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Oakland Finance Director And Veteran Muni Advisor Are 2018 Freda Johnson Award Winners

/in , /by /The Bond Buyer (New York)by Andrew Coen

Katano Kasaine, director of finance for the City of Oakland, Calif., and Noreen White, co-founder of Acacia Financial Group, will receive the 2018 Freda Johnson Award for Trailblazing Women in Public Finance. The Northeast Women in Public Finance will formally present the awards at The Bond Buyer’s Deal of the Year ceremony in New York City on Dec. 6. The award is named for Freda Johnson, a founding board member of the organization who was an executive vice president and public finance division head at Moody’s Investors Service from 1979 through 1990.

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Olivenhain Municipal Water District Logo landscape design workshops

Local Water Districts Offer Free Workshops to Facilitate Conversion to Recycled Water

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Encinitas, Calif. — Olivenhain Municipal Water District and Carlsbad Municipal Water District will host free workshops for local businesses and landscape professionals to promote the use and benefits of recycled water. The workshops will be held in Carlsbad on November 14 and in San Marcos on November 15.

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Olivenhain Municipal Water District Logo landscape design workshops

Robert Kephart Selected to Fill Division 4 Vacancy on OMWD Board of Directors

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Encinitas, Calif. — Olivenhain Municipal Water District’s Board of Directors selected Robert Kephart at its November 7 meeting as the new director representing Division 4 of OMWD’s service area. Mr. Kephart fills the seat left vacant by the resignation of Jerry Varty.

Mr. Kephart has 20 years of service on the County of San Diego Service Area 107 Fire Advisory Board and currently serves on the Rancho Santa Fe Fire Foundation board. A volunteer firefighter for the Elfin Forest/Harmony Grove Fire Department for 19 years, he achieved the rank of Captain and chaired the department’s facilities committee.

 

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America’s Water Infrastructure Act To Fund Up To $35 Million Towards West Basin’s Harbor South Bay Water Recycling Project

/in , /by /Los Angeles Sentinel

America’s Water Infrastructure Act, the comprehensive infrastructure legislation passed by Congress in the fall and signed by the president on Oct. 23, will allow West Basin Municipal Water District (West Basin) to access an additional $35 million in federal funding for its Harbor South Bay Water Recycling project. This major federal water infrastructure package includes a specific provision to allow West Basin to pursue significant funding through the Army Corps of Engineers to upgrade and increase capacity at the Edward C. Little Water Recycling Facility (ECLWRF) in El Segundo, Calif. S. 3021 includes provisions to double  the original project authorization from $35 million to $70 million, which will assist West Basin in ensuring that an adequate water supply for the Los Angeles region is met for current and future demands.

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Everett’s California Fuchhia is an example of a plant that doesn't like to have wet feet, meaning roots sitting in water. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Plants With Wet Feet and Dry Feet

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Plants and people have similar likes and dislikes when it comes to their feet.  

Of course, plants don’t literally have the kind of feet that take them on a stroll, but a plant’s roots are often referred to as “feet.” Just like most people enjoy a walk along the beach or wading in a pool on a hot day, plants like – and need – water on their roots to thrive.  

And just like people don’t like soggy feet in wet socks, plants don’t generally thrive with their roots in standing water. Horticulturists refer to plant roots in soggy soil as “wet feet.” Conversely, plants that can thrive without much water on their roots are said to have “dry feet.”

Excessive moisture at the roots can cause rot and other diseases; very few plants grow in wet areas. While that isn’t a common problem in the arid Southwest, plants can end up in standing water in poorly drained (or over-irrigated) areas of landscaping.  

That means it’s important to match landscaping plants to the environment of their feet.  

