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An Entire California Town is Without Running Water — In a Heat Wave

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Melissa Montalvo

This is how California’s water crisis is going these days: The only functioning well in the rural community of Teviston broke in early June, leaving more than 700 residents without running water as temperatures in the Central Valley soared to triple-digits in a drought.

“It’s day to day” for the people of Teviston, said Frank Galaviz, a board member of the Teviston Community Services District, in an interview with The Fresno Bee.

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Valley Land Has Sunk From Too Much Water Pumping. Can Fresno County Fix It?

/in , /by /The Fresno Beeby Thaddeus Miller

The Fresno County Board of Supervisors adopted a plan on Tuesday meant to maintain groundwater and keep users from pumping too much from underground basins.

The supervisors adopted plans for two areas connected to the Delta-Mendota subbasin. Officials throughout the San Joaquin Valley have been required by the state to adopt a plan by the end of the month.

State regulators stepped in during 2014 after a U.S. Geological Survey in the previous year showed so much water was being pumped out of the ground in the Valley that the land was sagging. The process – called subsidence – could damage roads, dams, railroads, pipes and bridges.

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Opinion: On the Anniversary of John Muir’s Death, A Wish To See Hetch Hetchy Restored

/in , /by /The Fresno Beeby Barbara Mossberg

For days of infamy — Pearl Harbor and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting — December has a handful. In this list of national anguish two anniversaries of deaths loom. One hundred and six years ago: on Dec. 2, 1913, Congress passed 43-25 (with 29 abstentions) a law drowning Hetch Hetchy, the natural twin of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, in order to provide water and power to San Francisco. On Dec. 24, 1914, John Muir died.

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The Next Fight In California’s Water Crisis Is Over Salt, Pollutants

/in , , /by /The Fresno Beeby Michael Claiborne and Arnold D. Sowell Jr.

When it comes to drinking water in California — safety, supply and reliability — we can never rest. None of us. For those who think it’s a crisis that only impacts rural communities in our state, you are wrong. Children in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego and other urban communities are drinking lead-contaminated water from their drinking fountains, and nearly all of California’s 58 counties include communities with tainted water.

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OPINION: Farmers Are Not To Blame For Valley Subsidence, But They Can Help Solve It With Water

/in , , /by /The Fresno Beeby Kristi Diener

Why do farmers pump the water under their land (which California law clearly states belongs to them) in the first place? Unfortunately, you’ll rarely read the answer to this question in the press, but it is the most important part of the story.

Farmers pump groundwater because for more than 25 years, an innumerable myriad of Endangered Species Act-related laws, mandates, opinions, rulings and settlements have resulted in less and less surface water allocations for agriculture — even though all of these directives have failed to produce a rebound of endangered fish. When food producers receive the 0% and 5% water allocations like we saw in 2014, 2015, and 2016, they have no choice but to exercise their lawful property rights and to use water under their land.

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OPINION: Best Way To Improve California’s Water Situation is Newsom Plan, Not Senate Bill 1

/in , /by /The Fresno Beeby Reps. Jim Acosta and TJ Cox

Creating a sustainable water future for all Californians is one of the defining challenges of our time. As members of Congress from California, we have been at the center of efforts to solve the difficult problems of providing reliable water supplies for California’s people, its economy, and our environment. There is no silver bullet to that will solve these problems, but what we know is this: all parties must be at the table; the legislative process must be transparent; the goals must be clear and achievable.

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OPINION: State Bill Would Rebuild Friant-Kern Canal, A Key Valley Waterway That Needs Fixing

/in , /by /The Fresno Beeby Esmeralda Soria

The San Joaquin Valley is ground zero for issues of water quality and supply. While there are countless studies that have highlighted these water challenges, there have been few investments made to begin to address the problem. We must do more. Our families and I are no strangers to this crisis. We depend on agricultural jobs, but at the same time rely on bottled water because our ground-water wells are contaminated. Today, more than 2,400 families are being impacted by dry wells and over a million Valley residents are exposed to toxic water.

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Atmospheric River Boosted California Snowpack Well Above Average By Mid-January

/in , /by /The Fresno Beeby Alyssa Hodenfield

Snowpack across California is about 110 percent of normal for this time of year, thanks in no small part to an atmospheric river that brought heavy snowstorms to the Sierra range, the state Department of Water Resources’ most recent data show. As of last Friday, the northern Sierra snowpack measured at 113 percent of normal. The central and south Sierra were each observed at 110 percent of normal, for a statewide average of 111 percent, according to DWR’s latest snow survey.

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Is Valley Drought Back? 2018 Ends As A Drier-Than-Normal Year

/in , /by /The Fresno Beeby Tim Sheehan

In a state where dead trees in the Sierra Nevada still stand as a testament to a severe seven-year stretch of dry weather that ended in 2017, some nervously wonder whether the state may slide back into a drought. In the eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator, ocean temperatures are pretty stable. That means there’s no El Niño or La Niña sitting out there to help drive a chain of storms to dump rainfall on the Valley and snow in the Sierra Nevada as the calendar closes on 2018.

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OPINION: State’s New Voluntary Water Agreements Are A Good Deal For Delta Fish, Valley Farms

/in , /by /The Fresno Beeby Thomas Birmingham and Jason Phillips

Over the past three years, the State Water Resources Control Board has conducted a public process to increase the water flowing to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers Delta with the intent of improving declining fish populations. However, an increase in river flow means a reduction in supplies for Californians, who are dependent on them for their lives and livelihoods. There are two approaches to this: painful, mandatory cuts to water supplies or voluntary agreements among water users to achieve specific goals in the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan update.

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