December 23, 2016
CapitalPress.com
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California
Obama approves $558M EcoFarm Conference to encourage diversity
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drought relief package
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — Presi-
dent Barack Obama’s approval
of a compromise water re-
sources bill that includes $558
million for California drought
relief was met with cheers
from growers and concerns
among environmentalists.
Obama said in a signing
message that the bill, which
also includes $170 million to
address lead in the drinking
water in Flint, Mich., advances
vital projects to “restore wa-
tersheds, improve waterways
and flood control and improve
drinking water infrastructure.”
The bill generated contro-
versy when Sen. Dianne Fein-
stein, D-Calif., agreed with
Republicans in the House of
Representatives on language
easing some restrictions on
pumping from the Sacramen-
to-San Joaquin River Delta
and allowing the capture of
more water during storms.
Western Growers, a staunch
advocate for the bill, asserted
that its signing on Dec. 16 will
bring aid to the businesses and
individuals that have been dev-
astated by drought and federal
water cutbacks.
The legislation “is the prod-
uct of bipartisan, bicameral
negotiations that provide tem-
porary improvements to the
operations of the Delta pump-
ing plants while maintaining
the integrity of the Endangered
Species Act,” Tom Nassif, the
group’s president and chief ex-
ecutive officer, said in a state-
ment.
“With California’s winter
rainy season already upon us,
it (is) critical that we not pre-
vent the reasonable diversion
of all available runoff to stor-
age,” he said.
Nassif praised “three years
of hard work” by Feinstein,
House Majority Leader Kevin
McCarthy and other members
of the California delegation.
But the environmental
group Restore the Delta argued
that Feinstein and McCarthy,
R-Calif., “hijacked” the water
resources bill with a last-min-
ute “rider” at the request of
San Joaquin Valley agricul-
tural interests. The group sid-
ed with Sen. Barbara Boxer,
who last week called the rider
a “devastating maneuver” and
a “poison pill” designed to un-
dermine the Endangered Spe-
cies Act by changing restric-
tions on the amount and time
that water could be delivered
to valley agricultural districts.
In a letter urging Obama
to veto the bill, Restore the
Delta executive director Bar-
bara Barrigan-Parilla said the
rider “will worsen water qual-
ity not only for San Francisco
Bay-Delta fisheries, but for the
hundreds of thousands of peo-
ple who make up the Delta’s
environmental justice commu-
nities.”
Obama said he expects wa-
ter regulators to continue to
operate within the Endangered
Species Act’s constraints.
“It is essential that it not be
undermined by anyone who
seeks to override that balance
(between competing water
needs) by misstating or incor-
rectly reading the provisions”
of the bill, the president said in
his signing statement. He said
he expects agencies to “assure
that state water quality stan-
dards are met.”
The bill included funding
authorization for 137 projects
identified by Feinstein in a
drought bill earlier this year.
Included is authorization for
the proposed Sites Reservoir,
which will seek state Proposi-
tion 1 bond funds next year.
Among the bill’s short-term
provisions is daily monitoring
for fish near the pumps to al-
low for more pumping when
fish aren’t in danger, allowing
agencies to capture more wa-
ter during storms and requir-
ing agencies to explain why
pumping is reduced to lower
levels than allowed by the bi-
ological opinions for salmon
and Delta smelt.
Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Ca-
lif., a House Agriculture Com-
mittee member, has praised the
bill’s “iron-clad protections”
for Northern California’s se-
nior water rights as well as a
provision assuring less senior
northern water right holders
that they would receive at least
half their normal allocations
even in droughts.
The bill’s approval comes
after two previous failed pro-
posals, including last year,
when months of meetings be-
tween Feinstein and House
Republicans couldn’t produce
a compromise.
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
PACIFIC GROVE, Ca-
lif. — Encouraging diversi-
ty among growers as well as
crops will be a theme of this
winter’s 37th annual Eco-
Farm Conference Jan. 25-28
at the Asilomar Conference
Grounds.
The Ecological Farming
Association’s annual gather-
ing will put a big emphasis
on urban farming and en-
couraging people from un-
derrepresented communities
to get involved in agricul-
ture, spokeswoman Deborah
Yashar said.
With the theme “Cultivat-
ing Diversity,” the conference
will include keynote speakers
such as Malik Kenyatta Ya-
kini, who leads the Detroit
Black Community Food Secu-
rity Network, who will speak
about “food justice,” organiz-
ers said.
