Hoping for a March Miracle to bail out California’s dry winter? It’s not likely. A review of more than 100 years of rainfall records of major cities in California — including San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Rosa, Redding and Fresno — shows that none have ever finished the rainy season with normal rainfall totals after ending January with the amount of rain they’ve had so far this winter.
We hear plenty these days about breakthroughs in green energy, robotics and communications. But as everyday technologies go, water management is virtually invisible to the general public. One organization that’s working to change that is ImagineH2O, a startup accelerator based in San Francisco. A nonprofit, it provides support to emerging companies working on water problems, helping them find investors and customers.
After the driest January on record, 44 percent of California is now experiencing moderate drought conditions. But, the city of Torrance has taken steps toward its goal of 100 percent water independence. At the center of the plan is an expansion of a system that removes salt from the city’s groundwater. “Our water is provided through our water department to our citizens at about 50 percent cheaper than other cities,” Mayor Patrick Furey said.
California is once again suing the Trump Administration, joining New York and eight other states in a case about water. The states filed the lawsuit Tuesday just hours after federal agencies announced a new delay in the federal Clean Water Rule. The Obama-era rule expands what water bodies must comply with federal standards, including streams that do not flow year-round. Courts have blocked the rule while it has undergone complicated lawsuits about jurisdiction.
The initial scoring is out, and those pushing for Sites Reservoir have some work to do if they expect to receive a chunk of the $2.7 billion in available Proposition 1 funding for water storage projects. The California Water Commission is responsible for determining the public benefits of each of the projects competing for funding. Using a scoring system, the commission is essentially looking at whether or not every dollar invested on a particular project will come back to the state in the form of a public benefit of equal value.
While it has been assumed the federal government will pay 75 percent of the now-$870 million cost for repairing the Oroville Dam spillways, the agency that actually would allocate the money has been hedging on whether that is the case, according to two north state congressmen. A joint press release from Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, and John Garamendi, D-Fairfield, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been telling Congress it’s uncertain whether FEMA has the authority to pay for the types of repairs being made.
At a time when droughts occur more frequently and winters can be hot and bone dry, Southern California water agencies are scrambling for new water sources. When the Water Replenishment District of Southern California located a 30-year supply trapped between the ocean and an aquifer, it was like a prospector finding gold.
Officials in Cape Town, South Africa, recently announced that the city will run out of water, perhaps as soon as April. On “Day Zero,” Cape Town will turn off the taps, leaving some 4 million people without basic access to water. Residents are bracing for the worst, with many fearing a breakdown in public order amid rising social tensions.
There is still no explanation behind skyrocketing water bills across the City of San Diego. Since News 8’s “Your Stories” investigation first aired last month, city officials have requested an audit of the Public Utilities Department – which also launched its own probe into the issue – but some residents believe the new “smart meters” might be to blame. Jim Narvaez replaced his water guzzling lawn with artificial grass – so imagine his surprise when his water bill went up.
An untold number of water customers across San Diego are receiving inexplicably high water bills from the city. One gentleman told me the high charges, which he believes are inaccurate, threaten his ability to continue living in San Diego. He’s surely not alone. The city’s Public Utilities Department has mostly blamed its customers. The department says customers must be confused by a mixture of undetected leaks; a recent rate increase of 6.9 percent; a recent billing cycle that was 10 days longer than normal; unusually hot and dry weather; and, from time to time, “meter reading inconsistencies.”
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
