Bay Delta
Conservation Plan
From: Dan Masnada, Santa
Clarita Valley Signal
Build it once. Build it right.
That approach can be applied to
many things. If you were building a house from scratch, what would serve you
better - cutting corners on design, construction techniques and materials or
building a well-designed home meant to last?
Is the cheaper house better if
you have to rebuild it in a few years or if you have to add on because your
design wasn't large enough to accommodate your family?
From: Staff, Fresno Bee
The drought is devastating San
Joaquin Valley farms and leaving parched growers with no choice but to drill
ever deeper for water. Tapping the aquifer for more water, we know, isn't
sustainable. Nor is it good for the environment.
In the face of likely
catastrophe, Gov. Jerry Brown and President Barack Obama should act on the
requests of California lawmakers - both in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. -
and declare a state of emergency.
From: Staff, Sacramento Bee
Despite the state's 34,000-page
draft environmental impact study, fundamental questions remain unanswered about
the proposal to build two huge tunnels to divert water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin
River Delta to points south.
The basic financial framework,
for example, remains unresolved. Yet to be determined is how the
multibillion-dollar cost would be split among water agencies who would benefit,
and the state and federal governments. What would be the role be of the Delta
counties? The report also fails to define what future water flows would be
through the Delta.
Water Supply
From: Tom Nassif, Fresno Bee
A federal report last week called
attention to land subsidence in the San Joaquin Valley as a result of excessive
pumping of groundwater. It is true that groundwater is being used to irrigate
farms at an unsustainable rate. It is also true that something needs to change.
However, the prevailing and
one-sided commentary from government officials and environmental organizations
can be summed up as, "Farmers should use less water." No one outside
of the farm communities that produce healthy and affordable food for our entire
nation seems willing to look at another obvious answer: The federal and state
governments need to restore reliable surface water deliveries to our farms.
From: Kurtis Alexander, SFgate.com
After an unusually dry start to
the rainy season, two California lawmakers are urging Gov. Jerry Brown to
declare a drought emergency.
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein
and Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, sent a letter to the governor's office this week,
saying the state is facing a third consecutive year of scant rainfall that
could deplete reservoirs and leave farmers without enough water to grow their
crops.
Water Storage
From: Paul Rogers, Contra Costa Times; San Jose Mercury News; Santa Cruz Sentinel
On a summer day in 1962,
President John F. Kennedy helicoptered into the hot, dusty grasslands between
Gilroy and Los Banos and pushed a dynamite plunger in a ceremony with
California Gov. Pat Brown.
"It is a pleasure for me to
come out here and help blow up this valley for the cause of progress,"
Kennedy told the cheering throngs who had come to see the president launch
construction of the San Luis Reservoir.
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