Josh F.W. Cook appointed as EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator

U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that President Donald J. Trump appointed Josh F.W. Cook as EPA’s Pacific Southwest (Region 9) Regional Administrator. Regional Administrator Cook will have stewardship to implement and enforce federal environmental laws in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, the Pacific Islands, and 148 Tribal Nations.   “Josh Cook is the right person we need to lead Region 9. He understands the unique nature of the Pacific Southwest and will be a great addition to the EPA team,” said Administrator Zeldin. “Josh’s talent working with state and local partners will be paramount to power the great American comeback across our regions.”  Before joining the EPA, Regional Administrator Cook was an Advisor to the Tribal Council of the Mooretown Rancheria of Concow Maidu Indians, where he designed a decades-long large-scale forest resiliency initiative through government-to-government agreements with Tribes, National Parks, and multiple U.S. Forests in California and Nevada. Previously, Regional Administrator Cook served as Chief of Staff to the Minority Caucus in the California Legislature. His previous environmental service includes appointments to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Interior Resource Advisory Councils and tenure as a City Planning Commissioner.  Cook is a Veteran of the California State Guard and an Associate Professor and lecturer at the University of Southern California. He earned an Associate's Degree in Languages from Butte College, a Bachelor’s of Science from Charter Oak State College and a Master’s of Science from Cal State University East Bay. Regional Administrator Cook and his wife Robin have been married 32 years and are the parents of five children and five grandchildren. They reside in Chico, California, where they actively engage in their church and community.

Kickoff This Friday: Pre-Harvest Water Assessment Workshops Begins!

Are you ready for the new pre-harvest water requirements going into effect?

Beginning in April of this year, large farms (more than $500,000 in annual produce sales) will need to demonstrate compliance during on-farm inspections of their pre-harvest water assessment. Small farms ($250-000-$500,000 in annual produce sales) and very small farms compliance deadlines will be phased in over the next two years, respectively. It is important for our membership, which now includes growers, to understand how to utilize and tailor the water assessment to their farming operations.

To support this, we are working with the California Department of Food Agriculture (CDFA) and the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UCANR) to coordinate regional Pre-Harvest Water Assessment Workshops starting, this Friday, April 4, in Madera.

These workshops will be conducted by CDFA inspectors and UCANR staff at our host sites. They will be going over the water assessment requirements of the Produce Safety Rule and participants will have an opportunity for Q & A specific to their operation. This is a great opportunity to get first-hand knowledge from CDFA inspectors as this requirement can be cumbersome.

The event is free to attend. If you would like to register for one of these workshops, please RSVP to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Upon sign-up, we will provide the exact location. 

April 4 – Madera
April 17 – Winters
April 28 –Hanford
April 29 – Wasco
April 30 – Manteca
May 29 –Chico

Refer to the flyer for additional details. If you have any further questions, please reach out. 

Spread the word! Feel free to forward this to growers in your area!

2025 Pre Harvest Assesment Regional Workshops Flyer UPDATED

AgSafe Safety Certificate Program - April 2nd & 3rd

The two-day Agricultural Safety Certificate Program hosted by AgSafe will be held at the Western Tree Nut Association's office on April 2-3rd. Registration is open, and there is a special discount for members of Western Tree Nut Association and California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association. Please use WTNA2025 for the special discount. For more information, please view the flyer below.

WTNA Safety Cert 2025 002

2025 Train-the-Trainer Workshops & Webinars!

Western Tree Nut Association and California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association are offering safety training workshops in both Spanish and English. Topics include:

  • Aerial Lift Safety (Train-the-Trainer)
  • Hazard communication (Webinar)
  • Workplace Violence Prevention (Webinar)
  • Indoor & Outdoor Heat Illness Prevention (Webinar)

Check out the attached flyer for details and feel free to share this with interested growers. For questions on registration, please email Esmeralda at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or you can reach out to the association directly at (559) 252-0684.We hope to see you there!

Safety Training Workshops 2025 Flier Registration 2 28 25 Page 1

Reclamation Increases Federal Project Water Supply Allocations for 2025 Water Year

In support of ongoing efforts to provide maximum water supplies in California, the Bureau of Reclamation announces an increase in Central Valley Project 2025 water supply allocations that will provide farmers and other CVP contractors greater water supply certainty throughout the growing season. Initial allocations for the 2025 water year were announced Feb. 25 and are updated today.   “While most of the Central Valley Project contractors are at 100% allocation, we are very pleased to announce an increase in allocations for our south-of-Delta and Friant Division contractors,” said Acting Regional Director Adam Nickels. “Consistent with the intent of Executive Order 14181, we are able to increase south-of Delta agriculture to 40% and Friant Division Class 1 to 100%.”

Reclamation is striving to maximize water supply, particularly for south-of-Delta contracts to meet Executive Order 14181’s directives. Demonstrating its commitment to California farmers and communities, Reclamation continues its dedicated efforts to deliver more water and produce more hydropower. Reclamation will continue to maximize pumping whenever possible at the federal pumping facility to move water to parts of California where it is needed most and provide the greatest economic value to the entire country. 

