Water reduction mandates hit county [Calaveras Enterprise]
The
severe drought hitting California just took a turn from bad to worse for
residents of Calaveras County after the state sent letters out to water-right
holders demanding curtailment….“There are more than 200 junior water right
holders in Calaveras County,” said the county’s Agriculture Commissioner Kevin
Wright, who’s been in talks with farmers and ranchers about what the letters
will mean. He received a list from the state of those junior holders, which had
“357 names, including water districts.” The Calaveras County Water District is
one of those, and at its regular board meeting June 11, the directors voted to
adopt stage 3 mandatory measures – second only to stage 4 in severseverity –
for its customers, which number more than 12,000 on the water side. The water
district is now requiring them to cut their water use by 35 percent compared to
last year….Some of those CCWD customers are members of the agriculture
community on the west end of Calaveras County who also have additional junior
water rights they use to keep their crops alive.
Opposition votes by
S.J. on water issues [Stockton Record]
Fearing
the state will interfere with local management of groundwater supplies, San
Joaquin County supervisors voted Tuesday to oppose legislation and support
state intervention "only in the most extreme situations." In a
separate action, supervisors also opposed the proposed designation of the upper
Mokelumne River as wild and scenic.…Unlike some portions of the state, where excessive
pumping of groundwater has caused the ground to sink several feet or more, San
Joaquin County has seen land "subsidence" measured in mere
millimeters, county Public Works Director Tom Gau told the board Tuesday.…The
local concern, however, is that areas that have attempted to improve their
groundwater supplies will be lumped in with areas that have neglected this
precious resource.
Budget deal spends
cap-and-trade funds on high-speed rail [Sacramento Bee]
Two
years after Gov. Jerry Brown first proposed using carbon-reduction revenue to
prop up California’s beleaguered high-speed rail project, Brown and legislative
leaders reached budget agreements Thursday that include the controversial
funding plan, as well as money to pay overtime for in-home supportive services
and increase welfare-to-work grants….In a key resolution, Brown and Democratic
lawmakers agreed to use $250 million in cap-and-trade revenue – money polluters
pay to offset carbon emissions – to fund construction of California’s $68
billion rail project this year, with 25 percent of carbon emission funds going
to the project in future years. The amount falls short of the 33 percent Brown
initially wanted, but is more than Senate Democrats proposed. Environmentalists
and Republicans immediately criticized the plan, which is almost certain to be
challenged in court.
Editorial: Bullet train scam is a bad budget deal [Contra Costa Times]
Enough
with the high-speed rail lunacy. The Legislature needs to derail the budget
deal reportedly cobbled together Thursday by Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic
leaders that calls for spending 25 percent of future cap-and-trade revenue on
California's high-speed rail boondoggle. The Legislature at a minimum has to
re-establish its own credibility in having passed AB 32, the greenhouse gas
reduction law, in 2006. But it also should withdraw its support for the bullet
train and tell the governor to give it up. Brown has been the voice of reason
on many other budget issues, including the need to build a rainy-day fund as
California's economic outlook brightens. But his fixation on high-speed rail
defies logic.
Kevin McCarthy,
would-be majority leader, at home in D.C., Bakersfield [Los Angeles Times]
…Despite
the demands of his job as the third-ranking Republican in Congress, McCarthy,
49, maintains a regular presence in Bakersfield, a conservative city in the San
Joaquin Valley whose economy relies heavily on agriculture and oil….On
California issues, he has clashed with environmentalists over his efforts to
bring more water to farmers, while winning praise from the likes of Larry
Starrh, owner of a family-run farm in western Kern County, who called him a
"stalwart on water issues." McCarthy and other Central Valley
Republicans have pushed to block federal funding for the state's high-speed
rail project. Immigration has been a tough issue for McCarthy, who represents a
35% Latino district that relies on immigrants for picking crops. He has walked
a fine line with the GOP rank and file, many of whom oppose granting legal
status to immigrants who are in the country illegally.
Citrus disease the
focus of grant program [Palm Springs Desert Sun]
The
Department of Agriculture said Thursday it will distribute $24 million worth of
grants to researchers to find ways to combat the citrus greening disease.
Though the disease — whose formal name is huanlongbing — has been identified in
only one tree in Los Angeles, state agriculture officials have set up
quarantine zones across swaths of Central and Southern California to isolate
and eradicate the Asian citrus psyllid, an insect that spreads the disease….The
$24 million was included in last year’s farm bill. Federal agencies and
laboratories, colleges and universities, private research organizations, state
agriculture stations and cooperative extension services, and individual
scientists are eligible to apply for the grants.
Ag
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