…After
Capital Public Radio reported about local tensions over groundwater access this
summer, we were curious who was drilling the most wells, and where. We
requested well permit data from each of the eight San Joaquin Valley counties.
While the data doesn’t show how much water is being pumped, it does give a
picture of where demand for water is high. Local agencies make different
choices about how they monitor groundwater use, and that was apparent in the
variety of permit data presented to us. While most counties differentiate
between wells used for domestic drinking water and ones used for crop
irrigation, one county didn’t start doing so until 2012. While one county
issues permits specifically for dairy wells, others don’t. One county freely
gave us addresses of well owners, another county said that would infringe upon
the well owner’s privacy rights….
Editorial: All of a sudden, we
have a groundwater law [Marysville Appeal-Democrat]
…Most
practical-minded observers believe groundwater regulation was inevitable….But
this seems something like an inexcusable way to throw together something of
such great importance, leaving water users and local governments with mostly
just an option to grin and bear it. Seems more like dictating than
legislating….The Sutter County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to oppose
the new regulations and are to vote today on sending a letter urging Gov. Jerry
Brown to veto the bills. The letter would state the bills violate property
rights of landowners who have relied on groundwater when surface supplies are
curtailed. And the bills could subject landowners to the costs of measuring and
reporting. Also, use restrictions could lower the value of their property.
Those are exactly the sorts of issues that should have been thoroughly
considered in the weeks or even months (not days) leading up to the vote.
Simulation
lets Californians pick ways to solve water woes [Modesto Bee]
Anyone
wanting to take a crack at solving the state’s water supply woes can give it a
try on the just-launched California Water Challenge website. The online
simulation tool lets users pick from assorted water-saving and
water-development options to meet California demands….The California Water
Challenge was designed by a group called Next 10, which describes itself as
being nonprofit and nonpartisan….Some of the challenge’s proposed options for
saving water may not be popular with farmers. Among the ideas is to “reduce
demand by funding the retirement of irrigated farmland in the San Joaquin
Valley that has been identified as either currently having or potentially
having drainage problems.”…Other agriculture-oriented options offered in the
challenge are “irrigation efficiency improvements” and the promotion of
“alternative irrigation practices.” Building more reservoirs to store water
also is one of the options.
Bursting
from its shell [Stockton Record]
Federal
farm officials predict a record-cracking walnut crop for California; pegging
this coming fall harvest at 545,000 tons, up 11 percent from last year’s
492,000 tons, and 8 percent larger than the previous record, tallied in 2010,
of 504,000 tons. That is important to San Joaquin County, which leads the state
in walnut production. The county’s 2013 crop was valued at an estimated $443
million, second only to almonds at $468 million….That strong demand and
unprecedented high walnut prices is prompting new orchard plantings despite the
record crop estimate, said Kenny Watkins, a Linden walnut grower and first vice
president of the California Farm Bureau….Because it takes five to seven years
from planting to get a new walnut orchard into production, Watkins said,
“You’re always playing catch up with the market.” And a key to that is rising
export demand for California’s crop.
Editorial: The immigration
reform mirage [Sacramento Bee]
It
seems there’s always a perfectly good reason not to fix our broken immigration
system. Another election that may be swung if voters are motivated by whatever
action is taken, a party majority that might be won or lost. This fear of
taking action, even the right action, has doomed any attempt at immigration
reform in recent years. And, sadly, President Barack Obama has succumbed to the
same scaremongering, reversing his plan for action by the end of the summer in
an evident appeasement to Senate Democrats worried about losing seats on Nov.
4….But there is one fact that hasn’t changed: Public opinion polls have
consistently found that most Americans recognize that the country’s immigration
system needs to be fixed. What they can’t agree on – and probably never will –
is how it ought to be done.
Ag
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