USA - California may declare emergency within weeks due to extreme drought conditions - some farmers have lost all water allocations

[sharon sanders]

State may declare water drought emergency
State officials will ask Gov. Brown to mandate the emergency within weeks

by Sue Dremann / Palo Alto Weekly



The state of California's water supply is in a third year of drought and is prompting state water officials to ask for a state of water emergency in California in the coming weeks.

State and federal water officials met in Sacramento on Tuesday to discuss diminishing water resources in rivers and reservoirs, many of which have dropped to levels that cannot be lowered further, they said. State officials expressed concern for how to get adequate water to cities if the drought deepens. Meanwhile, some farmers in the Central Valley have seen their water allocations eliminated completely.

more....

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2014/01/08/state-to-declare-water-drought-emergency

[sharon sanders]

Re: USA - California may declare emergency within weeks due to extreme drought conditions - some farmers have lost all water allocations

Jerry Brown Declares A Drought Emergency In California
by RICHARD GONZALES
January 17, 2014 4:00 PM
Audio for this story from All Things Considered will be available at approximately 7:00 p.m. ET.

California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency on Friday, amid growing concerns about future water supplies for residents and for farmers. Brown called for a 20 percent voluntary reduction in water use and eased water transfer rights between farmers. However, mandatory measures will still be left to local communities to impose, for now.

http://www.npr.org/2014/01/17/263494972/jerry-brown-declares-a-drought-emergency-in-california?ft=1&f=1001&utm_content=socialflow&utm_campaign=nprnews&utm_source=npr&utm_medium=twitter

[sharon sanders]

Re: USA - California may declare emergency within weeks due to extreme drought conditions - some farmers have lost all water allocations

Why California's drought is a disaster for your favorite fruits, vegetables, and nuts.

?By Alex Park and Julia Lurie | Mon Feb. 24, 2014


snip


California, supplier of nearly half of all US fruits, veggies, and nuts, is on track to experience the driest year in the past half millennium. Farms use about 80 percent of the state's "developed water," or water that's moved from its natural source to other areas via pipes and aqueducts.

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/02/wheres-californias-water-going

[Vibrant62]

Re: USA - California may declare emergency within weeks due to extreme drought conditions - some farmers have lost all water allocations

I wonder how much water demand for fracking has contributed towards this?

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/05/fracking-water-america-drought-oil-gas

Nearly all of the wells in Colorado (97%) were located in areas where most of the ground and surface water is already stretched between farming and cities, the report said. It said water demand for fracking in the state was expected to double to 6bn gallons by 2015 ? or about twice as much as the entire city of Boulder uses in a year.

In California, where a drought emergency was declared last month, 96% of new oil and gas wells were located in areas where there was already fierce competition for water.

Fracking for a single well takes more than a 100,000 gallons of water, roughly the amount a family of four uses in a year. Oil companies extract oil from shale by sending a mixture of water and chemicals under high pressure into geologic formations hundreds of feet underground.