Farmers
no fans of expected rise in water-quality fees [Stockton Record]
Some
of the most significant water-quality regulations that Central Valley farmers
have ever seen will be drafted within weeks and could become official by next
spring, growers were told Tuesday. As a result, the per-acre fees that farmers
pay to improve water quality under an existing program are expected to double
or triple - perhaps worse. That didn't go over well with a standing-room-only
crowd at the Grape Festival's Burgundy Hall, where growers on Tuesday were
briefed about the new rules for nearly two hours….Those programs allow farmers
to join coalitions to monitor water quality, learn more about pollution trends
and make improvements - probably cheaper and simpler than if they were
regulated on an individual basis. The permanent regulations under consideration
now leave the coalitions in place but for the first time will require that
groundwater beneath a farmer's crops be monitored, in addition to adjacent
rivers and streams.
Paso
groundwater decision put on hold [San Luis Obispo]
County
supervisors will consider adopting an emergency ordinance that would prohibit
new uses of the Paso Robles groundwater basin unless it is offset 2 to 1 with
water savings elsewhere in the basin. The decision to schedule the hearing —
set for Aug. 27 — took place after a daylong meeting that featured comments by
nearly 100 North County residents and vineyard owners who discussed the effects
of drops in the groundwater table, which has fallen 100 feet in some areas in
recent decades….The vote was unanimous, but the deliberations showed deep
divisions among the county supervisors about how the dwindling groundwater
basin should be managed. Supervisors Bruce Gibson and Adam Hill strongly
supported an emergency ordinance, while Supervisors Frank Mecham and Debbie
Arnold were much more leery of adopting sweeping limits on new groundwater
demands.
Imperial
Irrigation District on-farm water conservation program approved [Imperial
Valley Press]
Imperial
Valley farmers who invested in water conservation measures last year in
anticipation of the Imperial Irrigation District’s on-farm efficiency water
conservation program can breathe a sigh of relief: the Board of Directors
approved the program Tuesday. The vote was 4-1 after more than 30 minutes of
spirited debate and discussion….The on-farm efficiency water conservation
program offers farmers incentives to install and implement water-efficient
irrigation measures in their fields, like sprinklers and tailwater recovery
systems. Tuesday’s agenda item asked the board to authorize IID staff to
finalize irrigation baseline consultations, execute contracts and verify the
amount of water conserved before issuing payments to applicants. It also came
with a new recommendation, that the term of the program be extended from July
2014 to December 2014 to accommodate crops harvested then.
California
Gov. Brown struggles to shore up support for water plan [Los Angeles Times]
Gov.
Jerry Brown has shown mastery of Sacramento, but his hope for a legacy of
enduring public works hinges on a different skill — the ability to work
Washington. Brown has staked much on a $24-billion plan to resolve California's
decades-long fight over moving water from the north, where most of the state's
rain and snow falls, to thirsty cities and farms in the south and the Central
Valley. Winning would break a stalemate that has bedeviled the state for more
than a generation and reverse one of the biggest defeats Brown suffered decades
ago during his previous stint as governor. But his project cannot move forward
without the federal government's blessing. And in the trenches of the federal
bureaucracy, his adversaries have proved tenacious and powerful.
GOP
lawmakers seek audit of high-speed rail land [Associated Press]
Two
Republican lawmakers from the Central Valley want the state auditor to review
the California High-Speed Rail Authority's moves to buy up land for the $68
billion project. Assemblymen Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, and Frank Bigelow,
R-O'Neals, submitted a request Tuesday to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee
seeking an investigation into the appraisal process, assessment of land values
and the role of private contractors as the rail authority seeks to acquire or
seize 356 parcels for the first leg in the Central Valley. The lawmakers say
they want to ensure the rail authority has policies that allow landowners to
appeal the property values assessed to their land and "what safeguards are
in place to ensure fair and reasonable offers."
Medfly
entrenched in California, study finds [Los Angeles Times]
Feared
and despised by California's $43.5-billion agricultural industry, the
Mediterranean fruit fly is seen as a potentially devastating foreign invader
who routinely hitchhikes across the border in smuggled fruit. But a new study
argues that the infamous Medfly has established permanent residence in the
Golden State — even after decades of diligent spraying, trapping and biological
attacks by state officials, who say they have eradicated the pest….Based on the
geographic pattern and frequency of fruit fly outbreaks, researchers concluded
that the Medfly and at least four related species gained a foothold here more
than 20 years ago and had increased their range as they adapted to the
environment. Among the Medfly cousins that have taken root are crop-damaging
Mexican and Oriental fruit flies, the authors reported….Among other things,
they said, the California Department of Food and Agriculture should increase
its trapping and monitoring of fruit flies throughout the state and should
formulate long-term plans for dealing with an entrenched and growing fruit fly
population, rather than one made up of occasional visitors.
Ag
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