California Ag Network

Tag: Water Crisis

  • UC water institute announces 2017 grant recipients

    Sacramento, Calif., (March 16, 2017) – The UC California Institute for Water Resources (CIWR) has announced the recipients of six grants to address the most critical water issues in the state. For this program, the Institute leverages funds it receives from the Water Resources Research Act of 1964 through the Department of Interior.

    CIWR, which is part of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, facilitates collaborative research and outreach on water issues across California’s academic institutions and with international, federal, state, regional, nonprofit, and campus communities.

    Small grants to support initial work will be dispersed to the following projects (click the headline for more information):

    One proposed solution for recharging overdrawn aquifers is flooding farmland during the rainy season. Optimizing agricultural groundwater banking for specific crops can be challenging. The goal of this project is to better understand how alfalfa, which is grown year-round, responds to winter flooding.

    Declining water levels can degrade or eliminate fish habitat during California’s summer season. Storing water off-channel during the rainy season can improve flow during the summer. The study is designed to gain a better understanding of the relationship between stream flow and habitat.

    Turfgrass is common in urban landscapes and provides valuable recreation areas and ecosystem services. This project will help determine the best irrigation strategies for common turfgrass species.

    The natural conditions of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta have been changed by habitat alteration and non-native predacious fish introduction. This project will examine the interplay between altered habitat and predatory fish, and how they impact native salmon populations.

    Sacramento State geology professor Amelia Vankeuren and graduate students collect samples at the American River.

    During the recent drought, California required that on-average urban water districts conserve 25 percent of their water. While some districts were successful, others failed to meet their target. This project will examine how variation in policy – pricing, messaging and penalties – and drought severity affected water conservation.

    As part of California’s groundwater management act, some basins were designated as high management priorities. This project will characterize groundwater using age, location and temperature. This information will be valuable for stakeholders creating a groundwater sustainability plan.

    Farmer Jim Morris on an alfalfa field being flooded for groundwater recharge.

     

     

  • Fresno County Farm Bureau Issues Statement On Water Supply for County’s Federal Water Contractors

    Fresno, Calif., (March 1, 2017) – Statement by CEO Ryan Jacobsen:

    “Mother Nature has provided a bountiful precipitation season-one that will be near the top of the record books.  After the historic five-year drought, the snowpack and rain are a tremendous blessing to an agricultural industry hammered by the critical water shortage.  Most farmers and ranchers with surface supplies will experience an increased water allocation as a result of these storms’ resurgences across the state.

    “While the short-term relief of this year’s water outlook should have our industry optimistic, reality says something much different.  The implications of the governmental-imposed drought continue with a vengeance.  How, with reservoirs at their brim, flood releases happening by the hundreds of thousands of acre feet a day, snowpack levels in most areas 150 percent plus for this date and Delta outflows cumulatively adding up to over 24 million acre feet since October 2016, can Fresno County’s Westside federal water contractors still have no initial allocation?  Historically, this announcement has come in the middle of February.  And, at this point, these farmers do not even expect to reach anywhere near their contracted amount.

    “Unfortunately, but as this region has come to expect, the answer is bureaucratically-related.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), under the United States Department of Commerce, has yet to complete their fisheries’ temperature management plan for Shasta Lake.  While they take their time in completing this report, our Valley loses jobs and economic activity.  Cropping decisions are taking place now!  Farmers cannot make choices on what might be an allocation…they need real numbers.  Every day that passes without an announcement, as well as anything short of a 100 percent allocation in a year like this, takes some of the world’s most fertile fields out of production.  This is completely unacceptable.

    “Federal water policy is failing this region.  It has failed to protect fish species, and, most importantly, it has failed to provide water to the communities and businesses who need it most, even when water is plentiful.

    “On the Friant system, while news of a 100 percent Class I allocation is welcomed, we are once again reminded of the importance of Temperance Flat Dam.  Around 350,000 acre feet of water has already been released to date with much more flows expected this season.  Over the long-term, California does receive ample precipitation, but it’s weather patterns are cyclical.  Without investments in our water infrastructure, it will be economically devastating to the Valley to make it through the dry times, particularly with the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.

    “FCFB will continue to push for additional surface water and groundwater storage; improved conveyance through the state, specifically in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta; and a return to common-sense water policies that bring back into balance water allocated for food production, municipal and rural communities, the economy and the environment.”

  • Farm Organizations: Snow Survey Must Lead to Improved Water Supplies

    Sacramento, Calif., (February 6, 2017) – When state snow surveyors visit the Sierra Nevada tomorrow, they will find a snowpack well above average for the date—and California agricultural organizations say they hope that translates into improved water supplies for the state’s farmers and ranchers.

    “You would think that a snowpack in the range of 175 percent of average would assure plentiful water supplies, but that link has long ago been severed,” said Tom Nassif, president of the Western Growers Association. “Wildlife agencies often hold the key to determining how much water is available, because endangered-species laws reserve water for protected fish.”

    Nassif noted the passage of federal legislation called the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act, which included short-term provisions to increase flexibility of the state’s water system.

    “Among its provisions, the WIIN Act allows water agencies to capture more water during winter storms and requires them to maximize supplies consistent with law. This winter will be a good test of how agencies adhere to that law,” said Paul Wenger, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation.

    The WIIN Act also invests in California water storage and desalination projects, complementing the investments California voters made when they passed the Proposition 1 water bond in 2014.

    “We’ve had to let too much water run out to sea this winter, because we didn’t have any place to store it,” said Bill Diedrich, president of the California Farm Water Coalition. “We should be doing everything we can to save today’s rain and snow for use tomorrow.”

    The California Water Commission will decide later this year on water projects to be funded through the bond.

    “We will continue to urge the commission to put that money to work as quickly as possible to build new storage facilities that can capture more water during future winters such as we’ve seen in 2017,” Diedrich said.