Water Day

Awesome day today - close to 12 hours in three vans covering over 400 miles of California's Central Valley.  Followed the Sacramento River down towards it's delta to view the Jones Pumping Station which lifts water from the delta almost 200 feet so as to supply water for agricultural, urban and wildlife water to parts of the Central Valley further South.

Coming from VA with our rivers flowing from the Appalachians (James, York, Rappahannock, Potomic) to ChesBay, I gained an entirely new appreciation for the waters that flow to the sea.  Here in CA, lives, business, the economy and families completely depend upon water.  And since CA has been in a drought for upwards of 6-8 years, serious concern goes into what/when/where & how each farm is going to produce.
Another trek further down the Central Valley, we stopped at one of the original farmsteads in CA.  Dating back to before CA was a state, our host from Bowles Farms explained how today's farmers are living and dieing because of "water rights" and who has/has not got the right to waters in the valley.  Completely new to me was the fact the State Water Boards dictate how much water a farm is allowed.  This then impacts what the farm can produce, and if not profitable, the farm folds.  Along with loss of food produced, family farms & migrant workers lose out and possibly leave agriculture altogether.

 

After a very eye-opening day, we jumped into the vans for a 3 hour tour of the Central Valley, all the while seeing farms growing the produce we eat in our cafeteria or buy at Kroger, Food Lion and Sam's/BJ's.  Lettuce, carrots, melons, pears, tomatoes, apricots and even almonds.  We headed North back towards Sacramento and our rooms in time to watch the Cavs pull out game 6 to force that game 7 finale.