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Atmospheric Rivers Are Back. That’s Not A Bad Thing.

/in , /by /The New York Timesby Jill Cowan

Remember atmospheric rivers? Earlier this year, they hit California’s collective consciousness in a big way, as the state reeled from the catastrophic flooding, mudslides and pounding rain they brought with them. This week, much to the dismay of anyone eyeing a weekend outdoors, atmospheric rivers are back and forecast to pour cold water (and snow) on the Bay Area and other parts of California. As Daniel Swain, a climate researcher and the author of the Weather West blog, put it: “Enjoy the upcoming 10 days of ‘Mayuary.’”

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Drawing Lines On Privacy, Wildfire, Water And Schools

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Dan Morain

The nation’s first big-city ban on the use of facial-recognition technology by municipal agencies and local law enforcement passed Tuesday in San Francisco, signaling the next front in the debate over data privacy. Voting 8-1, supervisors in the tech hub made an exception for federally regulated facilities, like the airport. Oakland is considering a similar measure, and San Francisco Assemblyman Phil Ting has authored a more limited statewide version. SF police actually don’t use facial recognition. But privacy advocates say other law enforcement agencies do (San Jose, San Diego, California Department of Justice), that the technology can violate privacy, and that it can be inaccurate, especially with subjects who are not white men.

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Opinion: The Cadiz Project To Drain The Desert Is A Bad Idea

/in , /by /Los Angeles Times

There’s a tiny green patch of Mojave Desert, past Barstow but before Needles, north of Joshua Tree National Park and south of the Mojave National Preserve, where groundwater pumped from an aquifer under the arid landscape irrigates several hundred acres of crops. Rainfall that seeps from the adjacent mountains is sporadic, but sufficient to replenish what is taken from the ground while still leaving enough for the natural springs that sustain the bighorn sheep, desert tortoises and other threatened species that live in the environmentally fragile region. But the private landowner, Cadiz Inc., is interested in more than growing a few lemons among the creosote and cactus.

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Rare ‘Atmospheric River’ Storms To Soak California This Week

/in , /by /East Bay Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.)by Paul Rogers

Dig out that umbrella, and even the tire chains. It’s mid-May, but a series of rare, winter-like storms will soak the Bay Area and much of California through next week and bring up to 2 feet of new snow to the Sierra Nevada. Two atmospheric rivers are moving in from the Pacific, forecasters say. And although they are weak — expected to be a 1 on a scale of 1 to 5 — they will generate steady rainfall starting Wednesday and continuing through next Tuesday.

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Spillway Concerns? DWR, Sheriff Kory Honea Say No

/in , /by /Chico Enterprise-Recordby Brody Fernandez

The California Department of Water Resources released a Lake Oroville community update on Monday afternoon amid rumors of ongoing safety concerns regarding the Oroville Dam’s main spillway. These rumors have been circulated mostly on Facebook, according to DWR Public Information Officer Elizabeth Whitmore. “At this time, the community update should answer all questions regarding any safety issues with the main spillway, as well as concerns growing over the upcoming rain storm,” Whitmore said.

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Pumped Hydro With Better Financing Can Compete With Batteries

/in , /by /PV Magazineby William Driscoll Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Lazard’s well-known Levelized Cost of Storage analysis does not cover pumped hydro storage, and a pumped hydro cost estimate from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is not expected until late this year, as a follow-up to an interim report. Beating them to the punch is a report by UC San Diego professor David Victor and five co-authors, Pumped Energy Storage: Vital to California’s Renewable Energy Future. The report provides the following cost comparison between pumped hydro and battery storage:

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San Diego Water Department Ranks Low In National Customer-Satisfaction Survey

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Jeff McDonald

Customers in Fresno are much happier with their water service than residents of San Diego. So are ratepayers in Sacramento, Los Angeles, Honolulu and Denver. In fact, a new survey found only one water provider in the western United States less popular than the San Diego Water Department — the San Jose Water Co., a for-profit utility whose corporate owner is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The city of San Diego ranked 23rd out of 24 large water providers in a customer-satisfaction survey published by J.D. Power, the global marketing and information services company based in Orange County.

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Dam It All: More Than Half Of The World’s Long Rivers Are Blocked By Infrastructure

/in , /by /Salonby Rachel Ramirez

It hasn’t even been a week since the U.N. released a depressing report on biodiversity, and now, a new study in Nature shows that 63 percent of the world’s longest (at least 620 miles) rivers are impeded by human-built infrastructures such as dams and reservoirs. Dam(n). Rivers are a key source of food and water for agriculture, energy, and humanity. They’re critical to many cultures and communities and home to a plethora of species like salmon and trout. They also bolster ecosystems by restoring groundwater and serve as a buffer against drought.

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Desal Plant Operator Assumes Maintenance Of Carlsbad Lagoon

/in , /by /The San Diego Union Tribune by Phil Diehl Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

 

The company that built and operates the Carlsbad seawater desalination plant took over stewardship of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon this week, the only San Diego County lagoon that allows power boats, kayaks, paddleboards and other recreational and commercial activities. Poseidon Water will be responsible for dredging Agua Hedionda to keep it open and deep enough for public and private uses including a YMCA Aquatic Park, the Hubbs-SeaWorld Fish Hatchery, the Carlsbad Aquafarm shellfish operation and the lagoon foundation’s nature center.

 

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California’s Infrastructure Gets C- in New Report Card

/in , /by /NBC 7 San Diegoby Erika Cervantes and Brenda Gregorio-Nieto Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

A new report gave California’s infrastructure a grade of C-, which means it requires attention despite being better than the country’s average. The report by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) said California’s infrastructure is average when graded in 17 categories, including aviation, roads, transit, drinking water, and more. The annual infrastructure report card talked about the progress San Diego has made and where the city needs to improve.

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