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Supervisor Prepares Letter To Stop DWR From Lowering Oroville Lake

/in /by /KRCR News (Redding)by Taylor Torregano

At a board meeting Tuesday, District One Supervisor Bill Connelly will present a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The letter is requesting that FERC steps in and prohibits the Department of Water Resources from dropping Lake Oroville to an elevation lower than 800 feet. “I can never predict what DWR will do,” said Connelly on why he isn’t just sending DWR the request. “First they try to drown us, the next they try to drain the lake.” Connelly said he’s out to ensure that doesn’t happen. “We’re requesting that FERC send a strong message,” Connelly explained. “

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Former Kiewit Civil Engineer Suggests Second Gated Oroville Dam Spillway

/in /by /Oroville Mercury Registerby Risa Johnson

A civil engineer who formerly worked for the contractor doing the Oroville Dam spillway reconstruction has proposed a dual design spillway so the emergency spillway never has to be used again. Henry Burke’s argument for a different design than what the state Department of Water Resources proposed, centers around the need for high-flow back ups. Burke used to work for the contractor, the Kiewit Corporation, which is based in Omaha. Erin Mellon, communications manager with the Natural Resources Agency, said his concept is being considered in the long term, though not by Nov. 1 this year.

 

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What Did California Learn From The Drought?

/in /by /Capital Public Radio (Sacramento) by Amy Quinton

A report from the Public Policy Institute of California says the state’s cities and suburbs responded well to the unprecedented mandate to cut water use by 25 percent during the drought. The PPIC says by some measures, the state’s water conservation requirement was a success. Californians cut water use 24 percent on average while the economy grew. But report authors call the mandate a “blunt instrument” that increased tension between the state and local water agencies. Instead, the report notes the strategy state regulators implemented near the end of the drought was more appropriate.

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Who Pays For Water Infrastructure?

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

Private investment in public works isn’t a new idea: In 2014, former President Barack Obama launched an initiative focused on partnerships between public agencies and private companies to boost infrastructure financing and innovation. Now, President Donald Trump is calling for more such collaborations, and even outright privatization, in an attempt to shore up the nation’s aging highways and water systems. Water infrastructure, for both drinking and irrigation, is especially in need of improvement in the arid West.

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CWA Approves Fiber Optic Cable Monitoring Contract

/in /by /Fallbrook & Bonsall Village Newsby Joe Naiman Quoted: Nathan Faber, Maureen Stapleton

The San Diego County Water Authority (CWA) approved a contract with Pure Technologies U.S., Inc., to monitor acoustic fiber optic cable in four CWA pipelines The CWA board vote April 27 approved a contract for up to $2,319,814 over five years to monitor the fiber optic cable in Pipeline 3, Pipeline 4, Pipeline 5, and the crossover pipeline.

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Why Fontana Is Working To Expand Sewer System To Boot Out Septic Tanks

/in /by /San Bernardino County Sunby Jim Steinberg

An Inland Valley utility company is studying how to convert nearly 22,000 property parcels from Fontana to Upland — representing about 80,000 people — from septic tank systems to a sewer system connection for their wastewater. Fontana is ground zero of this challenge with nearly 12,000 parcels, representing about 40,000 people, that are not connected to sewer service. Those parcels are either within Fontana’s city limits or in its broader sphere of influence, officials say.

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David Little: James Gallagher Keeps Pressure On Oroville Spillway Saga

/in /by /Chico Enterprise-Record

There are 119 reasons why nothing will change in the wake of the Lake Oroville spillway disaster, why this repetitive flooding and evacuation pattern will continue interminably. There is one reason for hope. Of the 120 people in the state Legislature, which has failed to address this problem for decades, exactly one of them was evacuated from his home on Feb. 12. So, yeah, he takes this personally.

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New Spillway Design Said To Pass Muster

/in /by /Oroville Mercury Registerby Risa Johnson

The Board of Consultants determined the forensic teams’ list of potential Oroville Dam spillway failures are being addressed in the new design, according to a new memorandum published Last week. The board’s report said the spillway design is ready for final review, with major redesigns including heightening walls beside of the main spillway. Also, a wall dug into the ground that would block erosion up the emergency spillway weir has been moved 350 feet downhill, and is now 600 feet below the spillway weir. That is because there is better quality rock closer to the surface in the new location, according to the report.

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Measuring The Snowpack Goes High-tech With Airborne Lasers And Radar

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Joseph Serna

Every year for almost half a century, California snow surveyor Pat Armstrong has trekked the rugged Sierra Nevada with three simple tools: a snow core tube, a scale and a notebook. For as long as he can remember, state water officials have relied on the accuracy of those tools to deliver crucial data on the size of the Sierra snowpack and its ability to sustain a growing population. “It hasn’t changed in a hundred years,” Armstrong said of the survey. But there is a growing belief that this low-tech process alone is becoming too unreliable to accurately manage California’s water needs.

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VIDEO: Politically Speaking: Warring Over Water

/in /by /NBC 7 San Diego Quoted: Jim Madaffer

Water rates in San Diego next year will go up by the smallest hike since 2014. More than half of that increase is due to rising costs charged by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. That agency and our County Water Authority don’t see eye-to-eye. Jim Madaffer, vice chairman of the Water Authority, stops by NBC 7’s Politically Speaking to walk us through issues that prompted a rate-case lawsuit the authority won in Superior Court , and which MWD has taken to an appeal court.

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