Drought
From: Staff, San Francisco
Chronicle
The test of any water policy is
not if it works in the wet times but if it protects widely shared public values
in the dry times.
So it is distressing to see Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., determined to toss out
water management policies and protections, worked out over 20 years to balance
the water needs of California cities, farms and the environment, in order to
serve some interests at the expense of others.
Coalition response... It's important to remember that California's senators have a
responsibility to represent the entire state and to pursue policies that
improve the state for the greater good of all its citizens. California's
extraordinary diversity in social values, economics and geography make this a
challenging task in the best of times.
Drought
From: Senator Dianne
Feinstein, San Francisco Chronicle
The May 21 Chronicle editorial
"Sen. Feinstein's wrong response to the drought"
suggests a water policy is successful "if it protects widely shared public
values." That is true. But I would argue that a key part of "shared
public values" is actually getting water where it needs to go. Balancing
environmental principles with practical water solutions is the goal of my bill,
the Emergency Drought Relief Act.
Unfortunately, the Chronicle
editorial board repeatedly mischaracterizes this legislation. First and
foremost, the bill specifically states that all existing laws and regulations
must be followed, including biological opinions, the Endangered Species Act,
the Clean Water Act and other laws. In fact, when environmental groups came to
my staff and said the bill did not cover court-approved biological opinions of
both smelt and salmon, we promptly revised the bill text.
From: Bruce Kennedy, CBS News,
Moneywatch
The severe and historic drought
underway in California is expected to take a large financial bite out of the
Golden State's agricultural sector -- and lead to thousands of jobs being cut.
It's also projected to have additional impacts on the nation's food prices.
A new study by the University of
California, Davis' Center for Watershed Sciences says the state's ongoing dry
conditions will deal a "severe blow" to irrigated agriculture and
farm communities in California's Central Valley -- one of the most productive
agricultural regions on earth -- while costing the state around $1.7 billion.
From: Jonathan Kauffman, San
Francisco Chronicle
With the summer solstice still a
month off, it's still hard to get a full sense of how the drought is affecting
the Bay Area's food supply. Dire warnings of wildfires and projections of large
price increases are offset by relatively small changes in what we're spending
at supermarkets.
A new study that came out of UC
Davis yesterday starts to attach some numbers to the losses that Central Valley
farmers are facing this year.
From: Michael Doyle, McClatchy
DC
Democratic Sen. Dianne
Feinstein's newly finished California water bill that's designed for quick
Senate approval gratifies some farmers while alienating some fishermen, tribes
and environmentalists.
The California Democrat is
pushing for the revised 16-page bill to pass the Senate as soon as possible,
perhaps by Friday, setting up a delicate round of deal-making with
Republican-led House negotiators. Right now, though, this remains a machine
with many moving parts.
From: Max Pringle, Capital
Public Radio
Some California farmers may not
be allowed to divert river water to irrigate their crops this summer. The
restriction is part of new rules being considered this week by state water
managers.
Some members of the Water
Resources Control board say suspending water rights is an unavoidable temporary
emergency measure caused by the drought.
From: Andrew Creasey,
Marysville Appeal-Democrat
Fertilizer sales are down and
seasonal jobs are being cut as local businesses adapt to crop reductions due to
the drought. More than 100,000 acres of agricultural land will likely go fallow
this summer due to cutbacks in the surface water supply, and fertilizer
companies reported decreases in sales volume between 10 and 15 percent as
farmers ready fields for planting.
"Absolutely, (the drought)
impacted our business," said Blake Covert, market manager for the
Sacramento region for Simplot Grower Solutions. "It's taxing everybody,
not just us. Other businesses are off, from car dealers to restaurants to
everybody in between."
From: Cara Hallam, Turlock
Journal
An economic study conducted at
University of California, Davis is estimating a $1.67 billion loss to
agriculture and ag-related industries in the Central Valley due to the recent
drought, resulting in a $3.4 billion hit to the state's economy, and a ripple
effect throughout all segments of the state.
While the UC Davis study paints a
bleak picture, the California Farm Water Coalition says it could have been
worse."Researchers are estimating that 400,000 acres will remain unplanted
but added that the numbers will be revised in an updated report expected next
month," said the California Farm Water Coalition in a release.
"Earlier surveys conducted by the Coalition doubled that amount of
unplanted acreage but recent increases in water deliveries by state and federal
projects, along with an increase in pumping from aquifers, have resulted in the
lower number."
San Joaquin River
From: Dale Yurong, KFSN 30
The latest battle over water will
soon be fought in a federal courtroom in Fresno. The Friant Water Authority,
which represents growers on the Valley's east side, has filed a legal challenge
to halt the release of water from Millerton Lake. The water being released from
Friant Dam will be used by the Exchange Contractors on the Valley's west side,
a group of growers with water rights dating back hundreds of years.
Friant Water Authority general
manager Ron Jacobsma said the lawsuit seeks a restraining order against the US
Bureau of Reclamation to stop the river flow.
"This is not against the
Exchange Contractors."
From: Chris Clarke, KCET
A agency that represents 22
irrigation districts and other water providers in the San Joaquin Valley is
asking a judge to block the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation from releasing water to
benefit other water users, including Central Valley wildlife refuges. The
Friant Water Authority (FWA) filed suit in U.S. District Court in Fresno on
Monday to seek an immediate halt to USBR's release of water from Friant Dam and
Millerton Lake to a fellow water agency, the San Joaquin River Exchange
Contractors, and to nearby National Wildlife Refuges, claiming that the
releases are a violation of state and federal water laws.
From: Mark Grossi, Fresno Bee
East San Joaquin Valley farmers,
facing a zero water allocation this summer, are asking a judge to stop
unprecedented water releases that started last week at Millerton Lake.
The Friant Water Authority,
representing 15,000 east-side growers, says federal leaders are not following a
long-established water-rights pecking order in releasing Millerton water, which
would help save thousands of acres of east-side orchards.
From: Staff, Associated Press
A group of Central California
farmers have asked a judge to halt the release of water from behind a dam east
of Fresno.
The Fresno Bee reports (http://bit.ly/1oj0nBh) that a lawsuit filed this
week by the Friant Water Authority, representing 15,000 East San Joaquin Valley
farmers, seeks a temporary restraining order against the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation.
Farming News
From: David Pierson, Los
Angeles Times
Climate change threatens to
undermine not only how much food can be grown but also the quality of that food
as altered weather patterns lead to a less desirable harvest, according to a
new study. Crops grown by many of the nation's farmers have a lower nutritional
content than they once did, according to the report by the Chicago Council on
Global Affairs.
Research indicates that higher
carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have reduced the protein content in
wheat, for example. And the International Rice Research Institute has warned
that the quality of rice available to consumers will decrease as temperatures
rise, the report noted.
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