Liz Writes Life - 9-22-21 California Water Board stops irrigation water use with new regulation

Liz Writes life

Sept. 22, 2021

Some folks in Scott Valley were upset and confused last week, when they received certified letters from the State Water Resources Control Board explaining a curtailment of water use has been put into effect.

It took some reading and a phone call to the water board staff to learn if domestic wells were exempt from curtailment and reporting. The information I received said that they are exempt, but folks that are concerned or confused should contact the water board staff for their own clarification.

There is a difference for domestic wells that are under adjudication. Those property owners must still report estimated water usage and it also must be under two-acre feet of water per year, according to the information I received.

So, according to the letter, most adjudicated water right holders must stop any water use (irrigation) and immediately report that stoppage. Deadline for reporting to the water board is Sept. 24, 2021. Fines for violating this newly implemented Emergency Regulation can be up to $1,000 per day.

Report on-line

Within the eight-page certified letter, readers are informed that “an acre-foot of water is approximately 325,000 gallons and is roughly the amount of water that 2 to 3 households in California use in a year.” So a single residence would likely use less than one acre-feet of water, which is half of the maximum. Whew! There is a website to use to sign-in and do your reporting. This will also put you in an email-type of notification/informational list.

According to the letter, it looks like water needed for residential, livestock and safety for fire firefighting is allowed to be utilized.

Because of the extreme drought, water-flows in creeks and rivers have been extremely low to none and many water right holders stopped diverting early -- or back in May, when the water board curtailed lower-priority-water-right diversions.

Whether non-agricultural folks know it or not, farmers have worked to reduced water usage in a variety of ways – for years.

The scary part

This “Emergency Regulation” was adopted on Aug. 17, 2021, by the water board, which established “drought emergency minimum flows” in the Scott River and Shasta River watersheds. The regulation went into effect on Aug. 30, 2021 and will remain in effect for one year!

Shockingly, this could stop all irrigation next spring in Scott and Shasta Valleys! Yep, this is really upsetting. It would devastate the agricultural community and drastically affect our Siskiyou County economy.

The water board can repeal the Emergency Regulation if water supply conditions improve. If we get good fall rains and a super-winter-supply of snow, the river flows should greatly increase. So, the million dollar question is: Will the water board rescind this curtailment of adjudicated water usage if we receive sufficient moisture?

The letter discusses the minimum flows that are set for the Scott River. On Sept. 3, 2021 the water flow was approximately 8 cfs (cubic feet per second) and the drought minimum flow for September has been established to be 33 cfs. That’s not good! The state board explains it believes that stopping adjudicated use (irrigation) will raise the groundwater table, even if it does not immediately increase the water flow in the river.

In the letter, the water board says it doesn’t have all the groundwater contacts or water right information it needs to let all adjudicated water right users know that they must stop irrigating. (I find that surprising. This is the agency that governs court-ordered adjudications and provides watermasters to oversee water right usage.) So, the water board decided to do this extensive certified letter project in hopes it will reach those diverters not in the water board’s files.

Yet, it still raises alarm bells to many domestic well owners. It feels like domestic wells are being lumped into the jurisdiction of adjudication.

I called our Siskiyou Co. Dist. 5 Supervisor Ray Haupt about this situation. He is frustrated over several legal issues and has put the topic on the Sept. 21, 2021 county supervisors’ agenda. Ray also contacted our State Assemblywoman Megan Dahle and State Senator Brian Dahle’s offices for help. He said the senator is also frustrated about this threat to agriculture and is working on the issue at the state level.

Webinar for help

The state water board staff is planning a webinar to help with reporting. It is called: Curtailment and Reporting Assistance webinar. It will be held Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021 from 9 a.m. to noon. The link can be found by putting the webinar title in the search icon on the State Water Resources Control Board website. It may take searching a page or two to find the link, but it clicks right to a notice where you can click on the zoom video meeting link.

There should be much more information to share about this water issue next week. I will try to get on the zoom meeting and see how well people are able to report on-line. Sure hope the computer program works better than the one they had adjudicated water right holders use back around 2011, when I helped a neighbor who did not have a computer to report her water usage.

Garden

The cantaloupes are being tricky. They don’t look or act ripe, but after losing several because they were too mushy, I started picking them. It has been over 120 days since the seeds were planted and the larger melons should be ripe. More tomatoes are turning red. Several times, I have washed the smoke ash off the plants. Boy, it was thick. 

Thank you to all firefighters! And may lots of autumn rains bless our area.

May peace and calm be with you this week. Smile – just cuz it makes you feel better! 

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County. Columns from the past can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

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Liz Writes Life - 9-15-21 -- Evacuation and life for a child in 1919

Liz Writes Life

Sept. 15, 2021

This is being written on Thursday of last week, Sept. 9, 2021, after I was evacuated with the expanded Callahan evac order last night. Luckily, last weekend I wrote a little history about my dad, when he was eight years old, so I have decided with all this fire craziness it will be my column this week.

