“A few farmers throughout the Modesto Irrigation District have offered to forgo 2,825 acre-feet of water this year at a fixed price so others can have more.
“That amount represents less than 1.5 percent of the total that MID expects to deliver to growers this year.”
“Flat as a tabletop, the furrowed, brown farm fields east of this San Joaquin Valley town are some of the most productive on Earth. …
“Now that bounty is threatened by a crisis of geological proportions: The land is sinking – crippling the region’s irrigation and flood control infrastructure and damaging aquifers that are buffers against climate change.”
“Modesto’s auditor spent about six months reviewing the Public Works Department’s water and wastewater divisions, including interviewing more than 40 managers, supervisors and rank-and-file city employees.”
“Mark Grossi, environmental reporter for The Fresno Bee, has won a Best of the West second-place award in the growth and environmental reporting category for his 2013 series, ‘Living in a Toxic Land.’”
“Months before Gov. Jerry Brown declared drought in California, organizers of Stockton’s annual Earth Day Festival were already planning a water-oriented theme for this year’s event. …
“As it turns out, they could not have chosen a more timely topic.”
“A possible way to reduce groundwater pumping in eastern Stanislaus County’s rapidly expanding agricultural region was proposed Tuesday: Start delivering surplus Oakdale Irrigation District water there.”
“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 farm north of Bakersfield.”
“Skeptical Delta landowners heard details Thursday night of a state plan to install four rock barriers in the estuary, an effort to block salinity from San Francisco Bay and allow officials to hold back more water in reservoirs this summer.”
“Thumbs down to Sandridge Partners for allegedly pumping thousands of acre-feet of water from the underground aquifer in Tulare County and exporting it 25 miles through pipes and canals to an almond farm in Kings County.”
“About 1,000 people — from farmworkers to farm leaders — turned out Wednesday for a water rally in support of east side agriculture at the International Agri-Center in Tulare.
“The rally, organized by the California Latino Water Coalition, protested the planned “zero allocation” of irrigation water this summer to east-side farmers by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.”
“Despite what academic researchers have been saying, Stanislaus County’s groundwater levels have not declined dramatically, a longtime well measurement specialist assured county officials Wednesday.”
“A Tulare County judge has ordered a landowner to stop pumping groundwater in the southern San Joaquin Valley and moving it off the property, to the relief of an irrigation district that wants to keep water available for landowners fighting the drought.
“The preliminary injunction will stay in effect until a trial determines whether the pumping and movement of water violates state water law, visiting Judge Harry N.
