The California Water Fix/delta tunnels project is facing new challenges every day, most recently in regard to financing. Whether or not the state’s water suppliers support the plan, an essential piece is missing from the conversation: the potential of the state’s watersheds — the forests, meadows and streams that deliver water to our dams — to help solve California’s water problems.
Camp Pendleton officials swear that the water consumed by 55,000 Marines and their families is safe, despite a pair of scathing state and federal investigations indicating chronic problems in the treatment systems at the sprawling military base. Water safety inspectors visiting Camp Pendleton over several days in late June uncovered rats rotting on a reservoir gate, a desiccated frog clinging to a reservoir ladder and another rodent carcass floating in treated water.
A new, U.S.-Mexico agreement provides more Colorado River water to both countries, will require both countries to share inevitable river shortages and offers more certainty as to how much river water will be available for both countries. That’s how negotiators, federal officials and Arizona water officials see the upshot of the pact that was signed this week at a Santa Fe, New Mexico, ceremony following years of negotiations. The agreement, known as Minute 323, is aimed at establishing ground rules for managing the river for the two countries through 2026.
The state Supreme Court Wednesday refused to intervene in an ongoing rate dispute between the San Diego County Water Authority and Metropolitan Water District, leaving in place an appellate decision that gives both sides a partial victory. The Water Authority has sued the MWD, the primary water wholesaler in California, multiple times over costs, which are ultimately absorbed by San Diego County consumers. The California Supreme Court’s decision not to review an appellate court ruling was in one of three lawsuits.
The California Supreme Court effectively brought to end this week a longstanding, bitter fight between water managers in Los Angeles and San Diego — a ruling that means the loss of billions in potential savings for local ratepayers. The high court declined Wednesday to take up an appeal by the San Diego County Water Authority, leaving in place an appellate ruling that sided largely with the rival Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. San Diego was challenging the costs Metropolitan charged to deliver supplies from the Colorado River.
Beside the winding curves of the Colorado River, the Palo Verde Valley spreads out in a lush plain in the middle of the desert, a farming oasis filled with canals and fields of hay. For 12 years, the valley’s farmers have been participating in a program that pays them to leave some of their lands unplanted and fallow, helping to slake the thirst of Los Angeles and cities across Southern California. The arrangement has been widely praised as a model of how cities and farming areas can work together to stretch water supplies further while keeping agriculture alive.
The Robert A. Weese Filtration Plant is owned by the City of Oceanside and operated by Oceanside’s Water Utilities Department, but the facility is located off of Silverleaf Lane in the Gopher Canyon area and is within the boundaries of the Rainbow Municipal Water District. The Rainbow Municipal Water District will be commencing the staff portion of the design phase for a permanent connection to the Weese treatment plant. A 5-0 Rainbow board vote Aug. 22 authorized district staff to proceed with the design for an interconnection with the Weese Filtration Plant.
The Rainbow Municipal Water District will be seeking a grant from the state Department of Water Resources for a feasibility study on brackish groundwater desalination in the Bonsall Basin of the San Luis Rey River. The water district board voted 5-0, Aug. 22, to approve the application of a grant to DWR along with execution of any agreement if the grant is approved. The grant would offset the cost of the Bonsall Basin desalination feasibility study. “We think we’re in good shape to hopefully receive these funds,” Rainbow general manager Tom Kennedy said.
A Huntington Beach desalinization proposal is still in the works, and according to the group, “Poseidon is committed to powering, building and operating the Huntington Beach desalination facility in the most environmentally beneficial way possible — along with bringing significant economic benefits to the region and the state,” a Wednesday statement from Poseidon Water Vice President Scott Maloni said. “We are taking unprecedented steps to protect California’s environment and ensure the project is 100% carbon-neutral and that it is the most energy-efficient large-scale desalination facility in the world.”
Humboldt County recorded its third highest rainfall total in the 2016-17 water year since records first began 130 years ago, according to the National Weather Service Eureka. The downpour caused tens of millions of dollars in damage to local infrastructure and seemingly failed to produce the beneficial effects to fish and wildlife on the Klamath River that some were hoping for. Nearly 64 inches of rain were recorded at the weather service’s Woodley Island station from the start of the water year on Oct. 1, 2016, through Wednesday.
