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.
