With California — particularly its farm economy — suffering from
the effects of a historic drought, it is imperative that our
leaders act responsibly to protect water resources.
This time of year, May Vu’s farm in Sanger should be carpeted
with blooming flowers and a bounty of vegetables. But a failing
irrigation pump and a nearly empty well have dried up Vu’s farm
and with it, her source of income.
A state official confirmed Friday that a potentially toxic form
of blue-green algae is blooming in the San Joaquin River. It’s
unknown whether this is the same algae greening up the waterfront
area only a few miles away.
The Fresno City Council on Thursday voted to do a two-week study
on the economic effects of Measure W, a possible referendum on
the higher water rates passed last year by the council.
If 200-year flood protection isn’t secured — or at least a
financial and implementation plan in place by July 1, 2016 —
development of the Great Wolf Resort and family entertainment
zone, The Trails at Manteca, and other residential projects in
southwest Manteca won’t take place.
From The Fresno Bee Earth Log blog by Mark Grossi:
In rural areas of the San Joaquin Valley, folks are turning on
the tap and getting black water, bacteria, chemicals and
sometimes just a little dribble of water.
In drought-scarred farm country, coffee shop talk turns
obsessively to water and its cost — which several months ago hit
a shocking $1,000 per acre-foot and then climbed to more than
$2,000.
Stockton is fighting a new wastewater permit that the city says
could cost its ratepayers anywhere from $195 million to $252
million and increase rates by perhaps 80 percent.
San Joaquin County
supervisors agreed Tuesday to oppose Gov. Jerry Brown’s twin
tunnels project – for the second time – and to send nearly 100
pages of highly critical comments to state and federal
officials.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed twin tunnels “will effectively
destroy the Delta as it exists today,” and will forever alter San
Joaquin County’s economy, county officials warn in a new report.
Repairs began Monday and are expected to last seven days on the
Alta Irrigation District’s main canal, which ruptured east of
Sanger on Sunday, briefly threatening to flood five homes.
Agencies from San Joaquin and Contra Costa counties to NASA and
the U.S. Department of Agriculture formed an invasive-weed task
force seeking holistic, more comprehensive solutions to free the
Delta from its oppressors.
Seventy-plus years later, [Whitey] Rasmussen is still tying his
own feathered flies and crafting his own lures, still using them
to catch his own trophy fish, and still telling some great
stories in a way that only an ex-Navy man can. But Rasmussen
is more than a storyteller.
Modesto is asking everyone to conserve water as the state bakes
under a third straight year of drought. And in case folks
have not gotten the message, the city is helping them.
