Editorial: What does drought-stricken California need? A water bond. [Los Angeles Times]
Los
Angeles has begun a historic drive to decrease its dependence on imported
water. The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the state's precarious water
switching station and the key to the survival not only of salmon and other
threatened species but of the state's agriculture industry, is in crisis.
California is in the midst of a continuing drought. It is hard to fathom a
higher priority than safeguarding the state's precious water resources, or a
more crucial time to do it. That means an investment in the form of a carefully
crafted water bond. Lawmakers in Sacramento representing various factions in
the water debate are squabbling over what to include in a bond they submit to
voters on the November ballot, or whether to just scrap the whole thing and
wait for a better time. There will probably be no better time. They should send
voters a bond.
Olive
cultivation is on the rise in California’s drought-stricken Central Valley
[Sacramento Bee]
Olive
farmer Dan Kennedy scores a pellet-size olive with his fingernail. The scoring
offers a burst of clear liquid. It’s a telling mix of oil and water. For
Kennedy, the oozing oil portends the olive’s promising future; the water is a
testament to the olive as a drought-resistant crop. In the midst of one of California’s
worst droughts, that’s no small matter in the vast agricultural expanse of the
Central Valley.
UC
Davis study links autism to pesticides [Fresno Bee]
A
new study released today suggests pregnant women who live near agricultural
fields where pesticides are sprayed are at increased risk of having a child
with autism. The study by the UC Davis MIND Institute found mothers exposed to
organophosphates had a two-thirds increased risk of having a child with autism.
And the risk was strongest when exposures occurred during the second and third
trimesters of pregnancies, the research showed.
Council
to consider immigration reform resolution [Bakersfield Californian]
The
Bakersfield City Council will consider a resolution Wednesday that could turn
attention from the politics of Congressman Kevin McCarthy's election as House
Majority Leader to immigration reform. The council will consider supporting
House of Representatives Bill 15 -- a bill introduced in October that even
sponsor Congressman Joe Garcia, D-Miami, said is a starting point to talk
compromise. Garcia and local officials believe the bill could succeed where
others have failed because, while it may have something for everyone to
dislike, it also contains key measures for both parties.
Local
farmers, industry experts mobilize against state water curtailments [Turlock
Journal]
Of
the 9,528 junior water rights curtailment notices sent to Central Valley
farmers by the State Water Resources Control Board on May 27 requiring them to
stop diverting water from all streams flowing to the Sacramento and San Joaquin
valleys, only 21 percent mailed back the mandated response — an indicator of
local farmers’ posture towards the Board’s intervention during this drought
period. The State Water Resources Control Board is now considering also
curtailing senior water rights holders — or those acquired before 1914 — and
local farmers are concerned about the future of not only their farms but the
state’s entire agriculture industry. In a bipartisan effort between
Assemblymember Kristin Olsen (R) and Assemblymember Adam Gray (D), local
farmers and water industry officials gathered at the Stanislaus County Farm
Bureau to voice concerns and interface in a town hall format prior to the State
Board’s meeting on July 1, which will determine if senior water rights holders
will be able to keep their precedence….“No one has a more stellar record of
doing more with less than agriculture — we have more than double the output in
the past 40 years with the same amount of water— but as farmers we tend to sit
back and not say much but this is not the time,” said Paul Wenger, president of
the California Farm Bureau Federation. “It’s not a time to hope it all works
out. They want to see you fight over groundwater, they want to see you divided,
but this is the time to work together.”
Op-Ed: Groundwater out of
sight but never out of mind [Stockton Record]
Agriculture
is San Joaquin County's leading industry. From our orchards, vineyards and
dairies - all the way to the diverse crops grown in the Delta - we consistently
produce commodities that are matched only in multiplicity by quality, making
our area the envy of the rest of the state. Ask any farmers, and they will tell
you that the most important tool they utilize when growing their crop is water.
In dry years especially, growers rely on groundwater for irrigation, yet this
precious resource is under attack. Political opportunists have used current
drought conditions as leverage to accomplish what they have never been able to
do - regulate and possibly curtail the rights of farmers to pump groundwater
for use on their own farms and then to levy fees on locals for the execution of
this regulation.
Ag
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