Water Supply
From: Staff, Sacramento Bee
Sen. Dianne Feinstein's drought
bill, introduced in February, was an improvement over the water grab bill that
passed in the House. A big plus in her original bill was $300 million for
conservation and efficiency measures, aid to low-income farmworkers harmed by
the drought, technological tools to help farmers get through this dry year and
emergency projects to address drinking-water quality problems.
That $300 million, however, has
been stripped out in order to get Republican support for Feinstein's bill. What
remains in the revised version are two troubling provisions that The Bee's
editorial board urged her to amend in February.
Coalition
response... One thing should be clear,
this bill is intended to help real people who struggle to make their home
payments, worry about their children's futures and try to make ends meet
through agriculture in California.
It is about the almost 4,000
family farms that receive water that flows through the Delta to sustain one of
California's most important food-growing regions. It is also about trucking,
processing, wholesale, retail and port jobs that all depend on the food
produced by hardworking California farmers. It is about the millions of
consumers who benefit from the low food costs that investments in efficient
agricultural production brings.
According to a 2009 CBS News
report, California's salmon industry is worth about $82 million in economic
activity based on $22 million worth of salmon caught in rivers and the ocean.
Environmental activists justify reducing farm water deliveries to prop up an
industry that contributes less that $100 million to the state's economy. At the
same time, farm water cuts stand to put thousands of people out of work. The
cost to California's economy this year from lost farm production, jobs and
associated business activity is 60 times ($5 billion) the economic value of
salmon. Are salmon important to California? Absolutely. Is commercial salmon
fishing comparable to the jobs and economic activity generated by farming? No.
In the last six weeks the amount
of Delta outflow has exceeded water exports by more than two to one. It is
certain that Senator Feinstein is mindful of the balance needed to continue to
protect fisheries. During this period of drought, all water users will be
suffering. The commercial salmon industry shouldn't expect special treatment.
Water Supply
From: Bettina Boxall, L.A.
Times
A decision by a federal appeals
court Wednesday could allow for changes in water deliveries to irrigation
districts that hold senior rights to Sacramento River supplies.
The unanimous opinion by an
11-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned two previous
rulings that found the federal government lacked discretion to alter water
contracts with senior irrigators in the Sacramento Valley. The new decision
sends the matter back to a district court for further consideration, leaving
both sides in the nearly decade-old case unsure of the ultimate outcome.
From: Staff, AP
An appeals court said Wednesday
that federal officials should have consulted wildlife agencies about potential
harm to a tiny, threatened fish before issuing contracts for water from the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
An 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation violated the Endangered Species Act when it failed to consult with
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service in
renewing 41 contracts a decade ago. The appeals court sent the case back to a
trial judge for further proceedings.
From: Karen Gullo, Bloomberg
BusinessWeek
Long-term water supply contracts
in California, which had its driest year on record last year, must be revised
to protect smelt in the California River Delta, a federal appeals court ruled
today.
The San Francisco-based court
ruled for the Natural Resources Defense Council and other conservation groups,
saying they had legal standing to challenge the contracts and the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation, which manages a series of dams and reservoirs that draws water
from the delta, had some discretion to help the smelt, which are small, bony
fish.
From: John Michelena, Modesto
Bee
I have mixed feelings when I see
those blue "Pray for Rain" signs along our country roads. Though I
thank the Almighty for sending rain, I think our state and federal governments
have been lying to us about California's drought and water.
Through early February, Northern
California was on course to receiving its worst rainfall since the 17.1 inches
it got in 1923-24, according to the Northern Sierra Precipitation: 8-Station
Index. The second-driest period on record was 1976-77 with 19.0 inches. Then in
February and March, we had a convincing answer to our prayers, when late rains
brought 26.6 inches by April 4 - which typically ends the rainy season. The
average from 1922-98 was 50.0 inches.
Fisheries
From: Mark Grossi, Fresno Bee
Biologists this week helped
54,000 Northern California salmon become San Joaquin River inhabitants -
launching the river's largest experiment to rejuvenate a long-dead salmon run.
As part of the nearly 5-year-old
San Joaquin restoration project, half of the juvenile fish will be released
today for a long, dangerous swim to the Pacific Ocean. The other half will be
released Friday.
Delta
From: Joe Matthews, Sacramento
Bee
When you're faced with two
different thorny problems, sometimes the best way to make progress is by
combining them. I'm talking to you, Jerry Brown.
Your first problem involves
water. Residents of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta - California's most vital
estuary and source of water - fiercely oppose Brown's plan to build tunnels
that will divert water from north of the Delta to provide more reliable
supplies to San Joaquin Valley farmers and Southern California. Their opposition
is based on fear.
Meetings
From: Staff, Modesto Bee
A hard-fought battle over
California's next water bond comes today to Modesto, the last stop in a series
of state Assembly hearings on seven proposals vying for a single place on the
November ballot.
Drought has raised awareness of a
dire need for water projects, but differing interests among political parties
and regions, including the San Joaquin Valley, have produced the many
proposals, and lawmakers face a June 26 deadline for reaching a compromise.
For more information, click here.
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