California Water Bond won't be a drought-buster [Associated Press]
Gov.
Jerry Brown and state lawmakers are expected to use the backdrop of
California's most severe drought in nearly four decades to sell voters on the
$7.5 billion water plan they put on the ballot this week. Despite its size, the
measure will not solve the problems created by the drought nor is it expected
to prevent rationing during future ones. Instead, the projects it will fund are
designed to provide a greater cushion when the state finds itself dealing with
prolonged water shortages in the decades ahead….Many of the projects that will
be funded through the measure, if voters approve it, are years away from
providing any benefits, including a boost to desalination technology and cleaning
up contaminated groundwater. With planning, environmental reports and
construction, it could be a decade before the two reservoirs that are expected
to be built under the plan could actually store any water.
Water
cutback rules split board [Ventura County Star]
Discord
has returned to the local water world….Familiar tensions returned Friday during
a special meeting of the Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency board, which
regulates pumping on the Oxnard Plain and some inland areas. The five-member
board, which unanimously passed Emergency Ordinance E on April 11, was split
Friday on modifications meant to clarify how excess water use by farmers is
defined and penalized. Friday's 3-2 vote means revisions will be drawn up to
make clear farmers must report all water use, not just groundwater use, to
determine whether they are irrigating efficiently. Penalties will only apply to
groundwater use that's deemed excessive….California's drought has worsened
groundwater conditions, but Fox Canyon's basins have been overpumped for
decades, creating problems with seawater intrusion and water quality. State
lawmakers created the agency in the 1980s so local residents could manage the
system, but the issues have persisted.
California's
proposed meat regulations believed too weak [San Jose Mercury News]
A
bill that would clamp down on the use of antibiotics in cattle and poultry is a
pen stroke from becoming law in California -- so why aren't environmentalists
happy? The author of the legislation, state Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, touts
SB 835 as a critical early step in fighting an emerging national health crisis:
the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which sicken more than 2 million
people and cause 23,000 deaths every year, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention….The problem, environmentalists say, is that the law --
which Hill promotes as the first of its kind in the nation -- would be easy for
industrial livestock operations to skirt. More than a dozen environmental and
consumer advocacy groups oppose the bill, which cleared the Senate last week in
a unanimous vote and now awaits Gov. Jerry Brown's signature.
Big
business wins Capitol food fights [Sacramento Bee]
…Lawmakers
have considered at least four bills this year aimed at giving Californians more
information about what they eat and drink. Bills that seek to accurately label
seafood and the origins of produce sold at farmers markets are moving through
the Legislature, while bills to put health warnings on sugary drinks and label
foods with genetically engineered ingredients died in the face of industry
opposition….Pepsi, Nestlé and Kraft fought a different food labeling battle in
California two years ago, when they helped fund the opposition to a 2012 ballot
measure that would have required new labels on foods containing genetically
engineered ingredients, also known as GMOs….Biotech companies and farm bureaus
say the technique helps produce food in abundance and keep costs low. They
oppose labeling genetically modified food, saying that calling it out implies a
health threat that doesn’t exist….A bill that moved through the Legislature
this year would have required the same kinds of GMO labels that voters rejected
in 2012….The bill died in the Senate when a handful of Democrats withheld their
votes or joined Republicans in voting against it.
Local
farmers feeling brunt of labor shortage [Santa Maria Times]
…The
Santa Barbara County Agricultural Commissioner's office predicted a growing
labor shortage in its Economic Contributions of Santa Barbara County
Agriculture report released early this year, noting possible impacts to the
county's most valuable industry. The labor shortage stretches into San Luis
Obispo County and south to Ventura County, where growers have reported having
trouble finding enough labor to harvest their crops over the last few
seasons….The county’s three-year drought may mask some of the labor shortage’s
impacts, leading some growers to see smaller crops as they cut back on acreage
and water usage to weather the dry conditions.
Surging
wine waste stymies Napa Sanitation District [Napa Valley Register]
It’s
a problem facing many towns and counties throughout the North Bay: what to do
with high-density wastewater created by food and beverage producers? In Napa
County — with hundreds of wineries producing millions of gallons of sludgy
water that is too thin to be processed with fat and grease waste and too dense
to be sent down the drain without exorbitant fees — it’s a problems that has
led to more than 12,000 truckloads of wastewater being driven to Oakland’s
sewage treatment plant each year….Napa certainly isn’t alone in this dilemma.
Wastewater treatment plants in cities with smaller populations that serve a
large number of food and beverage producers are generally not designed to take
the volume or density of wastewater generated by large-scale commercial
producers. To be clear, the wastewater generated by wineries, breweries and
creameries typically isn’t contaminated with toxins, officials said. Instead,
it’s mostly created when these businesses use water to clean grapes, brew beer,
wash receptacles and create dairy products. Often, it’s like the water
generated from doing one’s dishes, but on a vastly larger and denser scale,
making it highly expensive and difficult for sewer plants to treat.
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