Fresno Archives

Reformist Farmers in California Are Rethinking Water

December 14, 2022/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /NPRby Dan Charles

Reformist farmers in California have deposed the leader of the country’s biggest irrigation district, who was known for fighting water regulations. Farmers are accepting less water means less farming. A local election in rural California caught our attention last month. Farmers ousted the longtime leaders of the organization that supplies their irrigation water, which may sound small, but as Dan Charles reports, it’s a sign of something bigger – farmers reacting to a hotter climate.

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How Does More Rain in Northern California Equal Less Flows in the San Joaquin River?

June 15, 2022/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /SJV Waterby Jesse Vad

Water has been flowing down the San Joaquin River since the beginning of April. But, ironically, late spring rains could halt the flow.

The water coming out of Millerton Lake just above Fresno is flowing because of a contract within California’s complicated water rights system.

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Fresno, Clovis Battle Drought With ‘Purple Pipe’ Water. Toilet-to-Tap Next?

August 19, 2021/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /GV Wireby Liz Juarez

As the drought crisis worsens throughout California, Fresno and Clovis leaders, as well as residents, are answering the challenge.

Both cities are recycling water through “purple pipe” systems to offset non-potable usages like landscape irrigation, cooling towers, and agricultural irrigation.

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When It’s Too Hot for Food to Grow

June 18, 2021/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Kimberlyn Velasquez /Bay Natureby Eric Simons

Kou Her’s family has run the 12-acre Herr Family Farms in Sanger, just east of Fresno, for the last 20 years, raising a variety of vegetables for Bay Area produce and farmer’s markets. In those 20 years, Kou and his parents haven’t seen anything like the heat wave gripping the Central Valley this week.

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Opinion: No, California Isn’t ‘Flushing Water to the Ocean,’ Despite What Fresno Politicians Say

May 7, 2021/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Kimberlyn Velasquez /The Fresno Beeby Marek Warszawski

It’s that time of drought again. During one of the driest years on record, once again curtailing water deliveries to local farms, Fresno-area lawmakers wasted little time trotting out one of their favorite falsehoods. That every year, including the parched ones like 2021, California “wastes” millions of gallons of water by “flushing it to the ocean.”

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‘It Could be Catastrophic’: CA Legislators Want Gov. Newsom to Declare State of Emergency Over Water ‘Crisis’

April 8, 2021/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /ABC 30by Nathalie Granda

California’s hottest commodity could become even more scarce as state and federal officials announce water cutbacks on the brink of another drought. Now, state legislators are banding together to ask Governor Newsom to declare a state of emergency amid what they call a water crisis.

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Fresno-Area Utility Providers Face Financial Crisis. Can They Keep the Water Running?

February 9, 2021/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Kimberlyn Velasquez /The Fresno Beeby Monica Vaughan

Unpaid water bills are piling up during the pandemic, as small water providers in the central San Joaquin Valley teeter toward a financial crisis that could affect drinking water quality and affordability.

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Does Your Drinking Water Meet Health Standards? Check this Fresno-Area Map to Find Out

October 22, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Kimberlyn Velasquez /The Fresno Beeby Monica Vaughan, Time Sheehan, Danielle Bergstrom

If you live in the central San Joaquin Valley, there’s a chance your tap water is unsafe to drink.

Nearly 180,000 people in the region get their water from systems that do not meet drinking water standards — and it’s hard, as a resident, to learn more and find out what to do to keep yourself and your family safe.

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Money to Repair Central Valley Canal in House Bill. A Large Funding Gap Remains

July 13, 2020/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Kimberlyn Velasquez /The Fresno Beeby Danielle Bergstrom

South San Joaquin Valley farmers have a reason to celebrate this week: Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives appropriated $200 million to fix the Friant-Kern Canal. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Chairwoman of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, attributed the allocation to the advocacy of Rep. T.J. Cox.

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Temperance Flat Dam Put on the Shelf Indefinitely

July 2, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Kimberlyn Velasquez /GV Wire (Fresno)by Lois Henry

An investment analysis that looked at how much it would cost water users to build and operate the proposed Temperance Flat Dam northeast of Fresno without government funding was finished earlier this year and quietly passed among water districts, which just as quietly asked the federal government to shelve work on the project.

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