The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced it has reached an agreement with the Orange County Water District to conduct a remedial investigation and feasibility study to address a large area of groundwater contamination in Northern Orange County known as the “North Basin.” The work required by the agreement is expected to take up to two years to complete and is estimated to cost up to $4 million.
A low-flying helicopter is circling above the community of Lost Hills, checking for water below the ground. The flights are being done by U.S. Geological Survey researchers on behalf of state water officials, and the work will continue next near Buttonwillow. Officials say they’re developing 3D maps of where there’s fresh and salty groundwater in certain oil field areas in the state. The first phase of that big project is the work underway in Kern County. “We will be trying to find places where it’s likely that fresh water exists,” USGS research geophysicist Lyndsay Ball told Eyewitness News on Thursday.
There was a blue heron a few yards away from the Big Bear Marina. Mallards played in the water near the marina’s office.“This is pretty sad looking,” said Scott Ruppel, 60, as he sat in front of the marina office on a recent weekday morning. A frequent lake visitor, Ruppel, a Barstow resident, talked about the grass and other plant life — some green, some not — growing on land once covered by a 3,000 acre lake.
The drought persists. This summer was the hottest on record. Last month, a National Weather Service meteorologist called the chance of adequate winter rainfall this year “a crapshoot.” Farmers in the Central Valley are pumping groundwater like there’s no tomorrow. And they may not be wrong; it’s not for nothing that the rest of the world ratified the Paris climate accord on Wednesday. Thank heaven Californians finally have gotten serious about water conservation – oh, wait
Seventeen California water districts have filed a lawsuit for $350 million against the federal government for not delivering water to contractors in the drought year of 2014. The Fresno Bee reports that the districts in the San Joaquin Valley and the city of Fresno filed the suit Wednesday in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C. Attorney Craig Parton, who is representing the contractors, says the claim seeks to recover the fair market value of Friant Division water not delivered to the contractors even though there were sufficient supplies in Millerton Lake that year.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
