Shortly after PG&E crews arrived on the scene Thursday morning the red and yellow markings were covered over with black spray paint. PG&E’s Nicole Liebelt said the black cover up paint was done purely for “aesthetic” purposes.

By Glenn Kahl

Cutting through an active two-inch gas line Thursday morning put a SSJID crew in danger of an explosion shortly before 9 a.m. in the 1000 block of South Union Road.

The South San Joaquin Irrigation District was using a backhoe to trench an irrigation line in an area 50 feet by 400 feet near the site for the new Islamic Center when the accident occurred behind homes located on Mission Ridge Drive.

SSJID General Manager Jeff Shields laid blame on a signoff painted near the curbing by PG&E workers indicating there was no gas or eclectic service existing underground in the area of the dig. The yellow “No” painted in the gutter indicated there were no gas lines underground and the “PG&E” painted in red promised no electric service existed there either.

Firemen arrived on the scene amidst the smell of natural gas with other engines staging blocks away in the case of an explosion. Soon after the PG&E crews arrived in the area the “No PG&E” marking were covered over with black spray paint.

None of the homes on Mission Ridge Drive were evacuated due to the escaping gas from the severed line.

Nicole Liebelt of the utility company’s public relations department was quick to explain the markings had been painted over to improve the aesthetics on the roadway – even though the black paint was placed on grayish concrete and not on similar colored black asphalt.

Shields said the incident was “unbelievable” showing the company has a problem keeping its maps straight. He said the accident could have been catastrophic to SSJID’s eight member crew.

PG&E says SSJID didn’t have valid ticket

A PG&E spokesman said that SSJID did not have a valid ticket to begin digging Thursday morning. There is normally a 48-hour delay required once approval has been approved for a dig such as the one taken out Thursday morning.

Authority for a dig comes from the Utility Systems Alert (USA) where its logo is painted in white spray paint on the ground or roadway to be excavated to show there are no underground service lines that might be damaged in the operation.

A permit or “ticket” is good for only 28 days and then it must be renewed with a two-day wait required after its approval to give other utilities time to respond to a planned digging site and warn of any danger.

Shields quarreled with having to wait those two days saying the Thursday authorization to dig was the third for that same area that had its inception back on Nov. 30. He noted the excavation delay was caused by the city using the site for a drain area causing them to postpone the pipeline operation until mid-February.

He explained that the first permit ticket they pulled required the PG&E markings to show the presence of underground electric and gas lines. That was the only time the markings were required on the ground by the USA, he added.

The second permit issued on Jan. 7 and the third on Feb. 18 had no markings placed on the ground showing a danger existed – the original “No PG&E” warnings remained until Thursday morning, however.

Shields said if there had been a spark in the area there would have been a mess in the neighborhood not to mention the lives of his men on the site. He added that a pattern is beginning to develop with PG&E failing to properly mark the positions of their underground service.
Read more

Phillip Matier,Andrew Ross, Chronicle Columnists

Even as government programs are being slashed across California, a Fresno nonprofit for the developmentally disabled - largely funded with state money - handed out $500,000 in bonuses to its 350 administrative employees.

Robert Riddick, director of the Central Valley Regional Center, called the bonuses “one-time salary adjustments.”

The bonuses averaged about $1,400 a person, although Riddick - who earns $160,000 annually - declined to say how much he or anyone else at the nonprofit received. He said the payouts were based on a formula that included length of service.

The Fresno nonprofit is one of 21 state-funded regional centers that coordinate programs for disabled and elderly people and those with autism and Down syndrome.

The centers receive much of their funding from the state Department of Developmental Services, which took a $100 million cut in February and will probably lose another $234 million when Sacramento finally agrees to a new budget.

When we first spoke to Riddick several days back, he insisted the Fresno center could afford the bonuses, saying the money was left over from last year’s budget.

“We have taken action to live within our means,” he said.  Not everyone saw it that way.

“It’s repulsive,” said Chuck Genseal, vice president of Families for Effective Autism Treatment, a Fresno outfit that advocates for autism patients.

