It’s feast or famine in the water-supply world for California, with Northern California feasting and Southern and Central California regions still struggling with drought conditions. Folsom Lake reservoir is one of the storage facilities in Northern California benefiting from the rain and snowfall that recent storms have left in the American River watershed.
In 2014, Proposition 1, a water bond for $7.545 billion, was passed by the voters in California so that new reservoirs could be built to prevent future droughts. I might ask where is the action? Why isn’t it full speed ahead? Are we playing another shell game with taxpayer money? Is all the water being dumped into the sea because nothing is being done? Time to light a match!
Western pine beetles, native inhabitants of Sierra Nevada forests, typically go unnoticed. The grain-of-rice-sized insects live a quiet life, spent mostly beneath the bark of weak, diseased or injured trees. But the beetles of late have been causing an uproar. They have been decimating ponderosa pine trees throughout the central and southern Sierra, turning entire hillsides red — the color the pines turn just before they die.
The Fresno Bee editorial “Temperance Flat is linchpin of Valley’s water future” omitted critical facts about this project, including how much water it will reliably produce, who will actually benefit from that water, and how much it will really cost. The reality is that this dam will never produce as much water as promised and it will only be built if state and federal taxpayers are saddled with the lion’s share of its multibillion-dollar price tag.
Just before wrapping up the second session of the 114th Congress, the House and Senate approved the Farm Bureau-supported Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act (S.612). The measure includes the Water Resources Development Act of 2016, which authorizes investment in America’s ports, channels, locks, dams and other infrastructure that supports the maritime and waterways transportation system and provides flood protection for communities. “Making sure our inland waterways are healthy, along with the ability to deepen our ports, is essential to keeping U.S. farmers and ranchers competitive in international markets.
There are many reasons to be skeptical about a federal water bill that is sitting on President Barack Obama’s desk, but the biggest reason is this: We don’t trust a bunch of politicians to solve such a complex problem. Congress appears willing to sacrifice a few types of fish so that farmers can continue to grow food in a seasonal desert. That’s what happens when decisions are made by people more interested in the next election than science. People vote. Fish do not. Guess who wins?
Urging her fellow lawmakers to pass a bill that would send more of California’s water to the arid farm fields of the San Joaquin Valley, Sen. Dianne Feinstein gave an impassioned speech Friday about the threat facing family farmers. “These water supplies are not for big corporate agriculture, as some would have you think,” said Feinstein, a California Democrat.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife declared Pyramid Lake in Southern California infested with quagga mussels. The announcement came after indications of the invasive species were discovered in a Los Angeles tunnel. The finding marks the first time quagga mussels have been found in the State Water Project. Thus far education and enforcement efforts have kept the mussel from critical lakes, including Clear Lake. The quagga mussel is a small, non-native freshwater mollusk that the Department of Water Resources (DWR) had successfully prevented from infesting the State Water Project (SWP) since the species was first discovered in California in 2007.
San Diego and surrounding cities will save over $1 billion by continuing to allow pollution in Chollas Creek, one of the region’s most polluted waterways, rather than cleaning it up as the cities had previously been ordered to do.That will allow thousands of pounds of zinc and copper to continue flowing into the creek, but soon those materials will be considered officially less harmful than they were a decade ago.
This summer. Donald Trump visited the Central Valley and promised voters he would prioritize agricultural development in California. In his speech, the president-elect blamed the environmental laws protecting a “certain three-inch fish“—the Delta smelt—for the prolonged drought. He promised, if elected, to place the needs of farmers over fish. But it looks like his promise is coming ahead of schedule. On Saturday, Congress passed the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act, a huge bill that protects safe drinking water, provides upgrades to infrastructure like ports, and provides $558 million dollars in drought relief for California.
