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Accelerating Innovation in the Urban Water Sector

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Michael Kiparsky

Climate change and population growth are rapidly increasing stress on our water systems, challenging their ability to deliver critical services. To respond to this, we need more than simple course adjustments in how we manage our water – we need entirely new paradigms that will improve resource efficiency and support more sustainable urban water systems.

Considerable work is being done to develop new visions for sustainable water infrastructure. Actualizing these visions, however, is another battle, one that requires increasing innovation in the urban water sector.

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The Unforgiving New Landscape for Water Utilities

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Max Gomberg

Local officials are judged on how well their governments provide basic services from transportation to trash collection. So it has been with drinking water: if the water was safe to drink and reliably delivered, water managers were doing their job. Moreover, when water managers thought about long-term planning, the answer was always the same: increase supply.

Climate change, new economic realities and population growth in the Sun Belt (from California to Florida) has made water management much more complex.

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VIDEO: Mail Print More County to Establish Groundwater Sustainablilty Agency

/in /by /KGET (Bakersfield)
County supervisors took action this morning to officially file a notice of intent with the state to establish a groundwater sustainability agency.
It’s more of a technical maneuver than anything else. GSAs are starting to pop up in Kern County, to comply with state law that mandates a statewide effort to balance demand for our groundwater with supplies.
The city of Bakersfield has joined with Kern Delta Water District to form their own GSA.They both draw water from the Kern River.
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Sites Reservoir likely years down the road

/in /by /The Redding Record Searchlightby Damon Arthur

Don’t expect to see a reservoir built in the hills west of Maxwell anytime soon.

Plans to build the Sites Reservoir have been in the works since 1957, and if it is eventually approved, work on the project probably would not be complete for another 10 to 12 years, according to Jim Watson, the Sites Reservoir Project general manager.

“Sites is not for us. Sites is for our grandchildren,” said Nadine Bailey, chief operating officer for the Family Water Alliance in Maxwell.

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Bill seeks to use renewable energy to boost water supplies

/in /by /89.3 KPCCby Kevin Walker

As the state slogs through its fifth year of drought, many water agencies are increasingly turning to alternative water sources to boost supplies — source like seawater, brackish groundwater and recycled wastewater.

But those need a lot of energy to treat. Now a local state senator wants to use California’s growing renewable energy supply to help meet that demand. “In the old days I remember we had this thing called Flex Your Power,” said state Senator Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys).

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California To Set Legal Limit On Probable Carcinogen In Water

/in /by /Capital Public Radio News (Sacramento)by Amy Quinton

The California State Water Resources Control Board will soon set a maximum contaminant level for 1,2,3 Trichloropropane, or 1,2,3 TCP.

It’s found in industrial solvents and cleaning agents, but it was once found in two popular soil fumigants made by Dow Chemical and Shell Oil Company.

The pesticide byproduct contaminated groundwater throughout the Central Valley. State water regulators have found 1,2,3 TCP in 94 public drinking water systems in 16 counties.

Right now, water systems in California are only required to notify residents if the chemical is found at a certain health-based advisory level.

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BLOG: MWD boss on being a ‘good neighbor’

/in /by /eSan Joaquin Blog by Alex Breitler

Now that the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California officially owns 20,000 acres of Delta farmland, a question asked of General Manager Jeff Kightlinger at a public forum last week becomes even more relevant.

The question: As an absentee landowner in the Delta, what does it mean to Metropolitan to be a “good neighbor?”

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Southern California water district finalizes land purchase

/in /by /The Associated Press (As Published by The Washington Times)

Southern California’s largest water supplier has bought sprawling farmland that could be used to help build twin tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

The Sacramento Bee reports (http://bit.ly/2a3qYUm) the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California said Monday it has completed its purchase of five islands at the hub of California’s water system east of San Francisco.

The newspaper reports Metropolitan announced the completion of the purchase in a two-paragraph memo to board members from the agency’s general counsel.

 

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Unlocking the West’s Weather Maker

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Matt Weiser

One thing the drought has brought to wider attention is the role of so-called atmospheric rivers in the state’s weather and water supply.

An atmospheric river is a narrow band of high-speed wind that sweeps across the Pacific Ocean, often dragging vast amounts of tropical moisture with it. Sometimes dubbed a “horizontal hurricane,” just a handful of these storms can bring California half of its annual rainfall every year. Indeed, an absence of very wet atmospheric rivers over the past few years is one reason California has experienced such a severe drought.

Atmospheric rivers are also responsible for the state’s worst flooding events.

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Southern California water district completes $175-million purchase of delta islands

/in /by /The Los Angeles Timesby Matt Hamilton Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Southern California’s powerful water supplier has completed the $175-million purchase of five islands in the heart of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the ecologically sensitive region that’s a key source of water for the Southland.

The top attorney for the Metropolitan Water District said in a memo Monday that the agency had finalized the purchase of the islands from Delta Wetlands Properties. The purchase comes less than a week after the state Supreme Court lifted an order that had barred the water agency from buying the islands.

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