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OPINION: State Water Board Plan Would Require Water Rationing In The Bay Area

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Jim Wunderman

Apart from a famous Mark Twain quote involving whiskey and fighting, no cliché about California water is more abused than the phrase “water wars.” However, in the instance of the State Water Resources Control Board’s plan to restore the San Joaquin River, the label fits. War has been declared on the Bay Area’s largest source of freshwater, with grave implications for residents and businesses that go way beyond letting your lawn go brown. At issue is a proposal to increase freshwater flows on the San Joaquin River.

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OPINION: Sacramento’s New Way To Tax The Water You Drink

/in , /by /The Californianby Susan Shelly

Another new tax is headed for your water bill as if it wasn’t high enough already. Gov. Jerry Brown has been trying to push through a statewide tax on drinking water, the first ever in California history, and as you might imagine, it has been a challenge for him. People are fed up with new taxes. That was demonstrated very convincingly in the June recall of state Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton.

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Is There Water Left To Be Developed In The Colorado River Basin?

/in , /by /KUNC (Greeley, Colo.)by Luke Runyon

The Colorado River is running low on water. The lifeline that slakes the thirst of 40 million southwestern residents is projected to hit a historic low mark within two years, forcing mandatory cuts to water deliveries in Arizona, Nevada and Mexico. Facing exceptional drought conditions, cities throughout the watershed this summer have imposed mandatory water restrictions, ranchers have begun selling off cows they’re unable to feed, and the river’s reservoirs are headed toward levels not seen since they filled decades ago.

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OPINION: Water Deal Will Keep Costs Down

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Mark Muir Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

A historic achievement for the San Diego region passed almost unnoticed when the San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors adopted new wholesale water rates in late June. The rate-setting process highlighted how the water authority’s independent water supplies from the Colorado River are now both less expensive and more reliable than supplies from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. It’s an accomplishment that the region’s water officials started working toward two decades ago, and one that will bear fruit for decades to come.

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‘Exchange Pools’: Los Angeles Provides Innovative Groundwater Strategy

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by William Blomquist, Mark Gold, Stephanie Pincetl, and Kathryn Mika

Across California, Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) are devising plans to reduce long-term overdraft. As part of the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, GSAs will submit plans in 2020–22, which detail strategies to bring groundwater use into balance by 2040. Planning processes must assemble stakeholders and estimate sustainable yields of groundwater, quantify existing pumping, describe future options to limit overdraft and identify funding.

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Agency managers challenge the ‘tax con job’

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Two water agency general managers in San Diego County have co-authored an opinion piece in the Escondido Times-Advocate that opposes a proposal in the state Legislature to add a “voluntary donation” to water bills. The new approach is designed to sidestep opposition to a water tax, which failed this summer to get necessary support in Sacramento.

“As proposed, the ‘Voluntary Donation’ will show up on your monthly water bill along with the normal charges, unless you take action to ‘Opt Out,’” said Greg Thomas, general manager of the Rincon del Diablo Municipal Water District, and Gary Arant, general manager of the Valley Center Municipal Water District.

“This will require agencies to reconfigure their bills and modify their billing system, change financial processing software/systems, administrative procedures, and customer service to accomplish this effort and then process and track customers wishing to ‘Opt out,’” they said. “This will necessarily translate into higher costs being passed on to ratepayers at a time when water affordability is already a critical issue in our state.”

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San Diego Coalition Remains Vigilant on Water Tax

Lake Mead Water Shortage Could Spell Trouble For Colorado

/in , /by /The Durango Heraldby Marianne Goodland

A new forecast from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation shows signs that water levels at Lake Mead, which supplies water to three southwestern states and northern Mexico, could drop so low by next year that it could eventually result in a demand for more water from the Colorado River and from the upper basin states, including Colorado, that rely on the big river. The ever-increasing shortages in those three southwestern states could eventually mean water shortages in Colorado, too.

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Break From Heat And Humidity Should Last A While

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Robert Krier

The summer heat that wouldn’t relent is finally relenting, at least for most of San Diego County. “It’s going to be a pattern for late August that is a little unusual,” National Weather Service forecaster Mark Moede said. “It’s going to give us a break from the heat and humidity, with an onshore flow. And it’s going to be with us for awhile, at least through early next week.”

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Chula Vista Joins Legal Battle Against Monsanto Over PCB Water Pollution

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith

Chula Vista has joined the city of San Diego and a number of other West Coast cities in an attempt to force chemical giant Monsanto to pay tens of millions to clean up waterways polluted with a class of cancer-linked chemicals, known as polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. The city filed a lawsuit against the St. Louis-based corporation on Tuesday alleging it should help pay for costs associated with cleaning up PCB in its municipal stormwater system.

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Metropolitan Board Welcomes Two New Directors Representing San Diego County Water Authority

/in , /by /Business Wire (San Francisco) Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Two new directors representing the San Diego County Water Authority have joined Metropolitan Water District’s Board of Directors. Longtime labor union leader Jerry Butkiewicz and Tim Smith, an engineer in the water industry for 28 years, succeed directors Keith Lewinger and Elsa Saxod, who served on the Metropolitan 38-member board for nine years and nearly two years, respectively. Butkiewicz will serve on the Communications and Legislation Committee and the Water Planning and Stewardship Committee. Smith was named to the Engineering and Operations Committee and the Finance and Insurance Committee.

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