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Defenders of Del Puerto Canyon Stand Firm

Christopher Quock has a Master’s Degree in Entomology from San Francisco State University. His job history there includes work in research and as a teaching assistant. He’s a volunteer defender of Del Puerto Canyon, where a remarkable variety of wildlife and geologic history come together in a natural classroom and science lab. ed Imagine visiting […]

Dos Rios State Park: “A new era of water management.”

Julie Rentner and Patrick Koepele have spent decades of their lives dedicated to healing nature through the restoration of rivers, Rentner with River Partners and Koepele with the Tuolmne River Trust. Wednesday, June 12, the entire state of California celebrated one of the greatest outcomes of their labors with the opening of Dos Rios State […]

Will Water Districts Fail to Deliver on Historic Contract?

Earlier this year, Louis Brichetto was having breakfast with a local cattleman who mentioned having seen the Brichetto name on a historical water contract he had been reviewing along with some of his own old contracts. The casual remark got Brichetto’s immediate attention. Brichetto’s roots in Stanislaus County’s Oakdale region go back well over 150 […]

Trinitas Bankruptcy: We should have Listened

Trinitas Partners recent declaration of bankruptcy is likely just the beginning of widespread economic devastation throughout the San Joaquin Valley. No one saw it coming more clearly than the pseudonymous author of On the Public Record (OtPR), who wrote nine years ago, “This economic model, in which powerful outsiders come in, displace the natives and destroy local natural […]

Trinitas Partners Farming Declares Bankruptcy

Trinitas Partners, the Bay Area investment firm that bought cattle land in Stanislaus County’s eastern foothills over a decade ago and then converted it to almond orchards, has declared bankruptcy. Trinitas made headlines when it was annexed into Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) and jumped ahead of local farmers who protested that its out-of-town owners were […]

State Rejects Groundwater Plan for Modesto Subbasin

The late Vance Kennedy was appalled when he learned tens of thousands of groundwater-dependent acres had been planted with almond orchards in the foothills on Stanislaus County’s east side. “That groundwater is our savings bank,” said Kennedy, then a resident of the City of Modesto. “That’s our reserve in case of an extended drought.” Kennedy, […]

Time for a Water Wake Up Call

Recent stories in the New York Times highlight a groundwater crisis throughout much of the United States, including the San Joaquin Valley. While depleted aquifers aren’t news to Valley citizens, the urgency of the situation has yet to strike home, especially in the northern part of the Valley where last winter’s heavy rains have led […]

The Perverse Arithmetic of Water Sales

Ever since Modesto Irrigation District (MID) proposed selling water to San Francisco more than ten years ago, the topic of sales has been fraught with political peril. The  prospect of selling local water to San Francisco brought about changes on the MID Board of Directors and served as a warning notice that peddling MID water […]

Modesto Irrigation District Sales Proposal Roils the Waters

For years, Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) water sales seldom caused more than a flicker of public interest. Let nearby Modesto Irrigation District (MID) even think about a sale, however, and the hue and cry are heard for miles around. That was the case in 2011, when MID proposed selling water to the City of San […]

Josh Harder’s Amendment to Stop the Delta Tunnel

Last week, during an Appropriations Committee write up, California Congressman Josh Harder proposed an amendment to stop the Delta Tunnel, a supposedly preferable alternative to the “Twin Tunnels,” a project that morphed out of Jerry Brown’s 1980s plan for the “Peripheral Canal.” Both the Peripheral Canal and Twin Tunnels proposals perished under heavy resistance from […]