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Californians used 21 percent less water in June than they did in 2013. That wasn’t as much savings as last month or even last year, but state water regulators say they expected conservation to dip. It’s the first month after statewide mandates were eased. Local water agencies now set conservation standards based on supply. Agencies must self-certify that they can provide water for several years. Regulators call it a “stress-test.” But it may be too soon to tell if the dip in June is an indication that the relaxed rules aren’t working.

 

California officials Tuesday released a detailed environmental blueprint for Gov. Jerry Brown’s controversial Delta tunnels project, saying the $15.5 billion plan “minimizes potential effects” on endangered fish species whose populations have dwindled following decades of water pumping. The Department of Water Resources unveiled its so-called “biological assessment” for the proposed tunnels, which are designed to re-engineer the plumbing of the battered Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in order to improve reliability of water deliveries to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.

 

A half century after building the largest water-delivery system in America, California officials say they now realize they put their giant straws to capture Delta water in the wrong place. Last week, state and federal water project operators opened the case to win permission for a fix — construction of three diversion points near Sacramento tied to twin underground tunnels to shunt Delta water for 25 million people throughout the state.

 

It might not be what you expect to hear about California agriculture in the throes of drought: After four years of historic water shortages, farm earnings in the state increased 16 percent, and total employment increased 5 percent.

Yet those are real numbers gathered by federal agencies that track economic data. Average wages for farm employees also increased an impressive 13 percent since the drought began.

 

In an unpublished opinion, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and the San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association in their long battle with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and San Joaquin Valley agribusinesses that get irrigation water from the Central Valley Project.