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Water District Receives $124 Million To Expand Water Replenishment System

/in /by /The Orange County Register (Anaheim) by Lauren Williams

An internationally recognized purification system credited with turning wastewater into drinkable water in Orange County will begin the final stage of expansion with a $124 million investment from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, officials announced Wednesday, July 19. The expansion of Orange County’s Groundwater Replenishment System will allow it to grow by 30 million gallons per day, to a total of 130 million gallons that will provide nearly half of Orange County communities with 85 percent of their water.

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Climate Change Could Mean A Much Wetter California

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Carolyn Wilke

Californians have been bracing themselves for a drier future accompanying a warming climate. But research by scientists at the University of California, Riverside, suggests that the state may actually get wetter in the event of severe climate change. The study, published July 6 in Nature Communications, reports that more years in the state could look like El Niño ones, when California typically has wetter winters. The authors found that average annual precipitation in California could increase by about 12 percent if nothing is done to curb carbon emissions. Average precipitation in the winter could increase by as much as 30 percent.

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OPINION: Doug Obegi: Goldman Sachs Underestimates WaterFix Costs For Westlands

/in /by /YubaNet (Nevada City)by NRDC

The Sacramento Bee reported this week that the Board of Directors of the Westlands Water District were skeptical of paying for the Delta tunnels project (WaterFix).  This shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that prior analyses have shown that the project is not cost-effective, particularly for agricultural water users. But after digging into the presentation by Goldman Sachs to the Board of Directors of Westlands, it appears that the cost numbers for WaterFix are likely to be significantly higher than what Goldman Sachs presented.

 

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San Diego Looks To Leverage San Vincente Reservoir For Energy Storage Project, Aims to Stabilize Water Rates

/in /by /Water World Magazine (Tulsa, Okla.) Quoted: Mark Muir

The San Diego County Water Authority this week issued a Request for Proposals for a potential joint energy storage projectwith 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. The system could provide up to 500 megawatts of renewable energy.

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GOP Push to Shift State Water Policy Away from Conservation

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Carolyn Lochhead

With a friend in the White House and their party in control of both chambers of Congress, House Republicans have embarked on their most ambitious effort yet to change the way water flows in California. Legislation that the House sent to the Senate last week outlines a bold effort to build big new dams and shift water from fish, birds and other wildlife to farms in the San Joaquin Valley. The legislation would dry up long stretches of the state’s second-longest river, the San Joaquin, and end efforts to restore its obliterated salmon runs.

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San Diego Water Authority Seeks Proposals For Energy Storage Project

/in /by /North American Windpower (Oxford, Conn.)by Betsy Lillian Quoted: Mark Muir

The San Diego County Water Authority has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a potential joint energy storage project with the City of San Diego. According to the public agency, the project 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 facility 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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Sonoma County Water Agency Manager Named Head Of California Department Of Water Resources

/in /by /Santa Rosa Press Democratby Guy Kovner

Grant Davis, general manager of the Sonoma County Water Agency, was tapped Wednesday by Gov. Jerry Brown as the state’s new director for the Department of Water Resources, handing a veteran of North Bay politics and water policy a central role in Brown’s controversial bid to overhaul California’s water system with a $17 billion pair of tunnels under Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Davis, 54, has led the county Water Agency since 2010 and is set to begin in his new post in Sacramento in August, pending confirmation by the state Senate.

 

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San Diego Water Authority Seeks Proposals For 500MW Pumped Storage Facility

/in /by /Clean Technology Business Review (London, U.K.) Quoted: Mark Muir

San Diego County Water Authority is seeking proposals for a potential 500MW joint pumped storage project at San Vicente Reservoir with the City of San Diego. The potential project is expected to not only increase renewables penetration, but can also lessen pressure on water rates throughout the region by using existing infrastructure. The project would consist of closed-loop interconnection and pumping system between the existing reservoir and a new smaller reservoir located uphill. With a potential to produce 500MW of renewable energy, water from the downhill can be pumped uphill during off-peak times.

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Deadline for San Diego Water Authority’s Pumped Hydro RFP

/in /by /Energy Storage News Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Potential developers for a 500MW pumped hydropower energy storage facility at a reservoir in San Diego have until mid-September to respond to a request for proposals (RfP). Energy-Storage.News reported back in late April that San Diego Water Authority was gauging interest from industry in executing the vast project, which would net revenues that could lower water rates for consumers in California, while assisting in the integration of renewables, particularly solar PV. The project would be jointly owned by the Water Authority and the City of San Diego, which owns the site where the facility would be built.

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San Diego’s Effort to Turn Sewage into Drinking Water Could Get Huge Financial Boost from Feds

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith

The federal government is poised to invest as much as $492 million to get Pure Water, the city of San Diego’s effort to turn sewage into drinking water, off the ground. Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce that San Diego is one of a dozen applicants chosen to participate in a low-interest loan program under the Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act. The invitation, which comes after initial vetting by the EPA, doesn’t guarantee funding but signals a very high likelihood of acceptance. Invited applicants from past years routinely obtained the funding amounts they sought.

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