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New Tool Will Help Save Water By Measuring Plant Health From Space

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Matt Weiser

Next week, A new instrument designed to measure plant stress will be plugged into the International Space Station. Once operating, the device will deliver unprecedented data about drought conditions and water conservation all over the planet. The device was designed and built by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. It’s scheduled for launch on June 29 aboard a SpaceX rocket as part of a resupply mission for the space station.

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They Are Building 11,000 New Homes In Folsom. But Will There Be Enough Water?

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler, Ryan Sabalow and Tony Bizjak

It’s like a new city springing to life: 11,000 homes and apartments, seven public schools, a pair of fire stations, a police station, a slew of office and commercial buildings and 1,000 acres of parks, trails and other open space. Expected population: 25,000. But will it have enough water? As construction begins this month on the first model homes at Folsom Ranch, a 3,300-acre development in the city of Folsom south of Highway 50, state regulators continue to have questions about the project’s water supply.

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OPINION: Ted Kowalski: Longterm Solutions Needed To Keep Our Water Flowing

/in , /by /Arizona Daily Starby Ted Kowalski

Earlier in May, Brenda Burman, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation within the Department of the Interior, urged water managers in the Colorado River Basin to adopt Drought Contingency Plans (DCPs) in light of the very dry year we have experienced in 2018, and some new projections, which paint a discouraging future for the Colorado River Basin.

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Scott Pruitt, Under Fire, Plans To Initiate A Big Environmental Rollback

/in , /by /The New York Timesby Coral Davenport

Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is expected on Friday to send President Trump a detailed legal proposal to dramatically scale back an Obama-era regulation on water pollution, according to a senior E.P.A. official familiar with the plan. It is widely expected to be one of his agency’s most significant regulatory rollback efforts.

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San Diego Storm Water Spending Not Nearly Enough, Says City Auditor

/in , /by /KPBS

Projected infrastructure spending for the city of San Diego’s Storm Water Division isn’t even halfway sufficient to meet future needs, a deficiency that could increase the deferred maintenance backlog and affect the city’s ability to meet water quality requirements, according to an audit released Thursday. City Auditor Eduardo Luna said the division needs roughly $891 million to spend on water infrastructure over the next five years, but there’s only $433 million in funds identified over that span.

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Sweetwater Authority Awards WEEP Grant to Living Coast Discovery Center

/in , /by /Sweetwater Authority

Sweetwater Authority presented a $5,000 award check to the Living Coast Discovery Center at its June 13 board meeting as part of the Authority’s Water Efficiency Education Program (WEEP) grant program. The grant helped fund three events highlighting both organizations’ mutual goal of educating the public about water conservation.

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OPINION: Proposed First-Ever Tax On Water Got The Demise It Deserved

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune

It’s 2018, not 1918, and the idea that an estimated 360,000 California residents don’t have access to clean, safe water in their homes is both appalling and hard to fathom. While this problem is concentrated in the Central Valley, it’s a concern in rural agricultural areas across the state, including in San Diego County.

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It’s Back: El Niño Expected Later This Year, Forecasters Say

/in , /by /ABC 10 (Sacramento)by Doyle Rice

Climate troublemaker El Niño is forecast for this coming fall and winter, the Climate Prediction Center announced Thursday. The agency said there’s a 65 percent chance it will form by the winter, prompting it to issue an El Niño watch. In the U.S., a strong El Niño can result in a stormy winter along the West Coast, a wet winter across the South and a warmer-than-average winter in the Pacific Northwest and northern Rocky Mountains.

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Supporters Rally For Bill That Pays For Clean Water In Rural, Low-Income Areas

/in , /by /KGET (Bakersfield)

Supporters of a bill that would raise monthly water bills for many residents rallied in Sacramento Wednesday.  The money raised from the bill would pay for systems to clean water in areas, supporters say, suffer from unsafe drinking water. Central Coast Sen. Bill Monning introduced the bill last year. It would increase residential water bills by 95 cents a month and is projected to raise $100 million. Low income earners would be exempt.

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DWR Expands On Response To Spillway Forensic Report

/in , /by /Chico Enterprise-Recordby Risa Johnson

The state Department of Water Resources has beefed up its response to the independent forensic report on what caused the Oroville Dam spillway failure last year. The report, released on Jan. 5, described how insufficient maintenance and repairs and faulty original design allowed water to seep through the spillway’s cracks and joints. It also blamed “long-term systemic failure” on the part of DWR, regulators and the dam safety industry at large.

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