Water Supply
From: Staff, Fresno Bee
Well, U.S. Senator Dianne
Feinstein of California really has touched a nerve this time.
After years of politically
paddling a little to the left and a little to the right, it appears she might
leave her environmentalist friends on the left behind -- once and for all.
This week, Feinstein told Carolyn
Lochhead, the San Francisco Chronicle's Washington, D.C., correspondent, that
environmentalists "have never been helpful to me in producing good water
policy."
Bay Delta
Conservation Plan
From: John Kirlin, Sacramento
Bee
Discussion about the Bay Delta
Conservation Plan mostly revolves around new water intakes and the twin
tunnels. But this ongoing debate misses a large elephant in the room; the plan
proposes to lock in public policies on water operations for 50 years, and limit
future policy decisions even though circumstances can - and inevitably will -
change.
Fifty years is a long time;
having been engaged in public policy analysis for nearly as many years, I know
well the long-term impacts of policies that no longer fit the times. Before the
state moves forward with the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, potential unintended
consequences need to be examined. In particular, Monday's announcement of the
formation of the "Delta Conveyance Facility Design and Construction
Enterprise" is worrisome, in that it shares state agency authority with
water contractors. This will undoubtedly muddle accountability and invite conflict.
Drought
From: J.N. Sbranti, Modesto
Bee
Water shortages are forcing
almond growers to make tough and costly decisions this spring. That includes
killing off the natural vegetation that normally grows between orchard rows,
even though those weeds and wildflowers are home to the beneficial insects
needed for integrated pest management.
"We spray the weeds to kill
them so they don't consume any water," botany consultant Wes Asai of
Turlock explained Friday during the Almond Board of California's Environmental
Stewardship Tour. "This is the first year we've had to do it."
From: Sharon Girod,
Bakersfield Californian
Maybe Froma Harrop ("Even in
drought, there are fortunes to be made," May 6) should ride around other
cities and decry the use of water for swimming pools, fountains, lawns and car
washes. Using water for growing crops that feed families, provide jobs and keep
our state and country strong is, in my humble opinion, a much better use of
this vital resource. Those farmers, their employees, their vendors and their
suppliers all pay taxes: sales taxes, property taxes, vehicle taxes, use taxes,
environmental impact fees, income taxes, payroll taxes, unemployment taxes,
disability insurance and the list goes on. Those taxes are the life blood of
state and county agencies and programs, which also employ people.
From: Pete Menting, Hanford
Sentinel
One of the big issues the Central
Valley - as well as most of California - is facing is the current drought and
water shortage. It affects farmers and farmworkers. Other agriculture
industries and consumers are also affected by the drought as well.
One filmmaker saw the plight of
the Valley's farmworkers and decided to turn it into "The Fight for Water:
A Farm Worker Struggle" documentary. When Firebaugh resident Juan Carlos
Oseguera began filming in 2009, he thought it was going to be a short film.
From: Dennis Dimick, National
Geographic
The wildfire season arrived early
this week in southern California, at a time of the year when skies usually are
covered in cooling clouds of gray. But this spring, the skies have been more
like ashen gray, and fire agencies have
responded to nearly 1,400 fires this year-twice the typical number, a Cal Fire
spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times. A New York Times report May 16 said fire season in the West is now
75 days longer each year than it was a decade ago.
Pricing
From: Garth Stapley, Modesto
Bee
Some critics of a controversial
Modesto Irrigation District subsidy are getting more vocal.
A former district administrator
has fashioned a slide show attacking MID's policy of charging electricity
customers more to keep farmers' irrigation rates low, and another power
customer has created a Facebook page assailing the same practice. Lee Delano, a
former MID assistant general manager over water operations, presented his
48-frame slide show to the Modesto Engineers Club earlier this month and wants
to take it on the road to show other groups.
Transfers
From: Staff, Merced Sun-Star
A plan to pump 23,000 acre-feet of
groundwater from Merced County and sell it to a water district in Stanislaus
needs closer examination. And the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was right to grant
the Merced County Board of Supervisors an extra day to think it over.
4-S Ranch Partners, which owns
7,000 acres west of Atwater and outside any water district, wants to run 13 of
its wells 24 hours a day for eight months to extract a substantial amount of
groundwater. To get that groundwater to its customer, 4-S has requested
permission to move the water either through the San Joaquin River or the East
Side Bypass into the Bureau of Reclamation's San Luis Reservoir. From there,
the Del Puerto Water District in western Stanislaus County would take it out.
Fisheries
From: Damon Arthur, Redding
Record-Searchlight
State and federal wildlife
officials are asking ranchers and farmers in Siskiyou and Tehama counties for
help in saving endangered fish in streams at risk of going dry. Agencies
responsible for looking out for endangered salmon and steelhead trout are
focusing on Mill, Deer and Antelope creeks in Tehama County and the Shasta and
Scott rivers in Siskiyou County.
"There's a serious potential
for these streams to dry up," said Howard Brown, Sacramento River basin
branch chief for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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