When Californians in other parts of the state think about infrastructure, they think about the roads and bridges that take them to school and work. When they think about their water supply, they think about the water that flows out of the faucet or the shower. When they think about drought, they think about the local ordinances that force them to turn off the sprinklers that keep their lawns green. But here in the Central Valley, infrastructure, water supply and drought mean so much more — after all, they don’t just impact our quality of life, but our very livelihoods. That’s the reason there ..read more

The Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley brings interested parties together to discuss water issues for our region, advocates in Sacramento and Washington for project funding, but also, helps identify and develop water projects to save jobs along with our local economy.    Projects are identified in close consultation with local water agencies.  One significant project that we would like to highlight first is a fish friendly diversion in the Delta.   Millions of acre feet (trillions of gallons) of water on average years are available for use in the Delta.  Thi ..read more

There are fictionalized stories about what would happen without somebody or something’s influence. Jimmy Stewart in “It’s a Wonderful Life” comes to mind. In 2004 there was a movie released, “A Day Without a Mexican” in which a magical fog covers California and all the folks from Mexico disappear from the state wreaking havoc as the economy collapses from the lack of workers. Imagine a non-fiction scenario – a day without farmers. Or try a month or a year or forever – without farmers in the San Joaquin Valley. Perhaps it would be better stated to say a time without from a fifth to a third of t ..read more

The San Joaquin Valley, its people, its environment, and its economy stand at a crossroads, perhaps even a precipice. For too long the SJV has been drawing on groundwater resources faster than they can be replenished. That condition was simply unsustainable, and it led to implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) by the California legislature. The Act requires these groundwater resources be sustainable by the year 2040. There are only two ways to achieve sustainability: to decrease demand requiring the fallowing of vast acreages of productive farmland or increasing th ..read more

Looking forward to the current rain year and upcoming water year, will the drought continue or will our region get some relief in the form of rain and snow? In late October the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published their Winter Outlook for 2021-22.  Last year, our state experienced a historic drought.  The weather pattern known as “La Nina”, typically means drier winters in the Southern California and wetter winters in Northern California.   With the exception of some summer monsoonal moisture, our state was dry all around.   Despite a good, early storm ..read more

The Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley recently underwent a restructuring of the organization. The non-profit has two separate arms, which focus on education and advocacy.  Interested participants have volunteered to serve on the Blueprint’s Executive Committee.  We have a great group of engaged and highly knowledgeable members who have led the group over the past few years.  Our leadership understood that as we continue to grow, we would need formalization of our organizational structure.  The Executive Committee spent the past couple of months diligently dis ..read more

As an organization that has helped over 6,300 families build their own homes through sweat equity in the San Joaquin Valley, built over 1,800 rental housing units which we own and operate, and rehabilitated over 6,000 homes, Self-Help Enterprises knows a thing or two about the strong roots that thousands of families have planted here in the San Joaquin Valley.  The health of the communities these families live in is in large part dependent on the availability of reliable good quality water.  That water not only serves those communities’ drinking water needs, but is also needed for th ..read more

Not all farmland in the San Joaquin Valley will survive in a post-SGMA world. Estimates are that the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act will force between 500,000 and 1 million acres of farmland out of production to save groundwater. Which lands and what will become of those lands are major question marks. If Gov. Newsom’s revised budget is approved as is, those questions could have an extra $500 million to help find answers. “Land doesn’t have to be in agricultural production to be valuable,” said David Shabazian, director of the California Department of Conservation. Newsom’s proposed fu ..read more

The Biden-Harris administration has taken a bold and needed step to prioritize efforts to repair the country’s aging infrastructure. California residents in every region depend on water delivered through projects traversing the state from the high Sierra to the Pacific Ocean and all points north and south. The need is especially pronounced in the heart of California’s Great Central Valley.  Whether it’s a farm that grows our food, a restaurant in the heart of the city that serves it, a university, wildlife refuge, or a manufacturing plant, we all depend on the same, clean California water ..read more

California has a well-earned reputation for fighting over water. But, in what now seems like a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, California during the 1990s witnessed a considerable amount of collaboration among diverse interest groups. Those collaborative negotiations among agricultural, urban, and environmental interests created a long list of policy successes relating to water conservation, drought water banks, water markets, an agreement to restructure the State Water Contracts, and the Bay-Delta Accord. Regrettably, during the 21st century, California water policy has slipped back ..read more