News articles and links from April 9, 2014

Groundwater

EDITORIAL: In drought, guard our groundwater

From: Staff, Chico Enterprise-Record

When it comes to the water that sits in north state aquifers, we trust our local counties to safeguard it and determine how to use it much more than we trust the state to manage it. Even though water is abundant in the north state, we generally know how valuable the resource is. We manage it wisely for the most part.

Especially in a drought, other areas covet our water. Despite vague remarks of indifference by water managers south of the delta, the underground reservoir here is coveted as much as the water in the above-ground reservoirs. And just like the building of Shasta, Trinity and Oroville dams was done solely to capture that blue resource, we know in this state that no expense is too great and no justification too exaggerated for getting their hands on any water source. Ask the folks in the Owens Valley or Trinity County.

Coalition response... Locally-controlled groundwater management is a reasonable plan for every part of the state. Many of the orchards that are in peril today were planted prior to changes in federal fishery regulations that have drastically reduced water deliveries in the last five years.  Simply put, farmers made decisions based on what they knew at the time, and then the rules changed. Blaming them now is unfair. California's water supply didn't get where it is because of a few dry years. Two decades of environmental-based water supply cuts that have decimated San Joaquin Valley farmers have done little to improve conditions for wildlife. It's time to try something different that protects water users in northern, central, and southern California and produces real improvements for threatened and endangered species. We hope elected and appointed officials don't base sweeping changes on a few dry years, and instead return some sensibility to water supply and ecosystem management.

San Joaquin River

San Joaquin tops list of endangered rivers in America

From: Mark Grossi, Fresno Bee

The San Joaquin River is America's most endangered waterway this year, says the national advocacy group American Rivers, known for annually picking the country's 10 most troubled rivers.

The San Joaquin's water is spread too thin among farmers, hydroelectric projects and other uses on the mainstem and three tributaries, the Merced, Stanislaus and Tuolumne rivers, the group announced Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

Water Storage

Complaint alleges American River flows too slow, warm in Sacramento area

From: Matt Weiser, Sacramento Bee

The federal government's operation of Folsom and Nimbus dams is harming fall-run Chinook salmon and steelhead in the American River, several environmental and fishing groups allege in a complaint filed this week with the state.

The groups are urging the State Water Resources Control Board to amend the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's permits to require colder and faster river flows from the two dams. The board has authority over water rights issued to the Bureau of Reclamation, as well as responsibility for protecting public trust resources, including fisheries and water quality. The board first issued operating permits for the dams in 1958.

MID, TID boards vote to file Don Pedro license application

From: John Holland, Modesto Bee

The Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts took a key step Tuesday morning toward using Don Pedro Reservoir for perhaps another half-century.

Their boards voted 5-0 at separate meetings to file a final license application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a huge set of documents with many details on how they would manage the reservoir. A crucial issue - how much water to release for fish in the lower Tuolumne River - remains unsettled because studies are ongoing.

Transfers

MID backs district-managed and open-market water sales

From: Garth Stapley, Modesto Bee

There's no longer a dispute over whether the Modesto Irrigation District should help drought-stricken farms get more water this year by paying some growers a fixed price to forgo their water shares or by allowing open-market sales among farmers.

The MID board on Tuesday quit arguing which approach - both approved in February - best fits the district's mission and agreed that both will proceed.

Groundwater 

OPINION: Ground water becoming another big California fight

From: Thomas Elias, Hanford Sentinel

The next front in California's long-running water wars has already opened, and the reasons for it will sometimes be hard to see - but not always.

That next fight is over ground water, source of about 35 percent of the state's fresh water in normal years and a much higher percentage in dry ones like 2014. This battle has the potential to become far more bitter than even the quarrels over how to distribute water from the Delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems.

Federal Regulations 

EDITORIAL: An EPA rule will clarify its authority on water

From: Staff, Merced Sun-Star 

The interconnection of the natural world has long been part of human wisdom. "All the rivers run into the sea," notes Ecclesiastes, and they do this even if they are streams that do not flow all year. As long as water flows downhill, pollution in one place can be carried to another.

