Posts Tagged: San Joaquin

UC hosts water discussion in San Ramon

A group of Contra Costa County citizens brought together yesterday by UC Cooperative Extension agreed that the state needs to improve water infrastructure to store more water, improve water conservation efforts and improve water management to mitigate problems in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region.

Thursday's discussion was one in a series being held by the UCCE Community Water Conversations Project, which aims to provide California citizens with an opportunity to discuss and learn about water policy options in a facilitated, non-threatening and positive environment.

Many participants in Thursday's conversation believe the Delta water issue will reach a crisis point if efforts aren't made to strengthen infrastructure and promote conservation, according to an article in the San Ramon Patch. Political disillusionment is also a common feeling expressed by many forum participants, according to Jodi Cassell, natural resources advisor for the Contra Costa County Cooperative Extension.

"I think in this country, especially now, people are looking for ways on their own to know as much as they can about very complex issues because they don't feel they can go to governmental agencies to get what they need," Cassell was quoted in the newspaper article. "These conversations will hopefully guide them through a part of public policy as multi-faceted as this state's water usage and make them more engaged in the political process that drives it."

Craig Paterson, project manager and moderator of Thursday's forum, said the organizers wish to gather a range of opinions to share with policy makers that will inform decisions in which everybody wins. In January, project staff will finalize video and written reports on the forum's participants and their views.

In a UC Green Blog post, director of UC Cooperative Extension in Solano County Carole Paterson shared common themes that have emerged from a preliminary review of 10 water conversations that took place this year. The themes, she said, are:

• Frustration. People believe the public policy process is flawed.
• Education. People do not understand what is happening to their water. The issues are extremely complex and over the years, layer upon layer of legislation, lawsuits, court decisions and media reports have muddied the water.
• Science. People are concerned that science is being manipulated by various stakeholders to support a particular point of view.

Farmland in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Farm revenues down just 3 percent due to water losses

The most recent estimates of job losses due to cuts in water allocations from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are far lower than was first predicted, according to an article published last week in the Contra Costa Times.

In early 2009, UC Davis economist Richard Howitt predicted the drought and new restrictions on Delta pumping would cost 95,000 jobs, but he revised the figure downward a number of times. Even though, the old number is still sometimes used, recently by Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, the article said.

"Yes, it's a problem when candidates don't use the most recent and accurate figures," Howitt said in an e-mail to reporter Mike Taugher. "I have tried to correct this, but this combined report should help put some of the outdated values to rest."

Current estimates of lost farm revenue in agriculture because of water shortages are $340 million (by Jeffrey Michael, director of the Business Forecasting Center at the University of Pacific) and $370 million (by Howitt). In both cases, that represents a less than 3 percent decline in San Joaquin Valley farm revenues. Job losses are estimated to be between 5,500 and 7,500 jobs.

San Francisco paper reports on *water war*

A perspective piece in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle wrapped up decades of California water wrangling and pondered a possible end to the state's "water war."

The article centered on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, which 150 years ago was a marshy estuary with a constant ebb and flow of saltwater from the San Francisco Bay and fresh water from rivers draining the mountains, said the article, written by freelancer Matt Jenkins.

Today, the article said, after 150 years of "spirited remodeling," the area has been transformed into a tangle of waterways with farms and towns on levee-protected islands. Fresh water from the delta is channeled to agricultural fields for irrigation and to urban water users.

Last fall, the Legislature proclaimed two "coequal goals" for the delta: providing a more reliable water supply for the state and protecting, restoring and enhancing the delta ecosystem.

"We've got to get this right," Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael was quoted in the story. "We're not going to have too many more chances to save the estuary."

The fate of delta smelt is one issue in California's water wars.

The San Joaquin River is flowing to the ocean

For the first time in more than 60 years, the San Joaquin River is flowing from the mountains to the sea. The restoration of the San Joaquin, however, comes at a cost, according to a recent Fresno Bee article.

"Now, in the first full year of the restoration, east San Joaquin Valley farmers will lose up to 230,000 acre-feet of water to keep the flow going," wrote reporter Mark Grossi. "It amounts to 18% of the water they have been getting after an average season."

In a letter to the editor published today, Fresno resident Harry Cline - who is editor of the agriculture trade publication Western Farm Press - took issue with that statement, backing up his point with crop water use information from the University of California.

"Farmers will not lose 230,000 acre-feet of water annually," Cline wrote. "People will lose the food that could be produced with 230,000 acre-feet of water."

He reported that 230,000 acre-feet of water represents the irrigation supply needed for:

• 64 million boxes of table grapes
• 92 million boxes of lettuce
• 13.8 billion bread loaves
• 64 million boxes of oranges

An abandoned Madera County vineyard.

Urban runoff main source of pesticide in California rivers

Researchers who studied runoff from agriculture, sewage treatment plants and urban neighborhoods found that the main source of pesticide concentration was from urban run-off, according to an article published in the Daily Californian. Portions of the American River and San Joaquin River contain pesticide levels high enough to kill some invertebrates, such as gadflies and mayflies.

"On the source side of things, urban run-off consistently has pyrethroids at levels that are toxic to some organisms," the story quoted Donald Weston, a UC Berkeley biology professor and co-author of the study. The study was published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

The researchers found that nearly all residential runoff samples had pyrethroid levels that were toxic to the test organism, Hyalella azteca. Pyrethroids are found in many common household insecticides - such as Raid.

Weston told the Californian that the prevalence of pyrethroids in household insecticides was due in part to a ban on organophosphate insecticides in such products. Pyrethroid use has increased about three-fold over the last 10 years, he said.

Urban water runs into storm drain.

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