The
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on Thursday approved the environmental report for a
multimillion-dollar proposal to allow the transfer and sale of Merced County
groundwater to buyers in Stanislaus County. The federal agency issued a
“Finding of No Significant Impact” report, which occurs when an environmental
analysis determines that a project has no major impacts on the quality of the
environment.…According to the proposal, two Merced County landowners will pump
up to 13,000 acre-feet of groundwater per year to sell to the Del Puerto Water
District and the Patterson Irrigation District over the next two years….Anthea
Hansen, general manager of the Del Puerto Water District, said the project was
scaled back because of concerns from local growers that pumping groundwater and
moving it out of Merced County, especially during a drought year, would reduce
the supply of nearby wells….Despite the monitoring plan and assurance that
pumping won’t exceed historic amounts, county Farm Bureau Executive Director
Amanda Carvajal said the water shortage is getting more critical each day.
Commentary: Groundwater can’t be regulated without increasing
surface supplies [Sacramento Bee]
…The
governor, legislators and others are calling for potentially far-reaching
changes in the use and management of groundwater – new fees, new requirements
and new bureaucracy to administer it all. Protecting California’s groundwater
is vitally important for everyone. However, we cannot legislate new approaches
to groundwater management in isolation; the surface supply shortages driving
the overdraft of groundwater supplies must also be addressed if we are to
successfully protect and restore our precious groundwater basins….Recent
studies, including one underway by the Nature Conservancy, indicate that
increased surface storage capacity, together with conveyance improvements in
the Delta, will provide the greatest benefits for groundwater. These
investments will help to both restore stressed groundwater basins and capture
abundant surface flows when they are available.
$11M deal struck to
conserve Colorado River basin [Associated Press]
Water
providers from four western states and the federal government announced an $11
million agreement Thursday to fund projects meant to counteract critically low
water levels in the Colorado River basin, which supplies water to about 40
million people in seven states. The Interior Department said Thursday that
local water providers in Arizona, California, Nevada and Colorado will take
part in the deal. It aims to create several small pilot programs in 2015 and
2016 that would provide incentives and compensation for conservation by cities,
farmers and industry, according to a statement announcing the agreement. The
programs that work best can then be expanded, extended, or both.
Appeals court
approves bond sale for high-speed rail [Fresno Bee]
A
state appellate court has cleared the way for the sale of bonds for
California's controversial high-speed rail project, overturning a lower-court
ruling. But in making its ruling late Thursday afternoon, the 3rd District
Court of Appeal in Sacramento said it sees other looming legal questions for
high-speed rail -- most raised in lawsuits by Kings County plaintiffs. Appellate
Justices Vance W. Raye, Ronald B. Robie and M. Kathleen Butz ordered Sacramento
County Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny to OK the issuance of bonds from
Proposition 1A, the $9.9 billion high-speed rail bond measure approved by
California voters in 2008.…The justices also ordered Kenny to vacate his
November ruling in one part of a lawsuit filed by Kings County farmer John Tos,
Hanford resident Aaron Fukuda and the Kings County Board of Supervisors that
the rail authority's funding plan failed to comply with Prop. 1A requirements.
USDA announces 1st
update to poultry inspection rules since 1957 [Sacramento Bee]
The
U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on Thursday the first new regulations
for poultry inspection since 1957. The rules, which were finalized Thursday,
require plants to conduct their own testing and sampling of birds for the first
time for food-borne pathogens such as campylobacter and salmonella, at least
twice during the production process. The USDA will continue to conduct its own
tests as well. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the changes would result
in 5,000 fewer food-borne illnesses connected to poultry products every year.
Tears, hugs, shucking
at Drakes Bay Oyster Co.'s final day open to public [San Francisco Chronicle]
The
tears flowed like a cool Pacific current Thursday in West Marin as hundreds
gathered to bid a final shuck to a century-old oyster farm on Drakes Estero.
After years of unsuccessful wrangling with the federal government, Drakes Bay
Oyster Co. closed its doors to the public Thursday afternoon after an emotional
oyster toast, a lone bagpiper's rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" and
plenty of hugs. "We wrote letters, we called people, we did what we could.
But it wasn't enough to save this place," said Hugo Phillips, a retired
engineer from San Rafael who's been buying Drakes Bay oysters for 40 years.
"It's a very sad day. They're good people. I just wanted to see them
off."
Ag
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