By John Ellis

The White House announced Friday that President Barack Obama will come to Fresno on Feb. 14 to discuss the drought and federal efforts to deal with it.

A White House official said further details about the president’s trip to the central San Joaquin Valley will be made public in the coming days.

The trip will mark Obama’s first visit to the Fresno area. The only other time he visited the region was in October 2012 when he traveled to the United Farm Workers headquarters at Keene in Kern County to dedicate the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument.

The drought has been a key focus of action in the House this week. The Republican-led House on Wednesday passed a water bill authored by Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, that would limit water releases into the San Joaquin River to help the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The measure, which passed on largely party lines, also would allow expansion of McClure Reservoir on the Merced River, allow more storage at New Melones Reservoir, lengthen some federal irrigation contracts and pre-empt some state laws.

Congressional Democrats denounced the bill, and California Gov. Jerry Brown called it divisive. Sen. Dianne Feinstein promised to propose a bill of her own.

House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, visited a dusty field in Bakersfield on Jan. 22 to see the impact of the drought firsthand. Following that meeting, he and Valley Republican congressmen — Valadao, Devin Nunes of Tulare and Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield — called on fellow lawmakers to support emergency legislation to help the farm-dependent Valley deal with the drought.

The emergency legislation passed by the House is now in the Senate, and Nunes is hopeful that the Senate will either take up the House bill or that Feinstein will offer her own legislation.

“I welcome the president to the Valley — as long as he’s going to tell us which way he’s going to get us water. We don’t need press conferences. We need action by the Senate and a signature by him.”

Nunes said the Obama visit “must mean the Senate is going to take up our bill, pass it, and we can have a bill-signing ceremony in Fresno next Friday. I hope that’s the case.”

Democrat Rep. Jim Costa of Fresno was glad to learn of the president’s upcoming visit.

“We’ve been wanting the president to come to the Valley for a long time. The federal agencies’ willingness to work with the governor and state to deal with our short-term water problems is absolutely essential,” he said. “I expect the president to talk about how he’s going to cooperate with the governor to address problems not only in the Valley, but throughout California.”

Trent Orr, an attorney with the Bay Area environmental group Earthjustice, said he will be curious to hear what Obama says next week. Orr has helped litigate issues related to the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta and fish like the Delta smelt.

“I hope he realizes and recognizes that it is not the fish that are causing the drought,” he said. “That seems to be the theme you get from Costa and Nunes and those guys. Right now, nobody’s getting water — including the fish.”

Link to story – http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/02/07/3756469/president-obama-plans-feb-14-visit.html

From the USDA Blog

California is in the throes of the worst drought in the 160 years during which records have been kept. As a result, the state’s overextended water system is in crisis. All segments of California’s economy— one of the largest in the world—are experiencing the effects of this drought. The economic, social and environmental impacts on agriculture, industry, jobs, communities’ drinking water and the ecosystem will reverberate across the country, and that is why actions need to be taken to address the situation not just in the short term, but also to sustain the state over the long run.

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If you can design a shape on the computer, than you can print it with sugar or chocolate.

From cool casts for a broken arm to impressive replicas of Michelangelo’s David, 3-D printing has come a long way in the past few years.

In fact, the technology is moving so fast that 3-D printers might be coming to your kitchen this year — or at least, to a bakery or bistro down the street.

A company from South Carolina unveiled the first restaurant-grade certified 3-D printer at the Consumer Electronics Show, or CES 2014, in Las Vegas last week.

The countertop device, called the ChefJet, is about the size of a microwave and can churn out chocolate and sugar candies in any geometric shape imaginable. Think hollow honeycombs, rainbow dodecahedrons, interlocking Buckyballs and stitched up globes — all made with sugar infused with mint, sour cherry or vanilla.

A mathematical twist on a cup of coffee: The ChefJet Pro 3-D printer spins sugar into intricate shapes to stir into your coffee or top your cupcakes.

The ChefJet printer isn’t cheap.

The company behind it, 3D Systems, is planning to start selling two models of the device later this year. The first one will cost about $5,000 and spins out candies in only one color. The top model, ChefJet Pro, will run you $10,000. But it will create not just multicolored candies but also photograph-quality pictures for wrapping around cakes.

