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2018 Was A Record-Setting Year For Fresno County Farmers

/in /by /GV Wire

Fresno County farmers and ranchers shattered the yearly record for the value of what they produced by nearly a billion dollars in 2018.

Despite below-average surface water supplies, their crops and livestock totaled $7.888 billion last year, according to the Fresno County Department of Agriculture’s annual report released Tuesday.

That marked a 12.23% increase from 2017 and was substantially higher than the previous record year of 2014 when total production hit $7.069 billion.

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Desalination ‘Only Option’ For Resilient, Reliable Water Supply — Expert

/in , , /by /The Jordan Timesby Hana Namrouqa Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

In Jordan, desalination is major component in meeting rising demand for water.

 Seawater desalination is the “only option” for countries seeking to become more resilient and have reliable water supply, according to an expert in water resource management, who stressed that water facilities should seek diversification of their water supplies.

While acknowledging that desalination of seawater is an expensive, highly technical and long process, the water resource management expert said that “… in some areas you have to make that investment because you just do not have the other sources of supply or resources that you can tap into.”

 

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California Professor Awarded Grant To Harness Water From Fog

/in , /by /ABC 10by Allison Horn

A California State University, Monterey Bay professor will receive a substantial grant from the Defense Department to find methods to harness fog.

The $266,589 gift will fund research on ways to use mesh-based devices to collect water circulating in fog, according to CSUMB. The DoD is interested in the study to collect usable water for drinking or irrigation, which may be useful for military personnel in remote foggy regions.

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OPINION: Hot Politics In The Cul-De-Sac

/in , /by /CALmattersby Dan Walters

San Diego has been trying for decades to wean itself from water supplied by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which is dominated by Los Angeles. The feud between San Diego and The Met, as it’s known, has been waged in the Legislature and in the courts.

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California’s Trump-Blocking Environmental Bill May Be Delayed In Fight Over Water

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler and Ryan Sabalow

It started out as a bold effort by the California Legislature to prevent the Trump administration from rolling back protections for the environment and labor.

The bill, proposed by one of the state’s most powerful Democrats, would attempt to negate every environmental regulation proposed by President Donald Trump’s administration for the duration of his term or terms. It has a clause that would expire the day he leaves office in 2025 if he wins a second term.

 

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State Seeks Comment On Its Water Resilience Portfolio

/in , /by /AgAlert (Sacramento, Calif.)by Christine Souza

In a new effort to balance California’s water needs, Gov. Gavin Newsom has directed state agencies to prepare a water plan known as the California Water Resilience Portfolio that includes “a comprehensive strategy to build a climate-resilient water system.” The portfolio features a broad approach that addresses safe drinking water, flood risks, depleted groundwater aquifers, water supply uncertainty for agriculture, and native fish populations faced with extinction.

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OPINION: Farmers Are Not To Blame For Valley Subsidence, But They Can Help Solve It With Water

/in , , /by /The Fresno Beeby Kristi Diener

Why do farmers pump the water under their land (which California law clearly states belongs to them) in the first place? Unfortunately, you’ll rarely read the answer to this question in the press, but it is the most important part of the story.

Farmers pump groundwater because for more than 25 years, an innumerable myriad of Endangered Species Act-related laws, mandates, opinions, rulings and settlements have resulted in less and less surface water allocations for agriculture — even though all of these directives have failed to produce a rebound of endangered fish. When food producers receive the 0% and 5% water allocations like we saw in 2014, 2015, and 2016, they have no choice but to exercise their lawful property rights and to use water under their land.

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Can California Water Woes Be Solved?

/in , , /by /Western FarmPressby Todd Fitchette

Can California’s water woes be solved?

Some think that all it takes is money, which is exactly what the California Legislature may ask voters in 2020 for in the name of clean drinking water.

In the last several years Californians bought the arguments made by farmers, environmentalists and pretty much everyone else who was promised access to the cookie jar. Farmers were told they’d get more water storage to augment their annual allocation of irrigation water, which continue to shrink because of bad public policy. While not said overtly, the implications were “give us more money and we’ll get you back up to a full irrigation allotment.”

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Study Claims 99.9% Of Microplastics Removed From UK Drinking Water

/in , /by /Water & Wastewater Treatmentby Jamie Hailstone

The research carried out by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and commissioned by UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) found that untreated raw water contained on average 4.9 microplastics per litre while water that has gone through a treatment process contained only 0.00011 microplastics per litre.

While the study has shown that current treatment processes are effective at removing microplastics from drinking water and treated wastewater, the water industry has now called on government and business to do more to prevent plastic entering the water environment and the sewer network in the first place.

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Tweaks To Senate Bill 1 Leave Critical Calif. Water Questions Unresolved

/in , , /by /The San Joaquin Valley Sun by Alex Tavlian

Despite demands for key changes to Senate Bill 1 – California’s hotly-debated water legislation – from a chorus of Valley Democrats and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California legislative leaders appeared to have ignored those calls.

Senate Bill 1 would tie California’s environmental laws governing water and air quality to Federal standards as they existed on the final day of the Obama administration, Jan. 19, 2017.

Opponents of the bill said the move restricts scientific advancements in analyzing California’s water needs and air quality conditions by relying on outdated science.

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