In a meeting held Thursday in Sacramento, an emergency taskforce is setting the stage to recommend to Gov. Jerry Brown that he issue an official drought declaration for California, unleashing a gamut of specific mandates, most likely affecting every county in the state.
With a $4 billion agricultural economy at stake in the Salinas Valley, and the Monterey Peninsula under orders to soon begin reductions in water pumped out of the Carmel River, the governor’s declaration could have immediate impacts on growers and municipalities in Monterey County.
Nancy Vogel, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Water Resources, told The Salinas Californian shortly before stepping into Thursday’s taskforce meeting, that with a snow pack 20 percent of normal and no significant storms on the horizon, “the taskforce is working toward a recommendation for a drought declaration.”
Full story by Dennis L. Taylor at thecalifornian.com.
