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L.A. County Moves Toward Water Fee for New Developments, Looks at Stormwater Funding

Los Angeles County will consider new water-saving requirements for developers and look at tax options to pay for future drought planning under a pair of measures adopted Tuesday.

Over the objections of business and development groups, the Board of Supervisors voted to have county staff start drafting a “net zero” ordinance that would aim to ensure that new developments do not increase overall regional water demand.

Arizona Wants Legal Assurances California Won’t Take its Stored Water

Arizona and California are arguing over Colorado River water again — this time over whether it should be inscribed in law that California can’t take Arizona’s share of river water that’s left in Lake Mead to prop up lake levels.

The dispute is over whether it would benefit the troubled river system to guarantee in writing that one state can’t take another state’s water that’s left behind in the lake — or whether such an effort could disrupt already delicate negotiations over the river’s future.

Helix customers can water three days per week

Helix Water District customers can now go back to watering their lawns three days a week starting April 6.

The Helix Water Board voted unanimously Wednesday to halt the two-days-only watering in effect since June 2015, when the state mandated that water districts require their customers reduce use by up to 25 percent.

Helix customers may choose which three days to water, but still must limit outdoor irrigation with spray sprinklers to no more than 10 minutes per station per day. That 10-minute limit does not apply to drip irrigation systems, rotating nozzle sprinklers, gear rotor sprinklers and weather-based controllers.

Unusual Pact Will Tear Down California Hydroelectric Dams Blocking Fish Migration

Endangered salmon blocked for nearly a century from hundreds of miles of the Klamath River in Oregon and California are expected to return en masse under unusual agreements signed Wednesday to tear down four hydroelectric dams.

U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, who signed agreements with the governors of both states, said the plan would bring about one of the largest river restoration projects in the history of the U.S.

Water decision another nail in agriculture’s coffin

The April 1 federal allocation of irrigation water to California farmers is no joking matter for those south of the Delta who were slapped across the face with the announced 5 percent allotment.

How much better 5 percent is than zero is a matter of degree akin to choosing your death slowly and painfully, or quickly and efficiently.

The announcement illustrates gross negligence on the part of federal and state regulators who hide behind court edicts and biological opinions that are proving to have no positive effect on fish populations in the Delta region and the two main river systems in California that feed it.

Pact reached to remove four Klamath River dams that block salmon migration

California, Oregon and a private utility Wednesday signed an agreement that could finally take down four hydroelectric dams that block salmon migrations on the Klamath River.

The pact, signed by the governors of both states and federal officials at the mouth of the Klamath in Northern California, spells out a road map for pursuing the dams’ demolition without congressional approval.

OPINION: Help Stop Increases in Water Rates

The MWD board is scheduled to vote April 12 on a rate proposal that would increase the cost of treated water for our region in 2017 by 62 percent and increase the cost of untreated water by 12 percent. The district’s public relation’s spin is that the “average” cost increase for its entire service area is 4 percent — but that number doesn’t apply to the San Diego County Water Authority. MWD’s methodology increases San Diego County’s costs while lowering costs for Los Angeles, without any rational basis for doing so.