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Governor Seeking Extra $5 Million for Drought Relief

/in /by /Visalia Times-Deltaby By David Castellon

California Assemblyman Devon Mathis is praising Gov. Jerry Brown for revising his state budget proposal to add $5 million for grants to pay for deepening wells and cleaning contaminated wells in small communities that could include East Porterville.

“This is a major win for those in the Central Valley who haven’t had running water for years,” Mathis, R-Visalia, said in a press release, noting his months of efforts to negotiate with Brown to get more drought-relief funding for small communities in his district hit hard by California’s drought, now going into its fifth year.

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When Water Policy Kills Farming, Consumers Will Pay the Price

/in /by /Breitbart News (Los Angeles)by By Daniel Errotabere

When you open your pantry or refrigerator, what do you see? Tomatoes, oranges, lettuce; grains and nuts; chicken and beef; butter, milk, cheese and other dairy products, and yes … almonds – it’s very likely you are looking at products from the Central Valley, most likely grown in the Westlands Water District.

California’s Central Valley has more than 150 years of history following the Gold Rush. People from the Midwest, Europe, China, Mexico, and other parts of Latin America settled and brought their cultural and food influences, which became a staple of Californians’ dinner tables.

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OPINION: Meeting the Demands of the Colorado River

/in /by /Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Grand Junction, Colo.)by By James Eklund

Heavy attention on California’s sustained and severe drought, recent coverage of water sharing agreements in the Lower Colorado River Basin, and most recently an insightful piece in this newspaper from Colorado River Water Conservation District General Manager Eric Kuhn (Sixteen years of drought in the Colorado River Basin: Reality or talking point? May 12) might have people wondering, what does this mean for our headwaters state of Colorado? What kind of actions are Colorado and the Upper Basin states undertaking in this climate of uncertainty and water scarcity?

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OPINION: California Water Conservation Should Continue

/in /by /Vallejo Times Herald

This is no time for California to significantly drop its water conservation targets, despite the wet winter that eased but by no means ended the state’s five-year drought.

It’s irresponsible for Gov. Jerry Brown to ask the State Water Resources Control Board to allow cities, water districts and private companies from San Diego to Yreka to set their own water conservation targets. Go ahead, Beverly Hills and Bakersfield, open those spigots and fill those swimming pools. Never mind the growing signals that drought-like weather patterns are returning to the state for the long haul.

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Northern California Lakes Brim with Chances for Fun on the Water

/in /by /SFGate (San Francisco)by By Tom Stienstra

If you haven’t been outside the Bay Area bubble this spring, the sight of the high-water levels at recreation lakes across Northern California will make your jaw drop.

Memorial Day weekend is two weeks off, and dozens of lakes are filling in time for the start of the vacation season. Many lakes will hit their peak in the next two weeks. A great summer is imminent for lake-based vacation and recreation — camping, boating and fishing.

 

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California Agencies Send Mixed Signals On Drought Conditions

/in /by /NPR

The state is getting ready for what is expected to be another hot, dry summer. Gov. Jerry Brown has signed an executive order saying drought is, quote, “becoming a regular occurrence,” unquote, for Californians. At the same time, some parts of the state have had rain this spring, and so water authorities have been allowing some communities to relax certain restrictions on water use.

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Water Bond Not Designed to Fund Cutting Edge Projects, Officials Say

/in /by /NBC Bay Area (San Jose)by By Stephen Stock, MIchael Bott and Jeremy Carroll

An NBC Bay Area analysis of projects funded by California’s $7.5 billion water bond found little high-tech, innovative projects that some say are needed to upgrade the State’s aging water infrastructure. NBC Bay Area’s analysis also discovered that no money has, so far, gone to fund drought solutions included in the bond such as desalination projects, direct stormwater management and efforts to fund integrated regional water management among 13 different regions.

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Rising Temperatures, Warm Air and Water, and Western Pacific Storms Kept El Nino Out of Southern California

/in /by /Reading Eagle (Reading, Pa.)by By Joseph Serna

A mix of rising global temperatures, mysteriously warmed waters off Baja California and unusually far-reaching storms in the western Pacific Ocean blocked this year’s El Nino storms from hitting Southern California, the National Weather Service said.

Despite plenty of indicators suggesting that the 2015-16 El Nino rains would be as strong, if not stronger, than previous Southland El Ninos, heavy precipitation failed to materialize. Instead, the storms flowed north from the Bay Area to Washington, drenching the Northern Sierra Nevada and refilling some of the state’s biggest reservoirs.

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OPINION: Forest Service Must Get Nestle Action Right This Time

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)

Nestle Waters is pushing back against the U.S. Forest Service’s proposed rules for the five-year permit the agency is considering for the international conglomerate’s water bottling operation in the San Bernardino National Forest.

The Forest Service’s affront? Suggesting a management plan that would require the company – which last year drew 36 million gallons to bottle as Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water from the forest under a $524 annual permit that expired in 1988 – to modify its operation if it was shown that it was affecting the flow of Strawberry Creek.

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Steep Rate Hike Ahead for ‘Excessive’ Residential Use of Water in Delaware County

/in /by /The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) by By Dean Narciso

Delaware County residents who saturate their lawns or refill their pools could see a dramatic jump in their water bills this summer.

Del-Co Water Co. announced a new rate structure to begin next month that will target those who use an excessive amount of water during the peak summer months. “Excessive” is defined as more than 25,000 gallons per month. The average homeowner uses about 5,000 gallons per month and will see an increase of less than 2 percent on a typical $35 bill.

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