Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
June 13, 2008
1. Top Items -
Drought emergency declared: Governor's order directs agencies to aid hard-hit counties in Central Valley .
Sacramento
Drought aid for S.J. farmers: Governor's order may mean loans, more pumping
The
Governor moves to give farmers more water
Valley in water crisis: Schwarzenegger's emergency covers 9 counties.
Farmers vs. Fish Amid the
TIME- 6/12/08
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Drought emergency declared: Governor's order directs agencies to aid hard-hit counties in Central Valley .
Sacramento
By Matt Weiser
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday declared a drought emergency in nine Central Valley counties from
The counties, particularly in the
The emergency order directs DWR and the state Water Resources Control Board to expedite water transfers between agencies. The state Office of Emergency Services was directed to use disaster funds to help local agencies drill new wells or improve existing wells.
DWR will also work with private landowners to divert well water into the California Aqueduct. For example, Westlands Water District may pump well water from the north end of its 60-mile-long territory to serve farmers at its southern end who have lost access to canal water.
The proclamation for
"These farmers need a specific amount of water during June, July and August to maintain their crops," Snow said.
The ability to transfer water may be limited by the need to protect fish in the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Snow said no species protections will be set aside, but there may be periods when more pumping is permissible.
Thursday's declaration also makes affected farmers eligible for federal disaster aid.#
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/1010752.html
Drought aid for S.J. farmers: Governor's order may mean loans, more pumping
The
By
High winds and hot temperatures have dried out crops and pastures throughout the county, potentially taking a bite out of the upcoming harvests, said Bruce Blodgett, director of the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation.
"There's a lot more growers that are going to be impacted by this drought than we would have anticipated just a couple of weeks ago," Blodgett said Thursday.
Among them is Kenny Watkins, a grower and rancher based in
"We're going to have to cut back" by selling cows, Watkins said. "There's no grass, and the hay prices are high. Throughout the state, we're in survival mode."
Schwarzenegger's emergency order opens the door to possible aid, including low-interest loans from the federal government as well as assistance drilling wells.
The order largely aims to help farmers who get their water from a federal pumping station near
The state also plans to pump groundwater from wells in
"While the drought is affecting the entire state, ... we're seeing that a lot of the impacts are being felt most immediately in the
Last week, the governor declared the state's first drought since the early 1990s. Nineteen counties have reported almost $65 million in losses due to dried-out rangeland grasses, his latest order says.
The
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080613/A_BIZ/806130310
Governor moves to give farmers more water
With
The governor proclaimed a state of emergency for nine counties with "severe water shortages" and ordered several state agencies to help drill wells, use the California Aqueduct to transport water to farmers, and to expedite water transfers between agencies.
"We recognize the specific impacts that will accrue to farmers, farmworkers, industries and local economies; and that can affect the state and national economy," Lester Snow, director of the California Department of Water Resources, said in a conference call with reporters.
Last week, the governor declared a statewide drought, after back-to-back years of below average rain, a current snowpack at only two-thirds of normal, and the driest spring on record. In addition, water users statewide are grappling with reduced flows from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta following a federal judge's order to protect an endangered fish.
Water districts around
Some farmers are hacking fruit trees to their stumps in the hope they will survive until water supplies resurge; others are simply abandoning thirsty crops for fields of heartier plants.
The governor's plan calls for the California Office of Emergency Services to assist water districts in drilling new wells or repairing old ones. Water Resources officials will speed up water transfer requests between the relative water-rich to the water-poor, and will transfer pumped groundwater to farms via the California Aqueduct.
Environmental groups lauded the governor's steps to stem the crisis. However, they questioned some of the plan's details - particularly the speedier water transfers.
They worry such transfers may come at the cost of important environmental regulations.
They also took issue with the governor's proposed $11.9 billion water bond - touted by state officials in Thursday's proclamation. The bond, which goes to voters in November, tries to solve the state's water problems largely by building additional dams and reservoirs.
Environmentalists argue dams are costly and take years to erect. Instead, they support a more aggressive conservation campaign.
"What we really need to do is wean ourselves off our wasteful water usage so that when (droughts occur), we can live within more water restrictive budgets and we're not in a situation where it affects the economy," said Laura Harnish, regional director for Environmental Defense.
For the time being, John Blackburn has his upcoming almond harvest to worry about. Blackburn, who farms more than 2,500 acres in
This season he is relying on water pumped from deep wells on the western edges of his property. That, paired with about 2,500 acre-feet of water he purchased last year from various local districts as backup, should get him through the season.
However, if he is forced to draw more heavily on the salty water from his wells, future harvests could suffer.
"We're trying to blend (well water) with the little water we're getting from the canal,"
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/12/BADU118I07.DTL
Valley in water crisis: Schwarzenegger's emergency covers 9 counties.
By E.J. Schultz
The proclamation includes
The governor called for several actions -- including pumping ground water into the California Aqueduct, which could begin within days.
Growers in the 600,000-acre Westlands Water District hope to use the cement-lined canal to move well water within the region to help make up for an unexpected cut in federal water supplies. But environmentalists are expected to challenge the move on the grounds that it could introduce dangerous contaminants into the 444-mile-long canal, which supplies urban areas in
The governor also called for operational changes at state water facilities to move more water into the
The proclamation comes about a week after the governor declared a statewide drought. Farmers are also reeling from pumping cutbacks at the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ordered by courts to protect fish. Westlands gets its water from the estuary.
