2014 could be driest in local, state history [Santa Ynez Valley News]
Paul
Van Leer doesn’t even have to look outside to see how dry the Central Coast is
this year. He can just look to see how much he’s spending on hay to feed his
cattle. “As far as cows go, we’re pretty much out of dry feed from the previous
year, so we have to supplement with hay,” said Van Leer, a South Coast farmer
and rancher and past president of the Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau. “A lot
of people will have to sell their herd or at least part of it.”…Unless the
Central Coast gets a rain of Biblical proportions over the next few months, the
2013-14 year will be one of the driest on record….If that did happen, Santa
Ynez Valley rancher Fred Chamberlin said it wouldn’t take long for the grass to
come back.
“If
we got 3 to 4 inches, the grass could come back very fast,” said Chamberlin, a
board member with the Farm Bureau and currently the second vice president of
the state Cattlemen’s Association.
Mendocino
County may declare drought emergency [Santa Rosa Press Democrat]
Mendocino
County supervisors today may declare a local drought emergency as rainfall
continues to bypass the North Coast. “I just felt we couldn’t wait any longer.
We have to get plans in place,” said Mendocino County Supervisor Carre Brown
who, with Supervisor John Pinches, is proposing the emergency declaration….Brown
said drought fears have been keeping her up at night. The Mendocino County
agricultural economy is particularly in jeopardy, she said. Crops in the Ukiah
and Hopland valleys are highly dependent on water in Lake Mendocino and the
Russian River. Despite extraordinary efforts to limit the amount of water
released out of Lake Mendocino, its level had dropped Monday to 707.3 feet in
elevation. That puts the reservoir at about 25,900 acre feet, a near record
low, according to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam operators.
In
dry Delta, fish harder to find [Stockton Record]
The
driest calendar year on record was not a kind one to fish, as several important
Delta species remained at historically low levels in 2013. The sensitive Delta
smelt, a finger-long fish whose well-being reflects the health of the estuary
itself, suffered through its second-worst year since 1967. Striped bass, a
popular sport fish, tied for its third-worst year….Depending on whom you asked
to interpret the numbers, they were either further proof that more fresh water
must be allowed to flow through the Delta or were evidence that water diversions
to San Joaquin Valley farms and Southern California cities are not the
estuary's only problem.
Editorial: Massive Delta
tunnels could destroy fragile estuary [Contra Costa Times]
Last
year was the driest since California began keeping records in 1895. That will
be used to try to fast-track the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, whose two massive
tunnels would carry water under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta that now
provides nearly half of Silicon Valley's water….California's water solution has
to include more storage; ideas like raising existing dams are a good way to do
that. And it has to include more conservation and less wasteful use of water. A
state water plan should encourage those strategies so that less water, not
more, will be pumped out of the fragile Delta. Claiming the environmental high
ground while building a huge conveyance system simply makes no sense.
Groups
agree on makeup of board for proposed North County water district [San Luis
Obispo Tribune]
Two
groups working to form a water district for the Paso Robles groundwater basin
have agreed on a management structure that would consist of a nine-member board
of directors….The board would consist of three members elected by residents of
the basin as well as six members elected by landowners based on the number of
acres they own.
Two
members would represent owners of fewer than 40 acres. Two would represent
owners of between 40 and 399 acres, and the final two would represent those
owning 400 acres or more….The two groups will gather voter signatures on a
petition to form the water management district, which will be presented to the
county’s Local Agency Formation Commission.
Editorial: FDA must stand firm
in the 'natural' food fight [Los Angeles Times]
Contrary
to what many consumers assume, a "natural" label on foods doesn't
necessarily mean much. The Food and Drug Administration has never defined the
term, though it says it doesn't object to its use to describe foods without
added color, artificial flavors or synthetic substances. Now the FDA is being
asked to broaden the term "natural" into meaninglessness by allowing
genetically engineered food to be labeled natural….There is a big difference
between this and the ongoing controversy over whether food containing
genetically engineered ingredients must be labeled as such. In the absence of
evidence that bioengineered food could harm people who eat it, it's hard to see
the justification for requiring that information on labels. It's one thing not
to place every bit of information about food on every label; it's another to
actively mislead the public. Allowing the word "natural" to describe
food whose genetic origin was the laboratory would make a mockery of food
labeling.
Ag
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