Agriculture Daily News July 22

Water:

 

*State's water chief worries 2009 will be worst drought -- California's second-largest storage reservoir will end this year with the lowest amount of water in more than 30 years, the state's water chief said yesterday. Lester Snow, Department of Water Resources director, spoke at a congressional hearing on California's drought in Fresno, where farmers, climate change experts and area politicians testified about the financial impacts wrought by the water shortage. San Diego Union Tribune 7/22/08

 

Slowdown begins as Folsom Lake level falls -- The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation declared that because the lake continues to get shallower, exposing more hazards, the speed limit for motorboats is 5 mph. That limit is imposed when the lake's surface elevation falls to 400 feet above sea level. The lake's level was 399 feet at 4 a.m. today. Sacramento Bee 7/22/08

 

Agriculture:

 

Salmonella strain found in jalapeño in Texas -- A jalapeño pepper grown in Mexico and stored in a Texas border town warehouse has tested positive for the same rare strain of salmonella that has confounded federal disease investigators for nearly two months. As a result, the Food and Drug Administration issued an advisory Monday for consumers to avoid eating uncooked jalapeños from any source - another potential blow to California, which produces about $45 million worth of chile peppers annually. Only nine cases have been reported in California. There have been 475 in Texas. SF Chronicle 7/22/08

 

FDA warns about salmonella danger of jalapeno peppers -- Raley's Stores and Save Mart Supermarkets don't plan to remove jalapeños from their shelves. Produce Express, a distributor that supplies vegetables to hundreds of the region's eateries, planned to deliver jalapeños as usual this morning, along with a notice about the warning. Many restaurants contacted by The Bee on Monday afternoon had heard nothing of the FDA alert. A local pepper farmer called it nonsensical. Sacramento Bee 7/22/08

 

*Mosquito spraying put on hold until testing completed -- After three evenings of spraying pesticide over the skies of south Sacramento and Elk Grove, West Nile warriors will have to wait until next week to learn if the treatment cut down on infected mosquitoes. It will take that long to finish a series of before-and-after mosquito trapping and testing in the sprayed areas, said Gary Goodman, assistant manager of the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District. Sacramento Bee 7/22/08

 

Parks and forests:

 

*U.S. to announce fire settlement with Union Pacific -- In a landmark case, the federal government will announce a $102 million settlement today with the Union Pacific Railroad Co. over a forest fire that devastated a massive national forest area near the Feather River Canyon eight years ago. It is the largest settlement ever in a lawsuit over the origin of a forest fire case, thanks in no small part to a groundbreaking order by a federal judge. The judge ruled UP must pay for the loss of public scenery and recreation and habitat and wildlife, rather than merely the costs of the lost timber and firefighting resources used to douse the blaze. Sacramento Bee 7/22/08