Five recommended plants compatible with wet feet 

The California Native Iris (Iris douglasiaria) is a plant that doesn't mind having "wet feet," or damp roots. Photo: Wikimedia Commons wet feet

The California Native Iris (Iris douglasiaria) is a plant that doesn’t mind having “wet feet,” or damp roots. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

  • Coyote Mint (Mondarella villosa) 
  • California Gray Rush (Junous patens) 
  • Joaquin Sunflower (Bidena laevis) 
  • Deer Grass (Muhlenbergia rigens) 
  • California Native Iris (Iris douglasiaria) 

Five recommended plants incompatible with wet feet  

Everett’s California Fuchhia is an example of a plant that doesn't like to have wet feet, meaning roots sitting in water. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Everett’s California Fuchhia is an example of a plant that doesn’t like to have wet feet, meaning roots sitting in water. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

  • Bluff California Lilac (Ceanothus maritmus) 
  • Everett’s California Fuschia (Epilobium canum) 
  • Sunset Manzanita (Arctostaphylos Sunset) 
  • Hairy Awn Muhly (Muhlerbergia capillans) 
  • Blonde Ambition Blue Grama (Boutelous gracilis)

Get advice from the local garden center or horticulturalists familiar with your area for other good choices.   

 

This article was inspired by the 71-page Sustainable Landscapes Program guidebook available at SustainableLandscapesSD.org. The Water Authority and its partners also offer other great resources for landscaping upgrades, including free WaterSmart classes at WaterSmartSD.org.    

 

 

  

Plants With Wet Feet And Dry Feet

/in , /by /Water News Network

Plants and people have similar likes and dislikes when it comes to their feet. Of course, plants don’t literally have the kind of feet that take them on a stroll, but a plant’s roots are often referred to as “feet.” Just like most people enjoy a walk along the beach or wading in a pool on a hot day, plants like – and need – water on their roots to thrive. And just like people don’t like soggy feet in wet socks, plants don’t generally thrive with their roots in standing water. Horticulturists refer to plant roots in soggy soil as “wet feet.” Conversely, plants that can thrive without much water on their roots are said to have “dry feet.”

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Farmers Keep Majority On Coachella Valley Water District Board As John Powell Jr. Defeats Ed Muzik

/in , /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Sammy Roth

The Coachella Valley’s largest water agency will still have three farmers on its five-member board next year, as Peter Rabbit Farms CEO John Powell Jr. won re-election over Ed Muzik, general manager of the Hi-Desert Water District in Yucca Valley. Powell is one of several incumbents who won re-election to local water boards Tuesday. At Coachella Valley Water District, where Powell has served as board president since 2012, G. Patrick O’Dowd was also re-elected. So were three members of the Desert Water Agency’s board of directors, Jim Cioffi, Patricia Oygar and Joe Stuart.

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Prop 3 Failed, So What’s Next For The Ailing Friant-Kern Canal?

/in , /by /BakersfieldNow.comby Kyle Harvey

Local water officials went back to the drawing board Wednesday, looking for a way to fund needed repairs to the Friant-Kern canal. The canal is damaged and requires an expensive project to repair. Farmers and water districts hoped voters would authorize the state to foot the bill by approving Proposition 3. They didn’t. The Friant-Kern is like a big water highway. It delivers water from Millerton Lake to farms all over the south valley. An Eyewitness News analysis found that the canal is directly involved in the production of approximately $2 billion of crops every year.

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Prop. 3: California Water Projects Bond Measure Goes Down To Defeat

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Nanette Asimov

Backers mourned the loss of Proposition 3 on Wednesday, the nearly $9 billion bond measure that would have modernized old dams, restored tainted watersheds and created desalination plants, among dozens of other water projects throughout the state. Prop. 3 — backed by state water agencies, farming organizations, social justice advocates and environmentalists, but not the Sierra Club — lost by 52 to 48 percent, a difference of 320,000 votes out of nearly 7 million ballots cast.

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Brown, Newsom Wade In To Delay Plan To Withhold Water From Cities, Farms

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

A river restoration plan that would restrict the water supplies of California cities and farms, including San Francisco, was put on hold Wednesday after Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom joined Gov. Jerry Brown in requesting more time for negotiations over the controversial initiative. The State Water Resources Control Board was scheduled to vote Wednesday on a years-long proposal to boost flows in the San Joaquin River and its tributaries, part of an effort to restore California’s declining salmon population and revive the languishing Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

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