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OPINION: Congress Drops Ball On Basin Water Plan

/in /by /Yakima Herald (Wash.)

Hope blossomed last spring in Washington, D.C., when federal money appeared headed to the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan. Sadly, with the approach of winter, those hopes have been put on ice, at least for this year. Back in April, largely through the bipartisan efforts of Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, the Senate overwhelmingly approved $92 million for the integrated plan, a compromise that aims to combine conservation and new storage to ensure a more-reliable water supply for Central Washington.

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Fake Sales, Changing Banks And California’s Latest Water Fight

/in /by /The Tribune (San Luis Obispo)by Phil Dirkx

I have three topics today: 1. Discounted prices may be mythical. 2. Banks are changeable. 3. In California, “Whiskey’s for drinking and water’s for fighting,” as the old adage goes. First, the mythical discounts: Last week, the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office sued four major department stores for allegedly issuing misleading advertising. They are JCPenney, Sears, Kohl’s, and Macy’s.

 

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OPINION: Protect Salmon, Drinking Water, And The San Francisco Bay-Delta

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicleby John McManus

Science tells us the world is experiencing a sixth extinction. For California, one of the most environmentally aware places on the planet, to give up on protecting our salmon runs, upon which tens of thousands of jobs depend, rather than conserve and recycle water, would not just be a disaster for salmon communities, it would be a disaster for the state and the world. Last week, Congress passed disastrous legislation weakening protections for San Francisco Bay-Delta salmon under the Endangered Species Act.

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Study Warns Of World’s Groundwater Depletion By 2050

/in /by /Yahoo

Groundwater resources could be depleted in the next few decades in dry areas of the world where people use lots of water for drinking and irrigating crops, researchers said Thursday. The research was presented at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. “While many aquifers remain productive, economically exploitable groundwater is already unattainable or will become so in the near future, especially in intensively irrigated areas in the drier regions of the world,” said researcher Inge de Graaf, a hydrologist at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.

 

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OPINION: Californians Could Soon Be Drinking Recycled Water

/in /by /East Bay Times (Walnut Creek)by Colin Sabol

Kale or quinoa? Free range chicken or seasonal veggie medley? Pellegrino or … recycled water? Californians could soon start drinking purified wastewater. In response to a five-year drought, the state Water Resources Control Board recently informed legislators that regulating recycled, drinkable water is perfectly feasible. California would be the first state in the nation to implement such regulations.

 

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Can These Tree ‘Shots’ Save Urban Park Trees From Deadly Beetles And Disease?

/in /by /The Press-Enterprise (Riverside)by David Danelski and Steve Scauzillo

UC Riverside’s Akif Eskalen pointed to a pattern of small holes in the bark of a majestic California sycamore tree growing in a Riverside park and lamented that it will be dead in about two years. The holes are the work of invaders from Southeast Asia, beetles smaller than a sesame seed that probably hitched a ride to the Golden State in packing wood. First discovered but misidentified in 2003 in Los Angeles County, the beetles have since infested at least 49 species of trees in seven Southern California counties, said Eskalen, a plant pathology professor.

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Feinstein Explains Calif. Drought Legislation

/in /by /Tri-State Livestock News (Belle Fourche, S.D.)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., stayed off the Senate floor on Friday evening while her California Democratic colleague, Sen. Barbara Boxer, opposed a water resources bill. Boxer and senators from Washington and Oregon said the bill contains provisions to deal with the California drought that could damage the salmon industry and reduce the power of the Endangered Species Act. Boxer, who is retiring at the end of this Congress, also said that the drought provision was the work of a single House member, which was a veiled reference to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

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Resources Bill Opens New Front In Long-Running Water Wars

/in /by /E&E News (Washington, D.C.)by Debra Kahn

Observers of California’s longtime water wars expect language inserted into a major water bill last week to exacerbate the ongoing competition between fish and farms for scarce supplies.

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OPINION: Don’t Mess With Washington Water and Fish, California

/in /by /The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.)

Are we going to decide to kill fish tonight? It was a question Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell brought to the Senate floor last Friday as she implored colleagues to vote no on a controversial water bill that would increase water flow to San Joaquin farmers and away from fish habitat in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. And if they start messing with water flows in northern California, what’s to stop them from doing it in Washington?

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KPBS Drought Tracker Update: Warm Temps Keeping Snowpack Thin

/in /by /KPBSby David Wagner

Thursday night’s forecast shows rain coming into San Diego County. Up to an inch of rain is expected in some coastal areas, and more is predicted to fall in the mountains. An update from the newly relaunched KPBS Drought Tracker shows the storm coming in the midst of a wet season that has so far brought California increased rain — but paltry snow — compared to previous drought years. Since the state’s wet season officially began on Oct. 1, California has seen a bit more rain than in many previous drought years.

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