Will Gavin Newsom make emergency drought declaration statewide? Valley lawmakers say it’s a must

More than a dozen Central Valley lawmakers and elected officials met on Friday to declare a regional drought emergency and urge Gov. Gavin Newsom to do the same statewide.

Three state senators and three Assembly members joined the chairs of the boards of supervisors from Fresno, Madera, Tulare and Kings counties in a bipartisan news conference at Harlan Ranch in Clovis to call for action that the group said is necessary to divert a crisis.

“This is about mankind and surviving,” said Sen. Melissa Hurtado, D-Sanger, who represents the state’s 14th district. “The Central Valley feeds the world and the current drought, coupled with the coronavirus pandemic, has set us on the verge of a global food crisis — a repeat of 1974, when California entered its driest three years on record.

“Our actions will determine whether that happens,” she said.

Just how dry is California this year?

The stats show reason to worry.

California is at 50% of its average precipitation for the year, according to the California Department of Water Resources. The state’s snowpack is at 59% of normal for the year. This puts 2021 on pace to be one of the driest on record for the state.

More than 85% of California is in “severe” drought or worse, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center.

The U.S. Drought Monitor says 76.5% of Fresno County is in a severe drought. Another 39% of the county — namely, the foothill and mountain areas — is classified as being in extreme drought.

Tulare County is in even worse shape: 94.5% of the county is already in extreme drought. Madera and Kings counties are “just” in severe droughts.

Food grows where water flows

The drought’s effects, of course, are being felt by the region’s farmers.

The choice of location — the original Harlan Ranch farm off Highway 168 east of Fresno — was chosen for a reason: It made a fitting backdrop, set among vast fields of dry grasses dotted with large tangled piles of dead trees.

“This is no accident,” said Ryan Jacobsen, CEO of the Fresno County Farm Bureau. The drought is forcing farmers to stop irrigating crops or to sell off trees and land just to survive.

Jacobsen said he has seen farmers bulldoze productive trees and fallow crops.

“There are tons and tons or ramifications,’” he said.

Tulare, Madera and Kings counties have each declared a drought emergency. Fresno County will vote to ratify its emergency declaration during a special meeting Tuesday.

A statewide drought emergency would remove the regulatory, administrative and environmental barriers keeping needed water out of the Valley. It would allow agencies more flexibility to initiate water transfers and modify reservoir release standards to get needed water to farms in the Valley.

“This is not a symbolic event, but a legal one,” said Sen. Andreas Borgeas, R-Fresno, who represents the state’s 8th district.

So far, the governor has shied away from declaring a statewide emergency, though he did declare a regional emergency last week for the Russian River watershed in the northern part of the state, which would allow more water to be stored in reservoirs serving Mendocino and Sonoma counties.

Borgeas said he hopes Friday’s request sends a message to the governor that the Valley is in need, too.

“Their metrics are reasonable,” Borgeas said.

“But so are ours.”

This story was originally published April 30, 2021 at 1:31 PM.