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Calif. Farmers Brace for Water Shortage

/in /by /The Associated Press (As published by: Tri-Valley Dispatch – Casa Grande, Ariz.)by By Scott Smith

Farmers in California’s fertile San Joaquin Valley are bracing to receive no irrigation water from a federal system of reservoirs and canals for a third consecutive year and looking to El Niño to produce the very wet winter they need.

 

The year kicked off with heavy rains and an above-average snowpack in the Sierra Nevada. The El Niño — a global weather system associated with wet winters in California — may play out nationwide through late spring or beyond, officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say.

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OPINION: Brown Should Focus On Water Storage, Not Tunnels and Trains

/in /by /Chico Enterprise-Record

Gov. Jerry Brown has a grand stage and likely has some time to kill in his State of the State address Thursday. We’re here to help.

 

We urge the governor to spend some time talking about a topic that polls show the voters are interested in — drought and how to deal with it.

 

He can use current events as an illustration.

 

After a train of storms hit the north state this week, creeks and rivers flooded for the first time in years. It’s a long time since riparian habitats got a good flushing and it’s badly needed.

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Researchers Show off Groundwater Recharge near Modesto

/in /by /The Modesto Beeby By John Holland

A farmer on Tuesday spread canal water across an almond orchard southwest of Modesto. He wasn’t irrigating the trees – the rain took care of that. He was recharging groundwater.

 

The almond industry and its partners are researching whether excess water in wet years such as this one could boost aquifers that might be stressed during drought. In Tuesday’s demonstration for the media, the water came from city storm drains via a Modesto Irrigation District canal that usually is idle in winter.

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Researchers Test a Possible Drought Solution by Flooding an Almond Farm

/in /by /The Los Angeles Timesby By Geoffrey Mohan

The El Niño rainstorm had already turned Nick Blom’s almond orchard into a quagmire. Still, he wheeled open the lid of a massive irrigation pipe. Fifteen minutes later, a gurgling belch heralded a gush of water that surged over the lip of the pipe and spread across five acres of almond trees.

 

Blom is neither crazy nor self-destructive. He’s a volunteer in an experiment run by UC Davis that could offer a partial solution to California’s perennial water shortages, and in the process, challenge some long-standing tenets of flood control and farming in the Central Valley.

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California Adopts Rules for Tracking Water Diversions

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by By Ian James

California water regulators on Tuesday approved new rules aimed at improving how the state tracks diversions of surface water.

 

The regulations adopted by the State Water Resources Control Board require all those who divert water from rivers and streams to measure and report how much they use annually. The regulations apply to thousands of holders of water rights across the state, from farmers to water agencies.

 

Water board officials said previously some holders of water rights were required to report on diversions every three years instead of annually, and a number of them had been able to claim an exemption to avoid the measurement requirements.

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Urgency to Prepare Grows As El Niño Rolls Into Sacramento Region

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby By Debbie Arrington Mentioned: By Debbie Arrington

Recent heavy rain has proved a soggy reminder: Having the right tools on hand can help you and your home stay dry.

 

After four years of epic drought, we may have forgotten what real rain looks like – and where water goes during a major storm. We may have made changes in our home landscapes that affect the way rainwater flows near our house. We may not know (yet) where the roof may leak or where weakened tree limbs may fall.

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Could Fish Waste Be Key In California’s Drought Fight?

/in /by /10News (San Diego)by By Joe Little

A San Diego-area nonprofit group believes fish waste may be the best cure for California’s drought.

 

The local organization ECOLIFE Conservation uses grant funding to create sustainable vegetable gardens that rely on fish waste to fertilize plants.

 

The process is called aquaponics, and the Environmental Club at Patrick Henry High School is the first in San Diego County to start its own aquaponics garden.

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Calif. Water Board Issues Temporary Groundwater Storage Permits To Capture Water from Rainy Season

/in /by /Water World

The California State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) issued its first temporary groundwater storage permit to the Scott Valley Irrigation District to capture high winter and spring flows for local groundwater storage and recharge. The permit is the first in what is expected to be a series of temporary permits issued for this type of water diversion and use.

 

The temporary permit application was submitted Jan. 13 by the District in coordination with staff at the University of California at Davis, the California Farm Bureau Federation, Scott River Water Trust and others.

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Storm Pattern Improving Water Outlook

/in /by /Auburn Journalby By Gus Thomson

After four years of drought, a return to more normal winter weather is improving the outlook for the coming year’s Nevada Irrigation District water supply.

 

General Manager Rem Scherzinger said seasonal precipitation had reached 104 percent of average as of Jan. 7 with an outlook for continued wet weather.

 

Precipitation at the district’s Bowman Reservoir was measured at 28.95 inches. Rainfall is measured each year July 1 through June 30. Bowman Reservoir is at 5,650 feet elevation in the Sierra.

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9 Californians Who Play Key Roles in Water Policy

/in /by /E&E News (Washington D.C.)by By Jeremy P. Jacobs and Debra Kahn

After four years of a crushing drought, Californians are hoping El Niño storms bring relief this winter.

But whether they replenish the state’s reservoirs and rebuild its crucial snowpack remains to be seen, with many experts cautioning that the state’s water deficit is too severe to be resolved in one rainy year.

 

So 2016 promises to be another critical year in California water policy centering on politically charged discussions of whether Gov. Jerry Brown (D) will extend urban conservation mandates and succeed in dramatically reshaping Northern California’s water infrastructure with the construction of two 30-mile-long tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta.

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