Fisheries
From: Jay Lund and Peter
Moyle, California WaterBlog
In drought years, California
usually reduces "environmental water flows" - the amount of river
flows needed to maintain aquatic ecosystems - to make more water available for
farms and cities. The current drought has been no exception. Depriving fish of
adequate river flows, however, might not be in the interests of urban and
agricultural users if it leads to long-term decline of species.
Coalition response...There are a lot of "ifs" in this post but one thing is
absolutely certain: the acknowledgment that environmental water is a component
of California's dedicated water supply. That may sound silly but for a quarter
century or more reporters and water policy activists have tried to convince the
public that farmers use 80 percent of California's water supply, which is
simply not true. They do this by ignoring environmental water flows. If farms,
indeed, use 80 percent of California's water then a tiny bit of conservation
would yield enormous benefits for the rest of the water users in the state,
right? Wrong. The Center for Irrigation Technology at CSU, Fresno reported in
2011 that only a small percentage of agricultural water is potentially
available for increased water use efficiency. Farmers have for a long time been
implementing highly efficient irrigation practices to improve water use efficiency
and crop production. Additional water transfers from agriculture to other
users, such as the environment, can only be accomplished with widespread land
fallowing, according to the CIT report.
This post also begs the question:
If it's a good idea to leave more water for environmental purposes during a
drought, isn't it also a good idea to produce environmental water management
plans? That way we would know if the water dedicated to the environment is
doing what it's supposed to do. Urban and agricultural water users are required
to produce water management plans. It makes sense that taxpayers who foot the
bill for public benefits, such as a "healthy" environment, have some
idea whether their money is doing what it's supposed to do. So far this year
about 2 million acre-feet of water went unused by people and instead flowed to
the ocean with no measurable endangered species benefit. It's time to be honest
about water policy decisions and agree, as the Department of Water Resources
states in the California Water Plan, that fully half, and a growing percentage,
of California's dedicated water supply is used for environmental purposes.
Drought
From: Staff, Ceres Courier
Three years' into a drought, more
than farmers are taking an economic hit in California. That was the summation
of bad news shared by Mike Wade, a former Ceres resident who is executive
director of California Farm Water Coalition in Sacramento. He spoke at
Thursday's Ceres Chamber of Commerce Agribusiness Luncheon.
Businesses that depend on trade
from those employed by agriculture are seeing a hit. That includes just about
all businesses, especially those in areas of already high unemployment.
From: Jon Carroll, San
Francisco Chronicle
I haven't written much about the
drought, although I have privately become something of a Cassandra about the
thing. As you'll recall, Cassandra wandered the walls of Troy saying the Greeks
were up to no good, and the wise citizens said, "What nonsense! They've
brought us this lovely horse."
But then I read an article in the High Country News. I love HCN
without reservation, and anyone interested in water use and land use issues in
the West should check it out ( www.hcn.org, and they also have a print
magazine I find useful).
From: Diana Diamond, Chico
Enterprise-Record
Let's not keep telling people to
conserve more water, take fewer showers or recycle their washing machine with
gray water. We need to do something much more dramatic to handle what, most
likely, will be continuing droughts in our arid state.
A horrible
idea? Consider that California's usable water is divided into three
categories -- agriculture, which takes about 80 percent of it a year; industry
and commerce, which use 10 percent; and the 38 million of us who together
consume 10 percent. So percentage-wise, people don't use as much water.
From: Staff, Porterville
Recorder
Tulare County has been doing its
part to save water during California's historic drought by turning off
sprinklers, focusing on planting drought resistant plants, and seeking ways to
improve irrigation efficiency at its parks and grounds, and since the water
reduction measures were implemented in Dec. 2013 by the Tulare County Board of
Supervisors, more than 125 acre feet, or 40 million gallons, has been saved.
"Tulare County will continue
to lead the way when it comes to water conservation measures," said Phil
Cox, chairman of the Board of Supervisors. "A gallon saved by the county
is a gallon that could be used by our agriculture community, which is the
lifeblood of our economy."
Groundwater
From: Paul Wenger, AgAlert
Everywhere you turn, the impacts
of Drought 2014 are front and center. News reports compete to describe dire
circumstances, whether high food prices, water rationing or limited recreation
on lakes and reservoirs. Most of the reports fail to focus on why and how California
finds itself in this terrible situation.
As the old saying goes, "No
one plans to fail, they just fail to plan." What California is
experiencing today should be a wake-up call to those who have the
responsibility to provide for our state's populace and economy. Droughts are as
natural as rain, and not being prepared for the inevitable is a dereliction of
responsibility.
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