Groundwater
From: Ellen Hanak, et al, Blog
One of the few current bright
spots on California's waterfront is that the drought seems to be spurring
momentum to improve groundwater management in the state's rural areas.
Outside of a few dozen
adjudicated basins and specially authorized groundwater management districts -
located mostly in urbanized parts of Southern California and the Bay Area -
local groundwater oversight remains largely voluntary and somewhat precarious.
Coalition response...Ellen Hanak is right, the regulation of groundwater is a complex issue
and subsidiarity, or "cooperative federalism" may be a good approach
to getting a handle on groundwater management. But while Hanak says the drought
is "spurring momentum to improve groundwater management" it is
important to understand why groundwater overdraft is a bigger problem today
than it needs to be.
The 20th Century water projects
that were built in large part to offset groundwater overdraft can't be relied
upon to continue to serve that purpose. Environmental policies that reduced
surface water deliveries to farms, homes and businesses caused many people to
return to groundwater to keep their businesses viable. Part of the solution is
to properly manage environmental water resources so we get a measurable return
on our investment. Millions of acre-feet of water haven't fixed declining fish
populations. It's way past time for environmental water management plans;
similar to the ones required for urban and agricultural water suppliers.
Farming
From: J. Harry Jones, San
Diego Union Tribune
The rising cost of water is
forcing small avocado growers all over the North County to give up on their
groves.
Just 10 years ago, there were
nearly 30,000 acres of avocado trees growing in such places as Fallbrook,
Valley Center, Bonsall and the San Pasqual and Pauma valleys.
Today that number has dwindled to
between 18,000 and 22,000 acres, experts say, and the trend is expected to
continue downward for the next couple years before stabilizing at around 15,000.
Water Supply
From: John Laird, San Diego
Union Tribune
The thing about the drought
that's interesting for the general public and even a lot of stakeholders, is
they are two, three or four weeks behind the severity of this. You look at the
benchmarks - a year ago January we had zero fires of any substance that Cal
Fire had to deal with. This year it was 473. If you look at the snowpack, which
is the water source for 25 million Californians, after it melts it flows, and
(the) January measurement was 7 percent of what we needed. Right now, even with
a few storms, we're back to where we were in 1977, which was (the worst drought
on record).
Fisheries
From: Matt Weiser, Sacramento
Bee
There's at least one immediate
benefit from the most recent storms that swept through California: Wildlife
officials will temporarily stop transporting hatchery salmon by truck, and
instead release those fish at the hatcheries following usual practice.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service announced Thursday that Coleman National Hatchery near Red Bluff will
pause its trucking operation to take advantage of storm runoff in Battle Creek,
which flows through the hatchery, and the Sacramento River. They will release
the next batch of about 4.5 million young fall-run Chinook salmon at the
hatchery instead, starting Friday.
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