Based on current hydrology and forecasting, Reclamation is announcing the following increases to CVP water supply allocations:

South-of-Delta Contractors

  • Irrigation water service and repayment contractors south-of-Delta are increased to 40% from 35% of their contract total. Municipal and industrial water service and repayment contractors south-of-Delta remain at 75% of their historical use, or public health and safety needs, whichever is greater.
     

Friant Division Contractors

  • Friant Division contractors’ water supply is delivered from Millerton Reservoir on the upper San Joaquin River via the Madera and Friant-Kern canals. The first 800,000 acre-feet of available water supply is considered Class 1; Class 2 is considered the next amount of available water supply up to 1.4 million acre-feet. The initial Friant Division water supply allocation for Class 1 was increased from 45% to 80% on March 14. Today’s announcement includes a further increase to 100%; Class 2 water remains at 0%. 
  1. Constituent Update: FDA to Extend Compliance Date for Food Traceability Rule
  2. Aubrey Bettencourt Appointed as Chief of the Natural Resource Conservation Service
  3. WTNA Co-sponsored Bill on Composting Passes First Hurdle
  4. Administrator Zeldin Announces EPA Will Revise Waters of the United States Rule

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Governor Signs Ag Overtime Bill

Ignoring the pleas of real farmworkers and the agricultural industry, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today signed AB 1066, the ag overtime legislation. This means that California will have the most stringent trigger of any state in the country for overtime for farmworkers, with 45 states having no overtime protection at all. The Governor signed this bill, supposedly to bring “equality to all workers”, yet taxi cab drivers, commercial fishermen, car salesmen, student nurses, computer programmers, and carnival workers all work without any overtime provisions whatsoever. The Governor signed this ag overtime bill in the same year that minimum wage legislation was also passed that will take California to the highest minimum wage as well as legislation forcing California to adopt additional greenhouse gas regulations for businesses in California. California is the only state in the country subject to such regulations. Today’s signing occurred despite numerous requests by the agricultural industry to meet with the Governor to discuss our concerns. The message is clear. California simply doesn’t care. These provisions will be phased in over the next few years ending with the overtime provisions to be triggered at 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week.

In the Beginning As folks transitioned out of cotton and into tree nuts, the industry recognized the need to have active and effective representation at the local, state and national levels. Having enjoyed such effective representation over the years from the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Associations, these folks yearned for the same representation in the tree nut processing industry. Issues such as air quality, food safety, labor, taxes, employee safety, and environmental concerns are at the forefront, and there is a significant need for an aggressive and dynamic Association to lead the industry into the next decade and beyond. In recognition of this, the Western Agricultural Processors Association was created in 2009. The Western Agricultural Processors Association (WAPA) shares staff and office space with the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Associations taking advantage of a unique and opportunistic situation. WAPA is a voluntary dues organization with four shared staff and one dedicated staff person. Regulatory, legislative and legal issues fall under the purview of this new organization for the tree nut processing industry, which includes almonds, pecans, pistachios and walnuts. From air quality permits to conditional use permits, from regulatory hearings on greenhouse gases to federal legislation on food safety, and from OSHA violations to assisting members on hazardous materials business plans, no issue is too small or too large for WAPA. WAPA has assembled one of the best and most capable staffs in the industry, and the results are already starting to show Membership The Western Agricultural Processors Association represents facilities involved in the processing of almonds, pecans, pistachios and walnuts.Membership in the Association is classified as Regular memberships are limited to almond hullers or processors, pecan and pistachio processors, and walnut dehydrators and processors. Associate memberships are limited to any individual or business entity which is not engaged in agricultural processing, but which provides products or services directly related to the agricultural processing industry. WAPA Associate members include, but are not limited to, commodity brokers, accounting firms, and insurance brokers. Organization The Western Agricultural Processors Association is governed by a Board of Directors, elected by its membership.The Board consists of up to 15 members from throughout the state, and throughout the industry.The Board meets on a quarterly basis and conducts an Annual Meeting in the spring of each year.WAPA, in conjunction with the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Associations, conducts a special training school for its members focused on safety.In combination with the school, the Association holds a Labor Management Seminar for all of the managers. Consulting Services In researching and considering the concept of forming a new organization, the Boards of Directors for the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Associations instructed staff to perform some of the work on a consulting basis first. The point was to determine the workload from consulting and to determine if there was sufficient interest. In November of 2007, the Association began conducting services under consulting contracts for such services as air quality permits and safety plans.The effort has been so successful that demand has progressed outside the tree nut industry into other agricultural processing facilities, including vegetable dehydration facilities, tomato processing facilities, and wheat mills, as well as cotton gins in Arizona.It was determined by the new Board of Directors of WAPA, that WAPA would maintain the consulting services to provide offsetting income to help with the expenses of getting the new organization up and running.Today, WAPA provides for a long list of satisfied clients in the agricultural processing industry, by providing critical services such as air quality, safety, food safety, and environmental issues (Hazardous Materials Business Plan, Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure Plans, etc.).