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Many Of North Valley’s Dams Are Deemed High-Hazard

/in /by /Chico Enterprise-Recordby Risa Johnson

Everyone knows about the risk from Oroville Dam after the spillway crisis, but most of the dams in the north valley are considered to have a high-hazard potential. That means at least one person would likely die if the dam were to fail.New requirements for these high-risk dams, including annual inspections, will come into play if Gov. Jerry Brown signs the dam safety bill on his desk soon. The bill was unanimously approved by the Assembly on Feb. 12, the one-year anniversary of the Oroville Dam spillway evacuation. It was penned by Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-Yuba City.

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Interstate Water Storage Deals Violated State Law, Former Arizona Water Chiefs Say

/in /by /Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, Ari.)by Tony Davis

Two former Arizona water directors told the State Auditor General’s Office last year that the agency that runs the Central Arizona Project exceeded its authority under state law. The former directors, Rita Maguire and Herb Guenther, said recently that they told state auditors the Central Arizona Water Conservation District (CAWCD) legally overstepped its bounds. The district did so, they said, by negotiating two rounds of water-storage deals with Southern California’s Metropolitan Water District (MWD) and a Nevada water agency in the 1990s and a third deal with the Southern California district in 2015.

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Interstate Water Storage Deals Violated State Law, Former Arizona Water Chiefs Say

/in /by /Arizona Daily Starby Tony Davis

Two former Arizona water directors told the State Auditor General’s Office last year that the agency that runs the Central Arizona Project exceeded its authority under state law. The former directors, Rita Maguire and Herb Guenther, said recently that they told state auditors the Central Arizona Water Conservation District (CAWCD) legally overstepped its bounds. The district did so, they said, by negotiating two rounds of water-storage deals with Southern California’s Metropolitan Water District (MWD) and a Nevada water agency in the 1990s and a third deal with the Southern California district in 2015.

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Lack Of Rain Makes Desert Wildflower Super Blooms Unlikely This Year

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Harry Jones

Barring a miracle in the next six weeks, experts say there will be no desert wildflower “super bloom” this year. Less than one inch of rain has hit the desert floor in Borrego Springs since September. In contrast, by the end of February last year, the total was seven inches. Those six inches could translate into perhaps 500,000 fewer visitors to the desert this spring.

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Colder Temperatures, Snow Headed For Southern California

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Carlos Lozano

A low-pressure system moving in from the north is expected to bring snow showers in the mountains and foothills of Los Angeles and Ventura counties along with the coldest temperatures in the region so far this winter season, forecasters said. The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory beginning Sunday evening for snow, gusty winds and icy road conditions in mountain areas, including Interstate 5 near the Grapevine, Highway 14 through Soledad Canyon and Highway 33 above Ojai. The advisory will be in effect from 6 p.m. Sunday until 3 a.m. Tuesday.

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As Drought Returns, Water Use Climbs In Southern California Enclaves

/in /by /Associated Press (As published by KQED)by Ellen Knickmeyer and Amy Taxin

Overall water use is climbing in Southern California as parts of the state plunge back into drought, driving state and regional water managers to consider permanently reinstating some watering bans and conservation programs. Gov. Jerry Brown lifted California’s drought emergency status a year ago, after a wet winter that snapped a historic 2013-2017 drought, and the state ended his 25 percent mandatory conservation order.

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Snow-Starved California Could Face Another Drought

/in /by /Bloombergby Brian K Sullivan and Mark Chediak

With snow failing to pile up in the Sierra Nevada, Californians are starting to think about the unthinkable again — another round of drought to shrivel lakes, parch the landscape and roil power markets. The mountain range hasn’t been this bare since the depths of the monster dry spell that was declared over only last year. “The snow numbers are abysmal,” said Brian Fuchs, a climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center. Some ski resorts are struggling to keep trails open.

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Why Meteorologists Say Even A ‘Miracle March’ Can’t Save California’s Dismally Dry Winter

/in /by /San Francisco Gateby Amy Graff

Amid a winter marked by more sun than storms, California is desperate for rain and snow. An end-of-winter burst of wet potent California storms, aka a Miracle March, is the only hope to bolster the Sierra Nevada snowpack and boost the rainfall totals, but meteorologists say the odds of this happening are almost none. Even if a few wet weather systems sweep across the state in March, they’re unlikely to bump the state up to normal precipitation totals for the season.

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Ninth Circuit Ruling On The Clean Water Act Raises More Questions

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Holly Doremus

It was a great exam question (at least I thought so – you’ll have to ask my Environmental Law and Policy students if they agree): Does the disposal of treated wastewater from a municipal wastewater treatment plant into the ground through injection wells located a short distance from the ocean require a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit under the Clean Water Act?

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Executive Summary For February 16th

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)

Last week, the California Department of Water Resources officially announced it would seek to build a single tunnel, but now the Metropolitan Water Agency of Southern California could change that. The Sacramento Bee reported that Metropolitan, the largest public water agency in the state, was contemplating a plan to fund a significant portion of California WaterFix. It was just a week ago that the state decided to scale back the project – a two-tunnel conveyance with a price tag of $17 billion.

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