Sites Reservoir backers seek to reduce cost [Marysville Appeal-Democrat]
With
the resounding passage of the $7.5 billion state water bond, Sites Reservoir
supporters are confident the storage project will be erected in Colusa County,
although its completion could still be imperiled by competing projects and
environmental backlash. The Sites Joint Powers Authority (JPA), a local group
of Sacramento Valley leaders and water districts, is working on preliminary
planning and financing documents for what it says is a cheaper,
locally-preferred alternative that meets the valley's needs. The project has an
estimated cost of $4 billion, but the Sites JPA is examining the necessity of
some features of the preliminary plans to lower the cost and speed up the
construction timeline, said Fritz Durst, chair of the Sites JPA board of
directors.
Editorial: Time to pitch Sites
Dam project [Redding Record Searchlight]
…Rice
farmer LaMalfa, R-Richvale, didn’t forget about the proposed reservoir when he
was elected to Congress two years ago. There, in a rare collaboration with a
Democrat, he teamed up with Rep. John Garamendi, from Davis, whose District 3
abuts LaMalfa’s District 1 and includes Colusa County and part of Glenn County.
The two announced in March that they were co-authoring a bill directing the
federal government to accelerate a feasibility study to authorize Sites
Reservoir construction. Like so many before it, the bill stalled after the
House and Senate disagreed on their approaches to drought issues. There may yet
be hope, LaMalfa told Scripps newspapers reporter Bartholomew Sullivan last
week. He said congressional staffs are still in discussions, and he’s hopeful a
House-Senate conference committee could include the bill in a future report. If
that doesn’t happen, LaMalfa said, he hopes to get it passed as a stand-alone
bill.
Drought-defying
tomato harvest breaks California record [Sacramento Bee]
Defying
the state’s devastating water shortage, California farmers produced a record
tomato crop. The harvest came in at an estimated 14 million tons of processing
tomatoes….In a year when most commodities saw declines in production, the
tomato crop was 16 percent larger than last year….For many growers, the tomato
harvest came at the expense of other crops. It was a simple financial
calculation of squeezing the maximum profit out of scarce water supplies….The
increase in tomato production was a rarity in California this year. Most crops
experienced a smaller harvest.
7
things to know before you eat your next strawberry [Center for Investigative
Reporting]
The
little red fruit is nutritious and delicious. It’s also fragile, valuable and
often grown on coastal California real estate. So strawberry growers use a
class of pesticides known as fumigants, blasting the soil with gases before
they plant each season’s crop….Strawberries take up less than 1 percent of all
farmland in California but account for at least 8 percent of the state's
pesticide use. The three ZIP codes in the state with the heaviest pesticide use
all fall within two prime strawberry-growing counties, Ventura and Monterey.
Redlands
groves to verify safety practices for federal certification [Redlands Daily
Facts]
The
California Citrus Cooperative Packinghouse, which is used by the city, will be
requiring its growers to participate in becoming certified under certain
federal food-safety standards. The mandate to be Good Agriculture Practices, or
GAP, certified comes from Sunkist, a nonprofit cooperative of which the
packinghouse is a member, in response to competition in the industry and
consumer demand. “They want more credibility of where their produce is coming
from,” said Daryl Perricone, general manager at the packinghouse, which is in
Highgrove. The city has contracted with the packinghouse since 2012….The city
contracts with Larry Jacinto Farming to care for its 16 citrus groves, about
209 acres, throughout the city.
Valley
raisin growers, packers agree on price after tough negotiations [Fresno Bee]
After
weeks of negotiations, California raisin growers and the industry’s packers
have agreed on a price for the 2014 crop: $1,775 a ton, an increase of 7.5%
over the previous year. Raisin Bargaining Association officials were pushing
for a higher price, given that the size of this year’s crop is expected to be
smaller. Some farmers have estimated the state’s raisin crop may be off by 10%
to 40%. But working against them was a bumper raisin crop from their chief
foreign competitor, Turkey….Several raisin farmers said Tuesday that they were
somewhat satisified with the price that at least was more than the $1,650 a ton
growers received last year.
Ag
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