The Metropolitan Water District board on Wednesday voted to invest another $142 million into the planning for the Delta Conveyance Project.The vote followed an update at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting by Karen Lange, a partner in the lobbying firm of Shaw Yoder Schmeizer & Lange, which represents Solano County’s interests in Sacramento.….the tunnel project built may be a common-ground issue for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s and President-elect Donald Trump’s administrations. Among her comments was the political reality that getting the tunnel project built may be a common-ground issue for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s and President-elect Donald Trump’s administrations.“That is seemingly one of the things the federal and state administrations may align … trying to get this tunnel built,” Lange said.The Metro funds will help with the cost of “environmental planning and pre-construction costs” for the Delta tunnel project in 2026 and 2027.”After careful consideration, our board took this step because it allows us to gather critical information about the project’s benefits and costs that will allow us to evaluate whether we will participate in the full construction of the project,” Water District board Chairman Adán Ortega Jr. said in a statement.“This has been a collaborative process in which we have worked with the state to ensure permitting and certification processes will be completed in 2026 and that we will see project benefits proportionate to our funding level,” Ortega added. “We are also pleased that the state provided safeguards to mitigate spending if circumstances prevent key components of planning from moving forward. The state also committed to identifying new, long-term financing approaches for the project, while also developing ways to improve the near-term reliability of State Water Project infrastructure.”Lange called it a “pretty big week for the Delta.””It’s not the final stop on this journey financially, it’s just phasing that is part of it,” Lange told the board. “They anticipate voting potentially on the construction costs in a year or two.”She said her firm did send a letter to the district opposing the funding. Lange also noted that her agency is “definitely keen”
High end beauty supply retailer Sephora will open a 5000 square-foot full size format store at the Sequoia Mall in the spring of next year. So says Paynter Realty executive Jim Sanders who adds that construction of the store next to Barnes and Noble is already underway. The new outlet will be just north of the bookstore.
The new Sephora stands in contrast to the smaller inside department store model that the company has in Visalia already, about half the size of a full service store. That idea started with JCPenney – then relocating to Kohls in 2022.It will stay open.
Sephora is a French multinational retailer of personal care and beauty products, offering nearly 340 brands alongside its own private label, the Sephora Collection. Its products include cosmetics, skincare, fragrance, nail color, beauty tools, body products, and hair care items.
The company was founded in Limoges, France in 1969.
“Getting them to land a full line store in Visalia is really exciting.” says Sanders.
Sephora and rival retailer Ulta are two industry-leading beauty product retail stores with quality products, enticing loyalty programs, innovative technology, sustainability efforts and in-house beauty services. Both now have locations in Visalia with Ulta located at Packwood Creek.In general, Sephora is considered more upscale in their offerings. Sephora offers waxing, skincare and makeup services in full service stores.
Every Ulta store is also a full-service salon. While you can go to Ulta for all of your beauty product needs, you’ll also be able to get hair services, waxing, makeup and lashes, skin services and ear piercings. They offer a wide collection of beauty products, from drugstore to high-end, along with their own line of products.
Also at the Sequoia Mall, Sanders says that the new Skechers opened on October 24th and Carter’s opened on October 31st.They are both located adjacent to Hobby Lobby.
Sander adds that several new tenants are close to signing leases at the mall.
559 California dairies impacted – over 7 million hens lost
Central Valley is epicenter for the contagious virus
A call for coordination between poultry and dairy industries
USDA announces milk supply testing
State egg industry hardest hit
Fresno raw milk dairy operator may advise Trump administration
New cases of bird flu are being discovered and posted daily by USDA and CDFA for both the dairy and poultry industry in California. Bird flu is also known as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).The virus is spread by infected wild birds which can carry the virus without themselves getting sick.
The two farm animal businesses are some of the state’s most important ag industries, clustered in the Central Valley, sometime just down the road from each other.The names of the affected facilities are not made public. But when more than half of the state’s dairies are quarantined due to the virus and some 7 million chickens in the state had to be destroyed including over 5 million egg layers – almost 50% of the egg laying flock in the Golden State – Californians might want to pay attention.