Dinosaur quiche, anyone? A traditional spinach quiche gets a technology makeover with the 3-D printer Foodini, which churns out foods in fun shapes, like dinosaurs and butterflies.

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“What’s happening in this machine is that it’s basically spreading out a fine layer of sugar,” a spokeswoman for 3D System told the BBC Wednesday about the ChefJet. “And it’s using an inkjet print head to paint on top of that sugar with water. And that allows the sugar to recrystallize and harden into a 3-D printed object.”

Of course, the ChefJet isn’t the only 3-D food printer in development.

The pasta giant Barilla is said to be working with a Dutch company to put a new twist on fusilli and rigatoni: “Barilla aims to offer customers cartridges of dough that they can insert into a 3-D printer to create their own pasta designs,”The Guardian reported last week. “But the company declined to give further details, dismissing the claims as ‘speculation.’ ”

Meanwhile, a team in Barcelona is probably the closest to getting printed pasta boiling on your stove.

They have developed an appliance, called The Foodini, that automatically prints items like ravioli, gnocchi, pizza and quiches on a baking pan. And then you pop them in the oven to cook.

“We recently made a ‘designer fish and chips’ with the Foodini,” says Lynette Kucsma, the co-founder of Natural Machines, which makes the device. “We printed up mashed potatoes in the shape of a honeycomb and then filled each hole with fish or mashed peas.”

The Foodini is still in the early stage of development. Kucsma and her team have a working prototype of it, but they won’t start manufacturing it for another six months or so, she says.

In the end, Kucsma hopes the device will not only speed up home cooking but also get kids more interested in healthful foods.

“I have two young kids,” she tells The Salt. “They are suspicious of anything green on the plate. They wouldn’t touch a spinach quiche I made” — until she printed out the dish in the shape of a dinosaur and a butterfly.

“They actually ate every single one of the dinosaur quiches,” Kucsma says. “I couldn’t believe it. It was the exact same recipe. It was just making it fun for kids so they’d try new foods.”

Still, at about $1,300 for each Foodini, that’s a pretty pricey bite of spinach.

We may not be able to 3-D print an apple pie or Peking duck yet. But you can now make these rainbow sugar spheres and cubes with a $10,000 ChefJet Pro 3-D food printer.

 

Link to story – http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/01/13/262066977/spinach-dinosaurs-to-sugar-diamonds-3-d-printers-hit-the-kitchen

Siblings Todd and Karrie Rufer, college grads who grew up playing in the family’s agricultural warehouses in Williams, have come home to take jobs that will determine whether they will eventually assume the reins at Morning Star Co., the global tomato-processing business started by their father. (From the Sacramento Bee)

By Claudia Buck

It’s a love for the land that sinks as deep as a taproot. Or not.

For agricultural families, whether it’s a pear orchard, a wine vineyard or a tomato-processing plant, there’s no handbook for knowing when – or how – to hand over the business to the next generation. Or even whether the kids are interested.

Karrie and Todd Rufer, both college graduates in their 20s, are decidedly interested. As siblings who grew up playing in the family’s agricultural warehouses in Williams, the two have come home to take jobs that will determine whether they will eventually assume the reins at Morning Star Co., the global tomato-processing business started by their father more than 40 years ago.

“We came to work with an open mind. My dad’s put in thousands of hours, so it’s his choice to sell it or not,” said Karrie, 28, who holds a marketing MBA degree from St. Mary’s and works at the company’s Capitol Mall office in Sacramento.

Their dad, Chris Rufer, got his start in the 1970s, hauling bulk tomatoes to local canneries during his college summers. Today, he oversees a $350 million tomato-processing empire with 400 full-time employees and three Central Valley manufacturing sites that ship tomatoes – mostly diced and paste – to hundreds of U.S. companies, as well as more than 40 countries overseas.

While “emotionally invested” in his children and family, the 64-year-old business owner says it’s not a given they will – or even should – take over Morning Star. “My first responsibility is to my customers, suppliers, employees and colleagues. I don’t have my ego in this. You have to ensure that you’re passing on a business to someone who is capable, responsible and willing.”

Successfully transitioning a family-owned business is no easy task. But there’s a lot at stake, particularly for agricultural enterprises.

According to a 2013 survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there is more than $2.7 trillion equity in American farms and ranches. And with the average age of U.S. farm owners nearing 60, there will be a huge turnover in ownership over the next couple decades.

