Groundwater & Moving Sheep

Groundwater & Moving Sheep plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

The California State Senate has passed a bill that would change forever the way the state uses groundwater.   The bill is now heading back to the Assembly in Sacramento.  If it becomes law - a state agency would meter - regulate - suspend and even charge fees for the use of groundwater.  Northern California State Senator Jim Nielsen says he supports state guidelines for local agencies to follow, but not state enforcement.

NIELSEN: Our surface water rights have already been trample on by the Water Resources Control Board. Now, they're going after groundwater. In the water plan of '09 we were able to stop this groundwater legislation. We need to stop it again now and it's a last minute rush job. There will be no public input at all.

Wolves are back in the news again in Washington State. A rancher has managed to move about 1,800 sheep to protect them from a pack of wolves that have killed at least two dozen of the animals this summer. The decision was made to move the sheep in Stevens County rather than wait around for state wildlife officials to take care of the wolves. The rancher had already tried other non-lethal measures that didn't work. The four wolves from the Huckleberry Pack hunt north of the Spokane Indian Reservation. There are an estimated 52 wolves from 13 packs now living in Washington State.

Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray.

Concerns abound and arguments continue to rage on over the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed "Waters of the U.S." rule; otherwise known as WOTUS. With the House Science Committee Chairman's release of extensive WOTUS proposal maps last week friction over the rule has really ramped up. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association has said that the maps "show that the EPA knew exactly what they were doing and knew exactly how expansive their proposal was before they published it"; alleging that the released maps show that individual states could face upwards of 100,000 additional stream miles being regulated under the proposed rule. EPA spokesperson Tom Reynolds refuted the NCBA's claim in a blog post stating that "the law has nothing nothing to do with land use or private property rights, and our proposal does not do anything to change that". The EPA continues to uphold that the goal for the final rule is clarity and workability, but literally hundreds of ag groups, lawmakers, private landowners and other businesses aren't buying it.

Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.