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City Links Golf Course To Recycled Water

/in , /by /The Sun - Gazzete by Reggie Ellis

As the deadline for groundwater sustainability approaches in California, one Tulare County city has taken another step toward eliminating its need for landscape irrigation.

At its Aug. 19 meeting, the Visalia City Council approved a notice of completion to replumb the waterlines used to irrigate the Valley Oaks Golf Course to carry recycled water instead of groundwater. The project installed 2-inch potable water lines and 8-inch irrigation lines at four locations throughout the golf course, with backflow preventers and water elevation sensors to separate drinking water from mixing with irrigation water.

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California’s 2019-2020 Budget Has Millions For Water Projects And Healthcare Programs

/in , , /by /The Sun - Gazzete

Water and healthcare was forced into the State’s 2019-2020 budget as a priority this year.

With a $22 billion surplus and $215 billion in spending, the southern region of the Central Valley got the financial OK needed from the State’s budget to get some projects off the ground. Brokered in large part by rookie state senator for California’s 14 Senate District, Melissa Hurtado, the southern portion of the Valley has gained tens of millions of dollars of investment in drinking water, asthma mitigation, aging and disability resource centers and Valley Fever research.

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SB 559 Would Unblock Valley’s Major Water Artery

/in , , /by /The Sun-Gazette (Exeter, Calif.)

A collection of legislators are taking another shot at getting state money to repair the canal carrying water to thousands of farms and several cities along the Valley’s eastside. Earlier this month, Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger), representing the 14th Senate District encompassing part of Tulare County, along with principal co-authors Senator Andreas Borgeas (R-Fresno), Assemblymember Devon Mathis (R-Visalia), Assemblymember Dr. Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno), and Assemblymember Rudy Salas (D-Bakersfield), gathered along the Friant-Kern Canal in Terra Bella to announce the introduction of Senate Bill 559. The bipartisan supported legislation will secure California’s water supply by investing $400 million in general funds to repair subsidence in the canal caused during the historic drought. 

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Valley Farmers Need Sacramento To Sustain Water Levels

/in , /by /The Sun-Gazette (Exeter, Calif.)by Reggie Ellis

Sacramento law makers have shown little interest in helping the Valley solve its water problems yet the only path forward is to get them to take interest in the area that grows most of the state, and the nation’s food. A panel discussion last Wednesday at the Citrus Showcase, an industry conference for growers hosted by Exeter-based California Citrus Mutual (CCM), discussed the looming deadline for local governments to comply with the Groundwater Sustainability Management Act (SGMA). Often referred to as “sigma,” the 2014 law set a deadline of Jan. 31, 2020 for local agencies to implement plans to become water neutral, meaning they put as much water back into the ground as they take out.

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