Comments, questions and concerns are now being accepted, again, for the Lake Powell Pipeline. This comes after the Bureau of Reclamation issued the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the pipeline, which is designed to pump water to Washington County.
A century after the state began overseeing surface water, the California legislature enacted a set of three laws regulating water below the surface. The passage of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) in 2014, granted the state official oversight authority of groundwater. However, its involvement existed long before SGMA and continues to influence current policies and regulation of the resource. A new paper published in Society and Natural Resources, examines how the state’s ongoing involvement helped shape current policies by looking at the 120-year history of California’s role in groundwater management and policy development.
Groundwater makes up 30 to 50 percent of California’s water supply, but until recently there were few restrictions placed on its retrieval. Then in 2014 California became the last Western state to require regulation of its groundwater. With deadlines starting this year, for the first time water managers in the nation’s premier agricultural region – the state’s Central Valley – are tasked with estimating available groundwater. It’s a daunting technological challenge.
A three-member Fourth Appellate District Court of Appeals panel at 9 a.m. Friday will listen to oral arguments in the Imperial Irrigation District’s appeal of a 2017 Superior Court ruling in favor of former IID director and local farmer Mike Abatti on water rights.
The State Water Resources Control Board and its regional branches are facing an uncertain time, and farmers could see the fallout.
Lake Tahoe’s famed clarity has long been used to gauge the health and changing conditions of Big Blue. Unlike in recent years when researchers were able to point to a dominant factor affecting lake clarity like drought or higher-than-average precipitation, 2019 saw a range of influences on Tahoe, including lake mixing for the first time in several years, sediment, algae, and climate warming.
Hundreds of studies on nature-based solutions to extreme events show that “green infrastructure” is often cheaper and more effective than engineered projects like dams, levees and sea walls, according to a new analysis.
In an effort to move forward a $576 million Anderson Dam Seismic Retrofit Project, the California State Assembly passed AB 3005 on June 8, the Expedited Dam Safety for Silicon Valley Act, facilitating the construction of the project.
Assemblyman Robert Rivas (D-Hollister, Calif.), who wrote the bill, says the overwhelming vote of bipartisan support shows the importance in fixing the dam. “The clock is ticking on a catastrophic dam failure in case of a large earthquake,” he says, “and we can’t allow bureaucratic delay to increase risks to public safety, water security and environmental protections.”
A 90% clean grid by 2035 would be cost-effective, says a report from UC Berkeley and GridLab; a companion policy paper calls for a federal renewables mandate to get there.
Under a 90% clean grid, wholesale electricity would cost less than it does today. And although a 55% clean grid in 2035 would have even lower electricity prices, when environmental and health damages from fossil fuel use are counted, the 90% clean grid would cost less.
The city government of San Diego is fighting with San Diego Gas & Electric over an ongoing project that replaces overhead power lines with underground lines in various parts of the city.
At issue is at least $22.1 million in invoices racked up from the end of 2018 through February of this year. City Attorney Mara Elliott says the price tag is too high and SDG&E has not properly documented the costs. The utility counters that it has substantiated its charges to city officials and the bill fairly represents work rendered.
