San Joaquin Valley sinking as groundwater stores are depleted [Sacramento Bee]
Flat
as a tabletop, the furrowed, brown farm fields east of this San Joaquin Valley
town are some of the most productive on Earth.…Now that bounty is threatened by
a crisis of geological proportions: The land is sinking – crippling the
region’s irrigation and flood control infrastructure and damaging aquifers that
are buffers against climate change. Nature, though, is not to blame. This
problem is self-inflicted, driven by the frontier-style exploitation of the
last unregulated resource in California: groundwater.
California drought
puzzle: store or conserve more water? [San Francisco Chronicle]
…One
thing that's become clear amid the fallow cropland and rationing is that there
is not enough water storage in California to sustain all the competing
interests. The dilemma has again put a spotlight on the precious water that
gets away….Trouble is, nobody in California can agree on how, or even whether,
to capture it. Everybody agrees that something must be done to quench
California's ever increasing thirst. The question is whether the state should
spend billions of dollars capturing the water behind dams and distributing it
through new pipelines or spend a little less money by maximizing usage through
conservation.
Green hills do little
for drought-stressed ranchers [Modesto Bee]
The
hills finally greened up to the east and west of the San Joaquin Valley, but
not enough to do much good for the cattle that graze there. The rangeland,
which was as brown through most of winter as it is in late summer, finally got
rain in February and March. It looks lush up there at the moment, but it’s
unlikely to last long.…The drought, now in its third and by far worst year, has
hit ranchers especially hard.…Ranchers have had to reduce the density of cattle
on the range, bring in hay to supplement the grasses, and consider selling
animals at less than desired weight. All of this cuts into their margins.
Editorial: UCLA drought report evidence most of state just doesn't
get it [Chico Enterprise-Record]
This
newspaper is often accused of favoring, or encouraging, or supporting something
by putting it on the front page of our newspaper. Not true. Sometimes we put
things out there just because they're so unbelievably stupid we think our
readers need to have their jaws drop in disbelief once in a while. So it was
with the story in Friday's paper with a report from the UCLA Anderson School of
Business Management that the drought wasn't going to have much of an impact on
California's economy….And for those of us who actually understand — who fret
for the almond growers when the frosts come in February, and fret for the rice
growers trying to figure out how to make the production-wildlife habitat matrix
work when the water isn't there — the UCLA report should be a wake-up call. The
rest of the state doesn't get it. We need to be ready for what that means. And
we need to let them know how wrong they are.
http://www.chicoer.com/editorials/ci_25504517/editorial-ucla-drought-report-evidence-most-state-just
SRA fire fee
legislation up for discussion: State committees to consider bills on appeal
process [Eureka Times-Standard]
As
the third round of State Responsibility Area fire fees are mailed out, three
proposed bills regarding the appeal process for the controversial legislation
will be heard in state assembly committee meetings on Monday. Assembly Bill
1519 would eliminate the penalty imposed on residents who petition the fee and
are denied, and Assembly Bill 1954 would allow taxpayers to take their claim to
the state Board of Equalization if an appeal is denied by CalFire. Assembly
Bill 2048, co-authored by North Coast Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro, would
simplify the appeal process and allow CalFire to consider claims for refunds
that are filed later than 30 days after the notice is received and reduce a
late payment penalty by half, according to the legislation.
Political push for
raw, unpasteurized milk is increasing access, but illnesses are up, too
[Washington Post]
An
alliance of food activists and anti-regulation libertarians is battling to
legalize raw, unpasteurized milk, despite warnings from health officials about
the rising toll of illnesses affecting adults and children alike. As the
popularity of raw milk has grown, so too have associated outbreaks. They have
nearly doubled over the past five years, with eight out of 10 cases occurring
in states that have legalized sales of the unpasteurized product, according to
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.…But distrust of government and
a thirst for the milk have helped fuel the movement to do away with federal and
state restrictions despite the warnings.…During this legislative session, 40
bills have been introduced in 23 state capitals, all seeking to legalize
unpasteurized milk within state borders. And in Congress, Rep. Thomas Massie
(R-Ky.), who raises grass-fed cattle and says he grew up drinking unpasteurized
milk, introduced two bills last week that would get the Food and Drug
Administration out of the business of policing raw milk sales.
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