You are now in California and the U.S. category.

A federal vote this week could lead to more water stored in California reservoirs south of the delta, as well as a future Sites Reservoir. The plan would be to allow more water to flow into storage after big storms in the winter. The U.S. House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 612 on Thursday, with a vote of 360-61. Both Congressmen John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove) and Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) were in favor. A vote in the Senate could come as soon as Friday, unless there is a procedural delay.

The House by a lopsided margin passed a massive water resources development bill Thursday that includes newly added provisions for California water storage projects and permits additional water to be sent south of the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta to Central Valley farmland. The 360-61 vote moved the measure to the Senate, where Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has vowed to derail it on Friday, what may be the last day Congress is in session. Reps. Julia Brownley, D-Westlake Village and Steve Knight, R-Lancaster, voted for it. Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, voted against it.

California’s five-year drought is changing our take on rainfall in cities, recasting it from a threat to a resource. “For so long, stormwater was simply a nuisance,” said Keith Lichten of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board. “We needed to get it out of the way as quickly as possible to protect structures.” But stormwater can also be an asset. Instead of directing it into gutters and straight down storm drains, we can capture and clean it in rain gardens and other planted areas.

The state of California’s proposed Bay Delta water plan is being portrayed as a water fight between supposedly wealthy farmers and fish. When there is so much more at stake to us all, I have to ask why? I suspect this is a deliberate tactic by those involved in professional politics and government. It is probably much easier to say that only a handful of farmers are being harmed by a massive water diversion than to acknowledge that an entire community – including some of the most disadvantaged youths and adults in the state – are going to be harmed.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will offer farmers and ranchers more opportunities to participate in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The announcement includes new CRP practices to protect water quality and adds an additional 1.1 million acres targeted to benefit wildlife, pollinators and wetlands. “The Conservation Reserve Program is an extremely popular voluntary program that offers producers and landowners a wide variety of opportunities to prevent erosion, protect wildlife habitat and reduce nutrient runoff,” said Vilsack.