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MWD Could Put Up Money To Kick Start Sites Reservoir Project

/in /by /Western Farm Press by Todd Fitchette

A major California newspaper reports that southern California’s Metropolitan Water District (MWD) may put up $1.5 million in “pre-development work” to kick-start the Sites Reservoir project in northern California. The Sacramento Bee says MWD’s interest in the project could be 50,000 acre feet of storage, or about 25 percent of the water the reservoir is projected to hold. Sites Reservoir is far from a “done-deal.” It must still gain California Water Commission approval for at least part of the $2.7 billion pot of money earmarked for water storage projects in the most recent voter-approved water bond.

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River That Supplies Most Of San Diego County’s Water Is Most Endangered In U.S., Report Says

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The Colorado River — which supplies about two-thirds of San Diego County’s drinkable water — on Tuesday was named the most endangered river in the U.S. by a leading conservation group. American Rivers’ annual report, published since 1984, ranks the 10 most threatened rivers nationwide. The group said it tries to spotlight rivers that are subject to influential policy decisions, not necessarily the most polluted. This year, it chose the lower portion of the Colorado River for greatest attention based on ongoing concerns about dwindling flows due to increasing water consumption and adverse impacts from global warming.

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Experts Warn Against Controversial ‘Flushing’ Practice SDUSD Considering

/in /by /NBC San Diegoby Wendy Fry

The San Diego Unified School District is planning to flush pipes with water at schools prior to the City of San Diego administering tests for lead. District officials say the practice will protect students, while water quality experts warn it could hide dangerous levels of the metal. The San Diego Unified School District began testing its schools’ water Tuesday after lab reports confirmed “higher than allowable” lead levels were found at one campus. Samples will be gathered at five campuses a day, Tuesday through Saturday, now through mid-June.

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OPINION: Craig Cox: Now That Drought Officially Over, Will Water Rates Go Back Down?

/in /by /The Modesto Beeby Craig Cox

Can you believe it? Jerry Brown declared an end to California’s historic drought Friday. No one ever expected this because there is too much money to be made off supporting the drought fantasy! OK. Great! So when are water rates going to drop back to pre-drought levels! Never you say? As far back as I can remember the Democrats have never been able to survive without a tax or fee once imposed!

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Op-Ed: Jay Lund: California’s Drought And Floods Are Over And Just Beginning

/in /by /YubaNet (Nevada City)by Jay Lund

California is a land of extremes – where preparing for extremes must be constant and eternal. The last six years demonstrated California’s precipitation extremes. From 2012-2015, California endured one of its driest years of record.  2016 was an additional near-average year, classified into drought because water storage levels were so low. 2017 will likely be the wettest year on record in northern California and one of the wettest years ever in most of California.  Most of California has over 160% of average precipitation, with over 150% of average snowpack.

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Officials Looking For More Guidance On ‘Rinse-Off’ Showers At State Beaches

/in /by /NBC 7 San Diegoby Alex Presha, Samantha Tatro

Local State Park officials are looking for further guidance from the governor on how to proceed with “rinse-off” showers at state beaches, which have been turned off since 2015. The showers were first turned off two summers ago when the State of California was in a period of severe drought. The showers were shut off to conserve water. In April, Gov. Jerry Brown’s office announced the state would lift its drought emergency for most of the state after a winter of record rain and snowfall that followed a five-year dry spell.

 

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Winter Storms Raise Reservoir Levels In Nevada County

/in /by /The Union (Grass Valley)by Alan Riquelmy

Just over 4½ inches of rain fell over the weekend in Grass Valley. That’s about three times the normal amount of rain for the entire month of April, the National Weather Service said. The weekend rains are the latest example of precipitation that’s pushed through Nevada County this year, helping fill reservoirs and eliminating a drought that’s loomed over Northern California. Meteorologists said Grass Valley has received 90.64 inches of rain since Oct. 1. That’s compared to an average of 50.74 inches for the same time.

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UC Irvine To Save 50 Million Gallons In Drinkable Water Annually

/in /by /University of California (Irvine)by Tom Vasich, Beth Beeman

Aiming to greatly expand its use of recycled water, the University of California, Irvine is partnering with the Irvine Ranch Water District to convert the school’s central cooling plant to an environmentally friendly system that will conserve more than 50 million gallons of drinkable water per year. The central cooling plant is the hub of the air conditioning systems for 65 buildings at UC Irvine. Recycled water will replace the potable water used in its 4.5 million-gallon evaporative cooling tower, which utilizes a process that drops water through the air to lower its temperature to 39 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Reform Needed To End MWD Overcharges, Overspending

/in /by /The Daily Transcript by Mark Muir

At the San Diego County Water Authority, we scrutinize every dollar to make sure ratepayers get a good return on their investments in safe and reliable water supplies. But that isn’t the case everywhere – and it’s certainly not the case at the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Several steps removed form nearly 20 million residents it serves, MWD overcharged ratepayers $847 million more than the agency’s budgets said was needed from 2012-2015.

As California Lifts Drought Restrictions, Rural Areas Still Lack Running Water

/in /by /NPRby Kirk Siegler

While the deep snowpack in California’s mountains is easing drought concerns, there are still people in the state’s rural Central Valley who don’t have water running from their taps. California Governor Jerry Brown has declared an end to his state’s five-year-long drought. Emergency water restrictions have been lifted for most Californians, but not all. In some of the hardest hit areas in the rural Central Valley, there are still thousands of people living without any running water.

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