High court allows delta water contracts to be challenged [San Francisco Chronicle]
The
U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed environmentalists to challenge the
government’s renewal of 41 long-term contracts for irrigation water from the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, in a lawsuit seeking greater protection for the
endangered delta smelt. Water districts had asked the justices to review a
ruling in April by a federal appeals court in San Francisco. That ruling
reinstated a suit by the Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups
claiming the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation should have consulted with government
biologists before renewing contracts with farms and water districts for as long
as 40 years. The justices denied the districts’ request on Monday….In a
separate case, also pending before the Supreme Court, water districts and
farmers are appealing a Ninth Circuit ruling upholding the government’s plan to
limit water shipments from the delta to Central and Southern California in
order to protect the delta smelt.
Commentary: Put a price on
groundwater, coming and going [Modesto Bee]
Our
backup water source – groundwater – should be treated as an asset that is
charged for when used and is paid for when added to. Treat it as a market….Who
is responsible for the use of groundwater? That list includes all electric
ratepayers, including industry, cities and farmers using drip irrigation. They
should be charged for the amount of groundwater used. Since flood-irrigating
farmers on permeable soils are the major source for groundwater recharge, they
should be paid for the water they allow to reach the aquifers – or at least not
charged for it. Such an approach will discourage drip irrigation, encourage
flood irrigation and also encourage conservation by cities.
For
Obama, executive order on immigration would be a turnabout [New York Times]
President
Obama is poised to ignore stark warnings that executive action on immigration
would amount to “violating our laws” and would be “very difficult to defend
legally.” Those warnings came not from Republican lawmakers but from Mr. Obama
himself. For years, he has waved aside the demands of Latino activists and
Democratic allies who begged him to act on his own, and he insisted publicly
that a decision to shield millions of immigrants from deportation without an
act of Congress would amount to nothing less than the dictates of a king, not a
president….But Mr. Obama is set to effectively reverse position from that
statement and now says he believes that such actions can be “legally
unassailable,” as a senior White House official put it last week. Mr. Obama is
expected to announce plans soon to expand the program for Dreamers to shield up
to five million people from deportation and provide work permits for many of
them.
Progress
remains slow on property acquisition for high-speed rail [Fresno Bee]
The
California High-Speed Rail Authority is making painstakingly slow progress
assembling the land it needs for its first 29-mile segment from northeast of
Madera to the southern edge of Fresno. It got the green light Friday from the
state Public Works Board for the possible condemnations of 10 pieces of
property in Madera and Fresno counties. But it needs 525 parcels in hand. And
as of late October, the agency had delivered fewer than 75 parcels to its
contractor for construction of the bullet-train route and structures like over-
and underpasses and bridges….Friday’s action by the Public Works Board clears
the way for the state to go to court under eminent domain law to take
properties the rail authority has been unable to reach agreement on for price
or terms of purchase.
Prices
easing on California nut crops [Stockton Record]
California’s
almond crop is smaller than expected, hurt by the state’s ongoing drought,
while the predictions of a record walnut harvest seems to be coming true,
industry experts said. But in both cases, laws of supply and demand, and in
particular shifts in global market conditions, have led to softening
prices….Blue Diamond, the Sacramento-based almond growers cooperative, recently
projected this year’s harvest will be 1.85 billion pounds, down 8 percent from
2013….Pete Turner, a Stockton walnut industry consultant and chairman of a
marketers’ group, said it appears California may meet expectations of a record
walnut harvest, despite the drought….As a result, record high walnut prices
have fallen….Almond prices are also in decline, but more due to global market
factors than the California crop — which amounts to about 80 percent of the
world almond supply, said Phil Brumley, an Escalon farm consultant and grower.
Ag
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