Central Valley Archives

Central Valley Water Board Plan to Reduce Nitrate Contamination in Groundwater Gets Approval

October 20, 2019/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /California Water News Dailyby California Water News Daily

Help is on the way, both immediate and long-term, for the nitrate and salt contamination of groundwater basins and surface water in the Central Valley. Although the long-term resolution may be a multi-year process, stakeholders have developed a plan to address one of the region’s most challenging water quality problems.

After more than 13 years in development by stakeholders and the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (CVRWQCB) a plan was approved earlier this week by the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) to address the buildup of salt and nitrates in Central Valley groundwater basins and surface water.

Full Story

State Water Officials To Vote On Valley-Wide Plan To Reduce Nitrate And Salt

October 14, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Valley Public Radioby Kerry Klein

Later this week, the State Water Resources Control Board will vote on a long-anticipated plan to reduce some of the pollutants flowing into Central Valley water. However, not everyone agrees on the details.

The program is called Central Valley Salinity Alternatives for Long-Term Sustainability, or CV-SALTS. It aims to provide cleaner water for drinking and irrigation by reducing the nitrate and salt that are discharged into ground and surface water.

Full Story

‘Farming the Sun:’ As Water Goes Scarce, Can Solar Farms Prop Up The Valley?

September 27, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Gayle Falkenthal /Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

On the Changala family farm in Tulare County, the past and future are separated by a dirt road and a barbed-wire fence.

On the south side sits a wheat field. On the north, a solar farm, built three years ago, sending electricity to thousands of Southern Californians. Alan Changala sees little difference between the two.

Full Story

California Farmers Fear ‘Catastrophic’ Water Restrictions. Can They Adapt to Survive?

September 25, 2019/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Gayle Falkenthal /The Fresno Beeby Dale Kasler

It was 2015 and, as far as John Konda knew, farming still had a viable future in the San Joaquin Valley. So he expanded.

The Tulare County grower planted 75 acres of pistachios, adding to a farm he’s owned since 2003. Two years later, in order to augment his water supply, he drilled two new groundwater wells.

Full Story

California Groundwater Program Could Help Farmers

July 8, 2019/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Gayle Falkenthal /Water & Wastes Digestby Staff

A California water district developed a groundwater trading project that could help farmers in the area with state restrictions for over pumping groundwater aquifers.

Full Story

Market-based Program Would Encourage Farmers to Buy, Sell Local Groundwater

July 7, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Gayle Falkenthal /Bakerfield.comby John Cox

A local water district is developing a novel, market-based groundwater trading program that, if successful, could be expanded or copied to help Central Valley farmers cope with new state restrictions against over-pumping the region’s aquifers.

Full Story

‘Centers Of Insurrection’: Central Valley Farmers Reckon With Climate Change

June 23, 2019/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /KQED (San Francisco)by Mark Shapiro

On an average day on the Burroughs farm outside of Denair, about an hour’s drive southeast of Modesto, you might witness the surprising sight of cows wandering amidst the almond trees. Chickens might peck their way by. And most definitely there will be plenty of free-spirited birds and bees and insects flickering across the scene, not to mention flowers and grasses unbound on the ground, making for a thick undermat amidst the rows of trees.

Full Story

California’s Central Valley: Ground Zero In Water War

February 22, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /Courthouse News Serviceby Nick Cahill

Stretching hundreds of miles from the mountains bordering Los Angeles north toward the state capital, the San Joaquin Valley doesn’t resemble landscapes typically associated with California. Devoid of the skyscrapers, beaches and bridges that make California famous, the sprawling valley is instead filled with thousands of farms and oil fields that quietly help drive the state’s $2.7 trillion economy. Known as the “food basket of the world,” for over a century the valley and its rich soil have spoiled Americans with a wide variety of nuts, produce, wine grapes, dairy and even cotton.

Full Story

Jerry Brown Disses The Central Valley … Again

April 27, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Gayle Falkenthal /Fox & Houndsby Senator Andy Vldak

Many of my Central Valley legislative colleagues are furious that the staff at Governor Jerry Brown’s Water Commission have rigged the system so the recently announced proposed funding for Temperance Flat Reservoir is just that – flat. It’s not surprising that environmentally-oriented staff at the California Water Commission (and other state agencies such as the State Water Resources Control Board or the multitude of regional water boards) would come down in favor of fish over people.

Full Story

Posts