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East Bay Drought: EBMUD Ends Penalties for Water Guzzlers

/in /by /San Jose Mercury News by By Denis Cuff

The East Bay’s largest water district is ending the fines and public embarrassment for households that use excessive amounts of water in the drought.

Saying it will have enough water this year, the East Bay Municipal Utility District Utility board voted 7-0 to suspend its excess use fines that garnered widespread public attention because EBMUD was the first large supplier in California to limit household use and disclose the names of violators.
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Greens Continue Fight Over California Delta

/in /by /Courthouse News Service (Pasadena)by By Nicholas Iovino

The Environmental Protection Agency failed to review water quality standard changes for California’s Bay-Delta estuary that could harm at least half a dozen imperiled fish species, environmental groups claim in court.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, Bay.org and Defenders of Wildlife sued the EPA in Federal Court on Friday, claiming the agency ignored its mandate to review changes that already have harmed at least two endangered fish species.

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Loretta Sanchez Says Relaxing Species Law ‘On the Table’ to Help State

/in /by /Associated Press (As Published by The Sacramento Bee)by By Carlos Avila Gonzalez

Democratic U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, campaigning for U.S. Senate, said Tuesday that she would consider amending the federal law governing endangered species to help improve the water supply across the parched state of California.

To help address the drought, Sanchez said she wants to take a broader approach that calls for continued conservation measures, increased storage sites and the construction of Gov. Jerry Brown’s twin Delta tunnels project to move water south. Asked whether the Endangered Species Act should be looked at, Sanchez said yes.

 

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Delta Battle Over Water and Fish Lands in Court

/in /by /San Jose Mercury News by By Denis Cuff

State and federal regulators have failed to protect Delta fish and the environment during the drought by repeatedly relaxing water-quality standards so as to keep water flowing to California cities and farms, three conservation groups argued in a federal lawsuit filed Friday.

The complaint against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mirrors a persistent one by conservationists: that California water managers have let the environment suffer disproportionately from the drought.
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OPINION: Start the Tunnels

/in /by /Ventura County Starby By Mike Anderson

Does it make sense to start the Delta tunnels? The Metropolitan Water District pays into the State Water Project every year for an allotment of water. The agreed-upon allotment of water is roughly 4 percent of the water flow from the Delta. In 2015, the State Water Project was only allowed to send 10 percent of the allotment (10 percent of the 4 percent). In 2014 and 2013, it was 5 percent of the allotment. The contracts of the State Water Project have been in place for over 50 years.

The Metropolitan Water District has been paying 100 percent of its agreed-upon fees but only receiving 5 to 10 percent of its allotment. This pain has caused great concerns over the reliability of water flow for the future of California.

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How El Niño Sidestepped Southern California

/in /by /LA Weekly by By Dennis Romero

Scientists are increasingly focused on shifting warm Pacific waters as a possible cause for Southern California’s lack of predicted winter rain.

The season’s El Niño weather phenomenon, characterized by historically warm waters along the equatorial Pacific, was similar to those that triggered record rainfall in Southern California in 1983 and 1998. Thus, many scientists and weather forecasters reasonably predicted an unusually wet winter for greater Los Angeles. Some even warned that a “Godzilla El Niño” would inundate us with heavy weather. They were wrong.

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This Gated Community Insists California’s Drought is Over, Wants Green Lawns Again

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby By Joseph Serna

The warning was stern and unequivocal: The days of unkempt, browning lawns in the gated community of Blackhawk were officially over. “We believe that allowing the drought to negatively impact the landscaping at any Blackhawk home does a disservice to property values throughout the community,” the homeowners association announced. “We believe there is no longer any reason that all landscaping in the community cannot flourish as it once did.”

Starting on June 1, any of Blackhawk’s 2,000 homeowners who fail to maintain green lawns or install drought-tolerant landscaping will now risk fines or litigation.

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DROUGHT: Water flowing into Diamond Valley Lake, launches to resume

/in /by /The Press Enterprise (Riverside)by By Suzanne Hurt

Water is once again flowing into Diamond Valley Lake near Hemet for the first time in three years, which will allow boat launches to resume on Southern California’s largest reservoir in mid-May, just in time for Memorial Day weekend fishing.

Metropolitan Water District has been sending significant amounts of water into the drinking water reservoir since late March, district officials announced Tuesday, April 26. The lake has been about one-third full after the district has been drawing water out during California’s continued drought.

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San Diego Beats State Water Savings Targets

/in /by /San Diego Metropolitan Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

 

San Diego is continuing to beat the state’s aggregate savings target for the region, reducing potable water use by 21 percent from June 2015 through March 2016, according to the San Diego County Water Authority.

Starting in March, the region’s aggregate cumulative target is 13 percent — down from 20 percent during the initial phase of the state mandates due to credits for drought-resilient water supplies from the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant. The plant produces up to 56,000 acre-feet per year, enough to serve roughly 400,000 residents.

 

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OPINION: Lawmakers Pump the Brakes After Gov. Jerry Brown Goes Full Throttle on Pet Projects

/in /by /Los Angeles Times

Gov. Jerry Brown’s two very pricey legacy projects took hits in the Legislature last week. They were light jabs, and he didn’t even flinch.

But the fact that some fellow Democrats had the temerity to challenge the popular governor was a sign of growing legislative — and public — skepticism about these highly controversial pet projects. One legislative committee advanced a bill that would force the Brown administration to be more open and candid about the $64-billion, zigzagging bullet train.

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