House passes California drought bill and political floodgates open [Fresno Bee]
A
bitterly divided House approved a sweeping California water bill Wednesday that
puts the Senate on the spot and splits the drought-ridden state into several
competing camps. Forgoing the usual oversight and hearings, Republican leaders
pushed the drought-inspired bill through at warp speed and largely along party
lines. The 229-191 House approval of a bill introduced last week now sets up a
clash with the Senate, where Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has been
promising for some time to introduce her own ideas. "We have to make sure
the crisis we're facing today is addressed," said Rep. David Valadao,
R-Hanford, "If the other side has a solution, bring it to the table. I'm
happy to negotiate. Until then, I'm going to continue to fight."
All dried out:
California farms to lay idle [Reuters]
Drought-stricken
California farmers facing drastic cutbacks in irrigation water are expected to
idle some 500,000 acres of cropland this year in a record production loss that
could cause billions of dollars in economic damage, industry officials said.
Large-scale crop losses in California, the number one United States farm state
producing half the nation's fruits and vegetables, would undoubtedly lead to
higher consumer prices, especially for tree and vine produce grown only there.
But experts say it is too soon to quantify the effect…."We're in a dire
situation that we've never been in before," said Paul Wenger, president of
the California Farm Bureau Federation….Wenger declined to venture an estimate
of economic losses. But he said, "It's going to be a sizable number that
we've never seen before, and it's going to ripple through the local economies,
especially where agriculture is the name of the game."
Thirsty growers bid
sky-high for available water [Bakersfield Californian]
Bids
for a chunk of water being sold by a local agricultural water district came in
so high Wednesday that one district pulled its bid in the middle of the process
figuring "why bother?" In response to California's devastating
drought, the Buena Vista Water Storage District announced last month it would
sell 12,000 acre feet of its stored water to local growers by auction as part
of a larger water conservation program. The minimum bid was set at $600 per
acre foot. Out of a total of 50 bids, nearly 20 were $1,000 per acre foot or
higher. Only four bids were less than $700 an acre foot.
Farmers ask for
clarification on water rights [Imperial Valley Press]
…Does
the Imperial Irrigation District’s board of directors believe that the IID’s
water rights are appurtenant to the land within its service area? Imperial
County Farm Bureau president Don Emanuelli asked the board for its written
opinion on the matter in November.…The board addressed the question Tuesday,
and its answer to the question was … no response. “Our recommendation, as a
legal department, is that this reply not be sent to the farm bureau,” said
Interim General Counsel Ross Simmons. “It’s the legal department’s position
that no legal position be taken on behalf of the agency and its ratepayers in
this matter,” he said. Although the IID — and the farm fields it irrigates —
benefit from the largest allocation of Colorado River water, the question of
whether that water is a public resource or is tied to the land continues to be
debated.
Dairy farms
disappearing [Riverside Press-Enterprise]
…Riverside
and San Bernardino counties were home to almost 300 dairy farms at the turn of
this century, but just 36 remain in Riverside County, and most of those are in
San Jacinto, according to Robert Vandenheuvel, general manager of California’s
Milk Producers Council. There are 75 dairies in San Bernardino County, most
centered around Chino. Beginning in the late 20th and early 21st century, area
dairy farmers began migrating to other parts of California and other states to
escape urban sprawl and stricter regulations….Farmers who remained found an
unfriendly business climate, said Steve Pastor, executive director of the
Riverside County Farm Bureau. “It’s primarily overregulation of the dairy
industry and manipulation of prices by the federal government,” he said.
“They’re regulating our guys out of the state.”
Judge orders Cal Fire
to pay $30 million for ‘reprehensible conduct’ in Moonlight fire case
[Sacramento Bee]
In
a blistering ruling against Cal Fire, a judge in Plumas County has found the
agency guilty of “egregious and reprehensible conduct” in its response to the
2007 Moonlight fire and ordered it to pay more than $30 million in penalties,
legal fees and costs to Sierra Pacific Industries and others accused in a Cal
Fire lawsuit of causing the fire. The ruling is the latest twist in an epic
legal battle that began not long after the fire erupted on Labor Day 2007,
scorching more than 65,000 acres in Plumas and Lassen counties. Sierra Pacific,
the largest private landowner in California, was blamed by state and federal
officials for the blaze, with a key report finding it was started by a spark
from the blade of a bulldozer belonging to a company working under contract for
Sierra Pacific.
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