Crop diversity will also be
covered, as keynote speaker
Matthew Dillon of Emeryville,
Calif.-based Clif Bar and Co.
will discuss a company initia-
tive called “Seed Matters.”
“Diversity means lots of
things,” Yashar said. “We’re
making a point to encompass
diversity in agriculture in not
just plants and bugs but peo-
ple, too. ... We’ll be talking
about farmworkers and bring-
ing them in to speak.”
Among the dozens of work-
shops offered will be ones with
the titles “Growing the Next
Generation of Farmers of Col-
or” “Fair Food: Exploring the
Courtesy of Trav Williams/Broken Banjo Photography
Bus tour participants examine the soil and irrigation system at a strawberry farm on the Central Cali-
fornia coast as part of last year’s EcoFarm Conference in Pacific Grove, Calif. Registration is open for
the 2017 conference, which is Jan. 25-28.
Online
EcoFarm Conference: https://
eco-farm.org/conference
Inequities and Racial Issues
Inherent in the Farming Move-
ment,” and “Out Here: Queer
Farmers in the U.S.”
One of the main points will
be encouraging young people
in urban settings to consider
farming, Yashar said.
“They are some of the
farmers of tomorrow — our
youth and people in urban
areas who don’t necessarily
have access to the expensive
land in California,” she said.
“That’s one of the things that
makes EcoFarm unique. It’s
not just one sector.”
Farmers, marketers, ac-
tivists, educators and others
attend the yearly conference,
one of the West’s largest for
organic and environmentally
conscious producers. While
the first gathering drew only
about 50 people, about 2,000
now attend the conference
and it has grown every year,
organizers say.
Preceding the conference’s
main schedule will be the an-
nual bus tour of organic agri-
culture in the Salinas Valley,
a two-day course on “Sus-
tainable Business Skills for
Sustainable Agriculture” and
a symposium on creating new
vegetable varieties to fill sea-
sonal gaps.
The Ecological Farming
Association, or EcoFarm, is
a nonprofit educational or-
ganization founded in 1981.
The group gets funding
through various activities and
projects, donations, grants,
memberships and business
sponsorships, according to its
website.
At the heart of the group’s
calendar is the conference,
which also features tastings of
local wine and beer, live en-
tertainment and an exhibitor
marketplace.
Delta fixes a key requirement for Proposition 1 reservoir funds
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — Final ground
rules for applying for Proposition 1 wa-
ter bond funds for large storage proj-
ects place a big emphasis on how much
they’ll help the beleaguered Sacramen-
to-San Joaquin River Delta.
The California Water Commission on
Dec. 14 adopted regulations for handing
out the $2.7 billion for reservoirs and oth-
er storage projects set aside in the $7.5
billion ballot measure approved by voters
in 2014.
The commission made few chang-
es from a final draft sent out for public
comment in late November, assuring that
projects will be graded largely on their
role in improving flows and water quality
in the Delta.
At least half of the bond funds given
to a project would need to go toward eco-
system improvements directly related to
the Delta, commission spokesman Chris
Orrock says.
“We’re excited that we got these reg-
ulations adopted when we did,” Orrock
said after the commission’s 8-0 vote, not-
ing the panel faced a statutory deadline
of Dec. 15.
The guidelines have been sent to
the state Office of Administrative Law,
which has 30 days to approve them and
make them official.
The next step for the water commis-
sion will be to start accepting applications
for funding, which it will do in the first
half of 2017. The panel will determine
the eligibility of projects and prioritize
them late next year and likely determine
funding sometime in 2018, Orrock said.
The commission’s emphasis on help-
ing the Delta comes as the 1,150-square-
mile labyrinth of islands and shallow
waterways faces a slew of environmental
problems, including pollution, silting,
invasive plant species and saltwater in-
trusion.
Projects can benefit the Delta by pro-
viding more cold water that would aid the
salmon run while flushing out pollutants
and intruding saltwater, Orrock has said.
Among anticipated suitors are backers
of the proposed $3.6 billion Sites Reser-
voir near Maxwell, who have lined up 34
agency participants, and supporters of the
proposed $2.5 billion Temperance Flat
Reservoir near Fresno. Others could in-
clude sponsors of the planned expansion
of the Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra
Costa County as well as groundwater im-
provement projects near Delta tributaries.
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