“Families have different philosophies,” said Sacramento attorney Stephen Meyer, co-chair of the Downey Brand law firm’s food and agriculture practice. “Some say the farm should stay in the family, come hell or high water. Others see a need to give the next generation the flexibility to be bought out. There’s nothing wrong with either scenario.”

But there’s a real risk in not doing anything. A hard-earned family business can quickly sink if there’s no clear idea on what the founders wanted or who might be interested in carrying on the business. Meyer said he knows of a Southern California farming family where the well-to-do patriarch didn’t want to consult with anyone about who would succeed him. When he died, ownership struggles ensued among his four children. “About $2 million in attorneys’ fees later, his son owns the farm. Two of his sisters won’t speak to him. There are no good family get-togethers,” Meyer said.

Avoiding that scenario starts with a conversation, say farm-family-succession experts.

“The biggest hurdle is they don’t talk. That’s plain and simple,” said Kevin Spafford, who runs The Legacy Project, a consulting firm specializing in farm-family succession, based in Chico. “The arguments start either in the funeral home or the attorney’s office and go downhill from there. It’s usually over a misunderstanding or a perception that is not reality,” said Spafford, who conducts family workshops across the country.

He suggests starting with a family meeting, ideally in a neutral location, with a set time and a specific agenda. There can be discussions around imparting important family values and love for the land, how to structure a business so that the next generation can successfully manage together; what skills and traits should be required, such as a college education, technology skills, work experience outside the family business.

“When you have led a business for your adult lifetime, the process of delegating responsibility to a younger person is challenging … If the patriarch or older generation is unable or unwilling to delegate, for instance, it can be just as crippling as the younger generation lacking the interest or aptitude to assume responsibility,” said Mark Burrell, a Gold River-based managing partner of WestMark Group, a consulting firm specializing in agriculture issues.

Of course, keeping a business within the family is no guarantee of success. According to the Boston-based Family Firm Institute, which does research on all family-owned businesses, not just agricultural, roughly 30 percent of family businesses survive into the second generation; 12 percent are viable into the third generation; and just 3 percent operate at the fourth generation or beyond.

That means Steve Heringer and his family’s Heringer Estates Vineyards & Winery are exceedingly rare. A fifth-generation Clarksburg farmer, he knows the challenges of sustaining an ag business that started with his great-great-grandfather in 1868.

About a year ago, he and his brother – who farmed pears, asparagus and wine grapes together for more than 20 years – split their business in half.

“We separated our businesses so we can provide succession plans for our families,” Heringer said. “As much as possible, I want to ensure the heritage of the farm in the Delta in perpetuity. Each successive generation, if they choose to do something else, that’s their right. But since I had two boys who are interested in continuing, I needed to let them take charge.”

Today, his three children actively run Heringer Estates, which owns and leases about 200 acres of wine grapes and bottles about 24 varietals, including Chardonnay, petite sirah and tempranillo. Heringer’s son Stephen IV, 39, is operations manager; daughter, Stacy Heringer-McElfish, 36, is the wine club manager; and son Mike, 33, a Fresno State University viticulture graduate, is the resident winemaker.

For their father, it’s deeply satisfying. With nine grandkids, he jokes, “the seventh generation is already in the cradle.”

Last year, the Downey Brand law firm and the WestMark Group hosted a series of workshops in Sacramento for agriculture families on how to prepare for succession. Among the participants were sisters Kathryn and Rose Beltrami, who came to “get some ideas for succession,” such as a possible agricultural conservation easement. The sisters, along with four cousins, share ownership of the wheat-and-tomato farm run by their father and uncle for 50 years in Yolo County. It’s currently operated by a farm manager.

“The family farm is really important to us,” said Kathryn Beltrami, a former teacher who lives in Sacramento. “It makes me sad to see beautiful farmland turned into a subdivision. But being able to hang onto it is hard.”

Development pressures, water issues and financial concerns make it a challenge going forward. When the family’s fourth generation inherits the land, there will be 12 cousins juggling ownership decisions.

“When our dad was alive, he never thought it would change and he never thought about (succession),” she said. “But now that he’s gone, that’s all we can think about.”

