You are now in California and the U.S. category.

Still in Drought, California Town Seeks New Answers to Water Riddle

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)

For the vast majority of California, the record-breaking, five-year drought is over, but some cities like Ojai in Ventura County are not so lucky. With its human-made reservoir, Lake Casitas, still at levels not seen in half a century, some locals have been asking, “Can the Ojai Valley run out of water?” In a presentation on Sept. 14, Ojai activist and engineer Angelo Spandrio challenged a roomful of local residents to consider the consequences if the Ojai Valley, which has a population of 30,000, ran out of water.

Full Story

OPINION: California Officials Must Maintain Pressure on Cadiz Aquifer Project

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)

Like just about everything else that involves water, the Cadiz Inc. Mojave Desert aquifer project saga has been one of many ebbs and flows. There were two new developments in this situation recently. The federal government reversed itself this month and gave its blessing to the massive project to transfer as much as 16.3 billion gallons of groundwater per year from beneath the desert floor near ecologically sensitive public lands to thirsty urban communities via a long pipeline.

Full Story

OPINION: Pitching Desalination As An Environmental Justice Issue Is Way Off Base

/in /by /The Orange County Register

Development of water projects in California is hard enough without introducing ethnicity into the mix. Rarely, if ever, has a proposed water project been promoted as essential to meet the needs of a particular ethnic group, but that seems to be what some Latino advocacy organizations are claiming in support of a proposed seawater desalination plant in Huntington Beach. Unfortunately, these groups are neglecting the basic fact that Orange County residents and businesses are treated equally by their water suppliers.

Full Story

Oroville Dam: DWR ‘Can’t Say With Certainty’ Whether Spillway Ramp Will Reopen

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

The state Department of Water Resources intends to open the spillway boat launch ramp after construction at the dam is complete, but there is a possibility it will stay out of commission, according to a department official. The spillway boat launch is the largest on the lake, with up to 12 lanes when the water is high enough. DWR confirmed the ramp may remain closed indefinitely for the first time in a press call on Oct. 4.

Full Story

Brown Administration Says It’s Willing to Consider One-Tunnel Approach to Delta Project

/in /by /The Sacramento Bee

Silicon Valley’s water district Wednesday rejected Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to build twin tunnels beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta but said it would support a smaller, less expensive project. A top state official said the Brown administration is willing to consider such an approach. The Santa Clara Valley Water District’s board voted 7-0 to give the Delta plan “conditional support,” but only if it involves one tunnel instead of two. The board’s vote indicated the district would be willing eventually to commit more than $200 million to the project. That’s well below the $600 million or more in support it had been considering.

Full Story

Santa Clara Valley Water District Rejects Jerry Brown’s Twin Delta Tunnels Plan

/in /by /The Mercury News‎ (San Jose)

In a landmark vote closely watched across California, Silicon Valley’s largest water agency on Tuesday rejected Gov. Jerry Brown’s $17 billion plan to build two giant tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. By a vote of 7-0, the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s board of directors chose instead to adopt a set of principles endorsing a significantly smaller, less costly project — with just one tunnel. “What magnitude of project makes sense?” asked board member Barbara Keegan. “From our perspective that looks to be something less than originally was envisioned.”

Full Story

OPINION: Poseidon desalination plant a super-costly, horrifically polluting bad water solution

/in /by /The Mercury News‎ (San Jose)

In the wake of the drought, California has made tremendous progress on climate-smart water solutions. But even as communities are forging ahead with recapture and reuse projects, we are seeing a gold rush of corporate water projects designed to profit off drought fears. Poseidon’s Orange County desalination plant is a prime example. This Wall Street water company and its lobbyists are using every trick in the book to sell their unnecessary and irresponsible project. That is because the billion-dollar boondoggle can’t stand on its own merits.

Full Story

San Diego’s Been Losing a Century-Long Battle Against Poop

/in /by /Voice of San Diego

San Diego’s battle against hepatitis A has focused new attention on a very old, very San Diego problem: feces. It’s a battle the region has repeatedly lost. Excrement from the canyons in Tijuana and from our own toilets and streets has bedeviled the region since western civilization took up roots here. Things had been looking up. Sewage spills are down ten-fold from 20 years ago. Litigious environmental lawyers who once haunted the city had moved on.

Full Story

San Diego Borrowing $1.7B for Ambitious Water Recycling Plan

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune

San Diego launched on Tuesday its application for $1.7 billion in low-interest state loans to pay for an ambitious plan to boost the city’s water independence by recycling treated sewage into drinking water. Seeking such loans will soften hikes in sewer and water rates San Diego officials say will be necessary to pay for the Pure Water recycling system, which is expected to be complete by 2035. The loans are expected to carry interest rates of less than 2 percent, compared to about 5 percent for typical sewer and water projects that aren’t eligible for money from the state’s clean water revolving loan fund.

Full Story

Governor Signs Bill Requiring Lead Tests In Public Schools

/in /by /KPBS

A bill from a San Diego legislator that requires public schools to test for lead in campus water systems, and notify parents if elevated levels are found, was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown Friday.

Assembly Bill 746, by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, D-San Diego, stemmed from the discovery of excess lead in drinking water at schools in the San Diego Unified and San Ysidro school districts.