El Niño has brought much-needed rain back to California, but this doesn’t mean we should stop talking about water policy as the state can quickly veer back into drier conditions. Dealing with the problem that lies at the heart of the water crisis now will help ensure the state is able to prosper through the toughest times, because the state has plenty of water — it just uses it in very wasteful ways.
Well over half of California voters dubbed an enduring lack of water a major problem, with 62 percent of Field Poll respondents calling the state of affairs “extremely serious.” But that still marked a sharp decline from October of 2015, when 76 percent of Californian voters called the drought extremely serious.
“Obviously the high point of public concern was back in October, prior to the current rainy season, because, hey, it hadn’t rained yet,” Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo said.
Last year, signs pointed to a drought of historic severity.
The politics of California water is becoming three-dimensional chess in Congress as lawmakers balance competing anti-drought ideas with a proposed San Joaquin Valley irrigation drainage settlement that’s going to get bigger.
In a fresh gambit, a key House subcommittee on Wednesday approved controversial California water provisions that would steer more water to farmers. Soon, some of these same farmers will be seeking additional legislation to settle a long-running drainage dispute.
While the California drought and drainage proposals are distinct, they involve many of the same lawmakers, incite similar regional tensions and in the end could become entangled in each other’s fate.
In a multimillion-dollar deal, Southern California’s major water provider is acquiring five tracts of land in the heart of the Sacramento Delta, where the state is proposing to re-engineer water delivery systems. With the land purchase, the Metropolitan Water District is also raising suspicions among its new neighbors.
Zurich American, a subsidiary of a Swiss insurance company, is selling Metropolitan about 20,000 acres, including Bacon Island, Bouldin Island, Webb Tract, most of Holland Tract and a piece of Chipps Island.
Legislation to protect California’s aquifers and groundwater resources from permanent damage due to over-pumping has been approved by the state Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water on a 6-2 vote.
“This is a serious problem that affects everyone, and it’s getting worse,” says Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, the author of the legislation.
Groundwater extraction through new and deeper drilling has sharply increased across the Central Valley and much of the rest of the state during the drought, including in water basins critically overdrafted by established water demands.
It is now safe to say that El Niño will not solve California’s drought. Though this should have been obvious from the start, there is a silver lining – it has bought the state more time to put better policies in place to create a sustainable water supply for years to come for all Californians.
We are at a true “watershed moment.” If we take decisive and effective action, our state can thrive within the limits of its current and future water resources. But if we fail to act (or act as we have in the past), the challenges our growing state will face each year will grow.
Southern California’s biggest, thirstiest and most powerful water district is buying a big chunk of the Delta, the very estuary that is dying because outfits like them take too much water.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is going to buy Bouldin, Bacon, Webb and Holland islands in the central Delta, and a chip off Chipps Island near Suisun Bay.
The Met’s boss has said this is mostly about repairing Delta habitat. That’s like the Big Bad Wolf buying the Three Little Pigs’ houses and saying he’s into home remodeling.
House Republicans intent on storing more California water and redirecting it to farms have resurrected some familiar and controversial ideas, this time as part of a must-pass spending bill.
The provisions, including a freeze on an ambitious San Joaquin River restoration program and mandated pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, are now folded into a Fiscal 2017 energy and water appropriations bill. It’s a new tactical move, designed for leverage.
Southern California’s biggest, thirstiest and most powerful water district is buying a big chunk of the Delta, the very estuary that is dying because outfits like them take too much water.The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is going to buy Bouldin, Bacon, Webb and Holland islands in the central Delta, and a chip off Chipps Island near Suisun Bay.The Met’s boss has said this is mostly about repairing Delta habitat. That’s like the Big Bad Wolf buying the Three Little Pigs’ houses and saying he’s into home remodeling.
Southern California’s most powerful water agency said Monday it has struck a $175 million deal to buy five islands in the heart of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a move that has sparked accusations throughout the Delta and Northern California of a south-state “water grab.”
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California revealed the details of its agreement to buy the islands from Delta Wetlands Properties, a company controlled by Swiss financial services conglomerate Zurich Insurance Group.
