New state water regs cause angst on all sides
A new set of water regulations aimed at protecting California’s native fish came down from the state earlier this week to near universal condemnation from both agricultural and environmental water…
Read More
March storms leave so-so snowpack in the north and a cliffhanger on the San Joaquin River
March wasn’t exactly miraculous this year but it did OK by California’s snowpack, bringing it from a dismal 40-ish% of average up to above 60% of average in the northern…
Read More
District sues to stop salty water exchange
The James Irrigation District in western Fresno County has sued the Westlands Water District over its plan to let farmers pump salty groundwater into the Mendota Pool in exchange for…
Read More
The atmospheric river is flowing
The storm finally arrived in Bakersfield early Tuesday evening. The storm was expected to bring significant rainfall to areas in the San Joaquin Valley after a dry January and even…
Read More
Initial federal water allocations for valley ag are low at 15 and 20 percent
An historically dry February forced the feds to keep initial water allocations to Central Valley Project contractors low in the first round of allocations announced Tuesday during a call with…
Read More
Modesto farmer Bill Lyons resigns as Governor’s ag liaison
Bill Lyons resigned his post as agricultural liaison to Gov. Gavin Newsom effective immediately, according to an email from the Governor’s office Monday afternoon. Lyons, a long time Modesto farmer,…
Read More
With Trump comes a lot of speculation
Will President Donald Trump give his signatory flourish to the new controversial federal plan for operations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta when he visits Bakersfield on Wednesday? Will he announce…
Read More
Salty water spat erupts over “no man’s land” of Mendota Pool
The federal government has OKed a 20-year extension of a water exchange program for one Central Valley water district that another district says will illegally foul its water. The Bureau…
Read More
State water contractors should “drill into” California’s response to new delta biological opinions
A top federal water official warned members of a Central Valley water group that the state’s response to new guidelines for federally endangered fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta would…
Read MoreWater, water everywhere, but can we keep it?
Will we get the water? That’s the question everyone’s been asking. (And by everyone, I mean the other five or six people I know who are as weirdly interested in…
Read More
Maven's Notebook is an excellent daily accounting of California water happenings statewide.
