On a crisp, brilliant day at the end of March, the farms near the Sacramento Valley town of Arbuckle were bursting with green and looked as if they’d popped straight off a fruit-crate label. A few wet clouds hung over the Coast Range, and Doug Griffin kept a wary eye on them, hoping they would bring more water.
“If you’re not going to get it through the rain and the good Lord,” said Griffin, a 53-year-old almond grower, “then you’re gonna buy it from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.”
Lately, though, even the federal government hasn’t been able to make up for what the heavens have failed to provide.
Read more here, in an April 11, 2010 story from the San Francisco Chronicle.