Some of the stickiest issues involve families where some children work the business, but others have separate careers of their own. In those cases, there needs to be an equitable – but not necessarily equal – division of assets between “active and non-active” siblings. One option is splitting the land ownership from the farming operation itself. The active child assumes day-to-day management of the farm, while everyone together shares ownership in the land, typically the most valuable asset. The farmer leases the land, generating revenue for the non-farming siblings. Ideally, a buy-sell agreement is set up with terms and timetables enabling the farming sibling to purchase the shares of those who want to cash out.

At Morning Star Co., the Rufer siblings have no illusions about the challenge of following in their father’s footsteps. “His shoes are size 72, as far as I’m concerned,” said Todd, 25, who has an economics degree from Loyola Marymount University.

Karrie, who’s kept a “Tomato Princess” license plate holder on her car since she was 16, says it wasn’t inevitable that they would get involved. “My dad actually tried to talk me out of it at one point. But if he thought we couldn’t or didn’t want to be here, he wouldn’t have let us start.”

URL for story – http://www.sacbee.com/2014/02/02/6119638/family-farms-how-to-pass-on-or.html

This blog post may also be read in Spanish.

CDFA has developed a drought resources web page, which is intended to be a central location for information about the drought in California and assistance programs available to farmers, ranchers and farmworkers. The web site is also available in Spanish.

The page features links to the USDA’s Risk Management Agency, the Farm Services Agency, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Rural Development. There is also a link to the US Small Business Administration. All of these groups have programs that could be of help to farmers and ranchers harmed by the drought.

Additionally, there is a link to the California Department of Community Services and Development, which partners with private, non-profit, government and community-based organizations working to help low-income individuals and families. The partners include four regional migrant and seasonal farmworker agencies that can help with rental assistance, employment services, and food and nutrition services.

Additional information, including updates on state and federal resources, will be provided as it becomes available.

The web page builds on efforts already underway at CDFA to support California’s drought response. The agency is working with federal and state agencies to plan a number of farmer and farmworker forums on assistance programs; it will continue to work with California food banks to address drought-related impacts; and it is working with the University of California to develop a real-time assessment of drought impacts in farming and ranching communities. Also, CDFA Secretary Karen Ross  joined USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack yesterday in Washington D.C. to announce $20 million in federal assistance to support water conservation efforts by California farmers during severe drought conditions.

Kern County Vineyards – photo courtesy of Ed Williams

USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) reminds producers that the sales closing dates for several crop insurance programs are almost here. Producers need to make sure to sign up, review, or change their crop policies before these dates have passed.

January 31, 2014 is the last day to buy or change a policy for Adjusted Gross Revenue, apples, cherries, chile peppers, fresh market and processing tomatoes, grapes and table grapes, olives, pears, pecans, potatoes (spring planted in San Joaquin County), stone fruits, and walnuts.

February 1, 2014 is the last day to buy or change a policy for onions in Modoc and Siskiyou counties.

Producers who purchased crop insurance are covered for all natural causes of loss listed in their policies. Policies are yield and revenue based and vary across commodities and regions. Producers can tailor their coverage to fit the needs of their operation with a choice of coverage levels that range from 50 to 75, or 85 percent on some policies.

More information on specific crop programs can be found in the crop insurance fact sheets online at www.rma.usda.gov/aboutrma/fields/ca_rso/. Producers can get a premium amount estimate of their insurance needs with the online cost estimator at http://ewebapp.rma.usda.gov/apps/costestimator/

Private crop insurance agents are solely responsible for the sale and delivery of the federal crop insurance program. A list of crop insurance agents is available at all USDA Service Centers or at: www.rma.usda.gov/tools/agents/.

For further information, please contact the USDA Risk Management Agency – Davis Regional Office at (530) 792-5870

USDA News Release: RMA-14-024

By Geoffrey Mohan

A rapidly mutating virus has leaped from plants to honeybees, where it is reproducing and contributing to the collapse of colonies vital to the multibillion-dollar agricultural industry, according to a new study.

Tobacco ringspot virus, a pollen-borne pathogen that causes blight in soy crops, was found during routine screening of commercial honeybees at a U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratory, where further study revealed the RNA virus was replicating inside its Apis mellifera hosts and spreading to mites that travel from bee to bee, according to the study published online Tuesday in the journal mBio.

