Water News - Page 74 of 76 in California's San Joaquin Valley

Longtime water foes join forces

April 1, 2019

• by Lois Henry

There’s nothing like a common enemy to bring warring parties together. That was never more true than with the City of Bakersfield and Kern Delta Water District, which agreed this week to form a joint Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA). As part of the alliance, they both agreed to drop long-running lawsuits against each other. And…

Groundwater

New groundwater world a scary, confusing place

April 1, 2019

• by Lois Henry

The county continued its pattern on Tuesday of declaring itself a Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) over the exact boundaries previously declared a GSA by water agencies. To date, the Kern Board of Supervisors has “filed over” five nascent GSAs, creating a lot of grumbling and ill will along the way. (I’ll get back to that.)…

Personalities

Water conspiracy or just poor optics?

April 1, 2019

• by Lois Henry

There’s a reason Matt Hurley wears so many hats, his critics say. And he does wear a lot of hats: General manager of Angiola Water District, Green Valley Water District and Deer Creek Storm Water District; chairman of the newly formed Tri-County Water Authority; and he’s a director on the Fresno Slough Water District and…

Personalities

Is John Vidovich planning to sell off the valley’s lifeblood? Or is he just the newest water baron on the block?

April 1, 2019

• by Lois Henry

When you first meet John Vidovich, everything from his ball cap to his dirty boots tells you he’s a farmer. He certainly looks the part in his well-worn jeans and checkered shirts. But this outwardly unassuming multimillionaire has become a lightning rod of controversy. Because, while he does farm thousands of acres of pistachios, almonds…

Federal System

Local water districts feel cheated by ‘exchange’

April 1, 2019

• by Lois Henry

Oh, the fascinating stuff our protracted drought is revealing. I’m not talking about tires and old town foundations at the bottom of California’s reservoirs. This drought is also putting long-held assumptions about water rights under intense scrutiny. In this instance, a dispute over how the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has administered a contract spanning more…

Federal System

One more try for federal fixes to California’s water woes

April 1, 2019

• by Lois Henry

Local water folks are hopeful, but not holding their breath, that the latest congressional effort to move a little more water down the pike from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta will actually succeed. Even if it does, I’m sure environmental activists already have their lawyers prepped and ready for launch. But it’s the holidays, so who…

Federal System

Water odds and ends

April 1, 2019

• by Lois Henry

It’s all about water. At least this column will be. If you haven’t read the big, giant water bill that had Sen. Barbara Boxer’s panties in a big, giant twist, I encourage you to give it a skim. That bill has everything in it. Sure, it has provisions that will authorize some operational changes in the Sacramento-San…

Federal System

Water, water everywhere, but can we keep it?

April 1, 2019

• by Lois Henry

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 water as I am.) Storms are dumping, rivers are rising and lakes are filling — finally. Will we be able to squirrel that water away…

Development

How water from Kern grows sprawl in Madera

April 1, 2019

• by Lois Henry

So, a pile of water banked in Kern County is being used to support a massive urban development in Madera County. Before you try and wrap your head around how that’s geographically possible, there’s the whole question of whether the banked water (and other water slated for the project) even can be used for that purpose. Then…

Conservation

It may be raining now, but we need to live like it’s dry

April 1, 2019

• by Lois Henry

This is sooooo California. The same day the state Water Resources Control Board announced it would continue the state’s drought emergency, so much water had to be let out of Lake Oroville that it broke the spillway. Drought? Huh? OK, so those optics were a bit confusing. But Water Resources was absolutely right to keep…

NEWS

Longtime water foes join forces

New groundwater world a scary, confusing place

Water conspiracy or just poor optics?

Is John Vidovich planning to sell off the valley’s lifeblood? Or is he just the newest water baron on the block?

Local water districts feel cheated by ‘exchange’

One more try for federal fixes to California’s water woes

Water odds and ends

Water, water everywhere, but can we keep it?

How water from Kern grows sprawl in Madera

It may be raining now, but we need to live like it’s dry

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