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California Water Project Could Cramp Colorado River Plan

/in /by /High Country News (Paonia, Colo.)

Earlier this week, California’s Westlands Water District, the largest agricultural water district in the U.S., voted not to participate in an ambitious, long-planned project to re-engineer the way water is shuttled across the Golden State. The Westlands decision is a setback for the project, a plan to route tunnels beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, but California state officials aren’t giving up on it just yet. Still, the ‘no’ vote from Westlands — the district says the plan “is not financially viable” — puts the future of the $17 billion project in doubt.

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OPINION: The Myths Used To Needlessly Delay The Cadiz Water Project, Debunked

/in /by /Los Angeles Times

California is world-renowned for its protection of natural resources, and its environmental laws are America’s strongest — far more stringent than their federal equivalents. In fact, the rigor of California’s environmental process has caused many high-profile projects to seek legislative exemptions from state review. So when a critical infrastructure project makes it through California’s environmental permitting processes and is upheld by all levels of the state’s courts, it’s a big achievement.

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‘It’s Kind Of A Weather Roller Coaster’: On Last Day Of Summer, California Hit By Snow, Hail

/in /by /Los Angeles Times

Snow fell in Sierra Nevada on the last day of summer, giving the towering mountain range shared by California and Nevada a wintry look in September and making travel hazardous. Mammoth Lakes got more than a dusting Thursday in the first snowfall of the season, with 3 inches reported in the village. Snow coated the roads so heavily that the plows were out, and locals left footprints on sidewalks. Sixteen vehicles crashed on Interstate 80 as snow and hail fell Thursday, killing a man driving a pickup and causing minor injuries to other people, California Highway Patrol Officer Chris Nave said.

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How Water Bill Was Resurrected In Legislature’s Final Hours

/in /by /Capital Public Radio News (Sacramento)

It was 11:59pm last Friday, and Assembly Bill 313 sat silently in the Senate Appropriations Committee, where it had slumbered untouched for weeks. Less than three hours later, it had passed both chambers of the Legislature and was heading to the governor’s desk. This is how the sausage is really made in the California Capitol. Or, more precisely: how a bill can go from its deathbed to the governor’s desk on the Legislature’s final night of session. It’s a bill backed by water agencies and despised by environmentalists – and its passage was crucial to the fate of the $4 billion parks and water bond.

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Poseidon’s Environmental Plan Doesn’t Halt Criticism of Proposed Desalination Plant

/in /by /The Daily Pilot (as published by the Los Angeles Times)

Poseidon Water announced this week that its proposed ocean desalination plant in Huntington Beach would employ an environmental protection and energy efficiency plan. But that didn’t halt criticism of the controversial facility. Poseidon said the plan includes several tactics aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of the $1-billion plant proposed at Newland Street and Pacific Coast Highway, including installing as many solar panels and purchasing as much “green” power as allowed by law.

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Delta Tunnels Project In Jeopardy

/in /by /Capital Public Radio News (Sacramento)

Gov. Jerry Brown’s Delta Water tunnels project faces a major funding hurdle following a critical vote this week. The massive infrastructure project that would move water from the San Joaquin Delta down to Southern California lost support from the Westlands Water District after a vote on Tuesday. Will other water districts follow suit and bury Governor Brown’s controversial water project Sacramento Bee reporter Ryan Sabalow has been following the story closely and has details.

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Delta Tunnels Opponents File Third Lawsuit

/in /by /The Press (Brentwood)

Save the California Delta Alliance (STCDA) has filed its third lawsuit to stop the Delta Twin Tunnels, Sept. 15, in Sacramento Superior Court. The Delta Tunnels project, sometimes called the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) or California WaterFix, would divert water from the Sacramento River near Hood and carry it underground in twin 40-foot-diameter tunnels, 40 miles south to the export pumps near Tracy. STCDA, known for its “Stop the Tunnels” signs and T-shirts seen all over Discovery Bay, has been fighting the tunnel project for almost 11 years.

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East Bay Water Board Backs Delta Tunnels Project

/in /by /East Bay Times

One day after the largest water district in America pulled out of a $17 billion state project to build twin tunnels under the Delta, a water supplier for 220,000 Alameda County residents supported the plan and said it wants to join in. In a 5-2 decision Wednesday night, Alameda County’s Zone 7 Water Agency endorsed the California WaterFix , which proposes to build tunnels under the Delta as a means of making state water supplies more reliable for buyers like Zone 7. The agency also agreed to commit up to $250,000 more toward state planning of the project.

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Main Spillway Reconstruction This Season On Track, DWR Says In Media Call Update

/in /by /Chico Enterprise-Recordby Risa Johnson

State Department of Water Resources officials said Wednesday reconstruction of the spillway is on track to reach the Nov. 1 deadline for a 100,000 cubic-feet per second flow capacity. “Nov. 1 is a major milestone but it is by no means the finish line,” said Jeanne Kuttel, chief engineer for DWR, in a press conference call. Contractor Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. has demolished most of the spillway for reconstruction this season, leaving just the top 730 feet intact and making patch repairs there, representatives reported.

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Spanish Revival Fixer-Upper Now Rocks The Neighborhood

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

Lilia Valeeva’s Spanish revival bungalow in Mission Hills was purchased as a fixer-upper in 2013. The landscaping was also in need of an overhaul. The front yard was mostly Bermuda grass, with bushes on the perimeter and an oak tree that was causing problems with the home’s foundation. She envisioned a front yard that suited the historically designated house and wanted the landscape to be drought-tolerant, too. To get ideas, Valeeva did online research, visited parks and the zoo, and walked around the neighborhoods of Mission Hills.

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