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Modernizing America’s Water Infrastructure: EPA’s Groundbreaking Progress

/in , , /by /Smart Water Magazineby Cristina Novo

The U.S. EPA has released its 2024 Investing in America report, detailing the investment progress under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – two landmark pieces of legislation reshaping the future of the U.S. economy. Together, the BIL and the IRA provide the EPA $102 billion, including $41 billion under the IRA (FY 2022) and $61 billion under the BIL over five fiscal years (FY 2022 to FY 2026). To date, the resources appropriated to the EPA under the BIL amount to $36.9 billion.

Nearly half of the total appropriation – $50 billion – targets water, one of the EPA’s five major programs (the other four being climate action, air, land, and protecting our communities), marking the largest federal investment in water systems in U.S. history. This funding aims to modernize the nation’s drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure while preserving critical waterways.

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Contaminated Drinking Water Is a Growing Concern for Cities Facing Wildfires

/in , , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Brittany Peterson

As fires continue to burn across Los Angeles, several utilities have declared their drinking water unsafe until extensive testing can prove otherwise.

A warmer, drier climate means wildfires are getting worse, and encroaching on cities — with devastating impact. Toxic chemicals from those burns can get into damaged drinking water systems, and even filtering or boiling won’t help, experts say.

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Mike McNutt of Las Virgenes Municipal Water District Discusses California Wildfires

/in , , /by /WaterWorldby Mandy Crispin and Mike McNutt

Public Affairs and Communications Manager for Las Virgenes Municipal Water District Mike McNutt speaks with WaterWorld Editor-in-Chief Mandy Crispin about how the California wildfires are affecting utilities.

Watch the video to gain perspective on what utilites are facing during the wildfires

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Kern Groundwater Agency Bans Pumping Along Sinking California Aqueduct

/in , , /by /SJV Waterby Los Henry

A groundwater agency on the western fringes of Kern County has taken the unprecedented step of banning all pumping from wells along the California Aqueduct for a 30-mile stretch.

The move is mainly designed to protect the vital artery that moves hundreds of millions of gallons of water a day from northern to southern California and is threatened by sinking land that could crimp its ability to function.

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State to Probe Why Pacific Palisades Reservoir Was Offline, Empty When Firestorm Exploded

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Matt Hamilton

A large reservoir in Pacific Palisades that is part of the Los Angeles water supply system was out of commission when a ferocious wildfire destroyed thousands of homes and other structures nearby, the Los Angeles Times found.

Officials said that the Santa Ynez Reservoir had been closed since about February for repairs to its cover, leaving a 117-million-gallon water storage complex empty in the heart of the Palisades for nearly a year.

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Fact-Checking Misinformation About the Los Angeles Wildfires and California Water Policy

/in , , /by /PBS

President-elect Donald Trump and some social media users and pundits blamed Los Angeles’ deadly fires on California Gov. Gavin Newsom, saying the Democrat’s environmental policies enabled the blazes’ danger and wreckage.

As of Jan. 12, authorities counted at least 16 people dead, more than 35,000 acres burned and thousands of structures damaged or destroyed.

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Why Hydrants Ran Dry as Firefighters Battled California’s Deadly Fires

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ian James

As crews have fought the fast-spreading fires across the Los Angeles area, they have repeatedly been hampered by low water pressure and fire hydrants that have gone dry. These problems have exposed what experts say are vulnerabilities in city water supply systems not built for wildfires on this scale.

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Almost 1 Million Tijuana Residents to Go Without Water Beginning Friday

/in , , /by /Fox 5 San Diegoby Salvador Rivera

Almost 1 million residents from 632 neighborhoods throughout Tijuana and Rosarito will be without water service through the weekend starting Friday.

Jesús García Castro, director of the State Commission of Public Services in Tijuana, says crews need to repair a large leak on one of the main lines that delivers water to the entire region.

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Intensifying Climate ‘Whiplash’ Set the Stage for Devastating California Fires

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ian James

The devastating wildfires that have ravaged Southern California erupted following a stark shift from wet weather to extremely dry weather — a phenomenon scientists describe as “hydroclimate whiplash.”

New research shows these abrupt wet-to-dry and dry-to-wet swings, which can worsen wildfires, flooding and other hazards, are growing more frequent and intense because of human-caused climate change.

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The Water Mystery Unfolding in the Western U.S.

/in , , /by /NPRby Zachary Ziegler, Darian Woods, Cooper Katz McKim and Kate Concannon

There’s a rural area in Arizona with massive groundwater basins underneath the earth. Water should be plentiful there, but wells are running dry. Today on the show, what’s behind the water issues in rural Arizona?

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