The 7 million chickens number comes from about 40 affected commercial flocks and 24 backyard flocks.
Testing Ordered
Late last week the US Department of Agriculture on Friday ordered testing of the nation’s milk supply for H5N1 starting December 16 in a number of states including California.
USDA announced this just as raw milk from a Fresno dairy was being pulled off the market because it was found containing the virus. Now in a twist, the operator, Mark McAfee, a proponent of drinking unpasteurized raw milk will be asked to join the Trump administration as an advisor to RFK Junior, whose office will oversee food safety issues. Mr. McAfee denies that his dairy has been infected by bird flu.
Meanwhile, the poultry industry is reeling from the financial impact of so many ranches being devastated in the state. Bill Mattos, who heads up the California Poultry Federation, calls the situation “really scary.”
No state has had more commercial poultry flocks affected by HPAI in 2024 than California, and the acceleration in new cases shows no signs of easing.
The latest count (Dec 6) brings the number of commercial flocks in California to be affected by HPAI this year to 26. Of those, four were in Stanislaus County (home to very large egg operations) and two were in Sacramento County.
The H5N1 virus that has been prevalent in these California poultry flocks has also been spreading in commercial dairy cattle in the state as well. According to APHIS, 269 cases of H5N1 have been confirmed in California dairies just in the past 30 days
The Valley’s poultry industry has been on a similar viral infection timeline to local dairy farms coinciding with the annual wild bird migration, the original source for the disease.
But now there is concern the stair step rise in infections at both confined animal facilities may be linked, with one affecting the other? Research shows that the virus can travel on dust particles carried by wind, says the industry publication EggNews.
Call for coordination
Mattos is calling for coordination between the poultry and dairy industries in California as they each struggle to survive. USDA has indicated they will meet with leaders in both industries soon, he says.
Unlike the dairy industry now suffering modest production losses and a limited number of cow deaths, poultry infections require the destruction of the entire flock leading to a devastating financial impact on the operator.
Already one of the state’s largest egg producers based in Wasco in Kern County – Central Valley Eggs – has filed a state WARN notice this past week announcing the permanent layoff of 56 employees. While there is no word on whether this was bird flu-related, two large unnamed Kern County egg ranches had to destroy a total of over 3.2 million birds a few weeks ago according to USDA.
Large egg ranches in Merced and Stanislaus County were just reported as well.The Merced ranch lost 1.7 million birds.but the number at Stanislaus egg ranch has yet to be released.
There is concern that other poultry operators will not be able to handle the impacts. The spread of the virus is costing farmers significant financial losses but may create more opportunities for the strain to mutate into something that could spread from person to person, says one study.
Poultry Federation president Mattos says eggs from California will be in short supply incoming months. Ranches wiped out by the virus will probably not be back in production for at least four months. USDA says the price of eggs in California has gone up about a dollar in the past week to over six dollars a dozen.
The farm gate value of California egg production is estimated at $537,600,000. In 2020, nearly 14 million laying hens produced four billion eggs in California. In early 2024 that number was down to 11.4 million before the current losses that are expected to reach half of that.
EggNews reports this past week that nationwide-year-to-date losses have attained approximately 24 million hens with the fall wave in progress. There is currently a deficit of approximately 12 million hens compared to the 2022 flock of 326 million at the onset of HPAI.
Besides egg ranches losses, the spread of the virus in the poultry industry also hit Central Valley farms raising turkeys, ducks and meat chickens called broilers.
12 cases of bird flu in Kings & Tulare poultry ranches
Since September 1, when the virus was first found in California, Tulare County has seen six poultry operations hit; Fresno has nine; Kings County has six; Merced has six and Stanislaus County has three – all put out of business for at least months.
UPDATE : ANOTHER TULARE RANCH HIT DEC 11
Some in the poultry industry are calling for USDA to provide a vaccine to ward off the virus. Already California condors have been inoculated with such a vaccine.
There is concern that any new vaccine program would have to pass muster with RFK Junior slated to preside over the federal agency in charge, the Department of Health and Human Services.
