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Center For Chula Vista Students Fosters Learning About Water

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Alexandra Mendoza

Fifth graders now have a space to learn everything about water, from conservation to careers in the water industry. The Hydro Station is an initiative of the Chula Vista Elementary School District (CVESD), the Otay Water District and Sweetwater Authority. This facility consists of a classroom right next to the Richard A. Reynolds desalination plant, which is estimated to receive about 4,500 students every school year. The idea is for children to broaden their career options from an early age and, if they wish, to consider a water-related career.

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Judge Won’t Reconsider Ruling In Agua Caliente Tribe’s Water Case

/in , /by /Palm Springs Desert Sunby Risa Johnson

A U.S. District Court judge has denied a motion from the federal government to reconsider a ruling on the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians’ lawsuit against two Coachella Valley water agencies. The court previously ruled that the federal government and tribe had failed to provide evidence of injury “to the Tribe’s federally reserved water right.” Since the motion to reconsider was denied, a hearing set for Monday was cancelled. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal called the motion to reconsider a “thinly veiled attempt to relitigate the summary judgement motions.”

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Marina Coast Sues Monterey County, Cal Am Over Desal Plant Approval

/in , /by /The Monterey County Herald (Monterey, Calif.)by Jim Johnson

Arguing that Monterey County officials improperly ignored new groundwater impact information and a viable, even preferable recycled water alternative, Marina Coast Water District has sued the county and California American Water over the county’s narrow approval of Cal Am’s desalination plant permit. On Thursday, Marina Coast filed suit in Monterey County Superior Court seeking to halt the start of construction on the desal plant project through a writ of mandate and injunctive relief. The suit asks the court to order the county to rescind its approval of a combined development permit for the project until full compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act, water code, and planning and zoning law.

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California Could See A Slew Of Prop 65 Lawsuits Related To PFAS

/in , /by /Northern California Recordby Chris Adams

With California’s addition of two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) – to its Proposition 65 list, the state may have potentially paved the way for an explosion of lawsuits. “It confirms our … concern all along,” said Luke Wake, an attorney with the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Small Business Legal Center in Sacramento. “We’ve continually raised concerns about Prop 65 as really creating open season for these plaintiffs’ … controlling attorneys, basically.” Proposition 65 is also known as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act and was passed in 1986. PFOA and PFOS were added to the Proposition 65 list in 2017 and warnings were required on products as of November 2018, according to a report in JD Supra.

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‘We Can’t Waste A Drop.’ India Is Running Out Of Water.

/in , /by /The Wall Street Journalby Bill Spindle

The Ladakh region of northern India is one of the world’s highest, driest inhabited places. For centuries, meltwater from winter snows in the Himalayan mountains sustained the tiny villages dotting this remote land. Now, like many other places in India, parts of Ladakh are running short of water. A tourism boom has sent the summer population soaring, and the region’s traditional system of conserving water is breaking down. Water crises are unfolding all across India, a product of population growth, modernization, climate change, mismanagement and the breakdown of traditional systems of distributing resources. India is running out of water in more places, in more different ways, putting more people at risk, than perhaps any other country.

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DEWA To Use Solar To Power New Pumped-Storage Project

/in , /by /pv magazine Internationalby Emiliano Bellini Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The Dubai Water and Electricity Authority will use energy from the gigawatt-scale Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park to provide a new hydropower plant with pumped storage capacity. The state-owned utility has announced a number of innovations for the project in recent months, including plans for hydrogen and large-scale storage capacity. The Dubai Water and Electricity Authority (DEWA) has revealed it will use output from its 5 GW Mohammed bin Rashid Maktoum Solar Park to provide energy for a newly tendered 250 MW pumped-storage hydroelectric power station at Hatta, an inland exclave of the emirate of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

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Study Raises Questions About Fluoride And Children’s IQ

/in , /by /The Washington Postby Ben Guarino

A study of young children in Canada suggests those whose mothers drank fluoridated tap water while pregnant had slightly lower IQ scores than children whose mothers lived in non-fluoridated cities. But don’t dash for the nearest bottled water yet. Health experts at the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Dental Association cautioned that public policy and drinking water consumption should not change on the basis of this study. “I still stand by the weight of the best available evidence, from 70 years of study, that community water fluoridation is safe and effective,” said Brittany Seymour, a dentist and spokeswoman for the American Dental Association. “If we’re able to replicate findings and continue to see outcomes, that would compel us to revisit our recommendation. We’re just not there yet.”

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Helix Water District, Sweetwater Authority Offer Smart Leak Detector Rebates

/in , /by /Water News Network

The Helix Water District has rolled out a new smart leak detector rebate program. Helix and Sweetwater Authority customers can get a rebate of up to $100 when they purchase a smart leak detector. The detectors sync to smartphones, allowing customers to monitor water use 24/7 via smartphone and the devices notify customers of leaks and water consumption amounts. There are two types of smart leak detectors: plumbed devices and external devices, according to Helix. Plumbed devices are plumbed into your existing water lines. Most of these devices can automatically shut the water off at their point of installation, or allow you to shut your water off remotely, in case of a leak.

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Proposal Would Allow Oil Companies Keep Injecting Wastewater Into Kern County Aquifers

/in , , /by /Palm Springs Desert Sunby Janet Wilson

California regulators are negotiating an agreement with two major oil companies that would allow them to keep injecting millions of gallons of wastewater into potential drinking water and irrigation supplies in the Central Valley for three years. The voluntary plan would allow Aera Energy (which was jointly formed by Shell Oil and Exxon Mobil) and California Resources Corp. to continue to inject fluid remnants of oil extraction into 94 wells that discharge into shallow groundwater aquifer zones in Kern County. The negotiations frustrate groups like Clean Water Action, a national environmental organization, which argues that injecting into the aquifers violates the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, and should cease now, not in three years.

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Goleta Water District Updates Permit To Sell Recycled Water To Ag Users

/in , /by /Noozhawk (Santa Barbra, Calif.)by Giana Magnoli

The Goleta Water District has updated its recycled water permitting so it can now sell to agricultural customers, although not many of them are interested in buying. Recycled water, which the district has produced and sold since 1997, cannot be used for groundwater recharge, but was used for landscape irrigation, construction dust control, industrial cooling, and toilet and urinal flushing. State law has allowed more uses in the intervening years, and with a modernized permit, the district can now sell recycled water for agricultural irrigation and industrial and manufacturing uses, said Ryan Drake, the district’s water supply and conservation manager.

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