The weekend storm brought plenty of rain and records to the central San Joaquin Valley and snow in the Sierra on Sunday, but it looks to be the last storm for a while.
Monday’s forecast calls for mostly sunny skies with daytime highs in the 50s, a forecast that is not expected to change much for most of the week, according to the National Weather Service.
On the edge of the Central Valley is the center of California’s water system: the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where the state’s two largest rivers meet.
A plan to restore the Delta by channeling water down south has long been a priority for Governor Jerry Brown’s administration. Despite its various names and strategies, the project has been riddled with controversy since Brown first assumed office in the late ’70s.
They were blamed for planting too many trees, using too much water and worsening the effects of California’s epic drought. The state’s almond farmers responded by expanding their orchards in a bold wager that the sky-high prices the world was paying for almonds justified both the water use and long-term investment.
Now those farmers are dealing with a steep drop in prices – and wondering if the great almond boom that transformed Central Valley agriculture is starting to fizzle. Almond prices in California have dropped significantly in the past few months. A farmer who could sell a pound of almonds for nearly $5 last summer is now getting as little as $3.10.
Luke Ellison is holding something most of us will never get to see: a delta smelt. Graceful, iridescent and about as long as my finger, these fish are so rare in the wild that just six adults were found during a sample survey of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta last spring. And the Delta is the only place in the world where this endangered species lives – in the wild, that is.
Delta smelt also live in enormous round outdoor tanks and smaller tanks inside dimly lit trailers filled with the sound of running water.
Every Bay Area resident has a vested interest in the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s decision on whether to support Gov. Jerry Brown’s $17 billion plan to build two tunnels under the Delta.
The governor’s top lieutenants came to San Jose for a formal presentation to the water board Tuesday to make their case — knowing that the board had just fired CEO Beau Goldie, who was a cheerleader for the tunnels from the start. The district already has contributed nearly $14 million toward studies, and Goldie had expected ratepayers to provide at least $500 million more.
As many readers know, I have long emphasized the coming global water crisis and its relationship to a healthy ocean. And in my forthcoming book, THE ONCE AND FUTURE OCEAN: Notes Toward a New Hydraulic Society, I offer a greater amplification of this synergy and how it might inform a new paradigm for valuation, organization, and behavior in the 21st century.
Recent rainstorms have swelled Lake Mendocino, reopening the reservoir to motor boats for the first time since August, swallowing islands raised by the drought and bringing fresh hope to ranchers and water officials.
By Thursday afternoon, the lake had reached 98 percent of capacity for this time of the year, when some space is reserved in the reservoir to help with flood prevention.
Once the level hits 100 percent, dam managers must increase releases to keep it at that level, unless they are given permission to hold back additional supplies.
North Monterey County farmland could be getting desalinated water for irrigation at the same price as its current recycled wastewater source.
Closing the circle on a key agreement aimed at addressing a critical water rights issue involving California American Water’s proposed Monterey Peninsula desalination plant, the Board of Supervisors is set to consider on Tuesday signing onto a provision that calls for sending a portion of desal “return” water to the Castroville Seawater Intrusion Project at the heavily discounted rate of $56.48 per acre-foot.
Residents of Pauma Valley will have the opportunity of expressing their opinions about the possibility of the County of San Diego becoming a Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) in the San Luis Rey Groundwater Basin at the February 2, 7 p.m. meeting of the Pala Pauma Community Sponsor Group at the Pauma Valley Community Center.
Once formed under the requirements of the Groundwater Sustainability Management Act (SGMA) of 2014, as amended, GSA’s will have broad responsibilities, including fee collection and enforcement actions, over the use and management of groundwater that are yet to be fully understood by many of the residents of Pauma Valley.
During a water crisis in California, the state and local governments ran a program for residents, offering rebates to people who replaced their lawns and landscaping with plants that can survive drought conditions and don’t require constant watering. Now people who received rebates are getting a surprise in the mail: they’ve received letters saying that they have to pay federal taxes on that money.