The USDA has also approved field trials to test vaccines that could prevent dairy cows from getting the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
UPDATE: SEC AG AG VILSACK CONFIRMS DAIRY VACCINE TESTING UNDERWAY
The latest news in the dairy sector is that as of December 6 CDFA confirms H5N1 bird flu in two more California dairies with a total of 506 ranches infected so far but released 20 fully recovered dairies from quarantine.
UPDATE: DEC 12: 559 CALIFORNIA DAIRIES HIT AND 32 RECOVERED
Another Kings County food company announces layoffs
Del Monte Foods will not operate their huge tomato processing plant in the Hanford Industrial Park this coming season, workers with the Teamsters Union have been told.
Instead 400 to 500 full-time union employees will be laid off with the timing to be announced in a coming state WARN notice expected to be published soon.
“They told us they are getting out of the tomato business since they aren’t making any money, ” said a union official.
Pictured is the Del Monte plant on Jackson Ave in Hanford(with the solar panels), just a country block from the Faraday Future plant
The massive 670,000sf building constructed in the 1970s will be sold, officials say, although the Walnut Creek-based company has not offered much guidance to the local community, say county sources.
Privately-held Del Monte Foods and has $1.73 billion in annual sales.Their brands include Del Monte, S&W, and Contadina.The company was founded in 1886.
Too much capacity?
The tomato processing business has been shrinking in recent years and includes the closure of the Kingsburg Del Monte facilities and the shuttering of the Olam tomato plant in Lemoore.
“California has a surplus of processing tomato capacity,” says Central Valley grower Arron Barcellos who sits on an industry board.”We have less of an export market than in the past” he adds, leaving too many processors to fight it out for a share of what is now mostly a domestic market.
Our high costs have made California exports too expensive on the world market, adds Barcellos, although California supplies over 90% of the domestic market that includes Mexico and Canada with products including tomato paste,salsa and ketchup.
If the tomato canning business is shrinking Del Monte’s canned vegetable business- once a mainstay in the US – is shrinking as well. Earlier this year the company closed two big plants – one in Washington canning corn and peas and one in Wisconsin processing green beans.
Del Monte Foods, Inc. filed 8 WARN layoff notices from Jun 2004 to Apr 2024 in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin. 1,067 employees were laid off in total from these layoffs.
Faced with bigger grocery bills, American consumers are increasingly turning to cheaper private label store-brand foods rather than branded products like those that Del Monte offers.
Sources say Del Monte is undergoing restructuring and faces a high debt load.
What does all this mean for the jobs that we are losing here in Kings County? The bottom line is that the overcapacity in the industry makes it unlikely this massive plant would again be a tomato processing facility.The section-wide property on Jackson Ave is one country lot over from the 1.1 million Faraday Future plant that also is a poster child for too much manufacturing space since they have made only 12 cars in the past two years.
Kings County just was notified that there is another food processing plant- Leprino East cheese plant in Lemoore – would close in the next year and also complained of high costs.The facility is to be closed and under a new owner could still process dairy products with all the infrastructure in place.
Meanwhile the Del Monte facility may not be another processing plant or even a food plant if it sells.That may not be all bad.
Lucky Kingsburg
In Kingsburg the Del Monte plants have been converted to other uses where there is demand. The former Del Monte plant has now been demolished and converted into a church. The company’s big warehouse facility in town has been purchased by a container making company offering steady employment to the workforce. Kingsburg Economic Development representative Jolene Polyack says there seems to be a local trend where bad news has turned into good news. Case in point is the city’s largest employer T-Mobile now employees over 1000 people in the former Kmart building in town.
“I feel like we have won the lottery in Kingsburg,” says Jolene.
Barcellos is worried about the Central Valley processing tomato industry facing profitability challenges like most other Central Valley crops these days.
Yield per acre
“What allowed the industry to thrive was that year after year we were able to produce more product per-acre” based on a continuing rising yield.
Now that trend is flat and even heading lower, he notes, as growers have converted to 100% drip irrigation and UC Davis research that helped increase yields in the past, is way down.
Yields have plateaued at 52 tons per acre in 2018 are now around 50 after rising exponentially in past decades for just 20 tons per acre in 1960.
