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California’s Central Valley has a Water Problem Worse Than Flint’s—and a Bill to Solve It

Matheny Tract sits deep in the bowl of California’s Central Valley, an area that’s been hit hard by the prolonged drought. Like the nearby community of East Porterville, Matheny is seeing wells run dry, but before East Porterville became famous as the town that dried up, it shared a different kind of water problem with Matheny—one that also affects hundreds of other small, mostly Latino communities in the area.

OPINION: The Drought is Over?

After a season of normal rainfall, both state and local water regulators are poised to cancel the range of use regulations put in place during the past two years. Pointing to reservoirs now almost fully-filled, water agencies here in Northern California – having just raised water rates to compensate for the reduced billings during the drought – are backing off. We believe this is short-sighted and foolish; times of ample water are precisely when progress on long-term solutions can be implemented.

Water Regulations: California Monitoring Mandate Draws Fire

While the rest of California may still be struggling with drought, Del Norte County is not. And, that has some local officials questioning why the state wants to apply the same tighter water regulations here as elsewhere.

A new regulation requiring water diversion permit holders to monitor withdrawal beyond what they are currently doing — down to the acre-feet-per minute — is drawing fire from Del Norte County Supervisor Chris Howard and other stakeholders because new monitoring systems could cost thousands of dollars to install.

BLOG: ‘Drought’ not so easily defined

The fact-checkers had a field day with Donald Trump’s pronouncement last week that, in effect, there is no drought in California.“Lies Trump reality,” blared the headline in Slate. I realize that because he’s running for president, and because of his track record, everything Trump says will be — and should be — closely scrutinized.

But everyone who has expressed outrage over Trump’s comment should understand that it’s absolutely nothing new. The “there is no drought” sentiment has been expressed many times over the years, and it is not exclusive to south San Joaquin Valley water exporters.

California Reservoirs Full Again; Let the Draining Begin

The perhaps not-so-secret nature of California’s major reservoirs — the big artificial lakes designed to impound floodwaters and snowmelt coursing down the state’s biggest rivers — is that they’re little more than big bathtubs. We depend on a beneficent nature to turn on the taps every winter and fill them. And we pull the plug every spring to drain them for use by farms and cities far away. Drought, not very beneficent to us or to anything else that might depend on water, interrupts the cycle of filling and emptying.

OPINION: California Assembly Candidate Jordan Cunningham’s Plan is Water Tight

Water is vital to our agricultural industry here on the Central Coast, and I believe state Assembly candidate Jordan Cunningham is willing to fight for it.

I have spoken at length with Jordan, who is fully engaged in making sure that our Proposition 1 water bond is spent wisely and responsibly. The bond will help prepare California for future droughts by providing better infrastructure for storing water, protecting watersheds, creating water recycling programs and more. But it will only do this if it is spent wisely. I am trusting Jordan to make sure this money is spent the way voters intended.

BLOG: The Key to Saving California’s Groundwater

For years California was behind the curve on managing groundwater, with dire results. There are now 21 groundwater basins or subbasins in the state that are critically overdrafted. Help may be on the way, though. The state took action in 2014 with the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). The legislation will take decades to fully implement, but if done well, would provide a crucial framework for managing one of the state’s most important water resources.

 

Fight Over California Drought Heats up in Congress

Efforts in Congress are heating up to bring some relief to California’s historic drought, just as the dry summer season is starting.

The Golden State is in its fifth year facing exceptional drought conditions. And while its congressional delegation is eager to find ways to better save water, and redirect it where needed, longstanding partisan and regional fights that fueled water wars since before California was a state are paralyzing efforts to help.

OPINION: But Donald Trump Is Right About California Water — The Problem Is The Price, Not The Drought

Much amusement around and about the place as Donald Trump tells California that there is no drought and that when he’s President then there will be plenty of water for everyone. The amusement being that of course, how could anyone spout such nonsense, everyone knows that California’s had a drought for years now!?! Except, of course, that Trump is actually correct here. There is no existential shortage of water in the state, not at all. What there is is misallocation of water and that misallocation is because water is incorrectly priced there.

OPINION: Reaction to Bill Explains Our Lack of Progress on Water Issues

The House of Representatives took action this week on a bill concerning the water supply in California. But to hear the reaction of two north state congressman you’d think it was two different measures.

What happened is a bill passed last summer by the House, that stalled in the Senate, was inserted into an energy and water appropriations bill. That forces the Senate to again consider the earlier measure it had rejected, since it wants the appropriations bill to move forward.