The emergency proclamation is needed to "protect our economy and way of life" in the Valley, Schwarzenegger said. "If we don't get water to them immediately the results will be devastating."
In anticipation of the water crisis, Westlands recently established a rationing plan that cuts irrigation supplies by about one-third for June, July and August. Soon afterward, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced that delta water allocations to Valley farmers would be cut to 40% from 45%.
The governor's proclamation is meant to fill in some of the gap. But it's not clear how much new water is on the way.
The proclamation calls for new operational flexibility, like using state pumps to move water normally delivered with federally run pumps. But pumping still must adhere to the federal court-ordered restrictions, seen by growers as the source of most of their woes.
Also, the ground water pumping plan faces an uncertain future. Only water of "appropriate quality" can be moved into the aqueduct, according to the proclamation.
The state has already started testing well water. But "I don't know how many of those wells will qualify," said Sarah Woolf, spokeswoman for the Westlands. "We will be able to fill in some of that [water shortage] gap [but] I don't think it will be huge."
Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, said the pumping plan "is simply a rush to do something without the procedural safeguards to ensure environmental and public health."
He said his group is considering filing a lawsuit to force growers to obtain federal permits before they pump.
Lester Snow, director of the state Department of Water Resources, said the state has "all the authority we need to proceed with the project," adding "there's not going to be any public-health risks associated with this."
Federal clean-water rules are overseen by the state Water Resources Control Board. Based on a preliminary review of the plan, the board believes pumping can proceed without permits because "well water of the appropriate quality is, by definition, not wastewater," said board spokesman William Rukeyser.
The water shortage is giving new life to an old debate -- whether the west Valley should be farmed at all.
"There is just no way to keep this land in production, and we are sacrificing a lot to maintain [it]," said Mindy McIntyre, water program manager at the Planning and Conservation League.
"Isn't it time that
District officials counter that the land is among the most productive in the nation and will be even more critical in the face of an international food shortage.
"Shutting down the prime growing region of the
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/664494.html
Farmers vs. Fish Amid the
TIME- 6/12/08
By Kristine Kloberdanz
Todd Diedrich watches a lone tractor churn up dust as it lumbers down rows of still-green plants. "We're trying to patch up the cracks," the farmer explains, referring to his desperate effort to retain what little moisture remains in the ground, now that he has been forced to turn down his irrigation drip. Diedrich says the
Diedrich's farm is located on the west side of the
Californians across the state are voluntarily cutting down on sprinkler use and dealing with curbs on development and high fire hazards. But the farmers around Firebaugh have more to lose. "This is the first time water has ever been rationed like this," says Sarah Clark Woolf, spokeswoman for Westlands Water District, which has been forced to cut irrigation supplies to hundreds of thousands of acres of agricultural land. California Farm Bureau Federation President Doug Mosebar estimates that
The area is in trouble because its water is piped in from the beleaguered Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Last August, a Federal court set limits on pumping from the Delta, in an attempt to help endangered smelt fish. In a further measure to protect smelt, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced just last week it would cut
And the local farmers are particularly bitter at the environmental priorities governing water use. "We're looking after fish, and yet we're losing crops," says almond farmer Cort Blackburn. "You cannot put the fish in front of all the people." Chris Cardella, a farmer on the east side of Firebaugh, agrees: "We need legislature to overrule all our environmental impacts because humans come first over fish." Mosebar dismisses such "myopic" thinking: "If we're assisting the fish, we're also assisting our food production." He hopes this crisis will spawn better infrastructure for moving and storing water. "We're at a crossroads right now," he says. "This is a wakeup call."
"The operations we've done for some of the endangered fish species did have an initial affect on our allocation earlier this year," says Paul Fujitani of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. "But in the past few months, our biggest problem is with the dryness." Protecting endangered species, he says, is simply "something we've got to do."
Field after field in this fertile valley has been abandoned, either left unplanted this year or with seedlings withering in the sun. A swath of young green cotton has an inky black stripe running through its middle; as the field becomes more stressed from the lack of water, the black will spread. Safflowers, which should be a brilliant gold this time of year, are limp and brown. Farmers pace the dusty fields, eyeing their almond trees and grape vines, both heavy with unripe fruit, trying to decide which ones to allow to die. "It's like which kid to keep and which to get rid of," Coburn says.
The stricken farmers face another wrenching decision: which of their long-time employees to send home. Diedrich has just laid off 25 employees, and he is hardly unique. The impact is noticeable in Firebaugh's community of some 7,500, mostly Latino farm workers. At noon on a Monday, the small town's streets are full of pick-up trucks and vans that would normally be in the fields this time of year. Butch Fleming, who owns the town's Ag & Industrial Supply, gestures at his empty store, which he says is usually packed with customers. "Farmers don't know what they're going to do — you don't just let orchards die," he says, adding that business in his store is down at least 25% from last year because people are afraid to invest in equipment. Fleming has had to lay off all of his full-time employees. Down the street, Jack Minnite, owner of Jack's Prime Time restaurant, says: "We all are going to suffer from this. And it will escalate from the community to the state to the nation."
In the meantime, farmers are scrambling to find water anywhere they can. Some are cleaning the moss out of old wells, or drilling new ones. Others are bargaining with neighbors to give up on "road crops" such as tomatoes and sell their water to desperate owners of permanent crops like almond trees and grape vines. Most are bracing for the worst: "I'm sweating it," says almond farmer
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1814128,00.html
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