California to Institute Extreme Water Reductions for Thousands of Farmers modernfarmer.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from modernfarmer.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Most of California is experiencing an extreme drought, with May and June the warmest and driest on record since 1896. Lake Oroville, one of California’s largest reservoirs, is expected to reach a new historic low in October.
Demand for water from rivers and streams has outstripped supply 16-fold in the San Joaquin River watershed and three-fold in the Sacramento River, according to State Water Resources Control Board staff. Dwindling flows risk salty backwash from the Pacific tainting supplies for drinking, farmers and fish.
Karen Ross, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, told the water board that “this year there’s plenty of pain to go around.
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Amid intensifying drought, state water regulators voted Tuesday to enact a drastic emergency order that will bar thousands of Californians primarily farmers from using stream and river water.
California’s complex water rights system is designed to allocate water use during times of shortage and such curtailments, while rare, are not unheard of. But the scope of Tuesday’s order which will apply to thousands of senior water rights across a wide swath of the state is unprecedented, officials said.
While the move has been protested by some farmers, irrigation districts and others, California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross called the decision “a necessary step,” saying the fact that senior water rights holders were included “speaks to the severity of the hydrology and what climate change has presented this year.”
California regulators vote to restrict water access for thousands of farmers amid severe drought
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Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images
In this aerial photo houseboats sit in low water on Lake Oroville as California s drought emergency worsens
By Ray Sanchez, Alexandra Meeks and Brisa Colón, CNN
California water regulators voted Tuesday to restrict water access for thousands of Central Valley farmers as the state endures a severe drought.
The California State Water Board unanimously agreed to issue an emergency order that bans some farmers from diverting water from rivers and streams in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river watersheds to irrigate their crops.
Facing ‘Dire Water Shortages,’ California Bans Delta Pumping
In an aggressive move to address “immediate and dire water shortages,” California’s water board today unanimously approved emergency regulations to temporarily stop thousands of farmers, landowners and others from diverting water from from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed.
The new regulations the first to take such widespread action for the massive Delta watershed stretching from Fresno to the border with Oregon could lead to formal curtailment orders for about 5,700 water rights holders as soon as Aug. 16. The decision comes on the heels of curtailment orders issued to nearly 900 water users along the drought-stricken Russian River, with 222 more expected next week.