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California drought fears ease, don’t vanish, with rain

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Jeremy B. White

Well over half of California voters dubbed an enduring lack of water a major problem, with 62 percent of Field Poll respondents calling the state of affairs “extremely serious.” But that still marked a sharp decline from October of 2015, when 76 percent of Californian voters called the drought extremely serious.

“Obviously the high point of public concern was back in October, prior to the current rainy season, because, hey, it hadn’t rained yet,” Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo said.

Last year, signs pointed to a drought of historic severity.

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California drought and drainage bills could collide on Capitol Hill

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Michael Doyle

The politics of California water is becoming three-dimensional chess in Congress as lawmakers balance competing anti-drought ideas with a proposed San Joaquin Valley irrigation drainage settlement that’s going to get bigger.

In a fresh gambit, a key House subcommittee on Wednesday approved controversial California water provisions that would steer more water to farmers. Soon, some of these same farmers will be seeking additional legislation to settle a long-running drainage dispute.

While the California drought and drainage proposals are distinct, they involve many of the same lawmakers, incite similar regional tensions and in the end could become entangled in each other’s fate.

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SD Water Authority files lawsuit against L.A.’s water wholesaler

/in /by /CBS8 (San Diego)

The San Diego County Water Authority Wednesday announced the filing of another lawsuit over rates charged by the Metropolitan Water District, a Los Angeles-based water wholesaler.

In its complaint filed in Superior Court in Los Angeles, the Water Authority contends that the rate structure approved Tuesday by the MWD board for 2017 and 2018 used the same methodology as costs from 2011-14 that were previously ruled illegal by a Superior Court judge.

MWD was ordered to pay $243 million in damages to the SDCWA, which takes in water from various local and imported sources, and distributes it to local water districts and cities.

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Metropolitan Water District’s $175 Million Land Deal Raises Alarms in Delta

/in /by /KQED (San Francisco)by Molly Peterson

In a multimillion-dollar deal, Southern California’s major water provider is acquiring five tracts of land in the heart of the Sacramento Delta, where the state is proposing to re-engineer water delivery systems. With the land purchase, the Metropolitan Water District is also raising suspicions among its new neighbors.

Zurich American, a subsidiary of a Swiss insurance company, is selling Metropolitan about 20,000 acres, including Bacon Island, Bouldin Island, Webb Tract, most of Holland Tract and a piece of Chipps Island.

 

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Water Wars Between San Diego And MWD Boil Up Again

/in /by /KPBSby Maureen Cavanaugh, Pat Finn Quoted: Dennis Cushman

Twenty-five years ago, the San Diego County Water Authority, the organization that provides water to the region’s 24 water districts, decided its water supplies had become a bit too iffy during a severe drought and set about diversifying its sources of supply.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the county water authority’s main supplier, felt dissed when its largest customer publicly questioned the reliability of its services.

According to a San Diego Union-Tribune editorial, the water authority has been persona non grata with the MWD ever since.

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