So it makes sense that the Environmental Protection Agency has long sought to recognize this reality. But Supreme Court rulings in 2001 and 2006 have confused the understanding of which waterways can be subject to EPA rules. On March 25 it issued a proposal to clarify that intermittent streams near bigger ones will be covered.

Farming News 

Water management tops wine grape challenges

From: Greg Northcutt, Western Farm Press

On April 1, Mendocino County wine grape grower Zac Robinson was feeling more upbeat about the prospects for his 2014 crop than he was two months earlier. Since then, the rain has returned to his Anderson Valley vineyards. That includes a total of about 3 inches that fell just in the last six days of March.

"In terms of water supply, we started the year in a dire place and things have gotten better," he says. "We're probably out of the range of unprecedented drought and into a severe drought."

CFWC statement on DWR snow survey announcement

(The following is a statement by Executive Director Mike Wade of the California Farm Water Coalition in response to today's snow survey by the Department of Water Resources.)

"Today's announcement that California's snowpack is a mere 32 percent of normal is continued bad news for farmers throughout California that grow the food consumers find at the store. With the state's major reservoirs only half full there is little chance that farmers will be able to recover from this year's dismal water supply.

"Along with the looming hot summer, farmworkers, truck drivers, food processors and handlers and others will face layoffs and difficult economic times. An estimated 20,000 farm and farm-related jobs will be lost this year costing California's economy about $7.5 billion.

"Sadly, hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of water flowing through the Delta from the few recent storms to hit California will not be used to grow crops. Federal regulations and inflexible environmental water managers prevented that water from being put into storage for use later in the year. Instead, while posing no threat to Delta fish species, water pumps were left to run at a minimum while the water flowed by to the ocean.

"We're through the looking glass. The water system our predecessors built to provide for farms, homes and businesses is instead being used to support environmental purposes that have absolutely no accountability. People need to think about that when grocery prices spike this summer or the produce they find on the shelves is imported from offshore sources."

News articles from April 1, 2014

Water Supply 

California drought: Downpours fall far short of ending crisis

From: Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle

Snow surveyors are expected to tromp out into the Sierra powder Tuesday under a soft, steady patter of comforting precipitation, but the spring moisture is a cruel oasis in California's desert of drought, according to leading climate and weather gurus.

The pounding rain along the coast and fluffy snow in the mountains this week won't come close to solving the state's mounting water crisis, which has forced the state to turn off the spigot in many communities, a scenario that experts say is threatening farms, fish and homeowners.

Coalition response...The Pacific Institute and Natural Resources Defense Council have joined together in a tag team effort to ignore many of the facts about agricultural irrigation and practical on-farm water use.

Researchers at the Center for Irrigation Technology who actually study irrigation have reported recently that the potential for increased water use efficiency in agriculture is about 1 percent, or 300,000 acre-feet. If vast improvements in irrigation efficiency were possible we wouldn't be seeing almost 1 million acres of farmland idled this year due to water supply shortages. Gravity irrigation, when managed properly, is an efficient form of irrigation both in water use and energy conservation and is appropriate for many crops in California. The irresponsible rhetoric from  these two environmental organizations will lead to a disaster among California farmers while more and more water goes to serve environmental purposes with no measurable benefits.  

Water Storage 

EDITORIAL: New reservoir still looks stagnant

From: Staff, Chico Enterprise-Record

On a warm spring day 13 years ago, three Enterprise-Record journalists took a tour of bucolic Antelope Valley, west of Maxwell, where top state water officials talked about building a reservoir. They said they were getting ready to start feasibility studies and get moving on the project.

Thirteen years later, on a warm springlike day, two of the same journalists went back again. Nothing had changed in the verdant valley, which blessedly seems to be about a century behind the rest of the world. Cattle still outnumbered people. And this time it wasn't top state water officials talking about building a reservoir, but two powerful federal officials. They said they would push for feasibility studies so they could get moving on the reservoir.

Coalition response... Claims that the tunnels proposed in the BDCP divert water that isn't available are simply untrue. The tunnels, which are part of a greater effort to improve water supply reliability and restore the Delta are intended to divert flows that would otherwise be captured at the south Delta pumps.  This water has been reliably available for decades. Creating a second place of diversion helps to improve the flexibility of the state's water management system, protecting endangered and threatened species like salmon and smelt while improving the water supply reliability to millions of Californians and thousands of California farmers who produce food and fiber with that water.  Environmental regulations and protocols are preventing the diversion of water that could be captured at no risk to threatened and endangered species.

