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Yet another hazard to migratory salmon will disappear soon, when local, state, and federal officials finish building a permanent, fish-friendly weir in the Yolo Bypass.The Wallace Weir Fish Rescue project, located four miles northwest of Woodland and near Knights Landing, will help prevent adult Sacramento River salmon from swimming into a drainage ditch that leads deep into farm fields where spawning is hopeless. By building a permanent barrier across the Knights Landing Ridge Cut, the agencies will be able to better control farm drainage releases to avoid attracting salmon.

The drought persists. This summer was the hottest on record. Last month, a National Weather Service meteorologist called the chance of adequate winter rainfall this year “a crapshoot.” Farmers in the Central Valley are pumping groundwater like there’s no tomorrow. And they may not be wrong; it’s not for nothing that the rest of the world ratified the Paris climate accord on Wednesday. Thank heaven Californians finally have gotten serious about water conservation – oh, wait

Sacramento County Supervisor Don Nottoli last week expressed his ongoing opposition to the controversial California WaterFix – aka “Delta tunnels” or “twin tunnels.”

The Gov. Jerry Brown-supported project calls for the construction of a pair of 35-mile-long, 40-foot-wide tunnels 150 feet beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for the purpose of rerouting Sacramento River water to parts of Central and Southern California.

People living in the American Southwest have seen their share of drought. But the West’s recent water woes may pale in comparison to what’s coming later in the century, researchers say. The Southwest may very well face a decades-long megadrought before the 21st century is out.

A team climate scientists led by Toby Ault, an atmospheric researcher at Cornell University, has just calculated the risk of a Southwestern megadrought occurring by 2100. By “megadrought” they mean an extreme, bone-dry period that can last for more than 35 years.

Maybe it was a tomato, head of lettuce or a chunk of cheddar. Chances are, the Central Valley farmers our firm has financed through loans or lines of credit have grown something that has reached your dinner table. We have a farm-to-fork connection. Today, the challenging part of that connection is water. Rural and urban California have done a great job following state directives to lower rural and residential water use during the historic five-year drought. The actual savings varies throughout California, from 100 to 200 gallons per person each day around the home. That’s a very significant savings.