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Salton Sea Official Sues Warren Buffett Subsidiary, Says Company Illegally Fired Him

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

A top Salton Sea official is suing a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary, saying the Warren Buffett-controlled company illegally fired him from his job running geothermal power plants in the Imperial Valley.

Graeme Donaldson claims he was fired last year after telling managers at Berkshire Hathaway Energy — which, through other subsidiaries, owns 10 of the 11 geothermal plants by the southern shore of the Salton Sea — that proposed budget cuts could lead to safety and environmental hazards, putting employees at risk and potentially causing toxic chemical leaks.

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Judge: Yorba Linda residents can’t use a referendum to void water rate hikes

/in /by /The Los Angeles Timesby Matt Stevens

An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled Monday in a closely watched case that customers of a water district cannot void rate increases using a referendum.

The ruling comes in the protracted fight between a group of Yorba Linda residents and their water provider over a $25-a-month rate increase. The dispute has at times become heated as both sides have accused the other of distorting facts. Two of the water district’s five board members now face recalls, and one other board member announced last week that he would retire rather than face reelection in the fall.

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Twin Tunnels Hearing: Diverse Voices in Latest Fight Over Delta ‘Fix’

/in /by /The Stockton Recordby Alex Breitler

The first day of a months-long hearing that could determine the fate of the controversial twin tunnels provided no answers on Tuesday — nor was it expected to.But dozens of comments made by citizens, activist groups and water agencies showed just how divided the state is on the proposed $15 billion Delta “fix.”Tuesday’s testimony before the State Water Resources Control Board also revealed how diverse the Stockton-area opposition to the project has become. The tunnels are no longer a battleground solely for farmers and environmentalists of the old peripheral canal days.

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Tree Die-Offs Won’t Increase Wildfire Risk, Expert Says

/in /by /Valley Public Radio (Clovis)by Kerry Klein

In the Sierra Nevada, it’s estimated that tens of millions of trees have died as a result of drought, many of which succumbed to infestations from bark beetles. As a result, we’ve been told our risk of wildfire is far higher than normal, but FM89’s Kerry Klein says the science doesn’t necessarily agree. Gaze across a hillside at 5,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada, and that landscape, usually a wash of green pines, firs and cedars, is probably smudged with reds and browns.

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Desalination Plant Won’t Start Up as Scheduled in Drought Dry Santa Barbara

/in /by /KEYT (Santa Barbara)by John Palminteri

A plan to have fresh water from an ocean desalination plant flowing into the system by October in Santa Barbara is behind schedule and that’s causing concerns.  A new schedule shows drinking water won’t be produced, tested and approved until January.

A city report says above ground supplies are dwindling, and eight under ground wells are in service citywide. Conservation goals during the Stage Three drought conditions need to remain at or above 35 percent according to Water Resources Manager Joshua Haggmark.

 

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Remedy, or Boondoggle? Hearings Launch on Delta Tunnels Proposal

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to build twin tunnels beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta was hailed Tuesday as the long-awaited salvation for the damaged estuary and California’s shaky water delivery network. It also was lambasted as a nightmarish boondoggle that would rob water from Northern California and bring more environmental harm to the Delta itself.

And that was just Day 1. Known as California WaterFix, the tunnels project effectively went on trial as a key state agency began months of formal hearings on details of the $15.5 billion proposal.

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Judge: Water district can hike rates during drought

/in /by /The Associated Press (As Published by The Sacramento Bee)

An Orange County judge has ruled that a local water district could hike its monthly water rates to offset a decline in usage during the drought. The Orange County Register reports that Judge Robert J. Moss on Monday ruled that the Yorba Linda Water District could raise rates to cope with declining revenues as residents heeded state-mandated water use restrictions. Yorba Linda water officials have said the monthly $25 rate increases aimed to deal with a more than $8 million revenue shortfall.

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Hearings Begin On California Governor Jerry Brown’s Delta Tunnel Project

/in /by /Capital Public Radio (Sacramento)

Water regulators have begun public hearings on California Governor Jerry Brown’s $15 billion twin tunnel project, known as California Waterfix. The project aims to provide a more reliable water supply for millions of Californians.

The public hearings that began Tuesday at the State Water Resources Control Board are supposed to be narrow in focus – the board must determine whether building three new water intakes on the Sacramento River would harm other water users or the environment.

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Federal, State Leaders Pitch for California Water Tunnels

/in /by /The Orange County Registerby Scott Smith

Representatives of California Gov. Jerry Brown and the Obama administration began making their pitch for approval Tuesday to build a pair of massive water tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

They propose building the tunnels – each four stories high and running 35 miles long – to send Sacramento River water south to millions of residents and vast farmland in dry regions of the state. The project is estimated to cost $15.7 billion.

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The surprisingly bright future of America’s forgotten renewable energy source: water

/in /by /The Washington Postby Chris Mooney and Brady Dennis

Long before wind and solar, water was the nation’s top renewable energy source. Going back some 100 years, the United States built enormous dams — like the Depression-era Hoover Dam in Nevada — to produce tremendous amounts of energy.

We have so many such dams that hydropower last year remained our fourth largest source of electricity overall and our single largest renewable source, providing 6 percent of Americans’ electricity. Yet it’s rarely talked about and lacks the excitement attached to other renewables. That’s in part because dams are controversial and can have major environmental consequences, affecting wildlife and altering local ecosystems.

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