The 2021 drought is quickly becoming an emergency. Kern County’s supply from the State Water Project has been reduced to just 5 percent of a full allocation. Rainfall is about half of average. And with each passing dry day, the drought gets worse.
A disappointingly dry February is fanning fears of another severe drought in California, and cities and farms are bracing for problems. In many places, including parts of the Bay Area, water users are already being asked to cut back.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has released his proposed state budget, which includes provisions for sustainable agriculture programs in California.
The proposed budget directs money to the state’s Climate Smart Agriculture programs, including the Healthy Soils Program and SWEEP, the State Water Efficiency Program.
Tension is growing between politicians claiming to be “climate leaders”; those who say that enacted policies are too little, too late; and industry sectors lobbying to maintain the status quo. Environmental activists are pushing hard against the fossil fuel industry and commercial agriculture — two sectors that helped build Ventura County but are now being put under the spotlight for activities that contribute to global warming.
A new California Biodiversity Collaborative will help determine how to carry out an executive order from Gov. Gavin Newsom aimed at conserving 30% of California’s land and marine areas by 2030—and agricultural organizations said they would participate to assure the collaborative recognizes stewardship efforts carried out on the state’s farms and ranches.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday created what he called a “subcabinet” for federal water issues, with a mandate that includes water-use changes sought by corporate farm interests and oil and gas. An executive order from Trump put Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler in charge of the interagency water body.
A day after President Trump visited the Central Valley to celebrate a boost in water for California farms, state officials sued to block the additional water deliveries.
Attorney General Xavier Becerra, in a lawsuit filed Thursday, maintains that new federal rules designed to increase pumping from the Sacramento San Joaquin River Delta fail to protect salmon and other endangered fish in the delta estuary.
A private company and the town of Queen Creek are proposing a water deal that would leave 485 acres of farmland permanently dry near the Colorado River and send the water used on that land to the fast-growing Phoenix suburb.
The company GSC Farm LLC is seeking to sell its annual entitlement of 2,083 acre-feet of Colorado River water — about 678 million gallons — to Queen Creek for a one-time payment of $21 million. The town and the company asked regulators at the Arizona Department of Water Resources to endorse the water transfer, and the agency is holding a series of four meetings this week to hear comments on the proposal.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
