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BLOG: San Francisco Makes History With New Water Bond

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York) by Tara Lohan

Finding funding for water infrastructure projects can sometimes be tough, especially for smaller, decentralized projects that don’t fall under the criteria of traditional funding sources. But another avenue for accessing resources is coming to light after the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission last week became the first entity to issue a green bond certified under the Water Climate Bonds Standard.

Green bonds were established as a way to direct private financing to environmental projects, and in less than 10 years, it has it has generated $41.8 billion.

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Governor’s Order Expands Water Efficiency Rules

/in /by /The Porterville Recorder by Kate Campbell

Water management plans for agricultural water districts will be expanded, and more districts will be required to submit the plans, under an executive order issued last week by California Gov. Jerry Brown. The requirements came as part of an order that also requires urban water agencies to make permanent a number of water-efficiency measures instituted last year at the height of the California drought.

The agricultural provisions of the governor’s order include that the state Department of Water Resources work with the state Department of Food and Agriculture to update existing requirements for agricultural water management plans.

 

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California Water Bill Has Three Possible Paths for Passage

/in /by /The Sacramento Bee by Michael Doyle

House Republicans this week are adding a controversial California water bill to an unrelated Senate energy package, opening a new front in a fight that’s already put Democrats on the defensive.

The unexpected energy bill maneuver gives San Joaquin Valley lawmakers a third vehicle they might propel all the way to the White House. At the least, it builds up steam for the GOP drive to boost California water storage and divert more irrigation deliveries to Valley farms.

 

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As Lake Mead Swindles, Can An Interstate Water War Be Far Behind?

/in /by /Los Angeles Times by Michael Hiltzik

The last time two states went to war over water, it was 1934. The combatants were California and Arizona and the casus belli was the start of construction of Parker Dam, which would direct water from the Colorado River into California via the Colorado River Aqueduct.

The episode unfolded with a sort of Gilbert and Sullivan absurdity. Arizona’s governor, Benjamin Baker Moeur, dispatched a handful of National Guardsmen upriver in a ferryboat named the Julia B., which frontline correspondents dispatched to the river by The Times and other California newspapers happily dubbed the “Arizona Navy.”

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OPINION: Many Myths in San Joaquin River Politics

/in /by /The Fresno Bee

There have been repeated false claims by The Bee’s guest opinion writers and letter writers stating that San Joaquin River water is being “wasted” to the sea.

In fact, not one drop of restoration water in the San Joaquin River over the last five years has reached the ocean. Just drive across the riverbed out by Los Banos on Highway 152 if you want proof. All of this water is going to farmers, not fish.

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Northern California Hit By More Rain and Snow

/in /by /Associated Press (As Published by Los Angeles Times)

It’s already late May. But parts of Northern California got another blast of rain and snow this weekend, helping the state’s drought relief efforts.

A spring storm dropped rain in parts of Northern California on Saturday afternoon, but it was less severe than the one a day earlier that dumped up to 13 inches of snow on a Sierra Nevada highway and hit the Sacramento area lightning, winds gusting to 40 mph and dime-sized hail.

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Garamendi, Congress Take Another Stab at Water Legislation

/in /by /Chico Enterprise-Recordby By Jim Smith

Congress could be taking another swing at modernizing the state’s water management policies to provide both short- and long-term solutions, under legislation introduced by 3rd District Congressman John Garamendi, D-Fairfield.

Whether the package introduced Tuesday will make it through Congress, however, is anyone’s guess. California lawmakers have been trying for the last three years to produce a plan that would deal with the state’s drought without success. Meanwhile, in related action, the California Farm Bureau Federation urged the U.S. Senate to take up drought legislation.

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Cloud Seeding Can Only go so Far in Fighting California Drought

/in /by /The San Luis Obispo Tribune by By John Lindsey

Despite the strongest El Niño event on record and the well above normal amounts of rainfall it brought to Northern California, the worst category of drought (D4 Exceptional Drought) continues to persist throughout most of San Luis Obispo and Kern counties and all of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

Since the start of 2016, nearly all the long-range models have consistently advertised that a La Niña condition — which historically produces below average rainfall for the Central Coast — will develop in the eastern equatorial Pacific this upcoming winter.

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White House Drought Strategy Will Help Southwest

/in /by /The Pueblo Chieftain (Pueblo, Colo.)
Drought has taken a record toll on the western United States. The 16-year drought we are experiencing (with no end in sight) affects millions of Americans and poses a serious threat to local communities. From farmers who need water to irrigate crops to families that rely on healthy waterways for jobs and recreation, to wildlife and ecosystems — nearly everyone and everything in the Colorado River basin is impacted by abnormally dry to exceptional drought conditions and potentially harsh economic and health consequences that come with it.
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9 Counties Running Out Of Water

/in /by /24/7 Wall St (New York)by By Michael B. Sauter

This week, California lifted some — but not all — of its statewide restrictions on urban water use. This comes as Lake Mead’s water level, affected by the same dry conditions that have devastated California, reached its lowest level on record.

Unlike several past winters, this last one was relatively wet, relieving drought conditions in the northern part of the state and allowing the state to lift some of water restrictions. Conditions in much of the southern part of the state, however, remain unimproved.

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