Bay Delta
Conservation Plan
From: Matt Weiser, Sacramento
Bee
The public has four weeks
remaining to submit comments on Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to build two giant
water diversion tunnels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. June 13 is the
deadline to comment on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan and its environmental
impact study, which are overseen by the California Department of Water
Resources.
The $25 billion project proposes
to build three water intakes on the Sacramento River near Courtland. These
would feed two 40-foot-diameter tunnels passing 150 feet beneath the Delta to
deliver water to existing state and federal canal systems near Tracy.
Drought
From: Jeff Fabbri, Medium
Water supply and water storage
are not the same thing. The press articles I am reading lately and TV news
stories I've seen for the past year, show a general lack of knowledge of the
difference, a knowledge that is crucial in forming good public policy in
California. The following words should explain why, and why it should be
important to understand it well.
I am a family farmer in the
Central Valley, living through yet another drought year during my 60
year-existence farming the land in California's Central Valley.What's different
than past droughts? The current drought is not our state's worst, however, it
might be one that has the worst economic impact. I agree with Peter Gleick who is an American scientist
working on issues related to the environment,
economic development, with a focus on global freshwaterchallenges
who works at the non-profit Pacific Institute in Oakland,California,
which he co-founded in 1987.
From: Ian Schwartz, KOVR 13
The hot temperatures are making
the drought harder to handle and manage, especially for a group of scientists
working to study water usage. The dry weather could put the brakes on tests
studying the best growing techniques for farmers.
It isn't an ordinary orchard near
Arbuckle that brings almonds or walnuts to your kitchen counter, it's a giant
lab of sorts run by the University of California cooperative extension.
From: Derek Moore, Santa Rosa
Press-Democrat
North Coast wineries and growers
remain optimistic following a second consecutive year of record-setting
harvests and strong consumer demand for grape varietals that thrive in the
region, particularly pinot noir.
"You have to be really
screwed up to be a grower in Napa or Sonoma and not be making money," Joe
Ciatti, a mergers and acquisitions consultant with Zepponi & Company of
Santa Rosa, said Wednesday at the annual Vineyard Economics Seminar.
From: Staff, KFSN 30
The fields and orchards are green
right now. Farmers are relying on wells since water from the state and federal
projects has been cut.
From: Juan Villa, Visalia
Times-Delta
The fight for water during the
statewide drought continues for San Joaquin Valley farmers, and two events this
weekend are shining a light on that fight.
One will be at Selland Arena in
Fresno and the other can be seen right now from the comfort of your home.
Groundwater
From: Rong-Gong Lin, Los
Angeles Times
For years, scientists have
wondered about the forces that keep pushing up California's mighty Sierra
Nevada and Coast Ranges, causing an increase in the number of earthquakes in
one part of Central California. On Wednesday, a group of scientists offered a
new, intriguing theory: The quakes are triggered in part by the pumping of
groundwater in the Central Valley, which produces crops that feed the nation.
"These results suggest that
human activity may give rise to a gradual increase in the rate of earthquake
occurrence," said the study published in the journal Nature.
From: Staff, Associated Press
Excessive groundwater pumping for
irrigation in California's agricultural belt can stress the San Andreas Fault,
potentially increasing the risk of future small earthquakes, a new study
suggests. GPS readings found parts of the San Joaquin Valley floor have been
sinking for decades through gradual depletion of the aquifer while the
surrounding mountains are being uplifted. This motion produces slight stress
changes on the San Andreas and neighboring faults.
"The magnitude of these
stress changes is exceedingly small compared to the stresses relieved during a
large earthquake," lead researcher Colin Amos, a geologist at Western
Washington University, said in an email.
Farming News
From: Eric Holthouse, Slate
In California's vast Central
Valley, agriculture is king. But the king appears fatally ill, and no worthy
replacement is in sight, as the area noticeably reverts into the desert it was
little more than a century ago. Signs line the back roads here that run
parallel to wide irrigation ditches:
"Pray for rain"
"No water = No jobs"
As I've already discussed in the
Thirsty West series, city-dwelling Californians are a bit insulated from
near-term water shortages thanks to the state's intricate tentacles of
aqueducts, pipelines, and canals that divert water from the snowcapped Sierras
to the urban core along the coast. Rapid population growth looms ominously, but
for now, you'll still be able to brush your teeth in Oakland and Burbank.
Water Transfers
From: Damon Arthur, Redding
Record-Searchlight
One of the worst droughts in
decades could pay off for the Anderson-Cottonwood Irrigation District this
year.
The district stands to make as
much as $1.5 million from selling water to the San Luis & Delta-Mendota
Water Authority in the San Joaquin Valley. The district plans to sell up to
3,500 acre-feet of its Central Valley Project water to the authority at $500 an
acre-foot, said Stan Wangberg, ACID's general manager. The district is ready to
begin transferring water, but still needs approval from the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation, Wangberg said.
Water Supply
From: Staff, U.S. Department
of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation
The Bureau of Reclamation
announced today the release of the 2014 Drought Plan for the Klamath Project.
The Plan describes the background for and process of allocating the available
Klamath Project water supply from Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath River
during the 2014 spring/summer irrigation season (March 1 to November 15),
consistent with the system of contractual priorities that exist within the
Project.
From: Staff, Associated Press
Officials said Tuesday that, for
the first time in decades, they plan to tap water stored behind a dam east of
Fresno, as they try to help California farmers through the ongoing drought.
Pablo Arroyave of the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation said in a conference call with reporters that low water levels
in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta have forced officials to turn to Friant Dam
on the San Joaquin River. The dam forms the Millerton Lake reservoir.
[This article ran in News Line on
5/14/14 - Link Fixed]
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