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Riverside County Says Its New Salton Sea Plan Could Bring Back Tourism, Generate $1 Billion In Tax Revenue

Riverside County is moving forward with a Salton Sea restoration plan that officials say could generate more than $1 billion in tax revenue, which would help fund construction of a permanent, horseshoe-shaped lake at the north end of the dying sea. The board of supervisors voted Tuesday to create an enhanced infrastructure financing district, or EIFD, that encompasses Mecca, North Shore, Oasis, Thermal and other unincorporated communities near the Salton Sea. If voters in the newly created district approve the plan, the county would issue bonds to fund construction of a so-called North Lake.

Sick Of Paying $5 For Bottled Water? Tap App Will Find You A Drinking Fountain Instead

The epiphany moment for Samuel Ian Rosen came when he found himself at an airport shelling out $5 for a bottle of Evian water. “Nobody up till now has built a Google Map for (drinking) water,” Rosen, a serial entrepreneur, said in an interview. “Finding water is inconvenient. When I go to Google Map and type ‘water fountain,’ there is nothing. We solve it by building Google Map for water….We are a search engine. We tell you where the water is.”

Austin Boil-Water Mandate Could Last Less Than A Week As City Faces Possible Shortage

Travis County emergency management officials told Austin residents on Tuesday they’ll need to boil their tap water for the next several days, and urged residents to cut water consumption as the city faces a potential shortage. In a meeting with county commissioners, Chief Emergency Management Coordinator Eric Carter said Austin Water could take 10 to 14 days to stabilize all three treatment plants and restore production to last week’s preflood levels.

Water Bond Would Spread Money Across The State — But Pour It On The Central Valley

Excessive groundwater pumping by San Joaquin Valley farmers has caused a stretch of the Friant-Kern Canal to sink so much that it has interfered with irrigation deliveries to more than 300,000 acres of cropland. A fix could come from Proposition 3, the water bond on the November ballot, which earmarks $750 million in state taxpayer funds to repair the aqueduct and other infrastructure damaged by land subsidence.

New App Aims To Help You Stop Buying Bottled Water

A new startup called Tap has a bold ambition: convince people to stop buying plastic bottles of water. Tap launched an app Tuesday that displays nearby clean drinking water locations, from restaurants and retail stores to public water fountains, so you can refill your water bottle. It’s like Google Maps for clean drinking water.

 

SDG&E Withdraws Counterproposal To Public Energy Alternative In San Diego

With a decision pending on whether the city of San Diego should adopt a government-run power program, San Diego Gas & Electric has notified city officials it is withdrawing from putting together a counterproposal to what is called Community Choice Aggregation. For the past two years, SDG&E has worked with city officials to create a program that would contract for increasing amounts of renewable energy to reach the city’s Climate Action Plan goal of 100 percent renewable sources by 2035.

Match Your Landscape Plants To Your Microclimates

A previous Conservation Corner article explained how to map the different types of microclimates present in your landscaping. This information can help homeowners effectively arrange plants in their sustainable landscapes. For the most efficient water use, plants should be grouped together with similar water needs in their favorite microclimate. In nature, plants that like lots of water are found along the banks of streams, or grouped together at the base of landscape depressions. Plants that need fast-draining soils so roots don’t rot might be found on hillsides. Plants that love lots of sunshine won’t grow in the shade of a tree.  

States Along Colorado River Work To Finish Water Agreements As Lakes Mead And Powell Reach Critical Levels

Even as seven Western states that rely on the Colorado River for water hammer out final agreements to protect reservoirs on the river, the two lakes are less than half full. Jennifer Pitt, who works on Colorado River policy for the National Audubon Society, told the Grand Canyon News that without changes to how Lake Mead and Lake Powell are managed,levels could fall below the point where no more water can be released. “If that happened, that would be a catastrophe for this region’s economy,” Pitt said, “For all of the people who depend on the Colorado River and for all of the wildlife that depends on it as well.”

San Joaquin Valley Farmers Hoping Trump’s Water Policy Would End ‘Water Grab’

For Don Barton, a fourth-generation walnut farmer and the president of the Gold River Orchards, water is everything. That’s why a President Trump-signed memo last week promoting water delivery has Barton and other farmers across San Joaquin County hoping it may stop the so-called “water grab.” “We view this as clearly a positive, the President has intervened directly on an issue that has really been a big road block for California farmers for a number of years now,” he said.

How Do We Cope With Demands For Water As We Enter An Era Of Scarcity?

Urban water systems in California and elsewhere face a time of reckoning, warns Richard Luthy, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford. Groundwater aquifers are being depleted and rivers are drying up, even as demand for water keeps climbing. Yet cities can no longer meet society’s thirst by importing more water from far away. Luthy, however, is optimistic. As director of the National Science Foundation’s ReNUWIt effort—short for Re-Inventing the Nation’s Urban Water Infrastructure—he helps to develop alternative sources through wastewater recycling, stormwater capture and desalination.