-November 28,2022-
A Stanford study says the Kings River watershed, below Pine Flat Dam, is an ancient pathway for glacier-fed runoff and may be an ideal candidate location for recharge. The study found the underground pathway runs 15 miles onto the Valley floor and is high in sand, gravel and pebbles that can be mapped using technology that can identify the best place to recharge in wet years. That would help bolster the area’s sagging groundwater. A helicopter-based mapping effort was also done this year on the Kaweah watershed showing a similar profile of the alluvial fan near Visalia. Researchers call the ancient water pathways “paleo-channels”.The technology works by hanging a transmitter device below a helicopter which penetrates the ground with an electromagnetic field.The speed at which water can move through the paleo-channels can be much faster than other areas, said Graham Fogg, professor emeritus of hydrogeology at UC Davis, one of the authors of the new paper.
Both the Kings and Kaweah watersheds feed farms and cities in Kings County to the west of the Sierra.
Last chance for farm labor legislation
The lame duck session for the US Senate may be the last chance for grower back farm labor legislation, says farm activist Manuel Cunha of Nisei Farmers League.Proposed legislation already passed in 2021 in the House only needs Senate approval to become law. To pass it needs all the 50 Democrats voting this year and 10 Republicans, says Cunha who has long backed the idea.”We think we have 6 but need 60 votes” Also backing the legislation is the California Farm Bureau. Farm Bureau President Jamie Johansson recently joined farmers in urging the Senate to pass the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. “It is time to provide stability for our farmworkers, certainty for our farms and affordability for our grocery shelves”.
Hundreds of supporter from both ag and labor are in Washington rallying to support the proposal that would create a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s undocumented farmworkers.
For Republican senators, despite the conventional wisdom that every state is a farm state, a vote on immigration could create controversy at home given the activity at the border.
Ironically , the crackdown at the U.S. border has worsened the farm labor shortage. Still, some of the state’s most ardent Republicans — such as former Congressman Devin Nunes and Redding Rep. Doug LaMalfa — joined the Democrats to support the legislation when it passed the House last year.
The existing farm worker population with 90 percent of the state’s hired farm workers born in Mexico, includes over 770,000 who are settled in the US and 30,000 who work in California seasonally as H-2A workers.
Most of the settled Mexican-born farm workers were in their 20s and 30s when they arrived in the 1990s and early 2000s and are now in their 40s and 50s. Over half of settled Mexican-born farm workers are unauthorized, and most have US-born and -educated children who shun seasonal farm jobs, say Rural Migration News
Thanks for lower gasoline prices
GasBuddy says at least nine Kings County gas stations are selling regular this week for under $4 including Yokut Gas and Costco selling at $3.89 a gallon – the lowest price of the year. It is good news as you fill up for the trip to grandma’s house this holiday. A plunge in world oil prices are helping to spur the decline with crude falling to almost $77 Wednesday Nov 23. AAA says the average King’s gas price has dropped 72 cents in the past month.
Election notes
Kings County voted against Prop 1, the Constitutional Right to Reproductive Freedom by 54 to 46% even though it passed statewide by 63%.
Kings county voted against Democrat Melissa Hurtado for state Senate by 5,000 votes. But Hurtado,who has worked hard to be the farmer’s friend regarding water, is in a close race with Republican David Shepard, behind by under 600 hundred votes districtwide. Hurtado’s strong base is Kern County.The race may yet change with thousands of ballots yet to be counted.
Speaking of close contests, Republican David Valadao has won a squeaker over Kern County-based Rudy Salas for the 22nd Congressional District with Salas now conceding. The vote tally was 51.7% to 48.3% districtwide while Valadao won in Kings County by 56.5%. GOP voters appeared to forgive Valadao for voting to impeach Trump .
Kings County’s turnout in this month’s election is 43% with just a handful of votes yet to be counted.