When California officials announced an end to restrictions on urban water use last week, they cited the recent wet winter as one reason. El Niño, the climate pattern that brought a succession of storms to Northern California, had given the state a reprieve from its water woes, they said.
Those storms left a mountain snowpack that while ordinary by historical standards far exceeded the meager accumulations of 2015.
San Diegans went from wastefully using water hoses to clean driveways and sidewalks to becoming a drought-conscience community that used a lot less water than expected in recent years. The low water demand is expected to linger for the next 25 years.
Some might assume lower water usage would mean lower water bills, but that didn’t happen.
On May 10, a California Court of Appeal upheld an earlier Superior Court dismissal of litigation challenging the Cadiz Water Project. The Cadiz, Inc. plan to conserve water that’s currently evaporating in the Mojave Desert would deliver new water to our communities in south Orange County as well as five other Southern California counties. After years of court challenges, the project’s opponents were told their arguments simply don’t hold water.
In Carlsbad, two parcels of land have caused a number of headaches in recent months.
One is the south shore of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon, which – for those who somehow hadn’t heard – was slated for the development of a luxury mall. The plan to fast-track that project was ultimately defeated by voters.
Less than one mile down Cannon road is the Encina Power Station, which will be demolished when a smaller “peaker” style plant is constructed nearby, starting in 2017.
The San Diego County Water Authority’s senior lien credit rating was upgraded to AAA by S&P Global Ratings. Water authority officials say Wednesday’s one-notch upgrade marks the first time it has achieved a triple-A rating. The authority, in a news release, called the upgrade “a boon for ratepayers who will benefit from lower financing costs.” S&P credited the upgrade to strong financial management, robust drought planning, increased storage capacity due to the San Vicente Dam Raise, and reserves for managing contingencies, among other factors.
El Nino couldn’t bail California out of an unprecedented drought. Don’t count on La Nina to do any better.
California, in its fifth year of drought, gets most of its water from November to March. The El Nino that’s been in place for about a year helped fill some northern reservoirs but failed to bring much relief to the southern part of the state. And it’s unclear how much more help La Nina can deliver, if it takes over.
Wading into a longstanding California water war, the House of Representatives Wednesday endorsed a Republican plan to shift more water to San Joaquin Valley farmers and cut the flow for threatened fish and growers in another part of the state.
Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., tried to strike that proposal from a spending bill, but lost a 247-169 vote that broke mostly along party lines. He says the plan would pump too much water to Central Valley growers at the expense of the inland Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
The House voted 247 to 169 Wednesday to keep to a measure affecting California’s drought in an appropriations bill.
Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Stockton) had moved to strip the measure from the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2017. He and other Northern California Democrats argue it would have a severe effect on the Endangered Species Act and Clean Air Act.
The House passed Hanford Republican Rep. David Valadao‘s bill almost a year ago , but the Senate has refused to take it up, and many state Democrats object to it.
Conditions in the Upper Colorado River Basin, particularly in Colorado, are OK for the time being, officials said Wednesday during a “state of the river” address in Rifle.
However, the largest of several caveats to that statement falls in the context of the entire Colorado River Basin, specifically the lower basin, where water use continues to outpace supply.
Swimmers, divers, surfers and others can feel good about the water quality at most of San Diego County’s beaches, according to Heal the Bay’s 26th annual Beach Report Card released Thursday.
While above average rainfall pulled scores in the region down modestly during the past year, 97 percent of the area’s monitored beaches received top marks in summer months — when beach visitorship peaks. At the same time, sewage spills remained a black mark. The county experienced 22 such events in the past year, including four incidents that each spilled at least 10,000 gallons, the report said.
