Learn from the Australian experience. Indeed…don’t make our mistakes! By Hayden Cudmore and Stefanie Schulte, New South Wales, Australia Water reform has been ongoing in Australia for some 35 years. The advent of the 2007 Water Act in legislation and subsequent Murray Darling Basin Plan (MDBP) very much accelerated the process beyond reason. Although still […]
Australia’s water rights reform caused problems for farmers At the peak of Australia’s Millennial drought, lawmakers sought to resolve water shortages by overturning their historic water rights system with the 2007 Water Reform Act and put water management into the hands of their federal government. Nearly a decade on, the Act and subsequent Murray-Darling Basin […]
1) What is it? The Westlands Water District settlement agreement with the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation solves an obligation by Reclamation to provide drainage services to farmland on the San Joaquin Valley’s Westside. With the planned expansion of the Central Valley Project in 1962 it was understood that along with irrigation water, a […]
Lack of balance In a twelve-minute video about farming, VICE News devoted just one minute to talking to a farmer. Yesterday’s VICE News “Race to the Bottom” video aims to be an in-depth piece about agricultural water use during the drought, but instead spends eleven of its twelve minutes providing misinformation about how California farmers […]
(The following is a statement by Mike Wade, Executive Director of the California Farm Water Coalition, in response to the North Valley Regional Recycled Water Program that is planned to deliver treated recycled water to farmers.) SACRAMENTO—“The California Farm Water Coalition applauds the cities of Turlock and Modesto as they celebrate the certification of the […]
Poll affirms Americans’ support for farm water Americans have confirmed their support for farmers’ use of water to produce food and fiber during times of scarcity in a recent poll by AP-GfK. The drought now affecting California and other Western states has captured the public’s attention, with the majority of those polled (56 percent) noting […]
“Might, May, If:” Parsing the guesses, assumptions, and half-truths of the Food and Water Watch report Earlier this week, Food and Water Watch along with partners Restore the Delta and the California Water Impact Network issued a document, their commissioned report, about retiring farmland in the San Luis Unit of the federal Central Valley Project […]
Peltier to succeed Nelson as Authority Executive Director Mike Stearns, Chairman of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, announced that Jason Peltier will take over as Executive Director of the organization, replacing Dan Nelson who will retire at the end of 2015. Stearns indicated that Peltier was named the successor to Nelson as part […]
Farmers throughout the Central Valley have been working hard and assuming huge personal risks in support of the Sacramento River Temperature Management Plan to protect salmon and still provide water to their farms. “Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of water is being loaned to the United States Bureau of Reclamation, National Marine Fisheries Service, […]
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