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Water Company Withdraws Desalination Proposal as Battle over Environmental Justice Heats Up

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Rosanna Xia

Amid mounting controversy and concerns over environmental justice, California American Water on Wednesday withdrew its application for a desalination project in the small Monterey Bay town of Marina.

The proposal had become one of the most fraught issues to come before the California Coastal Commission, which was set to vote Thursday. The decision would have been the first major test of the commission’s new power to review not only harm to the environment when making decisions but also harm to underrepresented communities.

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CZU Complex Fire Damages Crucial Water Supply Pipes

/in , , /by /NBC Bay Areaby Robert Handa

The CZU Lightning Complex Fire that stretches from San Mateo County to Santa Cruz County devastated neighborhoods, roads and crucial water supply pipes.

Hundreds of families have been told not to drink the water, even if they boil it.

There’s a lot of cleaning up to do, especially at the water district facilities, and some of that cleanup includes removing damaged trees that stand 100-200 feet high.

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A Housing Developer and a Powerful Water Utility, are Caught in a Fight: How much Water is There?

/in , , /by /The Nevada Independentby Daniel Rothberg

Five wells punch the scorching Nevada desert.

Water in this area is locked underneath the ground. It flows silently and invisibly as part of an aquifer stretching roughly 50,000 square-miles. Much of this water collected here thousands of years ago when lakes covered most of Nevada. Now wells are summoning it for human use. The problem is there’s not enough to go around.

At the center of this tension are the five wells.

A housing developer, Coyote Springs Investment, owns four wells, planted to one day pump water for a sprawling new community in the desert, filling the highway stretch about 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas. The remaining well belongs to the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

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Conservationists Split Over Poseidon Desal Project’s Potential to Help Bolsa Chica Wetlands

/in , /by /Voice of OCby Brandon Pho

Along a Huntington Beach coastline dotted with oil rigs and a power plant, one of California’s largest remaining saltwater marshes has been a source of pride for local environmentalists.

But the marsh, known as the Bolsa Chica Wetlands, is endangered despite a years-long struggle to pull together sufficient public funding for its upkeep.

Nearby, the Poseidon Water Co., which has been in a decades-long, controversial fight to build a seawater desalination plant next to the AES energy station at the south end of the city, has justified its project partly with a promise to finance the wetlands’ conservation.

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Opinion: Water Board Must Establish a State Water Budget that California Can Afford

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Chris Shutes

Former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt writes that a “Grand Bargain” in California water is needed to end the “political culture of deferral” and allow major water projects to advance. On the contrary, what’s needed is an adult regulator that will make hard choices that water users refuse to make.

For at least five years, the state and various water users have postponed balancing the state’s water budget by promising a grand bargain.  This promised new grand bargain is not the solution to the aptly named “culture of deferral.”  The grand bargain is the current center of deferral.

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County to Open Erosion Control Center in Alpine for Valley Fire Victims

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby City News Service

San Diego County will open an erosion control center in Alpine Thursday to help businesses and homeowners prevent debris flows in the areas burned by the Valley Fire.

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IID Files Opposition in California Supreme Court Battle With Farmer Michael Abatti

/in , , /by /Palm Spring Desert Sunby Mark Olalde

The years-long fight between the Imperial Irrigation District and farmer Michael Abatti over control of Colorado River water could be nearing its grand finale in the California Supreme Court. After Abatti requested last month that the state’s highest judicial body take up his case, the water district filed its opposition on Monday.

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Trump WOTUS Rewrite Could Backfire, Lawmakers Warned

/in , , /by /E&E Newsby Hannah Northey

A top water regulator from New Mexico yesterday warned senators that hardrock mines, wastewater facilities and other industrial entities could face stricter environmental oversight as the Trump administration’s Waters of the U.S., or WOTUS, rule takes effect.

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Meet the Man Who Told Trump Climate Change is Real

/in , , /by /E&E Newsby Anne C. Mulkern

Wade Crowfoot, a California Cabinet secretary, didn’t plan on confronting President Trump on extreme heat and wildfires. Then Trump dismissed climate change.

“It’ll just start getting cooler, you just watch,” Trump said during a Monday meeting with California officials who were briefing him on the state’s catastrophic wildfires.

Crowfoot, in a response that went viral, responded: “I wish science agreed with you.”

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Supervisors OK Park Land Purchase, Set Hearing for Valley Center Preserve

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby Debbie Sklar

San Diego County supervisors voted unanimously Wednesday to increase the size of a recreational area in a South Bay community, and set a hearing on a Valley Center preserve addition. The board approved spending $1.07 million on 2.75 acres for the county- owned Otay Valley Regional Park Trail, located on the east side of Heritage Road and south of Main Street in Chula Vista.

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