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Sonoma Valley Water Users Can Get Smart About Water Use

“Have you ever wondered how you can save money on your water bill?” So begins, in a perky female voice, the 1-minute video overview of the new WaterSmart online tool being offered by the Valley of the Moon Water District. It promises instant cell-phone alerts of high water use, upcoming bills, track leaks and costs, and recommendations on ways to reduce water use and achieve lower water bills. That’s the promise of the WaterSmart “customer water portal” now offered by VOMWD, characterized as “an online tool for customers to look at their water use information,” according to interim VOMWD general manager Matthew Fullner.

New Escondido Council Poised To Rescind Siting Of Recycled Water Plant

The new majority on the Escondido City Council appears poised to rescind the former council’s 2017 decision to locate a $44 million recycled water plant in the middle of a residential area. “It’s the wrong location,” newly elected Mayor Paul “Mac” McNamara said Friday of the site in the center of the city at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Ash Street. ”I’m seriously considering moving it. It’s in the middle of a neighborhood. It’s not the right location. It never was. I totally get it. It might cost us a few more bucks, but in the long term, it’s better to have it where it needs to be.”

Santa Clara Valley Water District Files Suit Challenging State Plan To Divert Water For Fish

In an attempt to block the state’s plan to divert more water toward the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and away from the Bay Area, the Santa Clara Valley Water District has filed a lawsuit arguing the project could significantly reduce the local water supply. If the plan advances, the water district might have to spend millions of dollars to obtain alternate water supplies and pull up more groundwater.

 

OPINION: The Delta is California’s heart. Gavin Newsom must save it

The confluence of California’s two great rivers, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin, creates the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas. Those of us who live here call it, simply, the Delta. It is part of my very fiber, and it is essential to California’s future. That’s why we must save it. In the early 1800s this estuary teemed with salmon migrating to and from the rivers of the Sierra Nevada. Salmon were, as documented in photographs, so plentiful that you could harvest them from the river with a pitchfork.

 

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey Defies Political Divisions In His 2019 State Of The State Address

In a New Year’s Day essay in this newspaper, Valley attorney and scholar Grady Gammage, Jr. argued that 2018 may have been a watershed year in Arizona, as the people of this state broke habit and showed up at the polls in droves. “…They made discerning judgments,” wrote Gammage. “A pragmatic Republican governor was reelected by a wide margin, and yet, those same voters chose a Democrat for United States Senate: A Democrat who said she wanted to ‘get stuff done.’ “Maybe this means electoral politics is becoming more moderate, more focused on results than on scoring philosophical points.”

Storm Onslaught To Bombard California With Flooding Rain, Mountains Of Snow Through Thursday

The threat for flooding and mudslides is expected to ramp up across California as the train of storms with heavy rain, mountain snow and gusty winds persists this week. There will be no day through at least Thursday when a significant part of California is not being affected by a storm rolling in from the Pacific Ocean. Each storm will bring an increasing risk of flooding and mudslides as snow further buries the mountains, making travel increasingly difficult.

Southern California Begins ‘Emergency Withdrawals’ From Lake Mead

There is a massive deadline looming for states that draw water from the Colorado River Basin — Arizona included. If an agreement on water use and conservation isn’t reached by Jan. 31, the federal government can step in and begin to make conservation decisions for the states. We’ve covered this story extensively on The Show with KJZZ’s Bret Jaspers, but now, there is another twist in it — this time out of California.

Intake, Discharge Criteria To Be Revised

California’s Water Code gives the State Water Resources Control Board (Water Board) the responsibility of protecting its ocean water quality by controlling waste discharges and the intake of seawater. It also requires that the California Ocean Plan be reviewed every three years to guarantee that the current standards are adequate and not allowing marine species degradation or posing a public health threat. The plan was last amended to address desalination facility intakes and brine discharges in May 2015, and went into effect in January 2016.

There’s A Lot More Solar San Diego Can Tap, Siting Survey Says

Home to more than 100,000 solar installations, San Diego is one of the nation’s leaders when it comes to renewable energy. But according to a just-released report, there are many more locations where the sun’s energy can be harnessed. A nonprofit based in Northern California released a “solar siting survey” that identified 500-megawatts of locations with potential for large-scale solar deployments within the city limits of San Diego and pinpointed more than 120 prospective locations that could be home to projects of a minimum of 1-megawatt.

New Escondido Council Poised To Rescind Siting Of Recycled Water Plant

The new majority on the Escondido City Council appears poised to rescind the former council’s 2017 decision to locate a $44 million recycled water plant in the middle of a residential area. “It’s the wrong location,” newly elected Mayor Paul “Mac” McNamara said Friday of the site in the center of the city at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Ash Street. ” I’m seriously considering moving it. It’s in the middle of a neighborhood. It’s not the right location. It never was. I totally get it. It might cost us a few more bucks, but in the long term, it’s better to have it where it needs to be.”