“We are barely able to grow tomatoes under contract for a profit.” Water issues,the high value of the dollar ,disease and warming issues all compound the challenge.
Kings County remains one of the top production counties for processing tomatoes in California with plantings at 29,000 acres in 2022, falling to 17,500 acres in 2023 because of flooding in the lakebed and now rising this year to 26,200 acres. That’s still below the high of about 30,000 acres in 2018.
It’s not just growers but food processors in California have their own complaints about high cost and increasing regulatory pressure hurting their competitive advantage, says a rep with the League of California Food Producers.
Meanwhile, the workforce at the Del Monte plant here should get some help from the Kings EDC and job training program to adjust to the layoffs once the company informs them of just what is going on.
Caption: Del Monte plant on Jackson in Hanford is 670,000sf near the larger Faraday Future facility
California citrus is the last guy standing- led by Tulare County
The latest USDA forecast of citrus production in Florida predicts the 24/25 orange season will result in the harvest of only 12 million boxes for all types of oranges. Florida produced over 44 million boxes in the 22/23 season. But the most recent hurricanes have hastened what you can reasonably call the collapse of the Florida industry that once produced over 300 million boxes of the tangy fruit.
The 12 million box projection would be the lowest volume of Florida oranges sent to market since the 1930s.
This 2018 USDA chart shows the rapid decline in production in Florida starting in 2009 as citrus greening disease started to take hold.
Florida not only has periodic freezes and regular and increasingly powerful hurricanes to deal with, but now has a rampant spread of citrus greening bacterial disease that has devastated the state’s citrus groves.
By contrast, California citrus regions, while having to deal with occasional freezes, have not suffered massive kill off of trees in the Central Valley nor hurricanes and has yet to suffer any infection from citrus greening infections.
USDA now says California is expected to produce just under 50 million boxes of all types of oranges this year, including Valencia and navel varieties. California also has a large volume of tangerines and lemons, which Florida does not enjoy.
California is forecast to produce 25 million boxes of tangerines and 26 million boxes of lemons this season.
Added to the oranges, California is now producing over 100 million boxes of citrus while rival Florida is down to about 13 million boxes of all types.
California is clearly the last major US citrus producing state with tiny volumes of all types coming from Florida, Texas, and Arizona. Tulare County is now the US largest citrus producing county added to its status as the number one milk producer in the US.
Tulare County is now the US largest citrus producing county added to its status as the number one milk producer in the US.
California’s Mediterranean climate stands in contrast to the tropical weather found in Florida leading to more destructive storms and insect pressure compared to the Golden State.
Floodwaters from Hurricanes Helene and Milton may have accelerated the spread of invasive wildlife and plant species into new areas of Florida and Georgia, the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed this past week in a news release.
Foreign imports of citrus and particularly orange juice far outpaces US production led by Brazil,now forecast at 378 million 90-pound boxes.
The latest USDA numbers were published December 10 after two high intensity hurricanes fueled by the superheated waters of the Caribbean pounded Florida.
NWS Handford says a storm system is expected to impact the region through this afternoon. There is a 50 to 80 percent chance of six inches of snow in the Sierra Nevada above 6,000 feet, with isolated chances for up to 8-10 inches of snow. A Winter Weather Advisory has been issued for the Sierra Nevada until 4 PM this afternoon.
2. A stronger storm system is expected to impact the region this weekend with a 40 to 80 percent chance of 12 inches of snow for the Sierra Nevada above 6000 feet from Saturday morning through Sunday afternoon. There is a 35 to 75 percent chance for a quarter of an inch of rainfall for the San Joaquin Valley from Saturday morning through Sunday morning.
To the north in the Tahoe region, the Central Sierra Snow Lab says Plenty of #snow is on the way over the next several days! Models have trended upward on snowfall totals in recent runs. Right now, we’re expecting 1-2 feet of snow with the possibility of 3 feet on the highest peaks through Sunday .Given the relatively cold temperatures expected, it’s likely that we’ll see lighter snow than our normal Sierra Cement.
