Blue Goose ~ Day 181

November 24, 2014 ~ Los Banos, CA to Lost Hills, CA

The days are cool in the mornings but as soon as the sun rises, the temperatures rise quickly to a very pleasant high 60s or 70s. But, as I keep mentioning, the daylight hours are fewer and fewer.

What happened today was the realization of exactly how awful this drought is and how it is affecting the Central Valley. Since I mostly drove past fields, I could see the effects of not enough water. Hearing there is a water shortage in California while living in Holland, Miami or Shady Side, or even Grand Rapids or Indianapolis or Eugene is just more news but seeing an increasingly barren landscape is an ugly reality. There are still some green crops and vineyards and orchards, but there were also barren, empty fields, with sparse weedy areas, or orchards with drying trees or one place where a mile of trees had recently been chopped down. I saw many signs and billboards with messages about water and jobs and food costs. I heard discussions on the radio. One show told how people do wake up, turn on their taps and nothing comes out as their wells have gone dry. Or of the contention amongst the farmers and the various city, county, state and federal agencies that have authority to regulate water. And some areas are not even in a defined water allocation zone.

The largest historical controversy has been (and continues to be) between Los Angeles' water needs and the water available from the Central Valley.  I read that President Obama came to Los Banos in February of this year, toured a farm and announced federal aid. (I can't help but think about those voters who want less government in their lives but who benefit from such aid.)

WWW.LOSBANOSENTERPRISE.COM

California is in its third dry year, and this winter so far is one of the driest on record. Both state and federal water projects have told farmers to expect no water this year. Prior to the president's arrival, the White House announced several steps that the president will take to deal with the drought. The drought assistance includes speeded-up livestock disaster assistance for California producers, provided under a newly signed farm bill, as well as targeted conservation assistance, watershed protection funds, additional summer feeding programs and emergency community water grants. By directing Agriculture Department staff to make the livestock assistance a "top priority," officials say they expect to provide California producers an estimated $100 million for 2014 losses and up to $50 million for losses in previous years.

Following the roundtable meeting, Los Banos farmer Joe Del Bosque of Empresas Del Bosque, Inc. gave the president, dressed in slacks and rolled-up shirt sleeves, a tour of a field that will lay fallow because he doesn't have enough water to grow a crop. Gov. Jerry Brown, who joined the president on the tour, last month announced a statewide drought emergency.

The air was dusty even on a day without wind. All small creeks, rivers and ditches were dry. There is still water in the aqueducts that criss-cross the valley though, and I wondered about the details of how it is delivered, to whom, how much and then how exactly these mile-square crop sections are irrigated.

I heard that the earth above aquifers, once they are depleted and drawn down, compacts, thus not allowing recovery when and if that happens. Those responsible for managing water (and this is also a problem since there are so many different agencies and they don't easily agree on any plan) have started talking to the Australians and Israelis for advice, as well as other Middle Eastern countries.

Central Valley - CA

The wells on rural homesteads and even those of one small town in the Valley (East Porterville) have run dry. At a small intersection of country roads close to I5, I saw a strange sight: a large sun umbrella shading a gentleman sitting in a lawn chair surrounded by gallon jugs of water and and what were probably his earthly belongings. I think that he was selling water but I didn't want to be obtrusive and didn't stop or peer too closely (but I wanted to and he may not have minded....)

There still are trees in the towns and around some of the houses but more have dirt yards,
especially along the country roads.

Pixley NWR - CA

Of the two refuges I went to, the first was Pixley NWR where I basically just drove through the parking area and saw no water anywhere, though did not walk on the one available trail or visit the other units.

At Kern NWR, there was water and wetlands, but it was easy to see how diminished these were. One small drying pond had only two sandpipers, although there were also large impoundments with thousands of ducks. I tried so hard to see a Tricolored Blackbird in the blackbird flocks but just couldn't definitively say I saw one. It was late afternoon or I would have stopped at the offices (now closed) to ask how they are managing and how much  animosity they experience as the adjacent fields dry up and ducks and geese still swim on this refuge.

Yellowlegs at Kern NWR - CA 

One might conclude that this Valley was not intended for agriculture or that Los Angeles was not entitled to take their water. The dry lands to the east are frank deserts and do not have the history of agricultural success so have learned how to live with aridity, although the urban communities still need water.

I pulled into a very busy truck stop at Lost Hills on I5 for the night, along with a hundred semis, all the I5 travelers who stop here for gas or a motel or a quick meal, and all the additional Thanksgiving travelers. The restaurant choices were Taco Bell, Arby's, McDonalds, Denny's, etc. I had a French dip sandwich at Arby's and stayed in a Love's parking lot, put window shades up and slept until 4:00 a.m. when the morning action began. The semi noise which was nearly constant is now white noise for me.

Coyote at Kern NWR - CA