Without a doubt, weeks of rain and snow since late December are absolutely helping with California’s water supply.
But how much help exactly is a question many have been asking. KCRA 3 Chief Meteorologist Mark Finan goes over where water reservoirs in Northern California stand. Spoiler alert: It’s a lot of good news.
Chula Vista, Calif. – At the December 14 Sweetwater Authority Governing Board meeting, Steve Castaneda and Hector Martinez were sworn into their four-year terms as Directors. At the same meeting, the Authority’s Governing Board appointed Director Hector Martinez as Board Chair and Director Paulina Martinez-Perez as Vice Chair for the 2023 term. Director Castaneda was reelected to represent Division 1, and has served on the Authority’s Board since 2014. Director Martinez was reelected to represent Division 4 and has served on the Board since 2018.
The San Diego County Farm Bureau named third-generation Oceanside farmer Neil Nagata its 2021 Farmer of the Year. The Farmer of the Year award is presented to an active or retired farmer who has had a positive impact on the agriculture industry, is active in the community beyond agriculture, and has represented the agricultural industry publicly on behalf of farming interests.
Nagata is the President of Nagata Brothers Farms. In 1902, Nagata’s grandfather immigrated to California from Japan and began farming strawberries in 1920. Nagata’s father George and his brothers formed Nagata Brothers Farms, and his son Neil took on the business 34 years ago. “From that point on, I’ve been farming strawberries – so three generations of California strawberry growers.”
Nagata joined the California Strawberry Commission in 1991 and served as a board member and past chairman of their organization. In a video produced by the California Strawberry Commission, Nagata talked about his life as a farmer alongside his 98-year-old father George, who retired just a few years ago and who still lives on the farm in Oceanside.
Throughout his three decades in farming, Nagata says water management has always been a significant challenge.
“We’ve had to become very efficient and very conservative with our water. When I first started, (irrigation) technology was more rudimentary,” said Nagata.
Now, advances are helping California’s family farms survive.
“Electronic controls and electronic monitoring offer efficiency,” he said. “There is greater ease of application for field use. Costs have come down. The quality of materials has improved with advances in technology and materials. Things have become more efficient. We’re still here.”
In addition to his growing experience, Nagata is an expert in many aspects of agriculture and biological science, including field and commercial research and production. He says it takes a scientific mind and a lot of passion to be a good strawberry grower. Nagata says his father made a strong impression with his care of the land.
Neil Nagata says he still loves strawberries, especially when they are fresh from the fields. Photo: California Strawberry Commission
“All the strawberry farmers that I know including myself, really care about the land, the fruit that we produce, and the people that work for us,” said Nagata. “It’s really all-encompassing. We try to do what’s right for everybody.
“At the end of the day, we want to present something that is beneficial to our consumers and healthy and good for you, and tastes good. I still eat strawberries, and my favorite way is right out of the field,” he said. “My favorite thing about strawberry growing is being able to have people enjoy what I produce. It’s really rewarding when people just say, “You have the best strawberries.”’
Neil Nagata served as San Diego County Farm Bureau President from 2017 – 2019, and has been a board member since 2008. He works with regulators and legislators to support fruit and vegetable production in the U.S. and Internationally. Nagata has also been involved with many other agricultural associations.
Nagata is the founding president of the non-profit California Strawberry Growers Scholarship Fund, providing scholarships for children of California strawberry farmworkers. During the past 26 years, over $2 million has been raised and gifted to farmworkers’ children.
Nagata will be the guest of honor at the County Farm Bureau’s annual Farmer of the Year event in October and celebrate his recognition among the agriculture community with family and friends.
(Editor’s note: The San Diego County Farm Bureau is a non-profit organization supporting the more than 5,700 farms within the county. The mission of the Farm Bureau is to foster San Diego agriculture through education, public relations, and public policy advocacy in order to promote the economic viability, sustainability, and community building of agriculture. For more information: www.sdfarmbureau.org.)
September 9, 2022 – Padre Dam Municipal Water District’s Board of Directors has appointed Rocky Qualin to the Board of Directors to fill the vacancy in Division 5 as the result of the recent passing of James Peasley. Qualin took the oath of office at the Board meeting on September 7, 2022 and then participated in his first meeting. Qualin will hold office for the balance of the unexpired term which expires December 2, 2022.
“My interest in being part of the Padre Dam board is to ensure that my community is provided with safe and reliable water and sewer services at the lowest costs possible,” stated new Board member Rocky Qualin. “I believe Jim’s service on the Board was achieving this and I hope to continue down the successful path he created as I fill this roll.”
Qualin is the only candidate for the Division 5 seat for the next four year term which will begin in December 2022 and go through November 2026. Therefore, Qualin will be reseated as the Division 5 representative in December for the next four year term.
The Padre Dam Municipal Water District’s Board of Directors appointed Rocky Qualin to the Board of Directors to fill the vacancy in Division 5. Qualin took the oath of office at the Board meeting on September 7, 2022 and then participated in his first meeting. Photo: Padre Dam Municipal Water District
Qualin is a long-time Santee resident. He has been married to his wife Jenni for 19 years and has two children – a son that attends Santana High School and a daughter attending Grossmont Community College.
Qualin graduated and earned a bachelor’s degree in Finance from San Diego State University. He has over 25 years of experience as a banking and insurance executive involved with budgeting, managing cash flow and analyzing risk for small to large size companies.
In addition to serving on Padre Dam’s Board Qualin also serves on the Board of Governors for the Grossmont Hospital Foundation as well as the Board of Directors for the local nonprofit Lion’s Camp Jack, which sends foster and at-risk youth to summer camp.
California uses plans as a primary tool for managing water throughout the state. Regulations like the Urban Water Management Planning Act of 1983, Regional Water Management Planning Act of 2002, Water Conservation Act of 2009, and Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 require local water agencies to write plans documenting their available water supplies and develop approaches to use water more sustainably and/or ensure a secure supply.
“You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You get what you need,” Rolling Stones (1969, Let It Bleed album)
The ongoing California drought has many lessons for water managers and policy-makers. Perhaps the greatest lesson is how unimportant a drought can be if we manage water well.
As the drought in California and across much of the western United States enters another summer season, several experts participated in a conference hosted by the California Department of Water Resources and the Water Education Foundation on Thursday to discuss issues of how modeling precipitation can impact decisions made by policymakers.
One of the main takeaways of the conference was that the current modeling programs are not effective as they should be in helping water districts, state water agencies and federal departments in planning water distributions.
In light of the current conditions affecting the Colorado River Basin, the Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors has initiated an accelerated process to develop a plan to manage its annual water supply by apportioning it among all categories of water users.
Referred to as the revised Equitable Distribution Plan, the intent is for the plan to be effective by July 1, 2022 and retroactive to January 1 of this year. The revised plan is being developed by the district in consultation with the board’s Colorado River committee.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay for it. Guzman called it the “absolutely greatest opportunity.”
Guzman talked with Western Water about how her past experiences are informing her work at EPA, some of the top priorities in EPA Region 9 and how the federal bipartisan infrastructure funding law is providing a unique opportunity to address the region’s water needs, including for tribal nations and disadvantaged communities.
California’s second snow survey of the season arrived on the heels of one of the state’s driest Januarys on record, and officials are warning that a third dry year is possible unless more rain and snow arrive soon.
Surveyors from the California Department of Water Resources gathered Tuesday at Phillips Station near South Lake Tahoe to announce their latest findings. Statewide snowpack has dwindled to 92% of average for the date, they said.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
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