Ag Today Wednesday, April 15, 2015

State water regulator flexes new muscle in response to drought [Los Angeles Times]

…Long considered timid and politically weak, the board is flexing new muscle in response to a dry spell that threatens to be the worst in modern California history. It is delivering emergency water to parched communities, reviewing never-before-collected data on irrigation around the state and considering limits on farmers who are accustomed to taking their fill from the state's rivers and streams. On Friday, the board is scheduled to issue unprecedented new regulations to require urban Californians to use 25% less water. Experts said the challenge of the drought appears to be a turning point for the board and for the way officials manage California's water. "They are exercising authority that the state board has never exercised before," said Lester Snow, executive director of the nonprofit California Water Foundation, which supports research and other projects.

http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-water-board-20150415-story.html

Redistribute California's water? Not without a fight [National Public Radio]

The state of California is asking a basic question right now that people often fight over: What's a fair way to divide up something that's scarce and valuable? That "something," in this case, is water….Consider, for instance, the case of Cannon Michael. He grows tomatoes and melons in California's Central Valley. And despite the drought, he'll still grow them this year….These fields will receive water, and others in California will not, because of history….Leon Szeptycki, who is executive director of a program called Water in the West at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, says that this first-come, first-served system made sense in the 19th century….But Szeptycki says this system it is not so great when it comes to responding to drought….Despite those problems, though, Szeptycki says that government officials are not seriously proposing any fundamental change to the water rules, because for farmers, it would be as shocking and disruptive as reshuffling land, or bank accounts.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2015/04/15/398607800/redistribute-californias-water-not-without-a-fight

Drought unlikely to cause major damage to California economy, analysts say [Los Angeles Times]

California's drought has threatened farmers, ski resorts and golf courses, but it's unlikely to do much damage to the state's overall economy or budget, according to a new report. “We currently do not expect the drought to have a significant effect,” said the report, released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, which provides budget advice to state lawmakers. The minor impact is explained by the lopsided relationship between water use for farming and agriculture's overall contribution to the state economy….None of that means the drought isn’t having a big effect on the state. Farmers have taken a $1.5-billion hit, fallowing 400,000 acres and laying off 17,000 people, according to state officials.

Paul Wenger, president of the California Farm Bureau, has warned about national and international economic effects if agriculture continues to suffer.

http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-drought-impact-california-budget-economy-20150414-story.html

Ordinance to regulate groundwater exports is approved by supervisors [San Luis Obispo Tribune]

Anyone wanting to export groundwater out of a basin or across San Luis Obispo County lines will now have to obtain a permit, which would only be issued if moving the water would not harm local supplies. The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve an ordinance regulating groundwater exports, joining at least 20 other counties across California to do so….An export permit would only be approved if the public works director finds that moving the water would not have any adverse impacts to groundwater resources, such as causing aquifer levels to drop, disrupting the flow of neighboring wells or resulting in seawater intrusion.

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2015/04/14/3586967_groundwater-exports-ordinance.html?rh=1

Editorial: Gray’s water bill passes first crucial test [Modesto Bee]

Forgive the fractured cliché, but the state of California has put the people of Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties in between a rock and the river. Assemblyman Adam Gray is trying to give us a tiny bit of wiggle room. His Assembly Bill 1242 passed its first committee vote Tuesday, 8-4 – the barest of margins. Next, it goes to the Natural Resources Committee, where it faces another tough battle….What the state has failed to recognize is that for groundwater to be sustainable, it must be recharged. In this region, one of the most significant means of recharge is flood irrigation….Because the state’s original environmental documents have failed to take any of the irrigation benefits into consideration, Gray was compelled to act. He authored AB 1242 to force the state to consider the benefits of irrigation on recharge when considering how much water to require from the rivers.

http://www.modbee.com/opinion/editorials/article18544913.html

Gerawan workers protest outside Court of Appeal in Fresno [Fresno Bee]

Several hundred Gerawan Farming workers protested outside the 5th District Court of Appeal in downtown Fresno on Tuesday, angry over nearly a two-year delay in resolving an election that could remove the United Farm Workers as their union….The protesters rallied outside the courthouse on Ventura Avenue where Gerawan’s attorneys were trying to convince three appellate judges that the process for settling disputed employee contracts is unconstitutional. If they succeed, they will effectively rid the union from the company, one of the San Joaquin Valley’s largest fruit growers. At issue is an attempt by the union to represent about 3,000 Gerawan workers nearly 20 years after winning the right to do so. Although both sides began negotiating a new contract in late 2012, the union called for mandatory mediation and conciliation, a state process where a third-party arbitrator decides the terms of the contract.

http://www.fresnobee.com/2015/04/14/4477189/gerawan-workers-protest-outside.html

Ag Today is distributed by the CFBF Communications/News Division to county Farm Bureaus, CFBF directors and CFBF staff, for information purposes; stories may not be republished without permission. Some story links may require site registration. To be removed from this mailing list, reply to this message and please provide your name and e-mail address. For more information about Ag Today, contact 916-561-5550 or news@cfbf.com.