The discovery is the first report of honeybees becoming infected by a pollen-born RNA virus that spread systematically through the bees and hives. Traces of the virus were detected in every part of the bee examined, except its eyes, according to the study.

Commercially cultivated bees pollinate about 90 crops worldwide, a service valued at $14 billion annually. But those colonies have been collapsing, and scientists have attributed that devastation to a deadly cocktail of pathogens, as well as pesticides and beekeeping practices that stress the insect’s immune system.

In California, the $3-billion almond industry spends $239 million annually to rent more than 1 million beehives, and that cost is escalating.

Only about 5% of plant viruses are known to be transmitted by pollen, and fewer still have been known to jump from the plant kingdom to insects. That adds a complex layer to the forces driving colony collapse disorder, scientists warned.

The tobacco ringspot virus acts as a “quasi-species,” replicating in a way that creates ample mutations that subvert the host’s immune response. That phenomenon is believed to be the driving factor of recurring viral infections of avian and swine influenza and of the persistence of HIV, the study noted.

“They have a high mutation rate,” said Yan Ping (Judy) Chen, a bee pathologist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service laboratory in Maryland and lead author of the study. “Because of their genetic diversity, we see a lot of host jumping.”

The virus’ relative role in the demise of colonies has not been measured — it would be difficult to separate it from a cocktail of pathogens and stresses negatively affecting bees, Chen said.

“I want to be cautious,” Chen said. “The cause of colony collapse disorder remains unclear. But we do have evidence that TRSV along with other viruses that we screen on a regular basis are associated with lower rates of over-winter survival.”

Indeed, the new virus, along with the well documented Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus, was correlated with colonies deemed “weak” due to a variety of stresses. It also showed a similar seasonal fluctuation — infection rates rose to a 22.5% high in winter, according to the study.

Varroa mites, a “vampire” parasite, also were found to carry the virus but were not infected, leading researchers to conclude that they aided the spread of the virus within the colony. Whether the mites are more than a mechanical spreader of the virus, however, remains to be studied.

Researchers also are uncertain about whether the infection persists without bees picking up more virus from visited plants, and whether the infected bees can spread the virus to otherwise healthy plants.

“I’d be hesitant to proclaim that this virus is the cause of colony collapse, but it certainly shows the degree of our lack of understanding of the complexity of bee pathogen interactions,” said Randy Oliver, a biologist and beekeeper who has done similar research but was not involved in the study.

Activists have raised concern about a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids, which have been banned in Europe. A study last year linked the pesticide class with suppressed immune response and increased reproduction of viruses in bees. Another study found 35 pesticides and fungicides, some at lethal levels, in the pollen collected from bees servicing major food crops in five states, including California. But that study found neonicotinoids only on pollen from a single apple orchard.

A separate study last year found that bees fed with high-fructose corn syrup, instead of surviving winter on their own honey, were more susceptible to microbial pathogens and to the effects of pesticides.

USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency scientists charged with reviewing the scientific literature last year found that pesticides, pathogens, and nutritional deficits, some caused by a lack of natural forage, were the major contributing factors behind colony collapse disorder.

Link to story – http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-virus-bee-colony-collapse-20140120,0,3775756.story#ixzz2r961afYb

Andre Casasola / Orange County Water District

Purified water from Southern California’s Groundwater Replenishment System exceeds state and federal drinking water standards. The water seen here is fresh from the facility.

After touring a plant that turns sewage into quaffable water in parched and sunny Southern California, visitors are offered a glass of the water to drink. Most get over the “ick factor” and take a sip. That’s when the epiphany hits, according to the plant’s general manager.

“They go, well, this tastes like water,” Michael Markus of the Orange County Water District told NBC News. “And we say it tastes like water because it is water.”

Today, the district’s Groundwater Replenishment Systemprocesses 70 million gallons of treated wastewater into pure, potable water every day, which is enough to meet the needs of about 600,000 people. The water is used to replenish the district’s aquifer, thus limiting the need to rely on more expensive and unreliable imported water from Northern California and the Colorado River.

As the U.S. Southwest enters yet another year of severe drought that is already crimping the supply of imported water, such toilet-to-tap projects are becoming a necessary solution to the region’s ongoing and worsening water crisis, according to Dan Cayan, a climate scientist and water cycle expert at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif.

