Tag Archive for: Agriculture

Without Enough Water to Go Around, Farmers in California Are Exhausting Aquifers

/in , , /by /NPRby Dan Charles

The next time you pick up some California-grown carrots or melons in the grocery store, consider the curious, contested odyssey of the water that fed them. Chances are, farmers pumped that water from underground aquifers on a scale that’s become unsustainable, especially as the planet heats up. Facing an ongoing drought that is squeezing surface water supplies, farmers are extracting groundwater at higher rates to continue growing food as usual.

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In California’s Agricultural Heartland, Thousands of Wells Could Soon Run Dry

/in , /by /PBSby Cresencio Rodriguez-Delgado

One day last month, water in the community of Teviston, about 66 miles south of Fresno, suddenly stopped flowing.

The town’s services office fielded calls from residents who said their taps ran dry, and when city leaders opened their own faucets, nothing came out. Soon, officials realized  that the town’s main well had stopped working.

Crews sent a video camera below the ground to investigate what might have happened. Frank Galaviz, 77, said dirt and debris was discovered in the pumps.

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Megadrought Poses ‘Existential’ Crisis in California and the West

/in , , /by /CBS SF Bay Areaby Ben Tracy and John Goodwin

The American West was once seen as a place of endless possibilities: grand vistas, bountiful resources and cities that somehow grew out of deserts. Now, manifest destiny has become a manifest emergency.

A scorching drought made worse by climate change is draining reservoirs at an alarming pace, fueling massive wildfires and deadly heat waves and withering one of the most important agricultural economies in the country.

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Valley’s Farm Organization Execs Look Ahead

/in , , /by /Calexico Chronicleby Darren Simon Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

With 500,000 acres of farmland in the Imperial Valley, agriculture continues to not only be vital to the economy of the region, but now perhaps more than ever the crops grown on that land are critical to the entire country and a world that is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Considering just how essential Imperial Valley agriculture is, strong voices ready to advocate on behalf of the farming community are pivotal — especially considering the ongoing challenges farmers face, like increasing costs of production and an ongoing need to protect the Valley’s water rights during this time of drought, as they work to get their crops from the fields to dinner tables.

 

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Could Meters be the Key to Conserving Water in California Agriculture? Watsonville Growers Explain

/in , /by /ABC 7 Newsby David Louie

As he set goals last Thursday for the Bay Area to conserve water, Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged the lack of metering provides no sense of how much water is used by California agriculture. Growers in the Watsonville area in Santa Cruz County, however, are metered, and the meters have resulted in significant water conservation.

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CWA Approves Two-Month Extension of PSAWR Eligibility Transition

/in , , /by /Village Newsby Joe Naiman

When the San Diego County Water Authority adopted the Permanent Special Agricultural Water Rate, the SDCWA also adopted eligibility criteria but allowed previous Temporary Special Agricultural Water Rate customers a six-month grace period to establish eligibility. The CWA extended that transitional eligibility period by an additional two months June 24. The unanimous CWA board vote extends the temporary eligibility period to Aug. 31. Although the six CWA member agencies who requested an extension of the eligibility period sought a six-month extension, the CWA’s Financial Strategy Working Group recommended the two-month extension which was approved by the CWA board.

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Northern California Farmers Bracing For Drastic Water Restrictions

/in , , /by /CBS Sacramentoby Rachel Wulff

Farmers are facing a water shortage right as we head into peak growing season. It’s hitting their bottom line — and potentially yours.

Solano County farmer Spencer Bei shows us one of the wells his family uses to farm 15,000 acres. He says he is losing pressure now as he is pumping because he is pulling more from the aquifer due to a lack of surface water and no rain in sight.

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After Decades Of Warming And Drying, the Colorado River Struggles to Water the West

/in , , /by /KUNCby Luke Runyon

The Colorado River is tapped out.

Another dry year has left the waterway that supplies 40 million people in the Southwest parched. A prolonged 21-year warming and drying trend is pushing the nation’s two largest reservoirs to record lows. For the first time this summer, the federal government will declare a shortage.

Climate change is exacerbating the current drought. Warming temperatures are upending how the water cycle functions in the Southwest. The 1,450-mile long river acts as a drinking water supply, a hydroelectric power generator, and an irrigator of crop fields across seven Western states and two in Mexico. Scientists say the only way forward is to rein in demands on the river’s water to match its decline.

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A Massive Water Recycling Proposal Could Help Ease Drought

/in , , /by /WIREDby Matt Simon

LAKE MEAD, WHICH provides water for 25 million people in the American West, has shrunk to 36 percent of its capacity. One rural California community has run out of water entirely after its well broke in early June. Fields are sitting fallow, as farmers sell their water allotments instead of growing crops, putting the nation’s food supply in peril.

As the West withers under extreme drought, legislators in the US House of Representatives have introduced HR 4099, a bill that would direct the Secretary of the Interior to create a program to fund $750 million worth of water recycling projects in the 17 western states through the year 2027.

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Northern California Is Working To Conserve Water To Have Some Left Over For Crops

/in , , /by /NPR

Drought-stricken reservoirs and rivers in Northern California mean painful water cutbacks for farmers and towns. Some are trying hard to conserve to avoid even worse to come.

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