Ag Today Monday, April 13, 2015

Big north-to-south California water sale dries up [Sacramento Bee]

When the water supply is tight in California, the product often flows to where the money is. Typically, that means north to south. In the record-breaking drought of 2015, however, practically no one has a drop to spare. That means the buying and selling of water can grind to a halt, even with jaw-dropping prices on the table. That appears to be the case with a mammoth deal engineered by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and a group of Sacramento Valley rice farmers….Now the deal is largely falling apart. The reason: Many of the farmers were told this week their own supplies are being curtailed because of the drought. As a result, most of them are invoking opt-out clauses and canceling the sales.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article18232868.html

Drought to hit county's farmers hard [U-T San Diego]

Valley Center is classified as an urban water agency even though 70 percent of its water is used for agriculture, said Gary Arant, general manager of the Valley Center Municipal Water District. So the agency is being told to impose severe cutbacks that make no sense for agricultural use, he said. Under regulations proposed by the State Water Resources Control Board, Valley Center must cut its water use by 35 percent….Dead avocado and citrus groves, already a common sight in North County, will expand if the State Water Resources Control Board doesn't modify its proposed regulations to take into account Valley Center's agricultural nature, Arant said.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/apr/11/valley-center-drought-agriculture/

California delta's water mysteriously missing amid drought [Associated Press]

As California struggles with a devastating drought, huge amounts of water are mysteriously vanishing from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta — and the prime suspects are farmers whose families have tilled fertile soil there for generations. A state investigation was launched following complaints from two large agencies that supply water to arid farmland in the Central Valley and to millions of residents as far south as San Diego. Delta farmers don't deny using as much water as they need. But they say they're not stealing it because their history of living at the water's edge gives them that right. Still, they have been asked to report how much water they're pumping and to prove their legal rights to it. At issue is California's century-old water rights system that has been based on self-reporting and little oversight, historically giving senior water rights holders the ability to use as much water as they need, even in drought. Gov. Jerry Brown has said that if drought continues this system built into California's legal framework will probably need to be examined.

http://www.fresnobee.com/2015/04/11/4472513_california-deltas-water-mysteriously.html?rh=1

Despite drought, water flowing freely in Imperial Valley [Los Angeles Times]

With California in its fourth year of drought, Gov. Jerry Brown has avoided targeting farmers and their water usage. But some are beginning to wonder whether the clamor will soon build for redirecting farm water to more populous areas. And when it comes to water-rich areas with relatively few people, there is no place in California quite like the Imperial Valley….Imperial Valley farmers watch vigilantly for attempts to chip away at their water rights. "That's a lifelong thing for us in the valley," said Carson Kalin, who farms 1,800 acres with his brother. "We have to be aware that everyone is looking at our water and how we use it."

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-drought-imperial-valley-20150412-story.html#page=1

Off the table so far: Water cuts for environmental uses [Salinas Californian]

Largely absent from the debate over residential versus agricultural uses of water in California is a third piece of the puzzle – environmental uses, advocates of which are content to remain hunkered down away from the melee while the other two are bloodying each other’s noses. But some growers are beginning to ask out loud what environmental sacrifices will be made along the lines of what is being asked of residents and farmers….Tricia Stever Blattler, executive director of the Tulare County Farm Bureau, said Friday that in terms of the greatest use, environmental releases for river recreation and habitat rank at the top. While farmers use 40 percent of the state’s water and urban users consume 10 percent, environmental releases consume 50 percent, as much as urban and ag combined. “We haven’t heard anything about environmental uses for habitat flow,” Stever Blattler said. “It’s a conversation we need to have.” At least one Central Coast environmental nonprofit is willing to talk. Steve Shimek, executive director of The Otter Project in Monterey, said water cuts to environmental needs should be done surgically, not ham-fistedly.

http://www.thecalifornian.com/story/money/2015/04/10/table-far-water-cuts-environmental-uses/25609893/

Editorial: California’s Farm-Water Scapegoat [Wall Street Journal]

Perhaps the only issue on which Bay Area liberals and conservatives down California’s coastline agree is that farmers use too much water and should be rationed. The fortunate in Silicon Valley and Marin County need a tutorial in Golden State water allocation….The reality is that farm water has already been rationed for more than two decades by the ascendant green politics, starting with the 1992 federal Central Valley Project Improvement Act. Federal protections for the delta smelt, salmon, steelhead and sturgeon (2008-2009) further restricted water pumping at the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, so 76% of inflows, mainly from the Sierra Nevada mountains, spill into San Francisco Bay. In 2009 Democrats in Congress mandated that a spring salmon run be restored along a 60-mile stretch of the San Joaquin River that’s been dry since the 1940s. During the current drought, about 400,000 acre-feet of water—enough to sustain 100,000 acres and 400,000 families—were used for test-runs. Their conclusion? The salmon aren’t ready for the river, or vice versa.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/californias-farm-water-scapegoat-1428706579?mod=wsj_review_&_outlook

Ag Today is distributed by the CFBF Communications/News Division to county Farm Bureaus, CFBF directors and CFBF staff, for information purposes; stories may not be republished without permission. Some story links may require site registration. To be removed from this mailing list, reply to this message and please provide your name and e-mail address. For more information about Ag Today, contact 916-561-5550 or news@cfbf.com.

