San Joaquin Valley farms and Southern California cities are facing different but equally daunting water challenges. For Valley farmers, the requirement to achieve groundwater sustainability in coming years has heightened interest in expanding water supplies to reduce the need to fallow irrigated farmland. For Southern California, falling demands since the...
California Water Stockings Stuffed With $1 Billion in Federal Funding
Christmas came early for California water interests with more than $1 billion in federal funding for a variety of projects packed into the recent federal funding bill that included COVID-19 relief. At the top of the list for the San Joaquin Valley is $206 million to aid in repairing the...
Dry Start to Winter Drops California Water Allocation to Just 10%
SACRAMENTO — California's water managers on Tuesday preliminarily allocated just 10% of requested water supplies to agencies that together serve more than 27 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland. The state Department of Water Resources cited the dry start to the winter rainy season in California's Mediterranean climate, along...
Here’s the Challenge of Implementing Historic Groundwater Law
California celebrated the passage of historic legislation six years ago when Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, written to achieve sustainable groundwater management for basins throughout the state. The groundwater law requires governments and water agencies to halt overdraft and bring groundwater basins into balanced...
Water, Energy and Technology Center at Fresno State Wins $50,000 in Competition
There was an early morning Zoom celebration heard around at least a few homes in the Valley Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced selections for the prize portion of the Energy Program for Innovation Clusters , and a team from Fresno was one of the winners. The Water, Energy...
Opinion: TJ Cox Is Fighting to Bring Water to the Taps and the Fields
Kerman is an hour drive from David Valadao’s home but it might as well have been on another planet. For six years Valadao supposedly represented Congressional District 21, and for all six he was mostly missing in action. Mr. Valadao graced us with his presence once during his tenure, and...
CVP Growers Get 5% Boost in Irrigation Water
A wet April enabled the Bureau of Reclamation to bump irrigation deliveries to west-side Central Valley Project growers by 5% to 20% of their contracts, the federal agency said Tuesday. In addition, Friant Division growers saw their Class 1 allocations also expand by 5% to 60% of their contract amounts....
Crops Grown With Kern Oilfield Water Are Safe, Panel Finds
Fruits and vegetables grown with recycled oilfield water in Kern County got a final stamp of approval in April, nearly five years after the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board began what it thought was going to be a three-month process investigating the water’s safety. Findings from numerous, wide-ranging...
Trump's Signature Could Mean More Water for Valley
More water will flow toward San Joaquin Valley farmers, President Donald Trump declared at an event in Bakersfield on Wednesday afternoon. Trump announced the completion of biological opinions that will increase water allocations in Californians. “A major obstacle to providing more water for the region’s farmers has now been totally...
Didn't Make it to Bakersfield? Watch Trump's Speech Here.
President Donald Trump spoke about his reelection campaign and ensuring that California farmers have sufficient water to grow their crops in Bakersfield today. The event began at about 3 p.m. inside the JACO Hangar at Meadows Field Airport. Click on the arrow in the picture above to see the speech....