Dismal times
“The last couple of months have just been dismal here,” he told NBC News. “In fact, the dryness we are seeing this winter is really affecting most of the West, so there’s a lot of concern.”

Florence Low / California Department of Water Resources

The California Department of Water Resources chief of snow surveys, Frank Gehrke, conducts winter’s first snow survey at Phillips Station near Echo Summit on January 3, 2014.

When the first snow survey of 2014 was held earlier this month, the California Department of Water Resources found more bare ground than snow. Statewide, water content is about 20 percent of normal for this time of year. “This very well could become one of the drier years in our history,” department spokesman Doug Carlson told NBC News.

Governor Jerry Brown has established a task force to closely monitor conditions and may declare a drought emergency if conditions fail to improve. Speaking to reporters on Jan. 9 as he unveiled his 2014-2015 budget, he said he would “do everything that is humanly possible” to make sure the state’s water resources are used efficiently, but played down his ability to help. “Governors can’t make it rain,” he said.

When the rains will come is unknown — the 10-day forecast as of Jan. 13 showed dry and sunny conditions. Asked if the drought is a sign of climate change, Cayan, who also studies water resources with the U.S. Geological Survey, pinned the bulk of the blame on natural variability in a region prone to dry conditions. “What we are seeing is ultimately going to reverse and we will go into a wetter mode at some point,” he said.

“But,” he added, “there is a disquieting feature in the last couple generations of climate simulations to show drying in places like Southern California and parts of the Southwest.” Those trends come on stronger toward the end of the 21st century, he noted, which suggest most of the current drought is “the luck of the draw in the natural variations the system can undergo.”

Bracing for the future
Along with prospects for a drier future in the U.S. Southwest, the region’s population is projected to swell. The dual forces, in turn, will increase pressure on already scarce water resources. To cope, plans are in motion to increase the use of reclaimed sewage in the region, noted Jean-Daniel Saphores, a civil and environmental engineer at the University of California at Irvine.

“The advantage of treating and reusing wastewater is that this water is already available locally so it is not exposed to political risks (such as) reduction of water that can be imported,” he told NBC News in an email. Other risks to imported water, he noted, include earthquake damage to aqueducts and terrorism.

The Orange County Water District turned on to the idea of toilet-to-tap water in the mid-1990s, noted general manager Markus. Today, its Groundwater Replenishment System is the largest of its type in the world and an expansion under construction will increase output to 100 million gallons of potable water a day by 2015.

Steve Crise / American Water Works Association

The Groundwater Replenishment System uses a three-step process to purify treated wastewater to drinking-water quality. Seen here is the reverse osmosis step.

The system purifies treated wastewater from the county’s sanitation district via a three step process that includes microfiltration to remove bacteria and suspended solids; reverse osmosis to remove dissolved minerals, viruses and pharmaceuticals; and ultraviolet light and hydrogen peroxide to remove any additional molecular organic compounds.

A $92 million grant used to offset construction of the plant allows the system to process water at about $480 an acre foot, which is 326,000 gallons of water, enough to more than supply the needs of two average U.S. homes a year. Without the construction subsidy, the cost is about $850 an acre foot. Imported water, by comparison, is currently $1000 an acre foot, noted Markus.

In other words, the economics of toilet-to-tap make sense and, indeed, were a key selling point to city councils and other stakeholders when the water district went out to gain approval for the project and push people over the “ick factor” of drinking reclaimed sewage.

Another key selling point was “the decision to pump the reclaimed water into an aquifer instead of using it directly even though this reclaimed water is drinkable and very pure,” said Saphores, noting that the step provided “the comfort of additional natural treatment.”

Other strategies to overcome the water crisis in the Southwest include conservation through steps such as low-flow toilets, landscaping with drought-tolerant plants, and increasing prices to pay for new and upgraded water delivery infrastructure.

“This dry condition we are having is sort of a wake-up call and it is difficult,” noted Cayan. “But the longer we go without working on these issues, the more we are in for a rude awakening once dry conditions do happen.”

Link to story – http://www.nbcnews.com/science/parched-southwest-reclaimed-sewage-water-could-be-welcome-relief-2D11915652

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross (far left) appears with Governor Brown today in San Francisco as he declares a drought state of emergency in California.

A link to the Governor’s news release may be found here: http://www.gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=18368

Secretary Ross with KNBC-TV reporter Patrick Healy