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The Valley Citizen News about nature, environment, politics, and history.

Homeless Documentary Comes to Modesto’s State Theater
03/11/2025

Homeless Documentary Comes to Modesto’s State Theater

Homeless Documentary Comes to Modesto’s State Theater November 3, 2025 By Eric Caine 0 When Richard Anderson asked me whether I would be interested in helping make Homeless in Modesto II, I wondered whether he had forgotten my manifold deficiencies at film, most of which he had suffered with his u...

Court Upholds Enforcing Groundwater Management Act
30/10/2025

Court Upholds Enforcing Groundwater Management Act

Court Upholds Enforcing Groundwater Management Act October 30, 2025 By Eric Caine 0 A recent attempt to weaken the state’s authority to impose groundwater regulation and enforcement has lost in Fresno’s 5th District Court of Appeal. In a closely watched case, the Kings County Farm Bureau and two...

Modesto No Kings: Truth Trounces Propaganda
21/10/2025

Modesto No Kings: Truth Trounces Propaganda

Modesto No Kings: Truth Trounces Propaganda October 21, 2025 By Eric Caine 0 October 18, Modesto joined the nationwide “No Kings” protest. A crowd of nearly 2,000 people gathered at Standiford Park and along McHenry Avenue to make clear their rejection of despotism. “King” is actually a misn...

Downstream Users are Losers under Byrd “Watershed” Rule
11/10/2025

Downstream Users are Losers under Byrd “Watershed” Rule

Downstream Users are Losers under Byrd “Watershed” Rule October 11, 2025 By Eric Caine 0 Shortly after posting the story about Larry Byrd pumping river water across property and parcel lines, I received a letter from an engineering firm justifying Byrd’s water transfers because both properties...

Director’s Pumping Records, “Ain’t possible,” says Old-timer
07/10/2025

Director’s Pumping Records, “Ain’t possible,” says Old-timer

Director’s Pumping Records, “Ain’t possible,” says Old-timer October 7, 2025 By Eric Caine 0 Modesto Irrigation District Board Member Larry Byrd has refused to show his pumping records ever since last July 8, when he said he ran his deep well pumps “almost daily and sometimes daily” to i...

MID Director Pumps River Water Across Property and Parcel Lines
03/10/2025

MID Director Pumps River Water Across Property and Parcel Lines

MID Director Pumps River Water Across Property and Parcel Lines October 3, 2025 By Eric Caine 0 On November 16, 2020, Chuck Birdsong installed a starter coupler that helped join one pipe to another so that water from the Tuolumne River could be pumped from the Rodoni property to the Rairden property...

Should Ratepayers Foot the Bill for Director’s Failure to Provide Pumping Records?
22/09/2025

Should Ratepayers Foot the Bill for Director’s Failure to Provide Pumping Records?

Should Ratepayers Foot the Bill for Director’s Failure to Provide Pumping Records? September 22, 2025 By Eric Caine 0 There’s a growing public consensus that Modesto Irrigation District (MID) Board Member Larry Byrd has waited far too long to address Linda Santos’ and Todd Sill’s claims abou...

Pumping or not Pumping? The Public has the Right to Know
15/09/2025

Pumping or not Pumping? The Public has the Right to Know

Pumping or not Pumping? The Public has the Right to Know September 15, 2025 By Eric Caine 0 Modesto Irrigation District (MID) Board Member Larry Byrd likes to boast he “didn’t put any money in” to his partnership with Ty Angle on the AB La Grange Ranch in the hills of southeastern Stanislaus C...

Beleaguered MID Director Faces Groundwater Dilemma
08/09/2025

Beleaguered MID Director Faces Groundwater Dilemma

Beleaguered MID Director Faces Groundwater Dilemma September 8, 2025 By Eric Caine 0 Former ranch manager Todd Sill hasn’t changed his story about Modesto Irrigation District (MID) Board Member Larry Byrd. Sill claims Byrd “seldom pumped” groundwater from the two deep wells on the ranch he lea...

Irrigation System Tells a Story says Tall Cowboy
25/08/2025

Irrigation System Tells a Story says Tall Cowboy

Irrigation System Tells a Story says Tall Cowboy August 25, 2025 By Eric Caine 0 Last Saturday, I went up to Louie’s Place in La Grange to meet Todd Sill. Sill had been trying to explain irrigation on the AB La Grange Ranch when a tall cowboy showed up. Sill, himself a top hand, said the cowboy kn...

MID Director’s Claims about Pumping don’t Hold Water
19/08/2025

MID Director’s Claims about Pumping don’t Hold Water

MID Director’s Claims about Pumping don’t Hold Water August 19, 2025 By Eric Caine 0 As far back as 2015, Modesto Irrigation District (MID) Director Larry Byrd was a strong advocate for disclosing groundwater-pumping records saying, “…for the good of the community, we ought to say how much w...

Yellow-footed Sea Bird is First Valley Record
16/08/2025

Yellow-footed Sea Bird is First Valley Record

Yellow-footed Sea Bird is First Valley Record August 16, 2025 By Jim Gain 0 Jim Gain is one of the Valley’s most accomplished birders. He’s an even better bird photographer. Last year, Gain found Black Skimmers in Stanislaus County, the first-ever documented record of this species for the county...

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