This was a collaboration of remembrances with my older brother and sister. Steve started it back in July, when it was National Buffalo Soldier Day. Our dad had a wonderful encounter with an old Buffalo Soldier in September 1919. Steve had much more detail to these two stories than I did and Lorena remembered dad had ridden through mountains there in Southern Arizona. I also called a cousin in Redding, who explained the distances and topography of that area. So, here goes.

Our father, Harold Hearst Dillman, was born 110 years ago, on Sept. 6, 1911, in or near the small town of Douglas, Cochise County of the Territory of Arizona, USA. Hearst died March 13, 1995 in Yreka, Siskiyou County, California, USA.

George Robert Dillman and Rose Ann Beecroft Dillman are his parents, who married September 21, 1906 in Colonia Pacheco, Chihuahua, Mexico. Eight other children were born to George and Rose Ann. Hearst was the second son and third child. By 1919, the family lived in Whitewater – later called Elfrida – about 30 miles north of Douglas. His grandfather had homesteaded there.

Without argument, the early American 20^th century was another time and dimension -- a much different American culture and society than in 2021.

For the time period, Hearst likely lived a fairly normal childhood. The family was poor – scraping-out a living through various rural agricultural means in hot southern Arizona. Many children quickly learned tasks and skills that resulted in tremendous responsibilities. It was normal for children to be milking the family cow by age 5 or 6 along with feeding and cleaning-up after chickens and other livestock.

Not so, for children in the 21^st century USA! Remember, in 1919, the family did not have running water or electricity. And, they did not own a car.

On Sept. 6, 1919, George was working on the famous Texas Ranger John Slaughter’s “San Bernardino Ranch” in Cochise County, Arizona as a teamster. It was a full-day’s horseback ride to the ranch from where the Dillman’s lived, but George was allowed to ride home to celebrate Hearst’s 8^th birthday. We don’t know much about the birthday celebration, but George took quite ill with the flu. The previous year, the infamous Spanish influenza (now known as the Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918 to 1920) had struck the world and was still a raging pandemic.

The illness must have weakened the normally robust George, because Rose Ann was concerned he may not be able to endure the all-day ride back to the Slaughter Ranch headquarters. So, Rose Ann decided that Hearst should ride with George to the ranch, spend the night and then ride home the next day.

Apparently, the father and son made the long day-trip without incident even though they rode south through the Swisshelms and Chiricahua Mountain ranges. After arriving, Hearst was invited to eat with George and the ranch hands. The cook was a black man. Hearst was told he had been a Buffalo Soldier back in the day.

(The 10^th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army was formed in 1866 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas with all black men. The regiment was tasked with supporting the nation’s westward expansion by protecting settlers, building roads and guarding the U.S. mail.)

As the story goes, cook was informed that young Hearst had just turned 8. So, the old Buffalo Soldier told Hearst he would make him a chocolate cake to celebrate. Hearst responded that he had never seen or eaten chocolate cake and was not sure he would like it. Cook then decided to convince him by saying, that “all boys like chocolate cake!” which apparently he did, because Hearst enjoyed chocolate throughout his life.

Early, the next morning, Hearst saddled-up his horse and rode by himself back through the mountains to the Dillman home. It was at least a 30-mile ride.

Next story:

Hearst told his son, Steve, that not long after that overnight trip, a local rancher must have decided that he was dependable – enough to do a job. Many men had been called-up to military service during World War 1 and those that had survived were not yet home, although the armistice was signed on Nov. 11, 1918. As Hearst put it, “Men were hard to find.”

So, Hearst’s first job, where he received a wage, was to ride horseback out in the desert to a stock watering tank. With no roads to follow, his horse likely followed a cow trail. At the water tank, he would start a hit-and-miss engine by pouring fuel into the little gas tank and then give the fly-wheel a spin. The word “tank” is a misnomer, because in Arizona stock tanks were an earthen pond.

Hearst was sent out with some food and a canteen of water in his saddle bags and a gallon of gas likely tied to the saddle horn. After making sure the engine was pumping water, he then rode back home – a day-long job. The next day, or a few days later, Hearst would head a different direction to another stock water tank that needed water. I don’t have any idea how much school Hearst attended during this time.

Chances are Hearst was barefoot. Lorena remembers Rose Ann told her that Hearst did not have a purchased new pair of shoes until he was 10 years old. He may have had second-hand shoes and the Mexicans made sandals, but in several photos from the time period, Hearst can be seen with no shoes.

Yep, our life is much different in 2021.

May peace and calm be with you this week. Smile – just cuz it makes you feel better!

