Drought Watch: Farmers fear water cutoff [Marysville Appeal-Democrat]
A
single sentence sparked widespread concern among the agricultural community
that the state could drop all water allocations to farms to zero in 2014. That
sentence in a notice from the State Water Resources Control Board involved a
requirement to maintain a minimum amount of water in state reservoirs at the
end of September to meet "health and safety needs" in the event of a
continued drought next year.…The notice prompted the California Rice Commission
to send out an update stating "that the State Water Resources Control
Board is actively considering action to take emergency control over all surface
water in the state." The update goes on to state the board intended to
provide a 0 percent allocation to agriculture for the year. The board would not
speculate on the repercussions of maintaining a minimum level for reservoirs in
September, said board spokesman George Kostyrko.
State officials hear
Valley drought pleas [Modesto Bee]
Farmers
and their allies pleaded with state officials Tuesday for quick action on the
drought emergency and long-term solutions to keep it from happening again. More
than 200 people packed a University of California at Merced conference room for
a meeting of Gov. Jerry Brown’s Drought Task Force and the State Board of Food
and Agriculture. “Your decisions will have a long and lasting effect on the
local, regional and state economy,” said Aldo Sansoni, who grows almonds,
tomatoes and other crops in Merced County. Speakers warned that the drought,
now in its third and by far worst year, could put many people out of work….The
drought is forcing well pumping that could worsen the land subsidence problem
in parts of Merced County, said Jean Okuye, a Livingston-area almond grower and
president of the county Farm Bureau. She urged wastewater recycling and other
measures to keep farms in production.
In California,
drought plays out unexpectedly [Wall Street Journal]
As
the Golden State suffers through a three-year drought, residents of semiarid
Southern California are mostly being asked to voluntarily conserve water. In
typically wetter Northern California, residents are faced with mandatory
rationing. In the battle for water supplies in the state, where the south has
traditionally been characterized as an endlessly thirsty drain on water from
the north, this turnabout is the result of years of preparation and billions of
dollars of infrastructure improvements….The impact of the drought reverberates
beyond the state's borders. Because California boasts a bigger agricultural
sector than any other state, the drought could lead to higher produce prices
nationally….Southern California has invested billions of dollars in recent
years to expand its infrastructure to hold, transfer and recycle water while
increasing conservation. Spending on water projects in much of the north,
meanwhile, has been far more sporadic and less ambitious, officials say.
Judge: Kings County
high-speed rail lawsuit can move forward [Fresno Bee]
A
Sacramento judge ruled Tuesday that Kings County and two of its residents can
forge ahead with a challenge to the California High-Speed Rail Authority over
its statewide bullet-train plans. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge
Michael Kenny denied a request by the rail agency to dismiss the second stage
of a lawsuit that questions whether the state's proposed high-speed train
system complies with state law. The ruling appears to set the stage for a trial
in which the two sides are expected to present a string of experts to argue
over the design of the 520-mile line that would run between San Francisco and
Los Angeles through the San Joaquin Valley and whether it conforms to
requirements in Proposition 1A, the $9.9 billion high-speed rail bond measure
approved by California voters in 2008.
Proposed immigrant
processing center roils Central Coast farmworkers [Los Angeles Times]
…Federal
authorities proposed building a processing center about eight miles away in
Santa Maria for convicted criminals who are in the country illegally….Officials
considered it a non-event, a minor real estate deal, a blip on a planning
commission agenda. But many immigrant farmworkers viewed the building as a
powerful symbol of the U.S. deportation machinery, and that allowing it to be
built in Santa Maria, where they have long felt welcome, amounted to a betrayal
by city and federal officials. The proposal has prompted a flurry of protests
unlike any in memory here — "even in the heyday of Cesar Chavez,"
said Richard S. Quandt, the veteran general counsel of the Grower Shipper Assn.
of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties, a trade group….That is precisely
the problem, Quandt said: If Santa Maria gets a reputation as being hostile to
farm laborers, the whole thing — the bedrock of the local economy — could
collapse. There is a labor shortage in the California fields as it is, and
reputation matters.
Fresno County sees
spike in metal theft [KFSN TV/Fresno]
Metal
thefts in Fresno County are the worst they they've been in the past five years.
Mike Chapman with the Fresno County Sheriff's Office Ag Task Force says about
$1.4 million worth of metals were stolen in 2013.…That number has been gradually
increasing since 2009, when the only around $300,000 of metals were taken. In
2010, it jumped to around $650,000; in 2011 it increased again to $950,000 and
last year, the total values of stolen metals were estimated at $1.1-million.
"While typically the crook is taking $20 to $40, it's going to cost that
farmer many times more, about tens of thousands of dollars to replace,"
explained Ryan Jacobsen, director of the Fresno County Farm Bureau. "At
this point, it's not what farmer has been affected; it's what farmer hasn't
been affected."…Chapman and Jacobsen says another problem is proving a
theft. That's why they are encouraging farmers to mark their equipment.
Ag
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