Drought

BLOG: Rebuttal to yesterday's media call: Opportunities Lost

From: Cannon Michael, Maven's Notebook

California is experiencing a drought.  It isn't the first and it won't be the last.  This year only briefly started on par with the last big drought of 1977.  Storms in February and March have pulled California out of that driest trajectory - see chart - and more storms are on the horizon.

Key reservoirs, such as Shasta, Folsom and Oroville in the northern Sierras are low as well as the San Luis Reservoir south of the Delta.  These are key components of the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project.  Zero allocations have been made for the Federal, State and Friant Contractors - 4,000,000 acres of productive farmland has been allocated no surface water for 2014.  Looking back at the 1977 drought year, the Federal westside and Friant farmers all had 25% allocations, the State contractors had 40%.  So why are things so different now?  Why with the improving hydrology are we still seeing no improvements in allocation?

Fallowed farmland threatening Valley air quality

From: Staff, KGPE 47

The drought could have a big impact on valley air. According to the Valley Air Pollution Control District, idle farmland is creating a dust hazard and it could pollute the air. In Kings County alone, an estimated 100,000 acres of land will be left fallow. This is land farmers are choosing not to cultivate due to the lack of water. Normally, farmers use water to control dust in these fields but that's not an option. Instead, the Air Pollution Control District is recommending the use of a chemical alternative or nut shells to block the dust.

Recent rain makes drought harder to see

From: David Bienick, KCRA 3

Recent rains have kept lawns lush and caused reservoirs to rise in Northern California, but water officials warn the drought is still far from over, and shortages may still be coming.

"It looks pretty good. Looks really hopeful that will have enough water for our summer," said Steve Symkowick, of Orangevale, as he and his wife looked out over Folsom Lake on Monday afternoon.

Water Supply

State snowpack estimated at 30 percent of normal

From: Antoine Abou-Diwan, Imperial Valley Press

Water experts called for increased water conservation measures Monday as they discussed California's water supply. The situation is grim. California is in a severe drought, with every part of the state feeling some degree of water stress, said Peter Gleick, discussing the California Department of Water Resources April snow survey during a telephone news conference. He is the president of the Pacific Institute.

"Snowpack measurement on April 1 is often a key measure of where we are," said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute. "By any measures, our snowpack is low."

Final snowpack survey doesn't look encouraging

From: Dale Yurong, KFSN 30

On Tuesday the Department of Water Resources will take the state's final snowpack survey of the season. Unfortunately, our latest storm basically amounts to a drop in the bucket.

A miracle march never materialized in this our third straight drought year. Despite our recent storms the snowpack still looks bleak - a third of normal. The final snowpack survey of the season will give us an idea of how much water is available for the spring and summer.

Groundwater

California's groundwater needs better protection

From: Lester Snow, San Francisco Chronicle

Mother Nature's last-ditch effort to make a dent in the drought with last week's rain and snow won't make any real difference for California's water supply in 2014. The state will conduct its final measurement of snowpack in the Sierra Nevada today - an indicator of how much snow will melt and flow into our rivers, ultimately making its way to cities and farms throughout California. We don't need that measurement to know that the drought persists and water supplies remain scarce.

News articles and links from February 18, 2014

Drought

Science Linking Drought to Global Warming Remains Matter of Dispute

From: Justin Gillis, New York Times

In delivering aid to drought-stricken California last week, President Obama and his aides cited the state as an example of what could be in store for much of the rest of the country as human-caused climate change intensifies.

But in doing so, they were pushing at the boundaries of scientific knowledge about the relationship between climate change and drought. While a trend of increasing drought that may be linked to global warming has been documented in some regions, including parts of the Mediterranean and in the Southwestern United States, there is no scientific consensus yet that it is a worldwide phenomenon. Nor is there definitive evidence that it is causing California's problems.

