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OPINION: Republicans Seek To Ban Lawsuits On Delta Tunnels

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby John Garamendi

A new threat to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the San Francisco Bay is coming not from the governor’s mansion but from the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona (Riverside County), inserted language into the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill that would prohibit legal challenges to anything related to California WaterFix — the governor’s name for the twin tunnels project to move water from the delta to Southern California — not just retroactively but in perpetuity.

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A Washington Bomb Set To Go Off In California’s Delta Tunnels Water War

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Jacques Leslie

A congressman set off a legislative bomb in California’s water wars last week. Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Corona) inserted a rider into an Interior Department appropriations bill that would exempt from all judicial review the intensely contested Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta twin tunnels project. Passage of the rider — it’s scheduled for a House committee vote Tuesday — would mean that the water diversion scheme wouldn’t have to follow federal or state law. The project, known formally as California WaterFix, would bury two 35-mile-long, 40-foot-diameter tunnels beneath the delta.

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Five Things To Know About Water Bonds On Upcoming California Ballots

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

California this year will vote on not one but two water bond measures totaling $13 billion. Given that the state still hasn’t spent all of the $7.5billion from the Proposition 1 water bond passed in 2014, it raises a crucial question: Does California really need another $13 billion in water bonds? As of December 2017, the state had allocated only about $1 billion from Proposition 1. About half of the total money available from the bond is dedicated to new water storage under a complicated new process that funds only the “public benefits” of such projects.

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OPINION: Keep State’s Struggling Water Systems Afloat

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Danielle Blacet and David Guy

We all can agree every Californian should have access to safe drinking water. But too many – nearly 800,000 people – do not. The unfortunate reality is their local drinking water system serves contaminated water or can’t provide reliable service, and also can’t afford to invest in improvements to make the system safe. There are about 300 of these chronically noncompliant systems, most small and in rural, isolated communities. We can take an important step toward fixing this important health and safety problem by empowering newly created local agencies to supply clean and safe drinking water.

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Adaptation To Global Water Shortages: Fresno

/in , /by /KCET (Burbank)

California’s Central Valley is home to 19 percent of food production in the world yet about 100,000 of its residents have lived without clean drinking water for decades. New technologies attempt to overcome political and cost challenges in filtering toxins out of tap water in this rural region. New technologies attempt to overcome political and cost challenges in filtering toxins out of tap water in this rural region.

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OPINION: Proposed Public Water Tax Must Be Rejected

/in , /by /Ukiah Daily Journalby Jim Shields

There’s a bill that’s been resurrected after not going anywhere last year in the state Senate that if approved would impose for the first time in California a tax on public drinking water for both homes and businesses. It was a bad idea the first time around, and its standing has not improved with its reintroduction this session. SB 623, sponsored by Sen. Bill Monning, D-Monterey, would generate $2 billion over 15 years allegedly for a Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund, which would provide emergency water and longer-term system fixes for hundreds of communities whose tap water doesn’t meet safe drinking-water standards.

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Sites Reservoir Officials: $1 Billion Falls Short Of Hopes

/in , /by /Appeal Democrat (Marysville)by Jake Abbott

The California Water Commission – the entity responsible for awarding $2.7 billion in Proposition 1 funds to water storage projects in a few months – didn’t quite see eye-to-eye with officials pushing for Sites Reservoir, primarily on the benefits to salmon the project would provide. When final public benefit ratio scores came out earlier this month, the commission said Sites, situation on the Colusa and Glenn counties border, was eligible for $1 billion – about $600 million short of what Sites officials requested.

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OPINION: The ‘Fix’ In WaterFix Is Certainly Appropriate

/in , /by /Oroville Mercury Register

A bit of irony has emerged over Jerry Brown’s name for his twin tunnels idea — California WaterFix — because it sure looks like the fix is on. The plan to put two huge tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to carry north state water south has faltered on its own, and is unlikely to advance if it is put to the kinds of environmental and financial review that it warrants.

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Transparency Certificate of Excellence Awarded to Vallecitos Water District

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San Marcos, Calif. – The Vallecitos Water District received the District Transparency Certificate of Excellence by the Special District Leadership Foundation (SDLF) in recognition of its outstanding efforts to promote transparency and good governance. California SDLF Public Affairs Field Coordinator Chris Palmer and California SDLF Board Member Jo MacKenzie were on hand to recognize Vallecitos for completing the essential requirements.

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California Moves Closer To Crafting Specific Water Caps For Urban Districts

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall

California cities and towns may find themselves on a water budget in the next decade under a pair of bills approved Thursday by the legislature. The measures follow Gov. Jerry Brown’s call to make water conservation a permanent way of life in a state long accustomed to jewel-green lawns and suburban tracts studded with swimming pools. More than a year of legislative negotiations reflected the enduring conflicts over state and local control. Though the bills establish a framework to end excessive urban water use, the proposals were substantially weakened by a series of amendments sought by water districts.

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