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Yes, that’s Snow in the Sierra and More is Expected this Weekend

/in , /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)

Barely a week past summer, some Sierra Nevada peaks have received a dusting of snow — and a bigger accumulation is possible this weekend. The unsettled weather and brisker-than-normal temperatures that have lingered in the Bay Area this week brought hail and snow to the higher elevations of the Lake Tahoe area. The National Weather Service’s Reno office said that another wave of precipitation Friday night and Saturday could see an accumulation of 1 to 2 inches of snow at the higher passes, such as Tioga and Sonora. The greatest chance of snow showers at Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows is after 11 p.m. Saturday, the weather service said.

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Painters Sentenced for Dumping Lead Paint into San Diego Storm Drain System

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune

he CEO and two employees of a Riverside County-based painting company were sentenced after pleading guilty to contaminating San Diego’s storm water system by power-washing painted curbs and allowing toxic lead paint chips to flow into storm drains, City Attorney Mara Elliott announced Friday. The trio were placed on probation and ordered to pay more than$12,000 in fines and restitution, Elliott said. Ochoa Striping Services Inc. was contracted to sandblast paint from curbs in a Del Cerro neighborhood, Elliott said. That method of paint removal would have allowed workers to safely clean up and dispose of hazardous material.

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Water Authority Elects Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary of Board

/in , /by /The Daily Transcript Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The San Diego County Water Authority’s board of directors has elected Jim Madaffer as chair, Gary Croucher as vice chair and Christy Guerin as secretary. They began their two-year terms Oct. 1. Madaffer, who joined the Water Authority board in November 2012, is president of the public policy firm Madaffer Enterprises. A former city councilman, Madaffer previously served as chair of the SANDAG’s transportation committee and as president of the California League of Cities. Croucher has served on the Water Authority board for more than 17 years, serving as board secretary for the past two years.

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Cadiz Promises $5 Million to Mojave Water Systems

/in , /by /Los Angeles Business Journalby Howard Fine

Cadiz Inc., the downtown water company with a proposed project to pump and transport water from an aquifer beneath its Mojave Desert land holdings, announced Oct. 5 that it plans to donate up to $5 million from project revenue towards efforts to improve water quality at nearby water systems and throughout Southern California. The $5 million donation would be administered over a five-year period by the Fenner Valley Water Authority, which would then distribute the money to eligible small water systems that serve disadvantaged communities. The money would be used primarily to build water treatment systems.

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4 Inches of Rain is all LA Got Last Year

/in , /by /LAist (Pasadena)by Emily Guerin

Last year, Downtown Los Angeles got exactly 4.72 inches of rain. That’s measly! It’s smaller than the screen on an iPhone. Less than the length of your sunglasses. Shorter than an average adult hand. And it’s 32 percent of what we normally get. That makes October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018 the third driest year since record-keeping began way back in 1877. Only 2001-2002 and 2006-2007 were worse.

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Statewide Water Saving Sliding; at Half of Local Conservation Rate

/in , /by /Oroville Mercury-Registerby Steve Schoonover

Water saving in urban California continued to slide in August, but Butte County agencies generally conserved twice as much water as the rest of the state. The State Water Resources Control Board reported Tuesday that statewide, water use was down 12.6 percent in August, compared to August 2013. That’s a decline from 13.6 percent in July, 16.8 percent in June, and 20.2 percent in May. The numbers have been dropping fairly steadily since April 2017, when Gov. Jerry Brown declared the drought over, and mandatory conservation targets were dropped. The state actually used more water this February than in 2017, then conservation jumped to 24.8 percent in March, but has been declining since.

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Water Authority Wins 2018 WaterSense Excellence Award

/in , /by

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today recognized the San Diego County Water Authority with a 2018 WaterSense Excellence Award for advancing water efficiency through its Qualified Water Efficient Landscaper (QWEL) program. The Water Authority received one of 21 WaterSense awards presented at the WaterSmart Innovations Conference in Las Vegas.

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California’s Largest Proposed Water Storage Project Hits Regulatory Hurdles

/in , /by /Pacific Standard (Santa Barbara)by Matt Weiser

Sites Reservoir, the largest new water storage proposal in California, recently won a commitment of $816 million in state funds to help with construction. It promises to deliver enough water every year, on average, to serve one million homes. But regulatory realities looming in the background may mean the project has substantially less water at its disposal.

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Is Groundwater Recharge A ‘Beneficial Use’? California Law Says No.

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

State law does not currently allow surface water to be used for groundwater recharge if the goal is managing pollution, reversing subsidence or controlling salinity. That could be a problem as local agencies begin trying to make their groundwater use more sustainable. Groundwater depletion is a big problem in parts of California. But it is not the only groundwater problem. The state also has many areas of polluted groundwater, and some places where groundwater overdraft has caused the land to subside, damaging roads, canals and other infrastructure. Near the coast, heavy groundwater pumping has caused contamination by pulling seawater underground from the ocean.

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Planting Materials: a Dizzying Array of Choices

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Nan Sterman

Gardening has a vocabulary all its own, especially when it comes to the materials we use for planting and growing plants: dirt, soil, potting mix, planter mix, mulch, compost and many more. It can be pretty confusing, even for experienced green thumbs. To help, here’s a breakdown of some of the most common terms you’ll encounter along your gardening odysseys: Dirt is what you sweep out of your house or clean off the soles of your shoes. Soil is a complex mixture of minerals, organic matter (see definition below), water, air, living organisms including tiny insects and animals, bacteria, fungi, etc.

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