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Westlands Water District: Questions raised over loan water giant gave to former agency official

A California public water district that has lost several legal battles over flows released for Klamath River salmon and earned a rare federal penalty over what it described as “a little Enron accounting” loaned one of its executives $1.4 million to buy a riverfront home, and the loan remains unpaid nine years later although the official has left the agency, according to records and interviews.

Westlands Water District says its 2007 loan to deputy general manager Jason Peltier — now at $1.57 million with a 0.84 percent annual interest rate — is allowed under agency rules on salary.

 

Will the $500 Million ‘Save the Bay’ Bill Restore California Wetlands?

(TNS) — Measure AA, a landmark $12 annual parcel tax in all nine Bay Area counties to fund wetlands restoration and flood control projects around San Francisco Bay’s shoreline, appears to have won approval from voters.

The measure, which would raise $25 million a year for 20 years, and needed two-thirds to pass, and had 69.3 percent in favor Wednesday morning with all 4,643 precincts counted. Although there are still some provisional and mail-in ballots that were postmarked on Election Day left to be counted, Measure AA had 837,162 yes votes by 6 a.m. Wednesday — more than 31,000 above the two-thirds threshold from a total of 1,208,704 cast.

TEMECULA: Drought surcharges axed by Rancho Water district

Temecula area homeowners will be getting a little budgetary wiggle room in the near future.

The Rancho California Water District approved a new water rate structure on Thursday morning that should make it easier for people to water their lawns or fill up their pools.

The structure, which the district calls “stage 3c” of its “water shortage contigency plan,” includes a suspension of the drought surcharges that were imposed last year following Gov. Jerry Brown’s statewide water use reduction mandate.

El Niño is dead, leaving behind legacy of a heated planet, devastated corals and monster storms

The much-hyped ocean-atmosphere oscillation was declared dead by the National Weather Service today. The pool of unusually warm water in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, the telltale indicator of El Niño, has cooled to nearly normal. “We’re sticking a fork in this El Niño and calling it done,” writes NOAA climate analyst Emily Becker on its El Niño blog. But this year’s El Niño, among the strongest on record, will long be remembered for profoundly altering weather extremes in parts of the world while pushing the planet’s temperature to shocking record highs, with devastating consequences.

BLOG: Sen. Feinstein: ‘We’ve Got to Reach Consensus’

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s drought legislation, Senate Bill 2533, has been the focus of much attention in recent months as it is viewed as a potential solution to California’s water woes.

Short-term solutions in the bill include changes in federal law that would direct water and wildlife agencies to operate differently in order to make more water available from Shasta Reservoir and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Some of these changes involve adjusting how agencies manage biological opinions, a set of rules imposed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Water users still cutting usage, report says

As water agencies throughout the state adjust to new rules regarding conservation, the State Water Resources Control Board this week issued figures for April indicating that Californians continued to cut water consumption.

Water use was reduced statewide by 26.1% compared with the same month in 2013, the year the state board set for comparison purposes.

The news came as Laguna Beach County and South Coast water, as well as districts throughout the state, are preparing to submit revised conservation targets to the board that prove they can supply their customers with enough water for the next three years, assuming drought conditions persist.

El Niño Is Over—Make Way for La Niña and a Drier Winter

U.S. government weather forecasters said Thursday they expect the La Niña weather phenomenon to take place in the Northern Hemisphere later this year, as El Niño conditions have dissipated.

The forecast means Southern California could experience a drier winter, following a winter that didn’t bring as much rain as expected.

The Climate Prediction Center, an agency of the National Weather Service, said in its monthly forecast La Niña is favored to develop during the summer and pegged the chance of La Niña developing in the fall and winter 2016-17 at 75 percent.

San Diego is prepared to handle multi-year drought

You still shouldn’t water the lawn too much, but the San Diego region will have enough water supply to meet demand for the next three years even if they’re dry, the County Water Authority reported Thursday.

The agency’s Board of Directors, after hearing the projections from staff, voted unanimously to take a regional approach to the state’s new process for certifying supply sufficiency for the Water Authority’s 24 member agencies, and to establish a long-term drought awareness initiative.

5 San Diego region has enough water for the next 3-years

SAN DIEGO (CNS) – You still shouldn’t water the lawn too much, but the San Diego region will have enough water supply to meet demand for the next three years even if they’re dry, the County Water Authority reported Thursday.

The agency’s Board of Directors, after hearing the projections from staff, voted unanimously to take a regional approach to the state’s new process for certifying supply sufficiency for the Water Authority’s 24 member agencies, and to establish a long-term drought awareness initiative.

Still waiting for a monster El Niño storm? Forget it

Remember those monstrous storms that bore down on Southern California this year courtesy of El Niño, and how they caused mudslides, mass flooding and general pandemonium on the freeways?

Neither do we.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has declared El Niño, the climate pattern that can bring powerful rains to the region, over – and after a rather anemic showing.

“We’re sticking a fork in this El Niño and calling it done,” NOAA said in a statement. “The king is dead!”