4 Dems author bill for Calif. water problems

LOS BANOS -- Federal officials told hundreds of farmers in the Westlands Water District on Monday that they will get even less irrigation water -- just days after the district announced a rationing plan.

Farmers in the nation's largest federal water district will be hit hard -- many said they expect to abandon crops or even go out of business for lack of water.

Two members of Congress and district officials urged Gov. Schwarzenegger to declare a state of emergency.

The Westlands Water District, where farmers have struggled because of a water shortage, is receiving a $9.5 million boost from the federal government to help it increase water efficiency and stretch its supply.

Some of the money is for new wells, and the rest is to help farmers install improved irrigation systems. Farmers would have to match some of the federal funds with their own money to qualify.

Westlands officials welcomed the money, even if it wasn't the federal help they've been seeking.

•USDA chief, Feinstein weigh in on water problems
USDA chief, Feinstein weigh in on water problems
In a sign that Washington is paying attention to the Valley's water woes, two federal officials came to the Fresno area Wednesday.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack spent the day in Fowler -- his second day in the area -- while Sen. Dianne Feinstein met with farmers and water agency officials on the west side.

Feinstein said she would keep on pressing for a more practical approach to water distribution in California.

•USDA disaster declaration offers Calif. drought relief
USDA disaster declaration offers Calif. drought relief
Relief is on the way for Valley farmers, but not to the level some had hoped.

Central San Joaquin Valley farmers suffering drought-related crop losses will be eligible for assistance after the U.S. Department of Agriculture declared 50 of California’s 58 counties natural disaster areas.

Included in the designation are Fresno, Kings, Madera and Tulare counties.

•Bill contains farmworkers drought aid
Bill contains farmworkers drought aid
SACRAMENTO -- Farmworkers sidelined by the drought could collect more state cash assistance under a bill to be introduced today by a Valley lawmaker.

Assembly Member Juan Arambula, D-Fresno, said his legislation will help "make sure the resources are in place for those who work so hard to keep our economy running."

In the hard-hit west Valley, an estimated 200 farmworkers already have lost jobs. The number of layoffs could grow to nearly 1,000, said Sarah Woolf, spokeswoman for the Westlands Water District. Growers in the district have been hampered by the dry spring and court-ordered pumping cutbacks at the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
A bill introduced Wednesday in Washington, D.C., was touted by its Democrat authors as a way to help solve the San Joaquin Valley's water problems.

But a spokeswoman for Westlands Water District called it a Band-Aid for the state's water crisis.

Reps. Jim Costa of Fresno and Dennis Cardoza of Merced and California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer joined together to introduce the Water Transfer Facilitation Act of 2009.

The lawmakers say the bill would make it easier for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to approve transfers between water sellers and buyers in the Valley.

Also, the bill requires only one environmental study to examine the effect of water transfers on the giant garter snake, a protected species. Currently, each water-transfer project requires a separate study.

 According to Costa, the bill has been endorsed by 14 water users including the Metropolitan Water District (the Southern California urban water giant), the Friant Water Users Authority and Westlands Water District.

Sarah Woolf, spokeswoman for Westlands, which spans 600,000 acres from Firebaugh to Kettleman City, said the bill is a good idea, but it won't fix the state's water shortage.

Three years of below-normal precipitation combined with court-ordered restrictions on pumping water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are the leading causes of the shortage.

"This bill will be an intermediate fix, a Band-Aid," Woolf said.

Westlands needs the water because the district received 10% of its allocations this year. The drought, combined with court-ordered water restrictions, have caused more than 150,000 acres of Westlands acres not to be farmed, Woolf said.

Woolf said the state's problem is this: There's an abundance of water north of the delta, but it is difficult to deliver the water to the areas that need it south of the delta. The new bill will eliminate some of the bureaucratic hurdles to water transfers, she said.

The reporter can be reached at plopez@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6434.