Central Valley
If it’s a bad night for GOP, Dems may have a chance in Central Valley
Two Republican-held House seats in the heavily agricultural Central Valley of California could be ripe for picking by Democrats if voters are riled by GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump's criticism of Hispanics and immigrants, says the Los Angeles Times. Rep. David Valadao, a member of the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees USDA and FDA funding, represents a district that is 71 percent Latino, and Agriculture Committee member Jeff Denham has a district that is 26 percent Latino.
The LA Times tours America’s biggest — and most controversial — water agency
“I like people to be able to see with their own eyes that the state is not out of water because of lack of rainfall or snow pack,” Johnny Amaral, manager of California’s Westlands Water District, told the LA Times, after inviting the newspaper to tour the Westland facilities.
Central Valley farmers celebrate federal water plan
In an about-face, federal officials will not be cutting farm water supplies from Shasta Dam, California's largest, after all, reports The Sacramento Bee. Federal fisheries officials have been in tense conversation over the last month with state and federal water regulators over how much of Shasta’s water to hold back in order to protect the endangered winter-run Chinook salmon. The National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had seemed set to seriously limit water deliveries to Central Valley farmers.
Scientists dug deep to find ‘water windfall’ in parched California
Stanford researchers say that California’s drought-stricken Central Valley harbors three times the supply of groundwater previously thought. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, points up the need to develop a better understanding of deep aquifers, and has implications for regions beyond California where drought is a problem.
Two years later, the wells are still dry in East Porterville
East Porterville, an unincorporated part of agricultural Tulare County in California's Central Valley, won international attention as case study in suffering when the drought entered its fourth year in 2014. The shallow wells supplying residents went dry as the water table fell -- so many that East Porterville has 12 percent of the failed wells in the state.
SEC says major California water district cooked the books
The Westlands Water District, the “biggest of big shots in the water world of California’s Central Valley,” was fined $195,000 last week by the Securities and Exchange Commission for altering records to hide drought-related expenses, reports the L.A. Times.
The Filipino origins of the 1965 grape strike
Half a century after the 1965 grape strike, Cesar Chavez is the most familiar face of the farmworker movement, says KQED in a story by Lisa Morehouse that calls attention to the pivotal role of Filipino-Americans, led by Larry Itliong, who actually started the strike in Delano, in the Central Valley.
Salty irrigation water is a peril for California almond growers
The drought in California is creating an unexpected threat to the state's almond growers. Water drawn from wells on the west side of Central California is high in salt, says Valley Public Radio in Fresno, which could adversely affect crop yields.
California proposes first fine of a senior water rights holder
The State Water Resources Board proposed a $1.5 million fine against the Byron-Bethany Irrigation District in northern California for "unauthorized diversion and use of water," the first such action against a senior rights holder, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Large aquifers around the world are being drained
NASA research shows 21 of the world's 37 largest aquifers, from Asia and Europe to California's Central Valley, "have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water was removed than replaced during the decade-long study," says the Washington Post.
Rural poor suffer in drought; tech wizards offer water apps
"For many Californians, the state’s long drought has meant small inconveniences such as shorter showers and restrictions on watering lawns.
Far-reaching tradeoffs as cities, farms drain aquifers
Flavorful “petite peaches” a result of water shortage
Organic grower David Masumoto, who farms near Fresno, tells the Los Angeles Times, "We've been experimenting with this petite peach method this year, where we're cutting back water use 30 percent, 40 percent, 50 percent on some select areas of the orchard to see how it responds."
In Central Valley, farmers help farmers survive drought
For farmer Cannon Michael, life "is almost exclusively focused on finding ways to overcome the drought, and in California, when it comes to saving water, there's no time to waste," writes Sena Christian in the online magazine Ensia.
Bird flu confirmed in turkey flock in California
The low pathogenic H7N3 avian influenza virus was confirmed in a commercial flock of 6,100 turkeys in California, said the World Organization for Animal Health in a notice on its website.
The urban-vs-rural water war in California
The order by Gov. Jerry Brown for a 25-percent reduction in urban water use "reopened a generations-old, urban-versus-rural debate about who should control California’s water and how it can best be used," says the San Diego Union-Tribune. Critics say agriculture got a free pass from Brown because of political clout. The farm bloc says it already endures cutbacks. This is the second year of "zero allocation" of federal irrigation water to farmers and the state has cut its allocation to farms to 20 percent of normal, says the Union-Tribune.
Interior-No irrigation water for Central Valley for second year
The Interior Department says there will be no irrigation water for most farmers in California's Central Valley for the second year in a row, calling it "an unprecedented situation."
Beavers are ally for salmon in dry California
After decades of being treated as a marine nuisance, beavers "could help ease the water woes" that pit farmers against fishermen in California, says the magazine onEarth.
Report: California paraquat use concentrated in poor, Latino communities
Between 2017 and 2021, 5.3 million pounds of the herbicide paraquat were sprayed on California fields, with 66 percent of it in five Central Valley counties whose residents are predominantly poor and Latino, according to a new Environmental Working Group analysis.