Groundwater
From: Timm Herdt, Ventura
County Star
Lester Snow has for decades been
one of California's premier "water buffaloes" - people who are expert
in the arcane policies of water supply and delivery. He worked with the federal
Bureau of Reclamation, headed the San Diego County Water Authority and served
as director of the state Department of Water Resources under former Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger.
This year, he senses a shift in
public attitude toward taking steps to preserve groundwater, one of California
most precious, but unregulated, sources of water.
From: Staff, ACWA
Legislation aimed at addressing
groundwater sustainability cleared the Senate Natural Resources and Water
Committee today.
SB 1168 by Sen. Fran Pavley
(D-Agoura Hills) in its current form would establish a statutory framework to
achieve sustainable management of groundwater basins throughout the state. The
author called the bill a "work in process" that could become part of
other potential legislative vehicles to address groundwater issues this year.
From: Staff, Press-Democrat
Let's talk taboo. Sorry, nothing
racy. Today's subject is groundwater. For years, the subject was all but
verboten in California. The mere mention unleashed hurricane-force protests.
No other Western state leaves
this vital resource unregulated. But the Golden State's biggest water consumers
vigorously opposed any monitoring, much less state restriction on how much
water they pumped from underground aquifers, and policymakers usually steered
away from the storm.
Drought
From: Staff, KSEE 24
This year's drought is the worst
in recent memory. Thousands of acres that would have been home to vegetable
crops lie fallow. Instead, farmers are choosing to use their water rations to
save their permanent crops, their fruit or nut trees.
With a limited water supply,
growers are having to make a decision, which groves get water, and which groves
do not. Shawn Stevenson normally harvests from 1200 acres. this year, he's had
to cut back to 800 acres and even that might not be enough.
Fisheries
From: Matt Weiser, Sacramento
Bee
Chinook salmon have resumed their
long truck trip from a federal hatchery near Red Bluff to San Pablo Bay, near
Vallejo, an emergency measure to protect the fish during drought.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, which operates Coleman National Hatchery near Red Bluff, began the
trucking operation March 24 to protect millions of juvenile fall-run Chinook
salmon from low water levels and warm temperatures in the Sacramento River. It
normally prefers to release the fish at the hatchery on Battle Creek, a tributary
of the Sacramento River, so they can imprint on the location and more easily
find their way back to spawn as adults in three years.
Sacramento River
From: Matt Weiser, Sacramento
Bee
The East Bay Municipal Utility
District this month will begin diverting water from the Sacramento River for
the first time ever, a clear sign that the drought is literally causing ripples
across the state.
The district's board of directors
voted unanimously Tuesday to begin tapping its water supplies from the Freeport
Regional Water Project on the Sacramento River, which it helped build in
partnership with Sacramento County at a cost of nearly $1 billion. The district
has not used the diversion since it was completed in 2010.
Transfers
From: Garth Stapley, Modesto
Bee
Plans to combat drought by
allowing water transfers among farmers could be in jeopardy, growers and
Modesto Irrigation District leaders learned Tuesday at a meeting tinged with
uncertainty and accusations of unfairness.
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