Genseal, whose granddaughter has autism, noted that the bonuses were being handed out even as early intervention programs were being wiped out for about 17,000 autistic children statewide.  Read more

Senator Wolk was joined by several other lawmakers, including Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi and Assemblymember Alyson Huber. The event, held on the North Steps of the Capitol, was attended by many proclaiming support for Delta communities. Restore the Delta Indicated “We want to make it clear to the Assembly and Senate that it is time to give the Delta a voice on water issues. And that we are tired of the decisions being made without our consent and involvement.”

However, this event, and Senator Wolk’s legislation, is clearly more about controlling water than simply having a voice in the inevitable changes that must come to the Delta region.

Senator Wolk is spearheading the Delta Region’s efforts to control water, having introduced two bills (Senate Bills 457 and 458) that would collectively circumvent existing State laws that allow the State Department of Resources (DWR) to oversee water management. In particular, SB 458 creates another level of bureaucracy that could impair the State’s ability to meet its preexisting water-rights agreements.

SB 458 will create a Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy. The purpose of the Conservancy would be to support efforts that advance both environmental protection and the economic well-being of Delta residents in a complementary manner. The problem is that the Delta is a region which impacts nearly every citizen of the State, and a conservancy with oversight over this region could hold the rest of the State’s citizens hostage over water.  Read more

By Tim Sheehan / The Fresno Bee
 
LOS BANOS — Federal officials told hundreds of farmers in the Westlands Water District on Monday that they will get even less irrigation water — just days after the district announced a rationing plan.

Farmers in the nation’s largest federal water district will be hit hard — many said they expect to abandon crops or even go out of business for lack of water.

Two members of Congress and district officials urged Gov. Schwarzenegger to declare a state of emergency.

Efficient water use crucial for Valley farmers
From the sky, John Diener’s farm looks like a swath of Kansas grafted onto the rugged flatlands of the San Joaquin Valley’s west side.

Hundreds of acres of crops grow in a circular patches on Diener’s land. The idea is to save water with an irrigation system that rotates around a pivot in the center of each field.

The automated system is common in the Midwest, where farm labor is scarce — but it’s gaining traction here as growers adapt to the new reality of farming.

Valley towns struggle to break dependency on ag
MENDOTA — Less than two miles from downtown, a section of flat-as-a-pancake farmland is giving way to a concrete monolith that eventually will house about 1,200 federal prison inmates.

That’s just about the only tangible effort to create nonagriculture jobs in this farming town of about 10,000 people — and it’s nowhere near enough to help employ the thousands who have lost work amid an unprecedented crisis.

For years, Mendota and other west side farm towns have sought to broaden their job base and wean themselves from the vagaries of irrigated agriculture — the very basis of their existence. But geographically and economically, the deck has been stacked against them.

Water draws Interior chief to Fresno for hearing
MENDOTA — Under increasing political pressure to address California’s water crisis, the Obama administration said Wednesday it will dispatch Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to a hastily organized town hall meeting Sunday in Fresno.

Interior Department officials have not yet identified a location for the meeting, which is scheduled to run from 2:30 to 4 p.m. But it will be Salazar’s first official on-the-ground visit to the region.

On Wednesday, meanwhile, state agriculture officials said that a combination of drought and federal environmental regulations have the potential to turn a short-term water crisis into a long-term agricultural and economic disaster.

Valley growers to get bad news on water deliveries
West Valley farmers Friday will hear the news they have feared for weeks an unprecedented forecast of no federal water for their multibillion-dollar industry.  Read more

Interior secretary to talk water in Fresno.

By Tim Sheehan and Michael Doyle / The Fresno Bee

MENDOTA — Under increasing political pressure to address California’s water crisis, the Obama administration said Wednesday it will dispatch Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to a hastily organized town hall meeting Sunday in Fresno.

Interior Department officials have not yet identified a location for the meeting, which is scheduled to run from 2:30 to 4 p.m. But it will be Salazar’s first official on-the-ground visit to the region.

