To All, Don McEnhill, Executive Director of Russian Riverkeeper is a featured interview in: THE RUSSIAN RIVER: ALL RIVERS – THE VALUE OF AN AMERICAN WATERSHED “The time of using greed to justify degrading our environment is over.” “We need to get very honest with the amount of water we have in the worst year. […]
Read MoreCategory: Food Agriculture Impacting Water
Some Dam Questions about the California Drought
By Robert Green For Southern Californians, the current record-breaking drought means letting the lawn fade to a trendy golden brown and making sure the hose doesn’t water the asphalt while you’re washing your car. It does not mean wondering whether anything will come out of the faucet and, unlike in the drought of 1977, it […]
Read MoreWater Zoning Rules Backed
Sonoma County planners approve ordinance on agriculture, development on waterways By ANGELA HART THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Sonoma County planning commissioners Thursday night signed off on a new ordinance spelling out a wide set of regulations that limit agriculture and development along 3,200 miles of streams and rivers. The controversial changes, decades in the making, would […]
Read MoreSonoma County’s Riparian Corridor Ordinance
Mark your calendar & spread the word: Planning Commission hearing August 28, 2014 at 1:00 pm PRMD hearing room Board of Supervisors hearing Oct. 21, 2014 (tentative) Nov. 18, 2014 (tentative) Supervisors’ Chambers Sonoma County Administration Building 575 Administration Drive, Room 102A Be sure to let others know about these important hearings. Our voices will […]
Read MoreState issues new water curtailment orders, plans swifter crackdown on diversions
BY GLENDA ANDERSON THE PRESS DEMOCRAT July 3, 2014 State officials on Wednesday issued new water curtailment orders to thousands of users and adopted emergency regulations that allow them to more quickly crack down on people who ignore orders to stop diverting water from drought-stricken rivers and streams, including the upper Russian River. “Water rights […]
Read MoreBeautiful river, growing thirst, looming battle over the Eel River
By Susan Sward Special to The Bee Published: Sunday, Jul. 6, 2014 – 12:00 am Last Modified: Sunday, Jul. 6, 2014 – 12:12 am In the third-largest watershed in California, the Eel River rambles through some of the state’s most stunning landscape. Nothing about the river, with its clusters of redwoods along its sandy banks, hints at […]
Read MoreThe Politics of the World’s Most Hydrologically Altered Landmass
by Will Parrish, June 4, 2014 California is the most hydrologically altered landmass on the planet, a distinction it first attained in the early-mid-20th century. The Hoover Dam (on the Colorado River), which began operation in 1936, was the largest dam in the world at the time of its completion. With regard to the world’s biggest […]
Read MoreAmid drought, laws to track California’s biggest water users ignored
May 28, 2014 The last time California endured a drought, legislators set their sights on the state’s heaviest water users: farmers. The state designed laws to push agricultural water districts to closely track their water flow and make the largest districts charge farmers based on how much they use. The economic theory is simple: If […]
Read MoreEnvironmental Groups’ Lawsuit could Upend Sonoma County Vineyard Policies
By GUY KOVNER THE PRESS DEMOCRAT June 13, 2014 Three environmental groups are challenging Sonoma County’s approval of a 54-acre Annapolis vineyard in a case that reflects long-standing conflict over expansion of the county’s $600 million a year grape industry. If the lawsuit were to succeed, it would wipe out the county’s vineyard development law, […]
Read MoreMajor Obama proposal doesn’t change ag rules — so why are farm groups so worried?
Annie Snider, E&E reporter Greenwire: April 17, 2014 Today, farmers and ranchers can freely do any number of things on their property affecting rivers, creeks and wetlands that no other sector could undertake without going to the federal government for permission. Agriculture is different, Congress decided when passing the 1972 Clean Water Act. For the […]
Read MoreEpic California Drought and Groundwater: Where Do We Go From Here?
Posted by Jay Famiglietti of University of California, Irvine in Water Currents on February 4, 2014 We’ve been working since the mid-1990’s, well before the mission was launched in 2002, to develop and test methods to help monitor groundwater depletion from space. We’ve applied them around the world — in California, across the U.S., in the Middle East, East […]
Read MoreStanislaus Farmers Sued over Environmental Concerns about Groundwater Wells
The Modesto Bee, February 7, 2014 By J.N. Sbranti Environmental advocates filed a lawsuit Thursday against more than a dozen Stanislaus County farmers seeking to shut off the water to about 60 recently approved wells for agricultural irrigation. The legal action seeks an environmental review of the impact those groundwater wells will have on Stanislaus’ […]
Read MoreDrought Solutions: Dry Farming
Overview Dry farming is not to be confused with rainfed agriculture. Rainfed agriculture refers to crop production that occurs during a rainy season. Dry farming, on the other hand, refers to crop production during a dry season, utilizing the residual moisture in the soil from the rainy season, usually in a region that receives 20” […]
Read MoreCalifornia Drought – Time to Rethink Forgotten Grains
Campaign for forgotten grain. Will California’s drought make farmers rethink what they should grow? A very thirsty California, often criticized for its paradoxical water wastage, has been suffering from the worst drought for 500 years as some climate experts put it. California is also historically a powerful agricultural state, the second in water intensive rice […]
Read MoreIt Takes How Much Water to Grow an Almond?!
