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Proposal To Increase Delta Water Flows Causes Contention Between Farmers, Fisheries

Following nine years of research, a California agency has proposed to increase water flows in the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary. But the decision is causing contention between farmers and fisheries. The California State Water Resources Control Board says the proposal will prevent an ecological crisis, including the total collapse of fisheries. About 70,000 fall-run Chinook salmon adults returned to the San Joaquin Basin in 1984, but that number fell to just 8,000 in 2014.

OPINION: Water Tunnels Approval Is Pure Government Arrogance

The way environmental activists in California’s Delta region tell it, there is no part of government in this state more arrogant than the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. The huge MWD, supplier of water to the majority of the state’s populace, is certainly acting the part as it pushes for a project Gov. Jerry Brown is trying to make an irreversible fait accompli before he leaves office at the end of this year.

Hot July Is Fueling California’s Summer Wildfires

The calendar says it’s the first of August. But an unforgiving early wave of heat means that California’s landscape feels as dry as September, igniting a deadly wildfire season up and down the state. Hot and dry as a powder keg, recent weather has accelerated the normal drying of western landscapes, turning vegetation into kindling, say weather experts. Even nights are warm. “Fuels are really really dry. It’s closer to what we should get by late summer or early fall,” said professor Craig Clements, director of the Fire Weather Research Lab at San Jose State University.

U-T Publishes Response to Errant Story on Water Issues

The San Diego Union-Tribune on July 28 published and In Response article by Water Authority Board Chair Mark Muir that addressed a serious omission in a July 1 story about the cost of the regional water supply diversification strategy.

Said Muir: “Unfortunately, the story omitted clear-cut evidence that the region’s supply reliability strategy is an unqualified success: Our independent water supplies from the Colorado River are both less expensive and more reliable than supplies from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which have been cut twice in the past decade by drought.”

Click here to read Muir’s published response. In addition, the paper has posted two corrections to the story.

However, the paper’s In Response format didn’t allow enough space to address other substantive problems in the July 1 story that the Water Authority had raised with the U-T.

For instance, the story inaccurately presented MWD’s water costs, which are actually about 30 percent higher than cited in the story because MWD adds substantial fixed charges on top of its volumetric charges, requiring additional calculations to arrive at a valid comparison with the cost of water from the Water Authority’s other sources.

“Clearly, Water Authority investments in more reliable supplies and large-scale infrastructure have contributed to higher local water rates, and we have never said otherwise,” said Muir in the article submitted to the U-T that was edited for space constraints. “However, no factor has had a bigger impact on wholesale treated water rates in our region since 2008 than rate increases imposed on us by MWD – a fact that would have helped readers understand the value of reducing reliance on MWD.”

The story also failed to serve readers by presenting Steve Erie as an objective, disinterested academic. In fact, Erie has been a paid consultant and expert witness for MWD in two major lawsuits against the Water Authority. Mr. Erie is entitled to his opinions and the U-T is entitled to print them – but the paper should have disclosed his business relationship with MWD, in which he was paid $250 an hour for his services.

Finally, it’s important to note that the story significantly undercounted the amount of water produced locally. In 2020, for example, the Water Authority expects the San Diego region will generate 39 percent of its supplies locally (not 30 percent, as the article said).

“Converted to gallons, that’s approximately the annual production of the drought-proof Claude ‘Bud’ Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant – a critical component of a successful, cost-effective strategy to support our region’s economy and quality of life,” Muir said.

San Diego County Wasn’t Immune To Extreme Weather In July

San Diego County didn’t escape the extreme weather happening around the planet in July that produced massive fires above the Arctic Circle, a deadly heat wave in Japan, and a 124 degree day in Algeria believed to the highest temperature ever recorded in Africa. The county had it’s own set of remarkable temperatures that stressed both plants and people. The city of San Diego had its hottest July in a dozen years and its fifth hottest since 1874. The month was 5 degrees warmer than normal, and the 96 degrees recorded on July 6 was the third highest reading ever seen in July.

The Common Thread In California’s Wildfires: Heat Like The State Has Never Seen

The northern Sacramento Valley was well on its way to recording the hottest July on record when the Carr fire swept into town Thursday. It was 113 degrees, and months of above-average temperatures had left the land bone-dry and ready to explode. Within a few hours, hundreds of structures were lost and six people killed.

How Climate Change Is Making Disasters Like The Carr Fire More Likely

Firefighters are waging war against 17 wildfires that cover 200,000 acres in California this week. Front-line dispatches suggest that, at least at times, they’ve lost the battle. The bodies of two children were found under a wet blanket with the remains of their great-grandmother hovering over them. Three firefighters and one bulldozer operator are dead. More than 700 homes have burned to the ground. Crews have struggled, at least in part, because they have never seen fires behave like this before.

Simulating The Weather Created By Fire In New Study

A recent study is helping researchers understand the role of wind in the largest forest fires. Megafires are large, hard-to-manage burns with big economic costs. “These big fires are really hard to deal with,” said Natasha Stavros with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.

 

Improving Long Term Forecasts To Predict Unusual California Precipitation

Last spring, Governor Jerry Brown declared an end to California’s historic drought that caused over $5 billion in damage to agriculture as well as substantial impacts to fisheries, infrastructure, human health, and vegetation. The drought was not only severe, but it also spanned the winters of 2015-16 and 2016-17, which had unusual and unexpected precipitation that affected the drought’s evolution.

The Hoover Dam Changed America—And It Might Do It Again

The Hoover Dam is one of the crown jewels of American infrastructure. It was one of the most ambitious projects of the early 20th century, requiring millions of cubic feet of concrete and tens of millions of pounds of steel to build a dam that could provide electricity to 1.3 million people. Millions of people visit the dam every year. It’s even been immortalized in song.