Virus spread continues at local dairy and poultry farms
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) as of November 25, is warning the public to avoid consuming one batch of cream top, whole raw milk produced and packaged by Raw Farm, LLC of Fresno County due to a detection of bird flu virus in a retail sample. At the state’s request, the company has issued a voluntary recall of the affected raw milk with lot code 20241109 and Best By date of 11/27/2024 printed on the packaging.
No illnesses associated with this lot of raw milk have been reported.
Out of an abundance of caution, and due to the ongoing spread of bird flu in dairy cows, poultry, and sporadic human cases, consumers should not consume any of the affected raw milk. Customers should immediately return any remaining product to the retail point of purchase. CDPH is also notifying retailers to remove the affected raw milk from their shelves.
The County of Santa Clara Public Health Laboratory has been testing raw milk products from retail stores as a second line of consumer protection. The county identified bird flu in one sample of raw milk purchased at a retail outlet. The testing was then verified by the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System.
Virus spreading here
Meanwhile, bird flu continues to spread in Central Valley dairy and poultry farms.
The current strain of avian flu has been spreading in Central California dairies over the past two months and as of November 22 the number of affected dairies jumped by 66 in California infected with bird flu putting the number of Valley dairy farms impacted at over 400.
On the poultry front, cases in the Central Valley are increasing as well with the latest discovery reported by USDA November 22 in Merced County where an egg ranch with more than 500,000 birds had to be destroyed to stop the spread. New finds were also discovered in Tulare County on that date with a detection at a farm with almost 100,000 ducks. There were other finds announced the same day in Madera County with no number listed. New finds were also announced in Idaho, Arizona,Oklahoma and Utah as of Nov 21.
Consumers are noticing the rapid increase in egg prices at their local grocery store due to around 3.6 million hens in California being lost in the past week. That is about one third of the state’s flock of egg laying hens.
Risks Associated with Raw Milk
Public health experts have long warned consumers against consuming raw milk or raw milk products due to elevated risks of foodborne illness. Outbreaks due to Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, toxin producing E. coli, Brucella, Campylobacter, and many other bacteria have all been reported related to consuming raw dairy products. Raw milk products are not pasteurized, a heating process that kills bacteria and viruses such as bird flu.
Los Osos may be in line for an $8 million federal grant to hook up the community to the State Water Project that connects to Morro Bay. Los Osos – the San Luis Obispo County town of 14,000, is 100% dependent on groundwater wells for drinking water.
In Washington,the annual Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) funding through the Army Corp of Engineers has passed both houses of Congress this summer and is expected to be signed into law, says a congressional source.
That House version of the bill includes an earmark for Los Osos Community Services District to receive $8 million to pay the cost of laying a 2.5 mile, 12-inch pipeline to connect to the State Water Project that brings northern California reservoir water to the Central Coast.
Representative for Congressman Salud Carbajal, Greg Haas has said that funding for the project was included in the bill passed by the House although he doesn’t have an update on the final version agreed to in conference.
Ian Mariani of Carbajal’s office confirms that the funding for the Los Osos project is still in the WRDA bill passed by the House earlier this year but the overall legislation still needs to be reconciled with the Senate version of the legislation and signed into law by year’s end.
“We’re hopeful to see it moving in December.”
The National Assn of Counties reports “The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) is the authorizing legislation for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), which allows the Corps to conduct studies, construct projects and research activities to improve U.S. waterways. Since 2014, WRDA legislation has passed in a biennial cycle.
Both the U.S. House and Senate have passed their respective WRDA 2024 legislation. The House passed their version of WRDA 2024 on July 22 in a bipartisan 359-13 vote while the Senate passed their WRDA bill by unanimous consent on August 1.”The bill has wide support from both sides of the ailes since the measure includes hundreds of projects in Red and Blue states.
Making the cut
Proponent for the request Ron Munds, General Manager of Los Osos Community Service District says he is “hopeful we can make the final cut.” The local CSD has already completed a Mitigated Negative Declaration environmental clearance on the project as well as the preliminary engineering for the pipeline.
During wet years and based on supply, the LOCSD could receive unused allocations of State Water Project water through the Central Valley project to offset pumping in the Los Osos Groundwater Basin or for an emergency water reserve. The project is expected to bring in 200-acre feet a year of State Water Project water to Los Osos and be used to recharge groundwater supplies- in overdraft for decades. Los Osos uses about 1000af a year pumped from wells around town.