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County. Columns from the past can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

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Liz Writes Life 9-8-21 -- CA Governor ignores forest hearing

Liz Writes Life

Sept. 8, 2021

Newsom ignores forest hearing

In a scathing press release, CA. Dist. 1 Assemblywoman Megan Dahle laid the lack of funding to streamline healthy forest projects on Governor Gavin Newsom. Dahle said the Newsom administration has completely failed to provide desperately needed budget funding to $400 million in projects that are ready and waiting.

“Our governor can no longer be all talk and no action,” said Dahle. “California’s majestic forests must be treated, not regulated into further destruction. It is time for his administration to provide real resources on the ground to fund efforts to manage our forests, combat catastrophic wildfires and assist wildfire victims in rebuilding.”

During the past eight years, Assemblywoman Dahle and her husband, Brian Dahle, who is our Dist. 1 state senator, have invited and hosted more than 125 state legislative members to their district with the specific goal of educating them on sustainable forestry management practices that protect the environment and climate from the huge smoke clouds of unnecessary carbon emissions. The Dixie, River Complex, McCash, Antelope and several other fires are currently burning out-of-control. More than one million acres have burned in the First Assembly District this year.

The neighboring Caldor Fire is also a huge threat. With this magnitude of fires, California is on track to suffer the most devastating wildfire season in recent history.

Megan Dahle further explained, “year after year we have been ignored, our policies shunned, our legislation shot down and we have been at the mercy of special interest groups who would rather watch the state burn than work together to implement good environmental public policy.”

Dahle was involved with the Wildfire Prevention and Forest Resiliency hearing, but it was canceled. She said that Newsom’s administration refused to participate. In its place the Assembly Republican Wildfire Working Group hosted an informational forum on the barriers, challenges and solutions to preventing catastrophic wildfires.

I’d like to send a big “thank you” out to Megan Dahle and legislators that are trying to get forest health practices accomplished – instead of just being talked about!

Vaccine mandates

At the risk of adding more fuel to the fire over the controversy of COVID vaccine mandates, I do want to alert folks that the state Democrat-led legislature is working to pass bills that would impose vaccine mandates on private industry.

Dist. 1 Assemblywoman Megan Dahle sent out an alert that she opposed AB 455, which she calls a gut-and amend bill. This means the text for the bill was originally about something else (in this case it was about transportation) and then just before the deadline during this legislative session the text was gutted and amended to impose the vaccine mandate on private industry. I believe this bill has now been dropped and will not be voted upon – this year. But there are rumors about another bill, AB 1102, that could be amended to allow employers to require mandatory COVID-19 vaccination as condition of employment.

Assemblywoman Dahle said she believes COVID-19 vaccination should be a personal choice and not mandated by the government. She urged citizens to check on these bills and make your voices heard, because situations are rapidly developing. I believe this legislative session will close on Sept. 10^th.

Republicans will meet

The Siskiyou Conservative Republicans will be meeting Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021 at the Methodist Church in Montague. Mark Meuser, who is running for U.S. Senate against Alex Padilla, will be the featured speaker through a zoom meeting at 11:15 a.m. So, get there early! Mark is a Constitutional attorney who represented CA. Governor Candidate Larry Elder, when Elder was originally left off of the Recall ballot. Meuser won the court case and Elder is indeed on the ballot; and the front runner of the candidates in the Recall of Governor Gavin Newsom election that will be held Sept. 14, 2021. Be sure to get your ballot mailed by that date. Call Annie Ohlund at 530-842-2351 to reserve lunch of barbecue Cornish game hen.

Siskiyou Patriots to meet

Ray Haupt, chairman of the Siskiyou Board of Supervisors, will be speaking at the Siskiyou Patriots meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021. Erin Ryan, staff for Dist. 1 Congressman Doug LaMalfa will also speak on federal issues. The meeting is held at Covenant Chapel Church at 200 Greenhorn Rd. in Yreka.

Garden report

Vegetable output has slowed since the cooler temps hit several weeks ago, along with much cooler nights -- plus the wildfire smoke is blocking the sun quite a bit of the time. But, like normal, the tomatoes are gearing-up to really start ripening.

Gotta say that drying herbs in these cooler temps is not easy without using a dehydrator. The basil did not want to dry in the paper bags, cuz the room they were in was not getting extra hot. So I put the basil stems and leaves on a cookie sheet, pre-heated the oven to 250 degrees, turned the heat off and placed the basil in the oven for overnight. This pretty much dried it without the leaves turning too dark. Next year, I need to remember to dry the herbs in July and early August, while it is still hot!

I do have a dehydrator, but stopped using it because it increased my power bill more than I wanted to pay. During the heat of summer, using the paper bags is the cheap way to go.

May peace and calm be with you this week. Smile – just cuz it makes you feel better!

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County. Columns from the past can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

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