California warns of deep water rights curtailments amid drought [Sacramento Bee]
In
the week after issuing an unprecedented statewide water use reduction order,
Gov. Jerry Brown labored to defend the measure’s focus on urban water use
instead of agriculture, which consumes far more water than cities and
towns….But while Brown defends agriculture’s heavy use of water, he is also
considering water rights curtailments that could dramatically affect the
industry….But Chris Scheuring, a lawyer for the California Farm Bureau
Federation, said it remains a challenge for some farmers to produce proof of
decades-old rights established under a procedure that was once “as simple as
posting a notice on a tree by the river.” Scheuring said, “If the state board
takes an action to curtail a very senior and very large water right, I think
that some party is going to be willing to litigate for the principle that the
state board is not the appropriate enforcement venue.”
Carly
Fiorina right about environmentalists and California drought woes, farm groups
say [Bloomberg News]
The
water wars have begun. Former Hewlett-Packard CEO and potential 2016 Republican
presidential candidate Carly Fiorina is blaming "overzealous liberal
environmentalists" for the water shortages caused by California's ongoing
drought….Yet many California farm groups agree with Fiorina, tracing their woes
to 1992 federal legislation meant to protect endangered species and landscapes
that permanently reduced their water allocation. Since then, lawsuits have
further eroded farmer water rights, they say, slowly turning off the tap in the
name of environmental goals that may or may not be met. “That’s why this is
worse than the droughts of the 1970s and early 1990s,” said Ryan Jacobsen,
executive director of the Fresno County Farm Bureau….Activists intentionally
distort agriculture’s use of water to further anti-farming arguments, said Joel
Nelsen, chief executive officer of California Citrus Mutual, which represents
growers of oranges, lemons, grapefruit and other fruit.
Valley
leaders urge Brown to release more Delta water for local livelihoods [Fresno
Bee]
In
another of an ongoing series of pleas by elected leaders in the Valley,
representatives of farming communities in Fresno and Tulare counties gathered
Thursday in Selma and challenged Gov. Jerry Brown to do more to relieve the effects
of drought on farms and families in the region. Their top demand is for the
state to allow more Northern California water to be pumped through the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and into San Joaquin Valley canal systems. Some
fear that the need for more water transfers may not be understood in
metropolitan regions of the state until the pinch in agricultural production
makes some commodities scarce or more expensive for urban consumers….Leaders
said they’re grateful for a $1 billion drought relief package that Brown signed
into law last week. It included money for emergency food and water for stricken
Valley towns where a lack of water has idled farmland — and farmworkers. “The
funding for food and drinking water relief is appreciated,” Selma Mayor Scott
Robertson said. But, he and others added, it’s not enough. “Today our families
and neighbors need water,” Robertson said.
Editorial: Down on the farm,
plenty of sacrifice already [U-T San Diego]
As
Californians struggle – and so far largely fail – to meet strict water
conservation goals, Gov. Jerry Brown has taken a fair amount of criticism for
not directly including agriculture in his unprecedented executive order for
mandatory cutbacks in urban water use. After all, critics say, agriculture
accounts for 80 percent of water use in the state. We rise in defense of the
governor and of agriculture, at least for now. Farmers had already been hit
hard well before the governor issued his directive last week for a 25 percent
cut in urban water use as California suffers through a fourth year of severe
drought….It is also important to note, as the Public Policy Institute of
California did in a briefing paper released this week, that growers in the
state have steadily improved productivity while using no more water than years
ago and that many farmers have switched from flood irrigation to water-saving
drip and sprinkler systems.
Opinion: California should
stretch urban supplies before cutting water for farms [Sacramento Bee]
…Some
question why the mandated water reductions did not extend to agriculture, which
uses a larger share of the state’s developed water supply than homes and
businesses….Agriculture is the economic engine of rural California, and the
entire state enjoys the variety of safe, nutritious food that California
farmers produce. There are many gallons of water, applied by a farmer, behind
each of our meals….It is not the proper role of the state to tell farmers what
to grow. Those who plant almonds, pistachios and other permanent crops take the
risk that they can keep orchards and vineyards irrigated year after year. Some
of those bets may not pay off.
Editorial: Irrigation districts
left with no choice but to block federal water releases for fish [Fresno Bee]
It
was an extreme action, but officials of Oakdale and South San Joaquin
irrigation districts were left with no other choice. At 1 a.m. Wednesday, the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation began releasing thousands of gallons of water from
New Melones Dam in a pulse flow designed to help steelhead trout migrate down
the Stanislaus River, through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and to the
Pacific Ocean. With them would go all that water. The general managers of the
irrigation districts feared it was the same water that farmers in Manteca, Ripon,
Escalon and Oakdale are counting on to grow their crops….But it is also a
serious matter for the federal government to use water being stored for farmers
for other purposes — such as helping a very small number of steelhead trout
reach the ocean. We believe this entire episode was unnecessary.
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