Our next edition of Ag Today will be distributed Thursday December 9, after a three-day pause for the 2021 California Farm Bureau Annual Meeting.
California will make PG&E pay $125 million for 2019 Kincade Fire near Geyserville [San Francisco Chronicle]
California has narrowly ratified a plan to make Pacific Gas and Electric Co. pay $125 million for sparking the largest and most destructive wildfire of 2019. The California Public Utilities Commission voted 3-2 Thursday to adopt an agreement between its safety staff and PG&E under which the long-beleaguered power company will be penalized for its role in causing the 77,758-acre Kincade Fire near Geyserville. The October 2019 fire, which destroyed 374 structures and forced the largest evacuation in Sonoma County history, began after a cable broke on a steel PG&E transmission tower. Under the agreement between the PUC and PG&E, the company will pay $40 million to the state’s general fund. PG&E will also spend $85 million — without raising electricity rates — to remove about 70 transmission lines that it’s no longer using in various locations. In remarks before the vote, PUC Commissioner Darcie Houck stressed PG&E’s dismal safety record of the past decade, which includes responsibility for several catastrophes that have killed more than 100 people.
California failed to protect outdoor workers from wildfire smoke under Biden’s new OSHA chief [KQED/The California Newsroom]
President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the nation’s worker health and safety efforts largely failed in his last job to enforce protections for California outdoor workers exposed to toxic wildfire smoke. That’s according to an investigation by KQED and The California Newsroom. As the state faced its largest wildfire seasons on record, employers were required to take steps to prevent millions of outdoor workers from breathing harmful levels of smoke — such as by providing N95 masks or moving them indoors on days with unhealthy air. But under the leadership of Douglas Parker, who joined the Biden administration last month, the California agency tasked with enforcing the smoke regulations rarely penalized employers for breaking the rules. Nearly 4 million Californians labor in agriculture, construction, utilities and other industries with outdoor jobs, an analysis of state employment figures shows. The California Farm Bureau Federation, the state’s largest agricultural trade group, has been working tirelessly to ensure agricultural employers know about the rules and to help them comply, a representative said. “Having workers who are not healthy is not a very good way to get the work done,” said Bryan Little, who directs human resources policy for the California Farm Bureau Federation. He has led many trainings on the wildfire smoke regulation for the organization’s 33,000 members, he said. “The people that I’ve talked to certainly leave me with the impression that they’re trying very hard to make sure that they get their compliance issues right,” said Little.
Vineyard technology working to combat the Napa Valley water crisis [Napa Valley Register]
In a response to the ongoing drought, Napa Valley vineyards are taking advantage of water-saving technologies to minimize the threat to their vines. At Somerston Estate in St. Helena, this innovation comes in the form of aerial mapping and neutron probes, both of which General Manager Craig Becker utilizes to cut down on the property’s water use. And clocking in at a whopping 1,600-plus acres, the estate’s crew can use all the techy help it can get. Drones fly above the vineyard to specific designated spots, taking note of the foliage color and vigor, whereas probes in the soil register just how much water is available to the vines. Then, through the beauty of technology, Becker and his staff are able to keep track of the fluctuations and accommodate irrigation and treatments accordingly. “We now are able to be more precise with our actions, irrigation, crop yield management, canopy management, sampling, and eventually harvesting,” said Becker.
Helping farmworker families: Santa Barbara County chosen for federal jobs program [Santa Maria Times]
Santa Barbara County has been chosen as one of two California counties to participate in the National Farmworker Jobs Program, providing grant opportunities to help local migrant and seasonal farmworker families achieve economic stability. Santa Barbara County was selected along with Imperial County as grantees of the national program, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor. Professional development nonprofit SER Jobs for Progress Inc. will be administering the program through its Santa Maria office and providing outreach to potential applicants. The program is open to low-income migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their dependents who possess authorization to work in the United States. Approved applicants will have access to career counseling and planning services, occupational skill and job training, youth mentoring and educational services, as well as opportunities for short-term financial and housing support, all intended to help prepare them for future job opportunities. Project coordinator Veronica Dominguez said the Santa Maria office of SER Jobs for Progress, which already provides services like the High School Equivalency Program to help farmworkers obtain their GED diploma, will conduct outreach in the community to find eligible applicants for the National Farmworker Jobs Program.
California Will Curtail Water to Farms and Cities Next Year as Drought Worsens [Bloomberg]
California plans to dramatically curtail water delivery next year from its network of canals, pipelines and reservoirs to 27 million Californians and three-quarters of a million acres of farmland because of a two-year drought. The California Department of Water Resources said it will prioritize delivery from the State Water Project only for health and safety needs, to maintain salinity control in key wetlands, to protect endangered species and to put water in reserve. That means farmers won’t get any water from the system they had applied for unless conditions improve. California is the country’s largest agricultural producer, with its farms and ranches generating $49 billion of sales in 2020, including milk, nuts, fruits and vegetables, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
A ‘no snow’ California could come sooner than you think [Los Angeles Times]
It was 55 degrees and sunny Thursday at Sugar Bowl Resort, where the opening day of the 2021 ski season — already delayed because of warm weather — was still listed as “TBD.” “Winter hasn’t quite arrived in Tahoe yet,” officials wrote in a note about the postponement. But the mountain isn’t the only place feeling the pinch from lack of snow. A new study led by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that dwindling snowpack across California and the western United States could shrink dramatically more — or in some cases disappear — before the end of the century. The study, published recently in the journal Nature Reviews Earth and Environment, paints a worrisome picture of the “potentially catastrophic consequences” of a future with less snow, including the massive implications it holds for California’s water supply, as well as rippling effects on soil, plants, wildlife and even the increased frequency of wildfire.
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