Counties qualify for drought aid

<p>All but five of the state's 58 counties are eligible for federal government assistance because of drought, the California Farm Bureau Federation reports.</p><p>The only five not eligible are Del Norte in the north and Imperial, Orange, Riverside and San Diego in the south.</p><p>Government programs include assistance payments and emergency loans and, in some counties, funds for livestock forage.</p><p>The farm bureau federation also reports that Sacramento Valley farmers will have water supplies end early from the Corning and Tehama-Colusa canals.</p><p>The Central Valley Project will begin removing the Red Bluff Diversion Dam on Wednesday, about two weeks ahead of average. That action is under the direction of a federal district court order to protect migrating winter-run chinook salmon.</p><p>-- Robert Digitale</p>