Valley
groundwater rule draws fire from both sides [Fresno Bee]
A
far-reaching plan by the state to protect a large part of the San Joaquin
Valley's groundwater drew criticism from farmers who say it is too costly and
from environmentalists who say it doesn't go far enough. About 75 people
representing growers, community members and agriculture leaders voiced their
concerns Thursday during a workshop held by the Central Valley Regional Water
Quality Control Board in downtown Fresno. The proposed rules that have been in
the works for years would create a system for monitoring groundwater and
controlling discharges of contaminants such as fertilizers and pesticides. The
rules cover 850,000 acres of farmland in the broad Tulare Lake Basin, the
nation's richest farming region.
State
orders county grower to clean up water [Salinas Californian]
In
an unusual move, state regulators Wednesday issued a cleanup order to a
Monterey County farm officials say is poisoning wells near San Lucas with
nitrates. What was distinctive about the order is its leniency. “Normally in
cases of this importance, where a community water supply is polluted, our order
would include much more extensive and costly requirements,” said Michael
Thomas, assistant executive officer of the the Central Coast Regional Water
Quality Control Board. “However, the land owner and farm operator have been
proactive, and they are willing to work with us and the community, so we are
not pursuing more extensive requirements or other enforcement actions.” For at
least two years, residents of San Lucas in southern Monterey County, and students
and teachers at the San Lucas Elementary School, have been using bottled water
because the local drinking water well is polluted by nitrate from fertilizers,
according to the water quality control board.
Gov.
Jerry Brown presses feds for quick review of Delta water tunnel project
[Sacramento Bee]
Gov.
Jerry Brown is asking federal officials to expedite review of the controversial
Bay Delta Conservation Plan, his proposal to build giant water diversion
tunnels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. In a letter to the U.S.
secretaries of Interior and Commerce, Brown urges that they release their
environmental review and file a decision on whether the project can proceed by
this summer. The goal is to ensure their process meshes with Brown's proposed
timing for completion of a state-level environmental impact report and associated
planning documents….It's not clear whether the federal government will expedite
approval. Federal fishery agencies, overseen by Interior and Commerce, continue
to express concerns about the project's potential effect on wildlife, as stated
in letters submitted to the state two weeks ago.
Flooding
as part of Bay Delta Conservation Plan could ruin Yolo Bypass rice crop
[Woodland Daily Democrat]
Burying
two 40-foot-wide tunnels beneath the Delta will make a mess, but state
officials hope to offset the environmental damage by improving the ecosystem in
other parts of the Central Valley. And one of their main candidates for
mitigation is the Yolo Bypass, where the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, or BDCP,
proposes increased flooding to create additional fish habitat. Yolo County
leadership has been leery of this idea, and a new report explains why: a cost
of up to $9 million per year in lost revenue, and the possible irreversible
loss of the entire rice crop in the Bypass.
House
panel set to offer several immigration bills [New York Times]
The
House Judiciary Committee announced Thursday that it would introduce a series
of bills beginning this week to overhaul the nation’s immigration system. The
move was designed to keep the committee in the middle of the debate over the
issue, which is now percolating on Capitol Hill, and to press a bipartisan
group in the House that has been working in private on its own broad
legislation. Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia and the
chairman of the committee, said the first of several proposals in the coming
weeks would create a guest worker program for agriculture and require employers
to use an electronic verification system to check the immigration status of
employees. Mr. Goodlatte made it clear that his committee’s intention was to
jump-start the debate in the House. The bipartisan House group studying
immigration, which has been meeting in secret on and off for about four years,
has yet to offer its own proposal.
U.S.
opens spigot after farmers claim discrimination [New York Times]
…Ever
since the Clinton administration agreed in 1999 to make $50,000 payments to
thousands of black farmers, the Hispanics and women had been clamoring in
courtrooms and in Congress for the same deal. They argued, as the
African-Americans had, that biased federal loan officers had systematically
thwarted their attempts to borrow money to farm….On the heels of the Supreme
Court’s ruling, interviews and records show, the Obama administration’s
political appointees at the Justice and Agriculture Departments engineered a
stunning turnabout: they committed $1.33 billion to compensate not just the 91
plaintiffs but thousands of Hispanic and female farmers who had never claimed
bias in court….The compensation effort sprang from a desire to redress what the
government and a federal judge agreed was a painful legacy of bias against
African-Americans by the Agriculture Department. But an examination by The New
York Times shows that it became a runaway train, driven by racial politics,
pressure from influential members of Congress and law firms that stand to gain
more than $130 million in fees. In the past five years, it has grown to
encompass a second group of African-Americans as well as Hispanic, female and
Native American farmers. In all, more than 90,000 people have filed claims. The
total cost could top $4.4 billion.
Ag
Today is distributed to county Farm Bureaus, CFBF directors and CFBF staff, for
information purposes, by the CFBF Communications/News Division, 916-561-5550; news@cfbf.com.
Some story links may require site registration. To be removed
from this mailing list, reply to this message and please provide your
name and e-mail address.
No comments:
Post a Comment