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California’s Blackouts Could Make Fighting Climate Change Even Harder

/in , /by /Los Angeles Times by Sammy Roth

The state’s electric grid was experiencing rapid and unprecedented changes even before Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison began shutting off power to millions of people in a desperate scramble to prevent their transmission lines from sparking wildfires.

Solar and wind power were booming. Gas-fired power plants were shutting down. Investor-owned utility companies such as PG&E and Edison were being replaced by city-run alternatives. And the falling cost of lithium-ion batteries was making some households less reliant on the grid than ever before.

The changes will only accelerate in the coming years, as California ramps up efforts to fight climate change by cleaning up its energy supply.

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Nursery Fined For Contaminating Nearby Creek

/in , /by /Fox 5 San Diego by City News Service

The California State Water Resources Control Board announced Wednesday that a Fallbrook commercial nursery was fined $18,132 for violating local wastewater discharge requirements for commercial agriculture businesses.

The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, a regional partner agency of the state board, inspected Hines Growers Inc. in February, during which staff members observed waste with high quantities of nitrogen and phosphorous discharged into Rainbow Creek from a malfunctioning water recycling system.

Board inspectors also found violations of local waste discharge rules in the nursery’s water quality protection plan, which is required for commercial plant growers.

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Big If It Works: New System Aims to Pull Water Rights Out of the Sky

/in , , /by /Forbesby James Conca

Over 4 billion people live under conditions of severe water scarcity at least one month of the year. Over a billion people spend several hours a day searching for water, wasting precious time and putting them in frequent danger. Some of this scarcity has led to violence and conflict, especially in Africa, Southern Asia and the Middle East. The Syrian conflict was triggered by a years-long drought. So it would go a long way to achieving global peace and ending global poverty if we could give these people water without a lot of cost and trouble, and without a lot of infrastructure.

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Disadvantaged Communities Claim A Stake In State Groundwater Overhaul

/in , , /by /Valley Public Radioby Kerry Klein

Jovita Torres Romo lives in a grayish bungalow surrounded by cactus and succulents and strung with Christmas lights. It’s located on one of the handful of streets that make up Tombstone Territory, an unincorporated Fresno County community that’s been her home for 30 years. It’s quiet, except for the few days a week when her young grandchildren come over to watch cartoons and play in the backyard. “I like it here,” she says through a Spanish interpreter. “I raised five children here, they grew up in this house, and I like living outside the city in the county.”

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Scripps Institution of Oceanography Gets $4.9M Grant to Find Cause of Deadly Algae Blooms

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Bradley J. Fikes

Harmful algae blooms periodically erupt off the West Coast, injuring or killing marine mammals and costing fisheries millions. To better understand and predict these blooms, UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography has been awarded a $4.9 million federal grant. The five-year grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was announced Monday. It’s intended to shed light on why algae in the genus Pseudo-nitzschia sometimes produce the neurotoxin domoic acid.

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Fishery Plans Aim to Add Flexibility to Water System

/in , /by /AgAlertby Christine Souza

In an action that influences how water will move through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, federal fisheries agencies have issued new biological opinions to guide operation of federal and state water projects. Representatives of farmers and water districts said the opinions released last week promise to enhance the flexibility of the California water system. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries determined that the proposed long-term operations of the federal Central Valley Project and State Water Project do not jeopardize the continued existence of protected salmon and delta smelt in the bay-delta watershed.

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Demand-Management Groups Multiply in Colorado Water Fight

/in , /by /The Aspen Timesby Heather Sackett

GLENWOOD SPRINGS — The state of Colorado’s investigation into the feasibility of a demand-management program has spawned the spinoff of several additional groups to study the issue, underscoring persistent tensions between the Western Slope and Front Range water managers. In June, the Colorado Water Conservation Board named 74 people — most of them experts in their fields — to nine workgroups charged with helping the state study whether a water-use reduction plan is right for Colorado.

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Artwork From 4 Area Students to be Featured in 2020 ‘Water is Life’ Calendar

/in , /by /La Cañada Valley Sunby Valley Sun Staff

Four students living within the Foothill Municipal Water District service area were named finalists in this year’s “Water is Life” art contest. Their works made the final selection of 36 drawings that will be included in the 2020 Metropolitan Water District of Southern California calendar. Crescenta Valley High School ninth-grader Heidy Hur, La Cañada High School 7/8 student Jacqueline Lee, Paradise Canyon Elementary School second-grade student Reya Etman and La Cañada Elementary School first-grader Isabella McArthur wowed the judges with their creative works of art urging water conservation.

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Padre Dam’s Ambitious Drinking Water Recycling Project to Get Federal Funding

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby Chris Jennewein

The Padre Dam Municipal Water District announced Tuesday that its East County Advanced Water Purification project was selected to apply for nearly $350 million in federal funding. The water purification project is expected to create a sustainable municipal water supply through purification of east San Diego County’s recycled water, according to district officials. The project is scheduled for completion in 2025 and could generate up to 11.5 million gallons of drinking water per day, roughly 30% of east county’s drinking water demand.

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Garamendi Water Infrastructure Bill Passes Committee

/in , /by /The Reporterby Nick Sestanovich

A bill by Rep. John Garamendi, D-Solano, to support local wastewater treatment and water recycling infrastructure projects unanimously passed the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Tuesday. The bill is part of House Resolution 1497, which aims to reauthorize the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund. Garamendi’s bill aims to extend the maximum term for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System issued under the federal Clean Water Act from five to 10 years.

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