With nary a word, the Senate on Thursday night passed a
California drought-relief bill that sets up serious
negotiations with the House over water storage, river
protection, irrigation deliveries and more.
“The Colorado
River System Conservation Program, as the fund is known, will be
seeded with $2 million each from the Southern Nevada Water
Authority, Central Arizona Water Conservation District, the
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and Denver
Water.
“Livermore became the East Bay’s first city to raise water rates
in response to ongoing drought conditions and shortages when the
City Council voted unanimously Monday to enact the third stage of
the city’s conservation plan.”
“California water agencies plan to sell the first $200 million in
bonds toward a $25 billion project to bolster supplies for about
25 million people as the worst drought in a century threatens
farms and cities.”
“Hundreds of thousands of farm acres in California won’t be
growing crops for lack of water. This means higher prices for
produce and that will affect food banks throughout the state.”
“Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday signed a sweeping new emergency
drought proclamation, cutting red tape for a variety of
government functions to help water agencies find new supplies,
and to press the public to use water carefully.”
“Governor Jerry Brown’s latest executive order to combat the
drought has some aid for farmers, fish and firefighters – and
some requests for all Californians.”
“With every part of California suffering from the drought, Gov.
Jerry Brown issued a new executive order on Friday in an attempt
to provide some relief from the persistent dry conditions across
the state.”
“The rain that’s fallen in fulsome fits and spattering starts
this spring has punched enough of a dent in the drought that
state officials now say just three towns and rural areas are in
danger of running out of water — a sharp dip from the 17 that
were facing Dust Bowl disaster in January.”
“Like many fieldworkers in Mendota, a rural community 35 miles
west of Fresno dubbed the Cantaloupe Center of the World, [Jose
Pineda] Rivas finds his seasonal job of more than two decades at
risk of disappearing because of the statewide drought.”
“On a recent sunny day, the water waste inspector rolled through
a quiet Sacramento neighborhood in his white pickup truck after a
tipster tattled on people watering their lawns on prohibited
days.”
“California’s drought is imperiling tricolored blackbirds, large
trees and native fish, with some of the affected species already
on the state’s endangered list and others likely headed there
because of rapidly declining numbers, scientists say.”
From The Sacramento Bee, in a commentary by Tim Johnson:
“How can it be, I asked myself, that the drought is so bad and
planning so nonexistent that there are serious thoughts of
eliminating all surface water for agriculture in the state? I was
numb.”
From the San Francisco Chronicle, in a commentary by Barbara
Barrigan-Parrilla:
“The outsize influence of delta water exporters can be seen in
the recent ‘drought relief’ action by state and federal
regulators, which undid with the stroke of a pen Endangered
Species Act protections for fisheries that were the result of a
decade-long legal challenge.”
