A court ruling issued Wednesday could throw up obstacles to operation of a Kern County groundwater bank that has helped billionaire Stewart Resnick build a nut empire in the southern San Joaquin Valley. In the latest development in a two-decade legal fight, a Sacramento County Superior Court judge found that the state Department of Water
After six years of construction, a momentous event is expected later this month at the new flood-control spillway being built at Folsom Dam: The steel flood-control gates – the mechanical heart of the project – will begin to arrive for installation. http://www.sacbee.com/2014/02/10/6142545/giant-new-floodgates-soon-to-arrive.html
With summer’s peak electricity demand season looming, officials who oversee California’s power supply say they don’t expect blackouts but are getting nervous about the meager snowpack. Few states rely on hydro as much as California, where water accounts for about 15 percent of the total power supply in a normal year. “We are certainly concerned,”
Well-known San Joaquin Valley farmer John Diener is collaborating with California State University ag research and the Department of Water Resources on commercial cactus cropping – just in time, as it turned out. http://westernfarmpress.com/irrigation/cactus-farming-future-california
Gov. Jerry Brown is more popular than he has been among California voters than at any time since retaking the governor’s office in 2011, a new survey has found. The Public Policy Institute of California poll shows Brown’s approval on the rise, even as state voters appear to be souring on President Barack Obama. The
Whether the politics of water can help the Republican Party make gains in this year's congressional elections remains to be seen. Republicans have bet on the water issue in the past to little avail. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, for example, made attacks on water-related environmental regulations a major element of her unsuccessful campaign against Democratic
As California's drought deepens, 17 communities across the state are in danger of running out of water within 60 to 120 days, state officials said Tuesday. In some communities, wells are running dry. In others, reservoirs are nearly empty. Some have long-running problems that predate the drought. The water systems, all in rural areas, serve
"I have a son who is really interested in farming and it is really sad that we just can't farm the way we used to," Sagouspe said. "It seems like it is a fight for everything — a fight against regulations, a fight against government and now a fight for water." http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/01/18/3721739/desperatemeasuresfor-valley-farmers.html
Brown’s skirting of the tunnels and rail projects, two priorities of his administration, also highlights the shifting field on which the Democratic governor is seeking to push his public works agenda. After securing the Legislature’s authorization for initial construction of the rail project in the Central Valley<http://topics.sacbee.com/Central+Valley/> in 2012, Brown’s problems have mainly shifted to