Gov. Brown stumps in Modesto for water bond [Modesto Bee]
Democrat
Jerry Brown picked a farm owned by Republicans just west of Modesto on
Wednesday to wrap up three days of campaigning – not for himself and an
unprecedented fourth term as California governor, but for next week’s ballot
initiatives touching on water and money….The governor, wearing an orange and
black necktie shortly before the San Francisco Giants’ final World Series game,
arrived one hour, 50 minutes late at the farm owned by California Farm Bureau
President Paul Wenger. His son, Modesto Irrigation District board member Jake
Wenger, said he was “excited and honored” to see prominent local leaders from
both major parties hobnobbing near the walnut trees he finished harvesting only
the day before….Proposition 1 is a $7.5 billion water bond to pay for new dams
and other water projects. Proposition 2, called a rainy-day fund measure, would
force legislators to put aside money in good years for spending in bad.
Opinion: Yes on Prop. 1: State
and county can’t afford not to approve it [Santa Rosa Press Democrat]
Some
people may question the measure and ask whether we can afford it. The question
should be whether we can afford not to approve it. Without investment in water
infrastructure, we will have to cope with water shortage through further water
conservation. The agricultural community has already reduced its water
consumption by several-fold through such means as the conversion of overhead
watering to drip irrigation, the introduction of soil moisture sensors and
precision irrigation and the practice of deficit irrigation where plants are
given less water than they lose by evapo-transpiration. Further reduction in
irrigation water use will come only at a devastatingly high cost. Yet the
pressure on agriculture not to use water keeps mounting as evidenced by the
Russian River frost protection regulation, Upper Russian River water rights curtailment
and potentially by the implementation of the new Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act.
New
groundwater rules endorsed [Modesto Bee]
After
a couple hours of lively debate and passionate objections, Stanislaus County’s
Water Advisory Committee endorsed an expanded groundwater ordinance Wednesday.
The 10-6 vote was merely a recommendation. Stanislaus’ Board of Supervisors
will have the final say on the new water rules, and it’s expected to take up
the controversial topic next month…. But most regions of Stanislaus would be
exempt from having to comply with the sustainability regulations, including all
properties inside any of the county’s irrigation districts or cities. Those who
want to drill new water wells outside those areas, however, would have to
“demonstrate with substantial evidence” that their pumping would “not result in
an unsustainable extraction of groundwater.” That’s the clause that triggered
the most dispute Wednesday.
State
rail agency seeks to avoid bullet-train injunction battles [Fresno Bee]
The
California High-Speed Rail Authority is facing seven lawsuits over its approval
of the Fresno-Bakersfield segment of its statewide bullet-train line. Now the
agency is asking the federal Surface Transportation Board — which oversees rail
lines in the U.S. and gave a green light to the project over the summer — to
declare that those lawsuits should not be able to seek a California judge’s
order to block construction. The authority’s petition to the federal board,
filed earlier this month, is the second time that the rail agency has taken a
“head-’em-off-at-the-pass” tactic to argue that federal jurisdiction over the
project essentially overrides portions of the California Environmental Quality
Act. The lawsuits challenging the state’s approval of the Fresno-Bakersfield
segment allege that the state’s environmental analysis of the route was
inadequate and does not provide enough measures to make up for anticipated harm
to residents, farmers, businesses and communities along the route.
Chowchilla
co. signs farm labor agreement [Fresno Business Journal]
Chowchilla-based
Agriland Farming Company signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor
today ensuring fair standards for workers. The voluntary agreement, overseen by
the Labor Department's Wage and Hour division, is the first by a farm
management company in the San Joaquin Valley. Agriland, which signed the
agreement today at its offices in Chowchilla, now promises to self-monitor it's
own operations for compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Migrant
and Seasonal Worker Protection Act….Agriland and the Madera County Farm Bureau
will provide a free day of training and registration outreach to all
supervisors and crew leaders of farm labor contractors and growers Thursday,
Nov. 6 at the Madera County Fairgrounds.
Opinion: Newer isn’t
necessarily better [Imperial Valley Press]
Case
in point, I recently had the opportunity to attend an informal ditchbank
meeting with farmers and local irrigation representatives to discuss problems
with specific water delivery gates. Since 2006, the IID has replaced over 100
gates around the district with the newest fully automated gates with a goal of
increasing efficiency. Although in some locations the automated gates have met
their designed goals, at other locations they have been an epic failure….At
what point do we stop and consider that maybe the equipment installed by men
and women who understood the land and the needs of the farmers might just be
the best for the job?
Ag
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