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OPINION: Delta Islands Purchase is to Restore Wetlands, Not Capture Water

/in /by /San Jose Mercury News by By Jeffrey Kightlinger

There is talk that the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is purchasing four islands and tracts in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to construct a reservoir project to divert more water from the estuary. It’s not true, and events will prove so in the days and weeks ahead.

 But the prevalence of this opinion, which even finds its way into newspaper pages such as this one, gets to the heart of a far more troubling issue. Too much of our discourse about the Delta is based on fear rather than reality. 
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Plan to enlarge Los Vaqueros Reservoir gains momentum

/in /by /San Jose Mercury Newsby Paul Rogers

For nearly two decades, Los Vaqueros Reservoir — a sprawling lake in eastern Contra Costa County nearly 3 miles long and 170 feet deep — has been a popular spot for boating, fishing, hiking and a key source of water for local residents.

But now, after years of drought and new money available from a 2014 state bond measure to fund water projects, a long-standing idea to dramatically enlarge the reservoir to help provide drought insurance to cities all the way to San Jose is gaining momentum.

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Is El Niño Over? Not By a Long Shot

/in /by /Outside Magazine (New Mexico)by Andrew Lewis

“Don’t count it out yet,” Klaus Wolter, a research scientist at CU Boulder and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association’s Earth System Research Laboratory, told me recently. It was a warm April day in Boulder, Colorado, where the lab is located, and Wolter, an El Niño expert wearing a short-sleeve floral print shirt, seemed excited for the change of season. We were on our way to the “War Room”—an otherwise innocuous conference room save for the large screen on the wall featuring various spinning, crimson-splashed El Niño weather models.

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EBMUD Board Votes to Suspend Excess Water Use Fines

/in /by /NBC Bay Area (San Jose)by By Elyce Kirchner

Nearly a year after the East Bay Municipal Utility District was the first supplier in California to limit household use and publicly list violates, its board unanimously voted Tuesday to suspend excess-use fines.

Customers in the district have cut their water use by 24 percent since last summer, according to officials. “From the time that we implemented (the excess-use fines), we accessed approximately $596,000 in fines,” said Sherri Hong, EBMUD manager for customer and care community services. Since last summer, households in the district using more than about 1,000 gallons per day were fined $2 for each 748 gallons in excess of their limit.

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States Consider More Cuts on Colorado River to Prop Up Lake Mead

/in /by /Las Vegas Review-Journalby By Henry Brean

Top water officials in Nevada, Arizona and California have negotiated a deal to cut their use of the Colorado River and slow the decline of Lake Mead, but the landmark agreement is far from finished.

Negotiators from Arizona and California are now shopping the plan to various water users and policymakers in their states, where the proposed cuts are likely to be painful and in some cases unprecedented. Arizona would shoulder most of the reductions, but the tentative deal marks the first time California has agreed to share the pain — if the drought worsens.

 

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East Bay Drought: EBMUD Ends Penalties for Water Guzzlers

/in /by /San Jose Mercury News by By Denis Cuff

The East Bay’s largest water district is ending the fines and public embarrassment for households that use excessive amounts of water in the drought.

Saying it will have enough water this year, the East Bay Municipal Utility District Utility board voted 7-0 to suspend its excess use fines that garnered widespread public attention because EBMUD was the first large supplier in California to limit household use and disclose the names of violators.
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Greens Continue Fight Over California Delta

/in /by /Courthouse News Service (Pasadena)by By Nicholas Iovino

The Environmental Protection Agency failed to review water quality standard changes for California’s Bay-Delta estuary that could harm at least half a dozen imperiled fish species, environmental groups claim in court.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, Bay.org and Defenders of Wildlife sued the EPA in Federal Court on Friday, claiming the agency ignored its mandate to review changes that already have harmed at least two endangered fish species.

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Loretta Sanchez Says Relaxing Species Law ‘On the Table’ to Help State

/in /by /Associated Press (As Published by The Sacramento Bee)by By Carlos Avila Gonzalez

Democratic U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, campaigning for U.S. Senate, said Tuesday that she would consider amending the federal law governing endangered species to help improve the water supply across the parched state of California.

To help address the drought, Sanchez said she wants to take a broader approach that calls for continued conservation measures, increased storage sites and the construction of Gov. Jerry Brown’s twin Delta tunnels project to move water south. Asked whether the Endangered Species Act should be looked at, Sanchez said yes.

 

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Delta Battle Over Water and Fish Lands in Court

/in /by /San Jose Mercury News by By Denis Cuff

State and federal regulators have failed to protect Delta fish and the environment during the drought by repeatedly relaxing water-quality standards so as to keep water flowing to California cities and farms, three conservation groups argued in a federal lawsuit filed Friday.

The complaint against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mirrors a persistent one by conservationists: that California water managers have let the environment suffer disproportionately from the drought.
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OPINION: Start the Tunnels

/in /by /Ventura County Starby By Mike Anderson

Does it make sense to start the Delta tunnels? The Metropolitan Water District pays into the State Water Project every year for an allotment of water. The agreed-upon allotment of water is roughly 4 percent of the water flow from the Delta. In 2015, the State Water Project was only allowed to send 10 percent of the allotment (10 percent of the 4 percent). In 2014 and 2013, it was 5 percent of the allotment. The contracts of the State Water Project have been in place for over 50 years.

The Metropolitan Water District has been paying 100 percent of its agreed-upon fees but only receiving 5 to 10 percent of its allotment. This pain has caused great concerns over the reliability of water flow for the future of California.

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