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Calif. City Must Face Lawsuit Over Drinking Water – 9th Circuit

/in , /by /Reutersby Sebastien Malo

A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday ruled that an environmental group can press ahead with claims that a toxic chemical in a central California city’s drinking-water system qualifies as “solid waste” under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

Overturning a lower court ruling, a split panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the city of Vacaville can potentially be held liable under the RCRA for transporting in its water pipes the carcinogen hexavalent chromium, which an environmental group claims is the result of commercial pollution at a site where the city draws its water.

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Already Unrecognizable at Only 24% Full, Lake Shasta Still Falling in 2nd-worst Year on Record

/in , , /by /Redding Record Searchlightby Mike Chapman

Recent rainfall hasn’t been nearly enough to make a dent in Lake Shasta’s precariously low water levels.

The lakebed where the water has receded still shows cracks where mud has hardened and over the summer, dust devils have swept the fine, dried silt into the air.

The drought has dropped Lake Shasta to its second worst level since the last bucket of concrete was poured for Shasta Dam in December 1945.

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Almost Half a Million Us Households Lack Indoor Plumbing: ‘the Conditions Are Inhumane

/in , , /by /The Guardianby Maanvi Singh and Nina Lakhani

Yan Yu Lin and her seven-year-old daughter live in a tight studio in San Francisco’s Chinatown, in a century-old building where 60 or so residents on each floor share a bathroom.

Along the back wall of the room is a plastic potty – the kind designed for toilet training toddlers. The shared bathrooms are out of order so often, so rank and unhygienic, that Lin has her daughter use the plastic potty instead. “It’s safer,” she said.

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California’s Rainy Season Is Changing. Here’s What That Means for Already Worsening Fire Danger.

/in , , /by /ABC10by Monica Woods

After two dry years, the California is in desperate need of rain and snow. October marks the beginning of California’s new water year, which will run through Sept. 30 next year.

This also signals the transition from the long, dry summer months to the wetter time of year. But new research is showing a delay to California’s rainy season.

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Here’s How Much Water Bay Area Districts Saved in the Past Year

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Jessica Flores and Yoohyun Jung

Bay Area water agencies have saved nearly 10 times more water than the state average in the past year.

Collectively, 58 Bay Area water districts saved an average of more than 10% in July 2021 compared with the same time last year, according to new statistics from the State Water Resources Control Board.

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Drought Makes its Home on the Range

/in , , /by /NASAby Sofie Bates

As Tracy Schohr goes about her day, water is always on her mind. She’s thinking of it as she rides an all-terrain vehicle around the pasture, looks up hay prices and weather forecasts, and collects data on grazing and invasive weeds for a scientific study. Schohr is a rancher and farmer in Gridley, California, where her family has raised beef cattle and grown rice for six generations. She also aids in scientific research to study drought and other agricultural issues with the University of California Cooperative Extension.

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Lawsuit Seeks to Block Poseidon Desalination Plant in Huntington Beach

/in , , /by /Orange County Registerby Martin Wisckol
Two environmental groups have sued the Regional Water Quality Control Board over its decision to grant a permit for Poseidon Water’s desalination plant proposed for Huntington Beach, saying the board’s environmental review of the project was inadequate.
Poseidon has been working on the controversial, $1.4 billion project for 22 years. The regional board’s approval on April 29 leaves the company needing one more permit, from the state Coastal Commission, before it can negotiate a final contract with the Orange County Water District and begin construction.
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The Bad News Keeps Flowing For The Colorado River

/in , , /by /Nevada Public Radioby Joe Schoenmann and Zachary Green

Federal officials project more bad news for the drought-stressed Colorado River, which provides water to Las Vegas and much of the Southwest.

The Bureau of Reclamation issued a report last week saying there is a high likelihood over the next few years that California, the river’s largest water user, will join Nevada, Arizona, and Mexico in seeing cuts to its allocation.

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Could LA Water Recycling Be a Miracle for Parched West?

/in , , /by /E&E Newsby Jeremy P. Jacobs

With severe drought strangling the West, the country’s largest water provider has embarked on a multibillion-dollar project that could help them cope with increasingly frequent shortages exacerbated by climate change.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California wants to recycle Los Angeles’ wastewater, creating a new supply stream that would significantly reduce the city’s reliance on imported water from Northern California and the Colorado River.

It would mark a new paradigm in Western water infrastructure. Instead of the dam-building and constructing massive pipelines and aqueducts to connect far-flung rivers to cities, Metropolitan’s proposal focuses on producing “new” water locally. And it seeks to utilize what has historically been wasted; Los Angeles’ wastewater is currently treated and discharged into the Pacific Ocean.

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Major Energy Storage Project Proposed Near Lebec Along California Aqueduct

/in , , /by /Bakersfield.comby John Cox

California’s energy future keeps pointing to Kern.

The latest 10-figure energy storage proposal in the county is a damlike “pumped hydro” project connected to the California Aqueduct that would store and release 3,500 gigawatt-hours of power per year on or near Tejon Ranch.

There’s no money yet for it or a similar proposal the same Los Angeles County engineering and development group disclosed in December that would be located next to Isabella Lake.

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