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You Could Vote on Controversial Delta Water Tunnels Plan in 2018

/in /by /Los Angeles Times by By John Myers

An Assembly committee gave its approval Tuesday to legislation that would require California voters approve of Gov. Jerry Brown’s $15-billion water plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

“In times of crisis, we shouldn’t reach for the easiest thing,” Assemblywoman Susan Eggman (D-Stockton), the bill’s author, said during the hearing. Eggman’s AB 1713 would set new criteria for the long-debated water plan when it comes to the impact on the delta community. Most notably, though, it would also subject the project to an up-or-down vote at the next statewide election.

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BLOG: El Capitan’s operating schedule will change on May 1st

/in /by /SDFish

(Media Coverage editor’s note: This blog post previously contained erroneous information about San Diego County Water Authority operational activity at El Capitan Reservoir. The error has since been corrected by the post author.)

The city of San Diego had been drafting water from El Capitan at a rate of a little more than 1 foot per week since March 5th, leaving the lake lower than it had been in over a decade. However, the drafting stopped on April 7th, and the water level has leveled off about 5 vertical feet higher than the minimum operating level for the launch ramp to be usable.

 

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Delta Tunnels Bill Mandating Voter Approval Advances

/in /by /The Sacramento Bee by By Jeremy B. White

A California Assembly committee on Tuesday moved to force a public vote on a controversial water conveyance project. The $15.5 billion plan to construct two massive water conveyance tunnels in the heart of California’s water circulatory system has driven the latest round of a decades-long battle over exporting water from wetter Northern California to more populous Southern California.

Lawmakers representing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta area, where signs opposing the project are ubiquitous features of the landscape, have clashed with a potent pro-tunnels coalition of business groups, organized labor and major urban and agricultural water importers.
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Slow Progress on Salton Sea Projects as Time Runs Low

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs) by By Sammy Roth

Efforts to limit air pollution and create wildlife habitat at the Salton Sea are inching forward, but critics say the progress isn’t nearly fast enough.

Earlier this month, Bruce Wilcox — Gov. Jerry Brown’s Salton Sea czar — submitted a report to the state Legislature outlining progress on restoration projects. While a few small-scale projects to reduce hazardous dust emissions and create habitat for fish and birds might be finished before the lake’s decline accelerates in 2018, several larger projects probably won’t start construction until 2018 or 2019, according to the report.

 

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