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OPINION: Natural Resources Chief: California Is Fully Committed To The Salton Sea’s Future

/in , /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by John Laird

The Salton Sea has been an anomaly since its very formation. Created when the entire Colorado River flowed unchecked into the Salton Sink for two years beginning in 1905, the modern-day Salton Sea is a changed ecosystem that supports introduced fish and a major stop on the Pacific Migratory Flyway. Flows into the sea have declined over time, leaving higher concentrations of various contaminants. Coupled with evaporation, the result is a shrinking, increasingly saline lake. Previously submerged lake bed — known as playa  —  is being exposed, creating dust that can be hazardous as it dries and becomes airborne.

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Predicting San Diego Rainfall Cause To Rejoice

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

Correlation is not the same as causation. But it can be fun to play with correlation, especially when causation starts to grow cloudy. As the deadline nears for entry in the Union-Tribune’s 17th annual Precipitation Prediction Contest, here’s some correlation to chew on, if you haven’t already entered: Since 1850, San Diego has recorded at least 0.5 of an inch of rain in October 44 times, including this year (0.57). That’s a little more than one fourth of the years. Of those 44 years with a wet October, the entire season ended up wet 26 times, or about 59 percent of the time.

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SFID To Vote On Water Rate Increases Dec. 20

/in , /by /Rancho Santa Fe Reviewby Karen Billing

The Rancho Santa Fe Association is pushing back against the Santa Fe Irrigation District’s proposed water rate increases. The water district is proposing three percent water rate increases over the next three years and is scheduled to vote at a Dec. 20 hearing. If approved, the new rate would be implemented on Jan. 1. “The Rancho Santa Fe Association is protesting the rates,” said RSF Association Manager Christy Whalen at the Nov. 1 Association board meeting. “We are one of the largest users in the district and we are looking for a more equitable rate structure.”

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New Director Representing City Of San Fernando Joins MWD Board

/in , /by /MyNewsLA.com

San Fernando’s public works director and city engineer was sworn in Tuesday as the city’s representative on the board of directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Yazdan “Yaz” Emrani succeeds San Fernando Mayor Sylvia Ballin, who had served on the 38-member board since September 2007. Emrani has 30 years of experience in civil and environmental engineering, including planning, design and construction management of infrastructure improvement projects in both the public and private sectors.

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As More People Move To The Inland Empire, How Is There Going To Be Enough Water?

/in , /by /KVCR 91.9 (San Bernardino) by Shareen Awad

With all of the new housing going up and considering we’re in a drought area, how is local government going to provide enough water? Water scarcity is an issue people in Southern California think about a lot. California experienced one of the worst droughts in state history from 2011 to 2017. Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought State of Emergency in 2014, calling for statewide water conservation. By 2022, California residents will need to limit their indoor water use to 55 gallons of water per person a day. And by 2030, that number will drop to 50 gallons.

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OPINION: San Joaquin Water Plan Is Good For The Delta And Valley

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Peter Drekmeier

It’s fitting that the Bay Area was named after Saint Francis, the patron saint of animals and the environment. After all, the San Francisco Bay Delta was historically one of the most biologically productive ecosystems on Earth. Sadly, the estuary is now on the brink of ecological collapse. Starved of fresh water flow from rivers that feed the Bay, the salt balance has been altered dramatically, affecting everything from plankton to marine mammals and leading to toxic algae blooms that can make people sick and kill pets and wildlife. Problems extend up into the rivers that flow into the Delta.

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California Voters Consider $9 Billion For Water Projects

/in , /by /Capital Press (Salem, Oregon)by Don Thompson

Voters will decide Tuesday whether California borrows nearly $9 billion for water infrastructure projects in the state where its scarcity often pits city dwellers, farmers, anglers and environmentalists against one another. Proposition 3 would devote the money to storage and dam repairs, watershed and fisheries improvements, and habitat protection and restoration. It is the largest water bond proposed since California’s nonpartisan legislative analyst began keeping track in 1970.

 

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OPINION: Buying A Myth On California Water Impedes Real-World Solutions

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Brent Hastey and Steve LaMar

The same black-and-white perspective that overshadows nearly all discussion on the water of the San Francisco Bay-Delta unfortunately briefly became San Francisco policy last week when the Board of Supervisors reflexively labeled the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission as being against restoring the health of the bay-delta’s ecosystem. In this narrative, one party incorrectly identifies restoring unimpaired flows as the only answer to declining fisheries. The other party disagrees, which instantly labels them as anti environmental. This in turn creates a false reality that stalls progress, widens divisions and reinforces a good guy/bad guy myth.

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With This Dry Forecast, We’re Starting To Wonder, Where Is El Nino?

/in , /by /ABC10by Rob Carlmark

Before we even go there, yes it’s true that sometimes El Nino forecasts can be a total bust. Famously, the last big one did the exact opposite of what we were thinking. Around the world, the El Nino of 2015-16 was spot on, but not in California, and that is what we remember. With that out of the way, let’s look ahead to the current status of El Nino. For a quick primer, El Nino is when the central Pacific at the equator is warmer than normal. When this happens, it can alter some common patterns and you can get wet areas, and areas of drought. You could also get large fires in Indonesia and coral bleaching, among other phenomena.

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See Four Months Of Oroville Dam Spillway Construction In One Minute

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby David Caraccio

The California Department of Water Resources has released a time-lapse video showing four months of daily construction progress from June 26 through October 31. The camera angle looks up the lower chute of the spillway from the diversion pool until mid-August, then shifts to the middle chute from August 15 to September 11, where roller-compacted concrete was placed,” DWR said in an Nov. 1, 2018, YouTube post with the video. “The timelapse video then resumes footage from the lower chute vantage point from mid-August through October 31.”

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