On Wednesday, meanwhile, state agriculture officials said that a combination of drought and federal environmental regulations have the potential to turn a short-term water crisis into a long-term agricultural and economic disaster.

    
CRAIG KOHLRUSS / THE FRESNO BEE
Shawn Coburn, center, of Coburn Ranch, speaks to the California State Board of Food and Agriculture during a meeting Wednesday at Mendota High School.

 California water shortage story archive

 During a hearing Wednesday of the state Board of Food and Agriculture at Mendota High School, panelists raised many of the same issues as at rallies this spring: Less water for west-side growers means less acreage planted, creating a spike in unemployment and economic hardship for farm laborers and their communities.

“With this regulatory and geologic drought, we’ve seen really how agriculture touches every life,” state Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura said. “Especially in this region, so many lives are being affected beyond the farmers and farmworkers. … The communities impacted go well beyond the farm sector.”

Agriculture on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley relies largely on water transferred through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta from Northern California. But the effects of a three-year drought, coupled with federal environmental decisions to protect the delta smelt and salmon, have severely narrowed the periods in which massive pumps can be used to move water from north to south. Read more

Group supported by farmers and farmworkers will begin trek in Mendota.

By E.J. Schultz / Bee Capitol Bureau
 
They have rallied and lobbied, pleading for more water to revive the downtrodden west Valley.

That hasn’t worked — so now they will march.

Hoping to bring national attention to their cause, members of a group called the Latino Water Coalition will lead a four-day “California March for Water” that begins Tuesday in Mendota and ends near Los Banos.

If all goes as planned, thousands of farmworkers, farmers, college students and others will make the trek, which covers portions of Highway 33 and Interstate 5, ending at the San Luis Reservoir on Friday.

Organizers make no bones about it — they want to evoke memories of Cesar Chavez and his legendary marches for farmworker rights in the 1960s and ’70s.

“Mexicans know what a march means,” said Mario Santoyo, a member of the Latino coalition. “It means that they’re willing to sacrifice for a cause.”

But these are different times, for sure.

Chavez led boycotts of growers in his drive to unionize farmworkers. The Latino Water Coalition, which includes Hispanic business and civic leaders, works in concert with growers.

Together they lobby for state money for dams and canals and the lifting of pumping restrictions at the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that were imposed to comply with environmental laws.

The cutbacks and drought have forced growers to fallow land, leaving farmworkers without jobs.

The march “is kind of a union between the farmworkers and the farmers because they’re both hit,” said Santoyo, an assistant general manager at Friant Water Users Authority, which represents east Valley growers.

The union that Chavez founded — the United Farm Workers — is not participating in the march and declined to comment. Read more

Fresno Bee staff reports
 
Faced with an Election Day choice between their unchallenged incumbent congressman and writing in somebody, tens of thousands of voters in the region instead went with a third option — they left their ballots blank.

In the 19th Congressional District, where Mariposa Republican George Radanovich had no official challengers and two men qualified as write-in candidates, close to 24,000 voters in the Fresno County portion of the district didn’t vote at all. That’s close to 27% of the total 19th District ballots cast in Fresno County.

Up north in the Stanislaus County portion of the 19th District, the percentage was even higher — nearly 37% left their ballots blank.

It was a similar story in the adjacent 18th Congressional District, where Merced Democrat Dennis Cardoza was unopposed. Around 21% of Merced County voters simply didn’t vote.

Up and down both districts, the story was pretty much the same.

Fresno County Clerk Victor Salazar wasn’t shocked by the blank ballots in the congressional races. Because it is a presidential election year, he said, “that can be expected.”

Voters often go the polls specifically to vote for a presidential candidate and are less informed about other races, especially ballot initiatives. So, they leave much of their ballots blank.

But still, Salazar was surprised by the high number of blank ballots in Radanovich’s district. “That’s a big chunk,” he said, adding, “There are also those who say, ‘I don’t have a choice.’ ”

The 19th District covers parts of Fresno, Madera and Stanislaus counties and all of Mariposa and Tuolumne. The 18th District covers parts of Fresno, Madera, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties and all of Merced. By — John Ellis See this story