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Historic Drought Prompts Water Innovation In California – Can It Be A Model?

Pray for rain. Mega-drought. Winter salmon run nearly extinguished. Sierra snowpack dismal. These were just some of the headlines in California newspapers over the last five years during a historic drought that elevated water security to the top of everyone’s minds. California’s relationship to water is unique in the United States, often becoming a major part of state and local power struggles.

California Today: A Fight Over Water In The Mojave

A company’s vision to pump water from the Mojave Desert and sell it to thirsty Southern California cities had looked to some to be a long shot. Cadiz Inc., which owns about 50 square miles atop a major aquifer in the Cadiz Valley, has pushed proposals to tap the water since the 1990s. The latest iteration has been mired for years in a thicket of regulatory and legal hurdles. But a series of developments has invigorated backers of the project, which involves both federal and state jurisdictions.

BLOG: California’s Delta Poised To Become Massive Carbon Bank

There’s a time bomb ticking in California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas, the Delta is a network of some 70 islands protected by more than 1,000 miles of levees. The soil on these islands is some of the richest farmland in the world because it is composed of organic material: decaying plants that accumulated over millennia. But when the levees were built 150 years ago to create farms, this dried out the soil, causing it to oxidize and decompose.

Thirsty Yard Gets WaterSmart Makeover

Bob and Andrea Raibert experienced a shock when they moved from a smaller property to their new home in Poway and then got the water bill for last July and August. The existing landscape was mainly Bermuda grass that required a lot of irrigation to keep it green. There were a few bushes planted along the street, and two diseased birch trees needed to be replaced. “With this and the ongoing drought and mandates to cut water use, we wanted to do our part,” Bob said.

CWA Sets June 22 Hearing For Proposed Rate Increase

San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) staff proposed what would equate to a 3.7 percent rate increase for SDCWA water rates, and on May 25 the CWA board set a June 22 hearing date for the proposed 2018 rates. The cost per acre-foot on a countywide basis will increase from $1,546 to $1,603 for treated water and from $1,256 to $1,303 for untreated supply. The proposed rate changes also include replacing a per-acre annexation cost with a single annexation application fee.

Water Panel Says Its Long-held Private Meetings Are Necessary, Legal

The San Diego County Water Authority fears it could harm ratepayers by opening up meetings that have been held out of the public’s view for decades. A letter this week by the authority’s top lawyer said it’s legal and necessary to hold private, unnoticed and unrecorded gatherings with the agency’s appointed delegates to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, or MWD, a regional agency based in Los Angeles.

OPINION: San Diegans Understand Reliable Water Comes At A Price

It should surprise no one that water is costlier in San Diego County than in many other parts of the state and nation. After all, we are at the literal end of the pipeline in a semi-arid region of 3.3 million people with few significant lakes, rivers or groundwater aquifers. What is surprising is the continued insistence by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California that it will take care of San Diego County’s water needs.

What Price Are Californians Paying To Fight Climate Change?

Californians pay about 15 cents a gallon extra at the pump to fight climate change. Here’s what they’re getting for their money: continued progress in the effort to curb carbon. Greenhouse gas emissions fell by 1.5 million tons in California in 2015, state officials announced Wednesday. The reduction was the equivalent of pulling 300,000 cars off the road for a year, according to the California Air Resources Board. The agency said emissions dropped 0.3 percent compared with 2014, and have fallen a total of 10 percent since 2004.

Judge Rules That Tribe’s Case Against Coachella Valley Water Agencies Will Proceed

A federal judge Wednesday lifted a stay on legal proceedings in the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians’ lawsuit against two local water agencies involving rights to Coachella Valley groundwater supplies. U.S. District Court Judge Jesus Bernal ruled that legal proceedings should not be delayed, as questions regarding the tribe’s recently gained rights to the groundwater must be addressed without further delay.

Ready For Recycled Water?

As the drought drags on, South Coast agencies are scrambling to lay the groundwork for a potable water supply that might one day be the region’s largest, after Lake Cachuma: purified and recycled wastewater. For the past 25 years, a small amount of wastewater from sinks, tubs, and toilets has been treated and sprayed on the turf at golf courses, schools, and parks in Santa Barbara and the Goleta Valley. It’s not suitable for drinking, but it keeps the grass green.