EDITORIAL: Feinstein-Boxer bill is a good start in addressing drought

From: Staff, Modesto Bee

With more than three-quarters of the state suffering extreme to exceptional drought, old, unhealthy disputes are resurfacing.

House Republicans, led by members from the southern San Joaquin Valley, passed a bill last week that amounts to a water grab for farmers in the south Valley. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer have introduced a more reasonable bill that can be debated and amended to meet the needs of the entire state.

Obama checks out Del Bosque farm near Los Banos

From: Thaddeus Miller, Modesto Bee

President Barack Obama's visit to the Westside was met with both excitement and skepticism from officials and residents here on Friday.

News had spread that the president would visit the farm of Joe Del Bosque, which straddles Merced and Fresno counties, on Friday afternoon. During his visit, the president also trumpeted his administration's efforts to bring relief for the region's most severe drought in 40 years.

BLOG: The Food Basket of America - Hungry People, No Water

From: Staff, The Food Journal

While the joint statement from Secretaries Tom Vilsack (Agriculture), Sally Jewell (Interior) and Penny Pritzker (Commerce) on Governor Jerry Brown's drought declaration in California ensured Federal help for farmers in counties severely affected by the drought, the broader message is "the long-term need to take a comprehensive approach to tackling California's water problems."

Obama: Figure out how to satisfy US water needs

From: Darlene Superville, AP

President Barack Obama drew a link between climate change and California's drought, and said the U.S. must do a better job of figuring out how to make sure everyone's water needs are satisfied. On a tour of central California on Friday, Obama warned that weather-related disasters will only get worse.

"We can't think of this simply as a zero-sum game. It can't just be a matter of there's going to be less and less water so I'm going to grab more and more of a shrinking share of water," Obama said after touring part of a farm that is suffering under the state's worst drought in more than 100 years.

Obama witnesses toll of California's drought

From: John Ellis, Sacramento Bee

President Barack Obama took a tour of the central San Joaquin Valley's drought-damaged farm country Friday, getting a look at fallowed dirt and hosting a round-table discussion with farmers, industry representatives, environmentalists and politicians.

On his first trip to the Fresno area, the president spent barely three hours in the region before flying to Southern California, where he met with King Abdullah II of Jordan at the Sunnylands estate in Rancho Mirage.

BLOG: Obama administration misses boat on drought assistance

From: Cary Blake, Western Farm Press

President Obama's visit to California's Central Valley Feb. 14 gave the nation's chief executive a prime opportunity to hear from a selected few in agriculture impacted by the state's intensifying drought.

The president's visit, in itself, brought the severity of the drought to the attention of the American people which is a positive. As the president made his rounds, a news release from USDA outlined the administration's new federal financial assistance package to California agriculture and other sectors plagued by the worsening drought.

Drought creates political divide

From: Gene Haagenson, KFSN 30

 The drought brought President Obama to Fresno for the first time and he called for a truce in the political water war.

"It can't just be a matter of there's going to be less and less water so I'm going to grab more and more of a shrinking share of water. Instead we all have to come together," President Obama said.

But it's been a battle between democrats and republicans from day one. On his visit to the Valley the president was accompanied by California Governor Jerry Brown who's initial response to the drought was, "Governors can't make it rain."

OPINION: Valley farmers want water not handout

From: Dave Hanson, Sacramento Bee

Re "Obama gets look at drought's toll" (Page A1, Feb. 15): So President Barack Obama visits the Central Valley on his way to a golf course and says global warming is cause for the lack of water for our farmers.

He must have forgotten he vetoed a water bill that would have diverted more water to the Central Valley farmers. Since the 1960s, California has had the infrastructure to store water to alleviate drought, but thanks to a federal judge we have been forced to flush water to the ocean.

EDITORIAL: Water is for more than fish, or farms

From: Staff, Santa Cruz Sentinel

We get that farmers, and Republicans, want more than what President Barack Obama is offering to help California cope with the drought. And we also get that recent rains notwithstanding, providing water for people and crops takes precedence.

But the president rightfully wasn't about to wreak long-term environmental havoc on the San Joaquin River Delta to provide short term water for farmers.

Water Supply

The board of the Turlock Irrigation District on Tuesday will talk about a possible purchase of highly treated wastewater from the city of Turlock.

