Irrigation
March 12, 2010--Water shortages may hit northern Rockies (USA Today)
Much of the nation may be snow-weary, but farmers and ranchers who rely on winter snowpack in the northern Rockies for irrigation during the dry months of the growing season could face water shortages this summer unless more snow arrives soon.
March 8, 2010--Federal regulators launch probe of big agriculture (Denver Post)
Some Obama administration officials have made clear their unease with the increasing control a handful of corporations have over the nation's food supply, and this week in Iowa they could show whether they are serious about changing the system. The first joint workshops on agriculture by regulators at the U.S.
February 19, 2010--Colorado ag forum speaker promises improved visibility for agriculture (Fence Post)
The level of importance of agriculture will be raised under the Obama Administration, a member of that administration told a crowd of nearly 250 on Thursday at the 19th annual Governor's Forum on Agriculture.
February 11, 2010--Judge: CA pumping limits needed to protect smelt (Denver Post)
A federal judge turned down California farmers' emergency request Wednesday to suspend water pumping restrictions in the state's delta in a ruling aimed at keeping a threatened fish species from being ground up in the pumps. The decision by U.S.
February 10, 2010--Board acquires water to keep Colo. streams flowing (Canon City Daily Record)
The Colorado Water Conservation Board has acquired water rights to improve late-summer water flows in two streams near Crested Butte. The board acquired 5.45 cubic feet per second of water to increase flows in the Washington Gulch and Slate River. Demands for irrigation water often dry up or deplete flows in the two by mid-July.
February 6, 2010--California: Limits on pumping are lifted (New York Times)
A federal judge on Friday temporarily lifted pumping limits designed to protect endangered wild salmon in order to speed more irrigation water to California’s drought-parched fields. Some of the country’s largest farms had pressed for the protections in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to be suspended because the persistent drought has caused job losses and other economic woes.
February 5, 2010--Central Valley water pump wars continue on capitol hill (New York Times)
Partisan bickering continues over water pumping restrictions in California's Central Valley, as Republicans attacked a Democratic bill meant to shore up area farmers. The agriculture-heavy area has seen unemployment skyrocket to 40 percent in some parts as a three-year drought has forced farmers to fallow their fields.
February 1, 2010--Water fights brew (Durango Herald)
Lawyers, rafts and money: Those are the debates in store for Colorado's water community this year at the Legislature. A Pueblo Democrat wants to make sure that water imports from wet basins to dry ones don't harm people in the original basin. And a Gunnison representative wants to make sure rafting guides can float the state's rivers, no matter who owns the riverbank.
January 27, 2010--U.S. speeds up water deliveries to San Joaquin Valley farmers (Los Angeles Times)
Federal managers said Tuesday they are speeding up delivery of irrigation water to farmers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley because recent storms have boosted the state's water supply. "Essentially we're saying we're confident enough right now that we can provide this as an assured water supply . . .
January 24, 2010--Why is a utility paying customers? (New York Times)
Four decades ago, when Sid Erwin began his career as an inspector at the Idaho Power Company, a string of new hydroelectric plants was pumping out power faster than locals could buy it. Soon enough, Mr. Erwin recalls, the utility began sending representatives to rural areas, urging farmers to use more electricity when irrigating their crops.
