California water district pays millions over ‘unauthorized diversion’ from federal canals [Sacramento Bee]
An obscure farm-irrigation agency in the San Joaquin Valley, the Panoche Water District has been struggling with a monumental scandal the past three years, with top officials under criminal indictment for embezzling public funds and illegally dumping toxic waste. It turns out the district has also been allegedly taking water from the federal government. Earlier this year Panoche agreed to pay the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation nearly $7.5 million to compensate for “unauthorized diversion of water” from two federal canals, according to a settlement agreement obtained by The Bee. The settlement was approved by the U.S. attorney’s office. The Bureau of Reclamation operates the Central Valley Project, the massive network of dams and canals that deliver water to Panoche and other contracting agencies up and down the state. Last month, Panoche made a separate deal with the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, an umbrella agency that delivers water from the Bureau of Reclamation to Panoche and 28 other member districts on the west side of the Valley. Panoche agreed to pay the authority $798,000, plus $172,000 in interest, for damages it sustained from the diversions. Panoche didn’t admit to any wrongdoing.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/water-and-drought/article253369598.html
As Dixie fire nears half a million acres, containment is still weeks away [Los Angeles Times]
Officials are warning that it could take several more weeks to contain the monstrous Dixie Fire, which is the second-largest wildfire in California’s recorded history. The fire grew to 489,287 acres Monday and was only 21% contained, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. The estimated date for containment is Aug. 30. The fire grew to 489,287 acres Monday and was only 21% contained, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. The estimated date for containment is Aug. 30. Last week, gusty red flag conditions sent embers from the Dixie fire flying into tinder-dry terrain, causing the blaze to explode by nearly 150,000 acres in less than two days. … That rapid growth is what caused containment numbers to plummet from 35% to 21%, Zuniga said. More than 16,000 structures remain threatened by the blaze, Cal Fire officials said. Experts have said that dry vegetation leads to more intense fires that move faster and are harder to fight. During a visit to the Dixie fire burn zone Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said it took only about 90 minutes for the conflagration to rip through the community of Greenville, reducing most of the small town to ash and rubble.
Heat, drought and fire: how climate dangers combine for a catastrophic ‘perfect storm’ [The Guardian]
Northern California’s Dixie fire this weekend swelled to become the single largest fire incident the state has ever recorded, a mammoth that has leveled mountain towns, produced flames that shot 200ft in the air, and scorched through close to 490,000 acres. Researchers are concerned that the Dixie fire’s record won’t hold for long. The parched landscapes and increased temperatures that set the stage for bigger blazes this year are not anomalies – they are trends. And the conditions are going to get worse. Drought, extreme heat, and destructive infernos are each devastating in their own right, but together they cause calamity. The combination augments their effects and causes each individual condition to intensify. Scientists say they are seeing the trifecta more frequently in the west and that climate breakdown is the key culprit.
As globe warms, risk of agricultural drought rises, says climate report [Food and Environmental Reporting Network]
Without immediate and broad-scale action to limit greenhouse gas emissions, global warming almost certainly will result in heat waves, changes in rainfall patterns and agricultural droughts, said a report by the UN climate change panel on Monday. Agricultural and ecological droughts were likely to become more frequent in western North America, said the report. Occurrences of heavy precipitation would increase in central North America — the U.S. farm belt — and eastern North America. The scientists writing the report did not agree on whether central and eastern North America would see higher temperature extremes or more incidents of drought. Higher extremes in temperature are expected nearly everywhere on the globe. “Climate change becomes crystal clear for most people when viewed through the lens of water,” said Moira McDonald, director of Walton Family Foundation’s environment program. “Droughts, floods, mega-storms, wildfires, warming oceans and even having the ability to keep growing crops all make climate change painfully real in everyday life.” Sustainable agriculture practice, which include reduced tillage, crop rotations and cover crops, “offer a path to feed a hungry planet, take care of farmers’ bottom line, help sequester carbon, while protecting soil and water,” said McDonald.
Senate set to adopt bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, bringing major Biden goal one step closer [Washington Post]
The Senate on Tuesday is set to approve a roughly $1.2 trillion proposal to improve the nation’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections, advancing a historic burst in federal spending after years of failed attempts on Capitol Hill to invest anew in the country’s aging infrastructure. The package, nearly half of which constitutes new spending, would mark the most significant investment in the country’s inner workings since Congress marshaled a massive yet smaller rescue bill in the shadow of the 2009 Great Recession. It would combine lawmakers’ desire for immediate, urgently needed fixes to the country’s crumbling infrastructure with longer-term goals to combat challenges including climate change. The infrastructure plan includes an additional $55 billion to address lingering issues in the U.S. water supply, such as an effort to replace every lead pipe in the nation. It allocates $65 billion to modernize the country’s power grid.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/08/10/senate-infrastructure-bill-vote-biden/
Without ‘right to repair,’ businesses lose time and money [Associated Press]
As software and other technologies get infused in more and more products, manufacturers are increasingly making those products difficult to repair, potentially costing business owners time and money. Makers of products ranging from smartphones to farm equipment can withhold repair tools and create software-based locks that prevent even simple updates, unless they’re done by a repair shop authorized by the company. Farmers and farm equipment repair technicians complain they can’t fix what should be fixable problems on tractors and combines due to the software installed by manufacturers. Sarah Rachor is a fourth-generation farmer, who runs a farm with 600 acres in Eastern Montana with her father that grows sugar beets, wheat, soybeans and corn. She has a tractor from 1998, mainly because it was before new technology was installed in farm equipment, along with an older 1987 combine for backup. The 1998 tractor has a manual with codes that she uses to manually reset it when something goes wrong. That’s not possible with newer machines, she said. “If I know how to do something, I shouldn’t have to wait and call a technician for something simple, or even to diagnose the problem,” she said. “I love technology, but it is making simple things harder.”
https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-9f84a8b72bb6dd408cb642414cd28f5d
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