Ag Today Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Ag water battle goes viral [Hanford Sentinel]

Seems like everybody is jumping into the red-hot California water debate. Ever since Gov. Jerry Brown announced on April 1 that cities like Hanford and Lemoore would be forced to conserve in a big way to cut the state’s water use by 25 percent, the accusations have been flying, with major non-California blogs, newspapers and pundits jumping into the ring last week and asking whether California agriculture – the largest private source of jobs in Kings County and a $45 billion industry statewide – is sharing the pain. That, in turn, has sent agriculture into full defense mode, with trade and advocacy groups churning out press releases and fact sheets purporting to set the record straight.

http://hanfordsentinel.com/news/local/ag-water-battle-goes-viral/article_2f9517c4-355f-51f6-bcdc-601afe185245.html

Almonds really not that thirsty, supporters say [Stockton Record]

As California moves into the fourth year of a withering drought and Gov. Jerry Brown announces mandatory water use restrictions on the state’s 39 million residents, attention has focused on its thirsty agricultural industry and, in particular, rapidly expanding almond orchards….So how does it feel to become the whipping boy for drought finger pointers? “It doesn’t feel good at all,” said Dave Phippen, an almond grower and processor in the Ripon/Manteca area. “I don’t think it’s fair. I think it’s very much undeserved.” Yes, commercial almond production does take water, the equivalent of 46 to 56 inches of rainfall per year, said Brent Holtz, director of University of California Cooperative Extension for San Joaquin County. But that’s about what many other crops require.

http://www.recordnet.com/article/20150413/NEWS/150419888

Opinion: Making sense of water [New York Times]

Almost every number used to analyze California’s drought can be debated, but this can be safely said: No level of restrictions on residential use can solve the problem. The solution lies with agriculture, which consumes more than its fair share. That doesn’t mean homeowners can’t and shouldn’t cut back. But according to estimates by the Public Policy Institute of California, more water was used to grow almonds in 2013 than was used by all homes and businesses in San Francisco and Los Angeles put together. Even worse, most of those almonds are then exported — which means, effectively, that we are exporting water. Unless you’re the person or company making money off this deal, that’s just nuts….California grows fruits and vegetables for everyone; that’s a good thing. It would be an even better thing, however, if some of that production shifted to places like Iowa, once a leading grower of produce. That could happen again, if federal policy subsidized such crops, rather than corn, on some of that ultra-fertile land.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/opinion/making-sense-of-water.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

Opinion: To respond to California’s drought, we need to follow the facts [Sacramento Bee]

Beware simple reactions to complex issues. If anything has scarred the drought debate, it’s that….For instance, critics of Big Agriculture like to say that farms use 80 percent of water, but sometimes gloss over that that number refers only to water for human purposes. Of California’s total water, about half is devoted to urban and agricultural use, while the other half goes to environmental purposes. “The No. 1 user of water in California are trees in the Sierra Nevada,” says Doug Parker, director of the California Institute for Water Resources….Critics claim that Gov. Jerry Brown’s mandatory water reductions give farmers a free pass. Yet, last year they took a 30 percent cut in water supplied by water agencies and fallowed some 500,000 acres. This year, the Farm Bureau projects that fallowed acreage will double. For farmers, the drought started long before the governor’s edict.

http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/bruce-maiman/article18429521.html

With his well nearly dry, a farmer draws on his resolve [Los Angeles Times]

It was done. Over. No more waiting for rain, hoping for snow. The 32-year-old farmer in the barber's chair said his well wouldn't make it to summer. "I held on a little longer than some," Adam Toledo said. "But only the richest will survive now."…Orange blossoms scented the air. White bee boxes were stacked in nut orchards. Down the road, an orange grove in Strathmore was dead — black moldy fruit clinging to the trees. A farmer's well had gone dry. Other groves in this eastern part of the San Joaquin Valley at the foot of the Sierra Nevada were dying because the owners could make more money selling their water to irrigation districts than farming their land. Water — bought and sold — flowed in concrete canals, but rivers were dry.

http://www.latimes.com/local/great-reads/la-me-c1-drought-toledo-20150414-story.html#page=1

Ag Today is distributed by the CFBF Communications/News Division to county Farm Bureaus, CFBF directors and CFBF staff, for information purposes; stories may not be republished without permission. Some story links may require site registration. To be removed from this mailing list, reply to this message and please provide your name and e-mail address. For more information about Ag Today, contact 916-561-5550 or news@cfbf.com.