Directors will consider appointing General Manager Casey Hashimoto as the district's negotiator with the city.

Last month, the City Council considered selling wastewater to the Del Puerto Water District, based in Patterson, to help it through the drought. The council delayed a vote after TID officials said they had been led to believe that they could buy the same water."

Water Pricing  

Oakdale Irrigation District to consider sharp rate hike

From: Staff, Modesto Bee

Farmers could face higher water bills and receive less water, according to an agenda for Tuesday's Oakdale Irrigation District board meeting.

OID leaders also will consider drought-related restrictions, when to start the irrigation season and the always contentious issue of transferring water outside the district.

Recent board meetings have been lively, with public pressure forcing leaders three weeks ago to abandon the idea of selling water for $400 an acre-foot to the Fresno-based Westlands Water District.

Farming

Flood irrigation still common, but drip method is gaining ground

From: Matt Weiser, Sacramento Bee

The sight is not uncommon in California: water moving slowly across farm fields, in broad sheets or through a grid of ditches, propelled only by the pull of gravity.

Flood irrigation is a tried and true method of watering crops in California, promising thorough coverage with minimal investment. According to data from the state Department of Water Resources, 43 percent of California farmland in 2010 used some form of gravity irrigation, an imprecise method that uses relatively large amounts of fresh water and represents a big opportunity for water conservation.

Levees 

2014 levee work will be 'unprecedented'

From: Andrew Creasey, Marysville Appeal-Democrat

The 2014 levee construction season is shaping up to be like nothing the region has ever seen. And the main event of the summer will be the Feather River West Levee Project. By year's end, 37 miles of levee will have had installed a slurry wall designed to protect parts of Sutter and Butte counties, and the billions of dollars' worth of property they contain, from 200-year floods similar to the 1955 disaster that sliced through the Feather River levees and killed 38 people.

Fisheries

Lawsuits could lead to changes at fish hatcheries

From: Gosia Wozniacka, San Diego Union Tribune; Modesto Bee; Redding Record-Searchlight

People on the West Coast have counted on fish hatcheries for more than a century to help rebuild populations of salmon and steelhead decimated by overfishing, logging, mining, agriculture and hydroelectric dams, and bring them to a level where government would no longer need to regulate fisheries.

But hatcheries have thus far failed to resurrect wild fish runs. Evidence showing artificial breeding makes for weaker fish has mounted. And despite billions spent on significant habitat improvements for wild fish in recent decades, hatchery fish have come to dominate rivers.

Groundwater

California drought: Why is there no mandatory water rationing?

From: Paul Rogers, Contra Costa Times; San Jose Mercury News; Monterey Herald

Fourteen months into a historic drought, with reservoirs running low and the Sierra snowpack 27 percent of normal, a growing number of Californians are wondering: Why isn't everyone being forced to ration?

So far, Gov. Jerry Brown and most major water providers, from the Bay Area to Los Angeles, are calling for voluntary cuts -- not mandatory rationing with fines for excessive use.

Technology 

Water-Cleaning Technology Could Help Farmers

From: Todd Woody, New York Times

The giant solar receiver installed on a wheat field here in California's agricultural heartland slowly rotates to track the sun and capture its energy. The 377-foot array, however, does not generate electricity but instead creates heat used to desalinate water.

It is part of a project developed by a San Francisco area start-up called WaterFX that is tapping an abundant, if contaminated, resource in this parched region: the billions of gallons of water that lie just below the surface.

News articles and links from February 14, 2014

Drought

OPINION: A prescription to prepare for drought

From: Steve Fleischli, Sacramento Bee

President Barack Obama visits Fresno today to highlight federal efforts to confront California's epic drought, possibly our worst in 500 years.

Sitting in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley, Fresno symbolizes the mounting stakes in this crisis - both for our state, where agriculture accounts for 80 percent of our freshwater consumption, and for the nation, which gets nearly half its fruit and vegetables from California.

Coalition response... According to leading irrigation researchers at the Center for Irrigation Technology and CSU Fresno, the actual amount of conservation potential from California agriculture is about 300,000 acre feet, or about 1 percent, not hundreds of billions of gallons as Steve contends. To get more water from farmers would require massive land fallowing, which has consequences for our food supply, jobs, economic stability and our quality of life.

