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Kings County extends its year-plus drought emergency

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 31, 2008 at 6:27 am

From the Hanford Sentinel:

In what has become a nearly automatic move, Kings County supervisors on Tuesday extended a drought emergency declaration that has been in effect continuously since June 2007. The declaration comes at a critical water time for local farmers, who have been dealing with a second consecutive year of low rainfall and snowfall and a federal court decision last year to cut the pumping of Sacramento River Delta water into the California Aqueduct. Aqueduct water supplies millions of city residents and hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland to the south, including thousands of acres on the west side of Kings County.

Local farmers are growing increasingly concerned that a third year of drought could send the economy into a tailspin. “If this thing continues, we’re going to be in deep doodoo,” said Brent Graham, former general manager of the Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District in southern Kings County.

Area growers and Kings County’s representative in Congress said that it makes sense to keep the emergency declaration going. “It’s been needed, because we’re still in jeopardy and we continue to be in jeopardy,” said Jim Verboon, a Kings County farmer with 100 acres of walnuts in the Kings River-Excelsior Avenue area.

Because the farm is near the Kings River, it has access to groundwater supplies that many growers in the Westside region of Kings County don’t, Verboon indicated. “Some are going to be a hit a lot harder than I am,” Verboon said.

“It’s probably accurate to maintain the (emergency resolution),” said Rus Waymire, who has 40 acres of wheat in Kings County. “Well, it’s having an impact on our economy, and I think it’s important for them to maintain that,” Waymire said. “It’s the lifeblood of our economy here.” Waymire said that farmers “have to keep the political pressure on or we’re going out of business.”

Jim Costa, whose 20th Congressional district includes all of Kings County, expressed support for the supervisors’ action. “We have to continue to press the magnitude of these impacts because it isn’t immediately felt in Sacramento and Los Angeles,” Costa said.

Read more from the Hanford Sentinel by clicking here.

July 31, 2008 · Filed Under Drought, Weather & Snowpack

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