You are now in California and the U.S. Home Headline Media Coverage category.

As Sea Level Rise Threat Grows, SF Officials Don’t Have Public Plan to Save Sewers

/in , , /by /NBC Bay Areaby Stephen Stock, Robert Campos, Mark Villarreal, Michael Horn and Jeremy Carroll

Because Bay Area low-lying sewage treatment plants remain vulnerable to rising sea levels, government regulators told sewage facility managers to “provide a written plan for coping with SLR by the fall of 2021 – or they will be given a plan.”  The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit reached out to 10 “at risk” sewage treatment plants to see those plans. All except one provided extensive documents of their proposals, the cost to address them, and even provided tours of completed work. San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission replied to the Investigative Unit’s public records request that after a “diligent search for records…no records were found.” Other sanitary district officials were much more forthcoming about what they’ve already spent, what they’ve built and what they’re planning in the future to combat the rise in bay levels. All agreed seas are rising faster than expected.

Full Story

Valley Communities Lost Water in Last Drought. Are Small Water Systems Ready This Time?

/in , , /by /The Fresno Beeby Danielle Bergstrom

Arturo Rodriguez and his colleagues on the Poplar Community Services District board are responsible for keeping clean water flowing to 2,500 residents in the middle of a global pandemic and drought.

Of the community’s three wells, two are in production right now, although Rodriguez doesn’t know how long they’ll last through another drought. The other well is inactive because it is contaminated with nitrates. As the aquifer lowers this summer, even if the wells don’t run dry, they run a greater risk of becoming contaminated. Water suppliers are often forced to choose between a contaminated well or no running water.

Full Story

The Sinking Central Valley Town

/in , /by /SJV Waterby Lois Henry

In California’s San Joaquin Valley, the farming town of Corcoran has a multimillion-dollar problem. It is almost impossible to see, yet so vast it takes NASA scientists using satellite technology to fully grasp. Corcoran is sinking. Over the past 14 years, the town has sunk as much as 11.5 feet in some places — enough to swallow the entire first floor of a two-story house and to at times make Corcoran one of the fastest-sinking areas in the country, according to experts with the United States Geological Survey.

Full Story

San Diego County Crops Supported by Water Rate Discount

/in , , /by /Water News Network Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Alongside other cornerstone industries such as tourism and biotechnology, agriculture sustains the San Diego County’s economy with a farmgate value of nearly $2 billion a year, according to the most recent county assessment. Avocados – one of the county’s signature farm goods — account for $140 million of the farming total growth of 16% in 2019, county figures show.

And all the crops countywide are supported by reliable water supplied by the San Diego County Water Authority and its 24 member agencies, which have invested strategically over the past three decades to ensure water availability even during dry years. The Water Authority has also created a special ag water program that offers lower-cost water in return for lower reliability so that farmers can choose the level of service that works best for them.

Full Story

Replacement of Lake Wohlford Dam is ‘Shovel Ready’

/in , , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joe Tash

The city of Escondido is moving forward with plans to replace the Lake Wohlford dam, a structure built of earth and rock that has stood at its present location since 1895.

Lake Wohlford is about 5 miles northeast of downtown Escondido, just beyond city limits in the unincorporated area of San Diego County, and the dam is owned by the city. The lake has long served the city both as a recreational asset for boaters and fishing enthusiasts, and as an emergency storage reservoir to supply drinking water in case of a drought.

Full Story

As Drought Intensifies, California Seeing More Wildfires

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Don Thompson

As California sinks deeper into drought it already has had more than 900 additional wildfires than at this point in 2020, which was a record-breaking year that saw more than 4% of the state’s land scorched by flames.

The danger prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to propose spending a record $2 billion on wildfire mitigation. That’s double what he had proposed in January.

Full Story

San Francisco Water Use Has Declined Since Last Drought — What Else Can You Do to Conserve?

/in , , /by /SF Newsby Jay Barmann

We’re once again going to be having conversations this summer about water use, and hearing about ever more strict mandates coming down from counties and the state about what we use water for. But is San Francisco’s household water use really the problem?

The drought is bad, and it’s getting worse. A big swath of the Bay Area was just put in the “exceptional” drought tier last week by the U.S. Drought Monitor, and the rest of the Bay Area is in the second-worst or “extreme” drought category, along with about three-quarters of California.

Full Story

Could California’s Drought Crisis Block Bay Area Housing Construction?

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Emma Talley

The Marin Municipal Water District is considering banning new water service hookups to homes in response to worsening drought conditions. But the move could hurt future housing development in an area already in dire need of more homes.

The move would come amid historic drought conditions in the area, with county officials declaring a local drought emergency last week in light of a “grim and deteriorating” situation. The National Drought Mitigation Center’s drought monitor recently deemed most of the Bay Area as extreme drought zones for the first time since 2015.

Full Story

That Mississippi River Pipeline? Bureau of Reclamation Weighed In About A Decade Ago

/in , , /by /KJZZby Ron Dungan

The Arizona Legislature wants to look into the feasibility of pumping water from the Mississippi River to Arizona.

But the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has already studied the idea, and weighed in on the project in 2012.

The agency studied factors such as cost, legal issues, power use and the amount of time the project would take.

A report estimated the project could cost up to $14 billion; the timetable was around 30 years.

Full Story
SAWR-Water Rates-Crops-Agriculture

San Diego County Crops Supported by Water Rate Discount

/in , /by

Alongside other cornerstone industries such as tourism and biotechnology, agriculture sustains the San Diego County’s economy with a farmgate value of nearly $2 billion a year, according to the most recent county assessment. Avocados – one of the county’s signature farm goods — account for $140 million of the farming total growth of 16% in 2019, county figures show.

And all the crops countywide are supported by reliable water supplied by the San Diego County Water Authority and its 24 member agencies, which have invested strategically over the past three decades to ensure water availability even during dry years. The Water Authority has also created a special ag water program that offers lower-cost water in return for lower reliability so that farmers can choose the level of service that works best for them.

“San Diego’s dynamic agricultural industry strengthens our region by employing thousands of people, contributing to the local economy, supporting the local food system and enhancing sustainability efforts,” said San Diego County Agricultural Commissioner Ha Dang. “All efforts to support our diverse agricultural economy are important, including water reliability and accessibility.”

San Diego County ag production is the combined result of more than 5,000 family farms – the most of any county in the United States. In fact, 69% of all San Diego County farms are smaller than nine acres. Innovative practices – including water-use efficiency measures – allow local farms to be productive by focusing on high-value crops such as ornamental trees and shrubs, bedding plants, cacti and succulents and indoor plants.

Agriculture directly employs 56,000 people in San Diego County, including the second-largest number of farms operated by women and the largest number of part-time farmers in the U.S. Along with avocados, San Diego County farmers rank first in the nation in production of nursery crops, and among the top five producers nationwide of lemons, limes, guavas, pomegranates, and macadamias.

Water Authority offers ag discount

In partnership with its member agencies, the Water Authority offers a Permanent Special Agricultural Water Rate Program to continue supporting commercial farms that are the economic engine of rural San Diego County.

In exchange for lower price water, participants in the ag water program agree to have lesser water service when the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California cuts supplies to San Diego County. It is similar to power companies offering lower rates to customers who agree to have their power service interrupted during peak demand periods. In turn, the Water Authority can reallocate those supplies as needed to commercial and residential customers who pay higher rates for full reliability benefits.

An important deadline for the ag water program is coming at the end of June, and farmers who want to take advantage of lower rates should contact their retail water agency for details.