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Volunteers On Horseback Inform Residents On Upgrades To Water System Serving Compton, Willowbrook

COMPTON, Calif. (KABC) — Volunteers on horseback rode down the streets of Compton Sunday, informing residents of upgrades coming to their water supply. Compton’s equestrian community had riders on horseback going around the neighborhood, handing out flyers with information to residents who live in the old Sativa Water District that serves nearly 7,000 residents in Compton and Willowbrook. Phase one for a new water supply begins Monday. As part of ongoing infrastructure repair, the Los Angeles County Public Works Department will make start flushing out the system and make an emergency connection to Liberty Utility, a neighboring water company.

Mayor Garcetti Pushes Out Top DWP Executive After FBI Raids

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Tuesday sought to reassure the public in the wake of FBI raids at the Department of Water and Power headquarters, announcing that he had pushed out the agency’s top executive months ahead of his planned departure. Garcetti’s announcement came as activists called for more forceful action at the DWP, which has been reeling from a scandal over the city’s response to a disastrous rollout of customer billing software at the utility. “It’s very clear to me that, given the events of the last 24 hours, we need to have a utility that people can trust and leadership they can trust,” Garcetti said in an interview.

Kern County Spills Still Growing, Chevron To Appeal

As Chevron Gets Ready to Appeal State Order, Kern County Spill Continues to Grow. One of the largest oil spills our state has seen in decades is still growing. The oil giant Chevron told regulators almost a million gallons of fluid has burst through the ground near the site of one its oil wells about 30 miles from Bakersfield. Chevron also told state officials it plans to appeal an order from regulators calling for it to “take all measures” to stop the spill and ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Close To $3 Million Of Water Has Reached Ventura County’s Overstressed Groundwater Basin

Close to $3 million worth of water has rushed down the Santa Clara River over the past several weeks to recharge groundwater basins in the Oxnard Plain. The release was part of a deal between the United Water Conservation District and Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency to help recharge aquifers still struggling after years of drought. United told the Fox Canyon board it could purchase extra water from the California Water Project thanks to a particularly wet winter statewide. Fox Canyon then would buy roughly 15,000 acre-feet of water once it made it to spreading ponds near Oxnard and Camarillo.

OPINION: Modernizing Water Infrastructure Is Crucial To Achieving California’s Energy Goals. Here’s Why

The Colorado River, the State Water Project (SWP) and groundwater are where California gets its water. And all three are at risk, requiring significant investment and changes in current practices if water quality and reliability are to be maintained. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration, guided by the steady hand of the state’s Secretary for Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot, offers a ray of hope. But the rest of us need to help. We share the water in the Colorado River with six other neighboring states and Mexico, and it supplies up to 50 percent of Southern California’s water.

As Climate Change Threatens California, Officials Seek ‘Sustainable Insurance’

California regulators are teaming up with the United Nations to develop “sustainable insurance” guidelines that would help address climate-change-related disasters such as coastal flooding and larger wildfires — the first such partnership of its kind between the international organization and a U.S. state, officials announced Tuesday. After a roundtable discussion at UCLA with lawmakers, state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara announced that his agency would work with officials from the U.N. Principles for Sustainable Insurance Initiative over the next year to develop a plan to confront California’s climate risks, which are manifold.

New Environment Bill Outlines Measures To Enhance Water Resilience

In an update on progress towards the introduction of the Environment Bill – the first for 20 years – the Government has published firm positions, following a range of consultations, on issues ranging from trees to water to recycling, to boost the natural environment. Gove set out the Government’s ambitions for the full Environment Bill in an updated summer policy statement, including commitments to legislate on environmental governance, air, biodiversity, water, and waste and resource efficiency.

OPINION: A Listening California Should Consult The Real Experts On Water

The Natural Resources Agency, California EPA, and California Department of Food and Agriculture want the public’s input on how best to manage and deal with an uncertain water supply in the future.

It seems every new administration in Sacramento must deal with water issues in California that never seem to get fixed.

Under the last administration, water rationing, increasing flows to the ocean, higher rates to customers, multi-billion dollar bonds, increased regulations, and a declaration of the human right to water obviously didn’t do the trick.

 

The Dam Truth: The 91,000 Dams In the US Earned A “D” For Safety

It is a telling illustration of the precarious state of United States dams that the near-collapse in February 2017 of Oroville Dam, the nation’s tallest, occurred in California, considered one of the nation’s leading states in dam safety management.

The Oroville incident forced the evacuation of nearly 190,000 people and cost the state $1.1 billion in repairs. It took its place as a seminal event in the history of US dam safety, ranking just below the failures in the 1970s of two dams—Teton Dam in Idaho and Kelly Barnes in Georgia—that killed 14 and 39 people, respectively, and ushered in the modern dam safety era.

Massive SF Recycling Project To Save 30 million Gallons Of Drinking Water Per Year

Fifty feet below the platform of the Powell Street BART Station sits the starting point for one of the largest water recycling projects in San Francisco — one that’s transforming dirty groundwater into clean steam heat for hundreds of downtown buildings. In the process, it’s saving tens of millions of gallons of drinking water annually.

For decades, BART officials treated the naturally percolating groundwater that pools beneath the BART stop as a nuisance and a potential flooding risk. After seeping into an underground cistern, millions of gallons of water a month was pumped into the city’s sewer system.