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San Diego Unified Found Lead; Didn’t Tell Public

/in /by /NBC 7 San Diego

Lead water testing this spring in the San Diego Unified School District was a very public process. The district told parents and students, invited the media to broadcast initial testing and posted results on its website. But, before that public process began, the district wanted to see where it stood. So, it conducted some preliminary water quality sampling, finding dangerous levels of lead contamination in at least one elementary school. The district did not tell parents

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California Legislature Extends State’s Cap-And-Trade Program In Rare Bipartisan Effort To Address Climate Change

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Melanie Mason & Chris Megerian

California lawmakers voted Monday evening to extend the state’s premiere program on climate change, a victory for Gov. Jerry Brown that included unprecedented Republican support for fighting global warming. In a break with party leaders and activists in California and Washington, eight Republicans joined with Democrats to continue the cap-and-trade program, which requires companies to buy permits to release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The legislation would keep the 5-year-old program operating until 2030, providing a key tool for meeting the state’s ambitious goal for slashing emissions.

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These Farmers Say They May Not Pay For Delta Tunnels Pushed By Gov. Brown

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

The governor’s proposed Delta tunnels ran into a roomful of skeptics Monday – an influential group of San Joaquin Valley farmers who remain unconvinced the controversial project will deliver the water they need at a price they’re prepared to swallow. Three weeks after the tunnels received a crucial green light from federal environmental regulators, the $17.1 billion project got a cool reception from nearly 100 growers who farm in the powerful Westlands Water District. Provided with detailed financial projections at a Westlands board meeting for the first time, the farmers suggested they aren’t ready to sign onto the plan.

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The Delta Tunnels: A Bad Deal For All Californians

/in /by /City Watch (Los Angeles)by Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla

Many Californians have fond memories of landing their first decent-paying job, working long hours to save enough for a down payment, and finally buying a family home. Many of us poured our weekends and hearts into repairing beautiful old houses. Now imagine, after years of paying your mortgage, raising your family, and upgrading your property, that the state government chooses your neighborhood to become a vast industrial site–for more than a decade.

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Market Transformation Will End Dominance of Electrical Utilities, Regulators Predict

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune

California is poised for a swift transformation of its electricity landscape — and that could bring tumult if preparations aren’t made soon to maintain quality and avoid reliability problems like rolling blackouts, the state’s leading energy regulator is warning. After decades of dominance by investor-owned utilities, electricity markets in the state are becoming more competitive. Ratepayers today have a growing number of choices for powering their lights, laptops and electric cars — from installing rooftop solar panels and consumer-scale batteries to joining increasingly popular government-run electricity programs known as community choice aggregation, or CCA.

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Diamond Valley Back to Being a Jewel of a Lake

/in /by /Press-Enterprise (Riverside)by Craig Shultz

Two years ago, the amount of water in the massive Diamond Valley Lake was … well, not so massive. Able to hold 810,000 acre-feet of water, an extended drought had dropped storage at the reservoir near Hemet to 299,638 acre-feet in March 2016 — and it was that high due to conservation efforts. The water level dropped so low, private fishing boats were banned for 13 months. Even after extending the marina’s long boat ramp, it ended at dirt, not water. Islands and rock piles began popping out of the lake’s surface.

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Winter’s Snow is Disrupting this Sierra Nevada Summer

/in /by /Los Angeles Times

Even when snowbound and inaccessible to vehicles, the rustic Tioga Pass Resort on the crest of the Sierra Nevada range offered homemade pie, a wood-burning stove and plump sofas to relax on after a day of backcountry skiing. But the winter of 2017 was more than the log cabin lodge, just two miles east of Yosemite National Park, could bear. Trails, roads and campgrounds throughout the Sierra high country were hit hard by snow and runoff from one of the largest snowpacks in recorded history, leaving public agencies scrambling and summer visitors feeling lost.

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OPINION: California WaterFix Critical to South County

/in /by /Dana Point Times

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is 435 miles from South Orange County, but the impact of what happens there is felt as close to home as your shower. The Delta is the heart of the State Water Project. Near Stockton, the Delta is where the tidal forces of the Pacific Ocean meet the outflows of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. Water flows through the Delta before entering a series of reservoirs, pumps and canals that bring water from the Sierras to Southern California.

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Opponents of California’s Delta Tunnels Project Push Alternative Strategies

/in /by /News Deeply (New York)by Alastair Bland

In June, two federal agencies gave their blessings to the controversial project to build two water conveyance tunnels under California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Environmental groups promptly sounded the alarm that the state’s so-named WaterFix project would not, as its backers claim, solve the matrix of problems plaguing the Delta and the people and creatures relying on it. The existing pumps that export Delta water have drastically upset the balance of the estuary’s ecosystem, causing fish declines and the intrusion of saltwater from San Francisco Bay.

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Oroville Dam: DWR Wants To Reconstruct More Of Damaged Spillway This Season

/in /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)by Risa Johnson

Oroville – The state Department of Water Resources has filed a request with the Federal Energy Commission to demolish and reconstruct an additional 240 feet of the main Oroville Dam spillway upper chute this season. The purpose of the change is to ensure the reconstruction can be complete in two seasons, per a recent FERC filing. Kiewit, the contractor, said demolition “must commence as soon as possible” to stay on schedule, according to the letter. Erin Mellon with the California Natural Resources Agency said DWR expects to be granted permission in the next several days.

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