Read the report here: http://www.californiawater.org/cwi/docs/CIT_AWU_REPORT_v2.pdf

OPINION: What Obama should see on his visit to Fresno

From: Gerald Haslam, Sacramento Bee

Over a mirror in a beer bar in my hometown, Oildale, hung a sign: "We don't care how they do it in L.A." It revealed a truth in that little San Joaquin Valley hamlet, because folks really didn't care. Just north in Fresno, President Barack Obama will be entering a part of California today that plays by its own rules and expectations - Los Angeles and San Francisco (and maybe Sacramento) be damned.

The view in the state's midsection is that the coastal communities are mere ornaments. Local folks are tough, contrary and certainly self-serving, but also kind, generous and innovative in equal turns. They are not easily impressed.

Coalition response... Unemployment in the Valley is at its lowest when the water projects deliver the water they were built to deliver for the purpose stated in the Reclamation Act: To irrigate the arid lands of the West. People seem to have forgotten that over time.

Water Supply 

California Seeing Brown Where Green Used to Be

From: Jennifer Medina, New York Times

Fields that in any other year would be filled with broccoli, melons and onions are instead dusty patches of dirt. Farmers are calculating losses that add up with each arid day. Thousands of farm workers who rely on paychecks for tending the fields are expected to go unemployed this year.

"It's as worse as I've ever seen it, I'll tell you that right now," said Bill Chandler, who runs a nearly 500-acre farm, growing raisin grapes, peaches and almonds.

Farmers, community leaders discuss drought at World Ag Expo

From: David Castellon, Visalia Times-Delta

With water so heavily on the minds of California farmers and ranchers attending this week's 47th Annual World Ag Expo in Tulare, it seemed appropriate that one of Thursday's final events was a forum to discuss the state's drought.

A group of Valley farmers and leaders from some Valley communities lead off the event by stating how dire the outlook is if the drought - the worst ever recorded in the state - doesn't end soon.

Obama comes to California carrying drought aid 

From: Michael Doyle, Modesto Bee; Sacramento Bee  

President Barack Obama is bringing additional drought aid with him Friday, as he arrives in California's stricken San Joaquin Valley.

The new assistance includes sped-up livestock disaster assistance for California producers, provided under a newly signed farm bill, as well as targeted conservation assistance, watershed protection funds, additional summer feeding programs and emergency community water grants.

EDITORIAL: Finally, drought relief for Central Valley?

From: Staff, San Diego Union-Tribune

Hallelujah: The White House, House Republicans and Senate Democrats could finally act to help the water-starved farmers of California's Central Valley.

The galvanizing force is the state's severe drought. President Barack Obama arrives in Fresno on Friday for a firsthand look at farmers' misery.

Obama to unveil drought aid package to California during trip to Fresno

From: Jessica Calefati, San Jose Mercury News; Contra Costa Times

When President Obama visits Fresno this afternoon to discuss California's historic drought, he will open the federal government's checkbook and make tens of millions of dollars in aid available to struggling farmers and communities.

Obama will unveil a $183 million aid package that includes money for ranchers in California who have lost livestock, communities that are running out of water and farmers that need help conserving scarce water resources.

President Obama visits California's drought region

From: Scott Smith, Redding Record-Searchlight

President Barack Obama will visit California's drought-stricken agricultural heartland Friday to meet with community leaders, farmers and others and to announce initiatives to help the Central Valley.

Obama is scheduled to meet with a round table of farmers, a group that has accused the federal government of putting rivers and fish above their crops and livelihoods.

EDITORIAL: No easy answers for solving state's water shortage problem

From: Staff, San Jose Mercury News

Unless the president has found a way to issue an executive order to make it rain, the residents of Fresno are largely in for disappointment Friday when President Obama comes to town to discuss the drought. There are no easy answers.

The president doesn't favor California House Republicans' plan to destroy the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to give Central Valley farmers water for their crops. Nor should he. The better option for Obama is to back the proposal pushed by Senate Democrats to provide a limited amount of additional water to help Central Valley farmers through the crisis.