Why California’s drought is a disaster for your favorite fruits, vegetables, and nuts. By Alex Park and Julia Lurie Mon Feb. 24, 2014 2:55 AM GMT California, supplier of nearly half of all US fruits, veggies, and nuts, is on track to experience the driest year in the past half millennium [1]. Farms use about 80 percent [2] of the state’s “developed water,” or […]
Read MoreMeat Makes the Planet Thirsty
By JAMES MCWILLIAMS, MARCH 7, 2014 AUSTIN, Tex. — CALIFORNIA is experiencing one of its worst droughts on record. Just two and a half years ago, Folsom Lake, a major reservoir outside Sacramento, was at 83 percent capacity. Today it’s down to 36 percent. In January, there was no measurable rain in downtown Los Angeles. Gov. Jerry […]
Read MoreDrought and Politics
Politics cloud water debate Fixing California’s water crisis requires finding a way to reallocate supply among the state’s three major user groups ? and avoiding the political posturing and bickering that have surfaced. Michael There are two possible policy outcomes to a severe drought like the one California is experiencing now. One is that the […]
Read MoreCalifornia Drought: San Joaquin Valley sinking as farmers race to tap aquifer
By Lisa M. Krieger lkrieger@mercurynews.com March 29, 2014 PIXLEY – So wet was the San Joaquin Valley of Steve Arthur’s childhood that a single 240-foot-deep well could quench the thirst of an arid farm. Now his massive rig, bucking and belching, must drill 1,200 feet deep in search of ever-more-elusive water to sustain this wheat […]
Read MoreNew Online Resources for Ag Water Stewardship
Good information for everyone…..Janus Subject: New Online Resources for Ag Water Stewardship The California Agricultural Water Stewardship Initiative (CAWSI) is pleased to announce the expansion of the online Agricultural Water Stewardship Resource Center, which now features 11 on-farm practices, 66 case studies, and a library of technical resources to assist farmers and ranchers, water suppliers, […]
Read MoreVineyard Owners Worried about Potential Water Restrictions
By MATT BROWN THE PRESS DEMOCRAT January 22, 2014, 7:57 PM If the debilitating drought continues, farmers and ranchers with rights to California’s creeks, rivers and lakes may be ordered to stop drawing the water that is vital to agricultural operations. That is the message Gov. Jerry Brown sent last week in his emergency drought […]
Read MoreDrought and CEQA
To All: As I’m sure most if not all of you are aware, Governor Brown recently made his drought emergency declaration. While there are many positive aspects of the declaration – raising awareness of the drought, added pressure for reduced water usage, release of funds to address the drought, etc. – there are also some […]
Read MorePeak Water Is Here
by VL BakerFollow for Daily Kos Peak water is here and unlike peak oil, there is no substitution for water. But like peak oil the low-hanging fruit of our fresh water supply has been picked and what is left requires costly environmental and financial impacts to extract. Peak water is about reaching physical, economic, and environmental […]
Read MoreLetter to Policy Makers Regarding King Tides
Dear Policy Makers: PLEASE: No more building in the floodplains. Or in the predicted future 1% floodplains. New structures – homes, commercial, industrial, institutional and governmental buildings and roadways – have an average lifespan of 100 – 300 years if reasonably maintained. Approvals of new structures, or any consideration of alterations, expansions or reuse of […]
Read MoreThe Paul Hobbs Empire Strikes Back
by Shepherd Bliss Posted on November 29, 2013 by dandelionsalad The Watertrough Children’s Alliance (WCA)–mainly mothers with students at schools near where yet another apple orchard is being converted into a chemical vineyard–filed a lawsuit on the afternoon of Nov. 25 against the Paul Hobbs Winery. The next day Hobbs struck back with a press […]
Read MoreCitizen Group Sues Paul Hobbs
By PAUL PAYNE THE PRESS DEMOCRAT November 26, 2013 A citizens group is suing Sebastopol winemaker Paul Hobbs and Sonoma County over a 48-acre vineyard conversion project it says was approved in violation of state environmental laws. Watertrough Children’s Alliance alleges in court papers filed Monday that Agricultural Commissioner Tony Linegar erred in issuing a permit June […]
Read MoreOminous Department of Water Resources Report
Good morning, As the first significant rain of the season fell on Northern California the other day, the state Department of Water Resources issued an ominous water supply estimate that makes it clear that much more precipitation is needed this winter. The DWR projects that it will be able to fill only 5 percent of […]
Read MoreWhy the Clean Water Act is Currently Broken
After a decade of our collective efforts to restore Clean Water Act protections to the nation’s wetlands and streams, NOW IS OUR WINDOW to move what is an historic and crucial rulemaking to reinforce the Clean Water Act. For almost 30 years following the passage of the 1972 Clean Water Act, the courts and the […]
Read MoreAction: Red Wine or Redwoods? Your choice…
Dear All, You know what California has plenty of? Wineries. You know what it’s rapidly losing, and what it can never replace? Its ancient redwood forests, some of which have trees that are more than 2,000 years old.<http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AhZwZ/zoLT/AJaEt> A Spanish winemaker wants to chop down 154 acres of coast redwoods and Douglas firs to make […]
Read MoreStudy finds steroids may persist longer in the environment than expected
University of Iowa-led research shows some drugs can partially regenerate themselves Assessing the risk posed to aquatic organisms by the discharge of certain steroids and pharmaceutical products into waterways is often based on a belief that as the compounds degrade, the ecological risks naturally decline. But there’s growing sentiment that once in the environment, some […]
Read MoreWater Wars: Who Controls The Flow?
by NPR Don Gentry, chairman of the Klamath Tribes, says the tribes have not been able to fish for suckerfish for the past 27 years. “The condition of our fish is just so dire,” he says. Amelia Templeton for NPR So often, we take water for granted. We turn on the faucet and there it […]
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