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One Possible Delta Tunnels Deal Would Give Cheap Water to Farmers — and More Expensive Water to Cities

/in /by /Los Angeles Times

Months of behind the scenes talks have failed to drum up enough money to pay the full costs of replumbing the center of California’s sprawling waterworks with two giant water tunnels. That has left the state with little choice but to scale down a roughly $17-billion water delivery project to fit a funding pot of less than $10 billion. State officials are expected to soon announce exactly what form a revised California WaterFix would take.

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OPINION: We must not get distracted by new Salton Sea proposals

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)

Two noteworthy items related to the Salton Sea were unveiled at the recent Southern California Energy Water Summit. First, the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership released a report entitled “Revitalized Salton Sea-Analysis of Potential Economic Benefits-December 2017.”  The report basically says that the Coachella Valley will benefit (avoided loss of visitors) economically if the Salton Sea is revitalized at cost of $1.1 billion. Is this report getting valley residents and businesses primed for picking up the tab? I hope not.

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Idea of ‘Maximizing’ Water Deliveries Takes a Beating

/in /by /Chico Enterprise-Record

The Bureau of Reclamation came to Chico Thursday to take input on a proposal to maximize water deliveries from the Central Valley Project, and for two hours a succession of speakers told them it was a bad idea. The meeting was nominally to get comments just on what the environmental studies for the proposal should look at, but most of the speakers objected to the basic idea of taking more water from the north to deliver to the San Joaquin Valley for what more than one speaker called “desert agriculture.”

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DWR Says There Was Redundant Power for Spillway Gates

/in /by /Chico Enterprise-Record

The state Department of Water Resources now says there were “many redundant systems” to ensure the Oroville Dam spillway radial gates had power during February’s crisis. This comes after environmental groups voiced concern in an article published in this newspaper Wednesday about, seemingly, a lack of backup generators that would allow the department to control the gates even if crucial power lines went down. Radial gates at the top of the spillway allow for water releases.

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OPINION: Options for Gov. Brown’s delta tunnel project look to be drying up

/in /by /The Orange County Register

Gov. Jerry Brown’s $17 billion plan for two massive tunnels to move water under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta could be on the rocks. The governor’s office is reportedly holding talks with water contractors around the state to gauge support for downsizing the project to one tunnel at a cost of about $10 billion. But whether the smaller project would accomplish its goals or justify its cost remains unclear.

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State Of The State: Brown Focuses On Environment, Legacy Projects In Final Address

/in /by /Capital Public Radio News (Sacramento)

Thursday marks the final State of the State address for California Gov. Jerry Brown. He’s entering his record sixteenth and last year in office. Check back here throughout the day as we’ll be adding updates on Gov. Jerry Brown’s State of the State address, including a transcript of the governor’s remarks and analysis from Capital Public Radio reporters.

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Water in the West: Precipitation — Or the Lack Thereof

/in /by /Ramona & Julian Home Journal Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

In the early 1990s, Steve Martin starred as a television weatherman in the movie “L.A. Story.” He humorously prerecorded his weather broadcasts, since the temperature and lack of humidity were the same day after day. Our local weather had been consistent, too — very dry. Bone dry, in fact, until Jan. 8, 2018. The California Water Year begins Oct 1. Last year, from Oct. 1 to Dec. 20, there was only 0-5 percent of normal precipitation in San Diego, making November 2017 the driest November on record.

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Wanted: Large Landscapes for Program Proven to Reduce Irrigation Water Use

/in /by

Participants receive training, state-of-the-art tools to cut outdoor demand by at least 20 percent

San Diego, Calif. – The San Diego County Water Authority seeks approximately 20 commercial-scale landscapes for participation in a program that has demonstrated significant outdoor water-use reductions through a combination of training, hardware upgrades and technical assistance valued at more than $15,000 per site.

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Bay Area Expected To Get Hit With Heavy Rain; Snow In Sierra

/in /by /SF Gateby Sophie Haigney

One of the Bay Area’s last storms of the winter is expected Wednesday, with rainfall likely beginning this morning and continuing into the evening. “The rain will enter the North Bay early this morning and slowly push southward for the day,” said Brian Mejia, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

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Could A Major California City Run Dry Like Drought-Stricken Cape Town?

/in /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)by John Woolfolk

A dystopian drama is unfolding in Cape Town, a popular tourist destination of nearly 4 million on the coast of South Africa that in April is expected to become the modern world’s first major city to run out of water after three years of drought. For Californians, who panted through five years of record drought before last winter and have seen a fairly dry winter so far this year, it raises the worrisome question: Could it happen here?

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