Despite the 200arce-feet number, the County has informed the LOCSD that up to 600 AFY of potable water from the Central Valley Project can be made available at the proposed intertie location near South Bay Boulevard and Highway 1.Here the water transmission system is the Chorro Valley Pipeline (CVP), which delivers State Water to the City of Morro Bay
Construction of the pipeline and intertie could begin sometime in 2025 and be operational by 2026,one report predicts.
The idea is that the project would bring potable water to the District’s water distribution system, thereby reducing the amount of local groundwater pumping from the Los Osos Groundwater Basin (and providing further protection against seawater intrusion).
“We will be able to supplement our water supply”, notes Munds, likely on a year by year basis depending on supply.”We won’t be dependent on it,”he adds.
“Without it -Los Osos is vulnerable” in a time of climate change.
“With the project in place we will be better able to balance the basin.”
As to where the water supply would be coming from, Munds says he has had continuing discussions with SLO County staff who has a contract with State Water and a surplus supply.
If the project gets a green light from Congress,”we will work out something with the County and won’t wait to move forward” expects Munds.
Joslyn Sunbank,a long time aviation and aerospace component maker will close their Paso Robles plant in coming weeks, laying off 64 employees. The plant has been a fixture in Paso Robles since 1958 with many employees who have worked decades at the 1740 Commerce Way facility, some with a 50-year tenure, say sources. The news comes from a state WARN notice published this week laying out the time table for the permanent closure in mid-January 2025.
The company is a manufacturer and supplier of connector accessories and conduit systems to aerospace, military and commercial industries. The firm markets its products through a network of representatives and distributors in the United States. Joslyn Sunbank is a manufacturers of electrical wiring harness connector and conduit accessories Joslyn Corporation purchased Sunbank in 1988, and Esterline acquired Joslyn Sunbank in 2013.Ireland-based Eaton acquired Souriau-Sunbank Connection in 2019. Eaton is a power management company that provides energy-efficient solutions. Eaton(NYSE:ETN) announced it had completed the acquisition of the Souriau-Sunbank Connection Technologies business of TransDigm Group Incorporated for $920 million.Headquartered in Versailles, France, Souriau-Sunbank is a global leader in highly engineered electrical interconnect solutions for harsh environments for customers in the aerospace, defense, industrial, energy, and transport industries. Founded over 100 years ago, the business has a workforce of approximately 3,200 people and manufacturing facilities in France, the Dominican Republic, India, Morocco, Mexico, and the United States.
On November 12 the San Luis Obispo Board of Supervisors gave a preliminary thumbs up to the idea of a pilot program to allow retail cannabis dispensaries to locate in coastal parts of the county. The vote was 3 to 2.
Supervisor Dawn Ortiz Legg is promoting the idea of the pilot program for unincorporated coastal towns like Avila Beach,Oceano, Los Osos, Cayucos, and Cambria that do not have retail marijuana dispensaries. Staff released a map showing properly zoned parcels in each of those communities where retail establishments could open.
Supervisor Bruce Gibson noted that few complaints have been received regarding the operation of cannabis dispensaries in incorporated towns like Grover Beach, San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay.
Ortiz Legg also pointed out that these potential new stores could bring in more tax dollars to the county.” Quite frankly, we are losing business,” she stated. There are three dispensaries in Grover Beach, just down the block from Oceano. Morro Bay has two. Right now these municipalities get the tax dollars.
Defending the idea of a pilot “It’s important to go step-by-step,” she said,given that the coastal area is where tourism is.
By contrast, Supervisor Debbie Arnold said SLO County is already suffering red ink and that the county cannabis program allowing growing, manufacturing and delivery has yet to make a profit.
Supervisor John Peschong read a recent state court ruling that suggested federal law stands in the way of mauajuna availability and opposes any expansion of activity here.
With the 3 to 2 vote, staff will return to the board with draft findings and a resolution that would allow such a pilot program.
“This just the first step” in handing the project off to the county planning department to come up with potential regulations and setbacks, noted Gibson.
