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Water Authority Solicits Proposals for Potential Joint Energy Storage Facility with City of San Diego.

/in /by /The Voice of Renewables Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The San Diego County Water Authority this week issued a Request for Proposals for a potential joint energy storage project with the City of San Diego that could lessen upward pressure on water rates and also increase opportunities for renewable energy penetration throughout the region by leveraging existing infrastructure at San Vicente Reservoir. The potential project would consist of a closed-loop interconnection and pumping system between the existing San Vicente Reservoir (which is owned by the City of San Diego) near Lakeside and a new, smaller reservoir located uphill.

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California Sues To Validate Bonds To Fund Delta Tunnels Project

/in /by /SCV News (Santa Clarita) by Matt Reynolds

The California Department of Water Resources is seeking validation of $11 billion in bonds to fund Gov. Jerry Brown’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta tunnel project, California Water Fix, which cleared its final environmental hurdle on Friday. In the lawsuit filed Friday, the agency says it’s seeking a judgment that confirms the validity of the bonds to fund capital costs of the tunnel project. The project calls for two tunnels up to 150 feet beneath the delta and three new intakes with 3,000-cubic-feet-per-second capacity and an average annual yield of 4.9 million acre-feet.

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Time to Audit San Diego County Water Authority Allegations Against MWD

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

In recent years, the California State Auditor’s Office has waded into the affairs of several small water districts and water retailers, including districts in Victorville and Hesperia and the city of Downey’s Public Works Department. This is all well and good. The state auditor’s office purview covers a wide range of government bodies, and the obscure ones certainly merit the same sort of oversight.

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Severe, Chronic Flooding Will Devastate California Coast As Sea Levels Rise, Experts Say

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Joshua Emerson Smith

As glaciers melt amid the heat of a warming planet, scientists predict that coastal communities in the United States could eventually experience flooding from higher tides. Conservative estimates range from an increase of about one to four feet in sea-level rise by the end of the century. Experts also warn that people should be prepared for unlikely but extreme scenarios of up to eight feet in sea-level rise, which would cause severe and chronic flooding in hundreds of coastal cities. Grappling with this problem would be expensive for local governments.

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Exceptional Drought Levels Move Toward Zero In U.S.

/in /by /24/7 Wall St. (New York) by Douglas A. Mcintyre

At one point, the U.S. Drought Monitor map showed the presence of “exceptional drought”, the worst category designated by researchers, across much of California and a large portion of the areas of northern Texas and Oklahoma. A look at the map today shows neither of those areas has a drought problem at all. “Exceptional drought” has become a rarity across the country. The current U.S. Drought Monitor map shows relatively small areas of “exceptional drought” in a part of North Dakota and a tiny sliver of northeast Montana.

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The Status of the Drought and Atmoshperic Rivers

/in /by /San Benito County Newsby Shawn Novack

According to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor (July 11), less than 32 percent of the state faces drought conditions and only 1 percent of the state is experiencing “severe” drought. Nowhere in the state are we experiencing “exceptional” or “extreme” drought. Governor Jerry Brown ended the drought state of emergency in most of California on April 7. A year ago, more than 90 percent of the state was in some form of drought. The drought’s end comes thanks in large part to so-called atmospheric rivers (AR) — warm weather systems that flow east from Hawaii and the western Pacific.

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Delta Survives Latest ‘Test’

/in /by /Stockton Recordby Alex Breitler

The engineers who scrambled to prevent Delta farms from flooding this year have long insisted that the levees surrounding those low-lying islands are not as fragile as they’re sometimes portrayed to be. Now, after seven months of high water without a single major island flooding, those engineers feel validated. “We hear so many bad things about the levees,” said engineer Gilbert Cosio, who works for a number of the rural reclamation districts run by farmers. “But we’ve been doing a lot of good the last 30 years. This kind of proves it. This was not the disaster it could have been.”

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OPINION: Policing California’s Most Precious Resource

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicle

Water disputes are a fact of life in California, and the recent drought has only increased the stakes in their outcomes. That’s why it is concerning that a Merced Democrat wants to change the resolution process. In California, one agency administers water rules, plans and policy, while another issues permits and enforces water laws. Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, says a perception of bias taints State Water Resources Control Board policing efforts and dissuades many from rightfully contesting fines or cease-and-desist orders.

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Build It Now, Fix It Later?

/in /by /Stockton Recordby Alex Breitler

Even after a decade of studies and tens of thousands of pages of analysis, no one can say precisely what Gov. Jerry Brown’s twin tunnels will do to the Delta. Pushing forward with the $17 billion project despite the uncertainty, backers are promising to evaluate the impacts of the tunnels after they’re built, and potentially change how they are operated as new information comes to light.

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Let the Lawsuits Begin: Delta Tunnels Get Official State Green Light

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Ryan Sabalow and Dale Kasler

Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration gave the official go-ahead Friday for his controversial plan to bore two huge tunnels beneath the heart of Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The state Department of Water Resources said it had finalized the lengthy environmental review of the $17.1 billion Delta tunnels project, officially known as California WaterFix. In what’s known as a “Notice of Determination,” regulators said building and operating the tunnels complies with the California Environmental Quality Act and won’t harm fish, wildlife or human health.

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