public Radio
Pete Lucero with the Bureau of
Reclamation says it closed the Delta Cross Channel gates near Walnut Grove on
Thursday and Friday and will likely close them again today.
Bay Delta
Conservation Plan
From: Pat Brennan, Orange
County Register
The California Delta is an
intricate, 1,100-square-mile tapestry of farmland, canals, lakes, trees, reeds
and marshes, but to Southern California it might resemble something like a
gargantuan water glass.
And an enormous, serpentine straw
- the California Aqueduct - sucks some of the Delta's water south, providing
drinking water to 19 million Southern Californians.
State and regional water
agencies, however, say the Delta is in crisis, its natural habitat rapidly
deteriorating.
Weather
From: Mark Grossi, Fresno
Beehive
In the midst of this balmy, October
weather, I sneaked a look at the weather a year ago. I saw an archived item
about a local storm report - talking about snow in the Sierra Nevada. There
were reports of heavy snow in the mountains of Fresno, Tulare and Madera
counties.
Groundwater
From: Julie Lynem, SLO
Tribune
After weeks of productive and
often passionate debate, stakeholders tasked with finding the best way to
manage the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin have not reached consensus on what
type of water district to form or who will oversee it.
From: Julie Lynem and Tonya
Strickland, SLO Tribune
As San Luis Obispo County
supervisors and others review ways to manage the threatened Paso Robles
groundwater basin, experts recommend crafting a special act district created by
the Legislature and customized to fit the needs of a specific area.
Dams
From: Alex Cantatore, Turlock
City News
After nearly four years of work,
the Turlock Irrigation District expects to submit its draft application to
relicense Don Pedro Reservoir next month.
Since its creation in 1924, the
Don Pedro Reservoir has served as the main source of irrigation water for TID
growers. The district operates the dam through a license from the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission, which is set to expire; the dam has not been
relicensed since 1966, just before construction on the New Don Pedro Dam
started.
One notable study looked at the
effects of predation from non-native fish species on native salmon. That study
found predation to be a "significant issue" in salmon production, far
more so than water flows.
Quantification
Settlement Agreement
From: Mike Gardner, SD
Union-Tribune
The giant Metropolitan Water
District of Southern California has no plans to ration deliveries even as the
state braces for a possible third-straight dry year and the vast Colorado River
system remains plagued by plummeting flows into a shrinking Lake Mead.
One reason for this welcome
reprieve can be traced back 10 years ago this month when warring water
interests across the West signed a historic seven-state agreement to share the
Colorado River. That pact also cleared the way for the Imperial Valley to sell
supplies to the San Diego County Water Authority.
Rivers
From: Norm Groot, Salinas
Californian
In my last column, I described
the need for rain this coming winter for the Salinas Valley community. Having
Mother Nature refill our reservoirs is top of the list this rainy season -
otherwise, we may find ourselves next summer without year-round releases of
water into the Salinas River, affecting groundwater recharge, habitat and fish,
and our local economy.
No comments:
Post a Comment