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Central Valley facing another dry year

March 1, 2015

sb waterThe Federal Bureau of Reclamation has announced it will not release reservoir water for most Central Valley farmers for the second straight year. [KCOY]

Farmers are scrambling to find other water sources, uprooting or not planting their fields, while others are using unregulated groundwater wells that are quickly drying up.

Some farms are exempt from complete cuts under California’s antiquated water rights system dating to Gold Rush-era days.

California’s snow pack, the main source of water across the state, is just one-fifth its normal level.

State Water customers on the Central Coast are actually seeing their annual allotments increase to 15 percent this year, up from five percent last year.


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Invest in SLO reale state becaust this city has plenty of everyone elses water and our local board has no problem curtailing only everyone elses water use. Now their discussing the connection of Valley Water to the Salinas River, expect everyone elses water supply to become just that.


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By golly we’ve got to save some microscopic piece of whatever so we’ve just gotta let all

water run out to the ocean,opps and gotta take down those peskey dams put in place for

renewable clean, basicily free electricity and water for use, it doesn’t matter that they’ve been

in place for years and years but we’ve got to turn that back to natural. If we continue to let

the vocal minority to keep this up all our food will be coming from other countrys that have NO

rules and regs on pestisides.


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Fedzilla is way out of control.


Wash, DC is out of touch with reality.


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The regulator’s and legislator’s are systematically destroying California.


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Are you SURE it’s not Republicans and developers destroying California?


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It’s overpopulation destroying California


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Obispan, yes I am sure. Last time I checked, California was run by liberals. I guess Republicans will eventually have to save California.


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Cities like San Diego discharge 200 million gallons of reusable water a day to the ocean, yet Agriculture still uses 80 percent of California’s available water. Where’s the biggest opportunity to conserve? Agriculture, but that’s not what the over-pumpers and water bankers want to talk about. So, they spend millions on marketing and lobbying to avoid addressing their responsibilities in protecting this vital, shared resource.


Why is it considered a Liberal trait to recognize the problem of over-consumption and want to do something about it? Laws were established to preserve surface water flows, yet estuaries, rivers and streams were still run dry and still are under threat. Pollution laws were written under the mantra, “Dilution is the solution to pollution”. But, with less water available for dilution the concentration of pollutants will logically increase. Even the groundwater will have higher levels of Nitrates and pollutants. This leaves wildlife, you, your pets, everything around you exposed to higher concentrations of God-knows-what.


Urban water users can still contribute. However, even if they used ZERO water, our groundwater and surface waters would still be rapidly depleting. It is not an exclusively Liberal to plan for a better California. It’s obvious that the system is broken and we can’t continue to do the same things that got us into this mess. I want a solution and I’ll support good ideas when I see them. It doesn’t matter who proposes them, Liberal or Conservative.


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