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Opinion: Using Lake Powell to Keep Lawns Green in Utah Would be a Waste of Resources

/in , , /by /Las Vegas Sun

The recent downgrade in the forecast for the flow of water in the Colorado River should be a death punch to the proposal to build a new pipeline out of Lake Powell. The pipeline was already a major threat to Las Vegas and much of the rest of the Southwest; now the threat risk is heading off the charts.

The proposal would drain 28 billion gallons of water per year from Lake Powell to St. George, Utah, and the surrounding area. That’s a huge amount of water — more than a quarter of what Nevada is allotted annually from Lake Mead (97.8 billion gallons).

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Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs Off On New Commission to Study Salton Sea Lithium Extraction

/in , , /by /Palm Springs Desert Sunby Mark Olalde

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday added his signature to a new law that orders the formation of a commission to study the feasibility of lithium extraction around the Salton Sea. Local politicians hope the commission will lead to the creation of a green economy around the state’s largest lake, which is a geothermal hotspot. It was one of several bills focused on California’s environment that Newsom dealt with this week.

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DuPont, Chemours, 3M Sued Over PFAS in California Water

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Peter Hayes

3M Co., E.I. DuPont de Nemours Inc., Chemours Co., and Corteva Inc. are facing a suit by Golden State Water Co. over PFAS contamination of the state water supply. The water supplier seeks to recover from 3M as the only manufacturer of perfluorooctanesulfonic acid in the U.S. PFOS and perfluorooctanoic acid are both in a family of chemical compounds known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

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Anderson Dam: Project to Drain Santa Clara County’s Largest Reservoir Begins Thursday

/in , , /by /The Mercury Newsby Paul Rogers

Santa Clara County’s largest reservoir will soon be nearly empty, and will stay that way for the next 10 years. Under orders from federal dam regulators, the Santa Clara Valley Water District will begin a project to drain Anderson Reservoir on Thursday, the first step in a $576 million effort to tear down and rebuild its aging dam.

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Hurtado Makes Splash as Newsom Signs Water Bill

/in , , /by /The Sentinel

Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) secured Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature on legislation that will speed the permit process for low-income Central Valley communities to deliver clean drinking wate for residents. The bill, Senate Bill 974, exempts new water projects that serve small, rural communities from some provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act.

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Tom Steyer Calls For Clean Energy Jobs to Help California’s Economic Recovery

/in , , , /by /Palm Springs Desert Sunby Melissa Daniels

Tom Steyer, a one-time Democratic presidential candidate who has spent a portion of his multi-billion dollar fortune supporting environmental causes, thinks the path to California’s economic recovery during the coronavirus pandemic will begin with clean energy jobs. Steyer in April was named co-chair for the state’s Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery, along with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s chief of staff Ann O’Leary.

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The Four Lessons Learned in the Water Sector After the Coronavirus

/in , , /by /Smart Water Magazine

During the coronavirus crisis, water utilities around the world have undergone a deep transformation to continue guaranteeing water service to the population. For this to be possible, remote control of processes and infrastructures, teleworking or social distancing measures have made digitalization an essential tool to maintain the quality of service. These are the four lessons learned in the water sector after its response to the crisis.

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Trump Admin Fights Farmers’ Multimillion-Dollar Water Claim

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

The Trump administration is urging a federal court to reject a multimillion-dollar claim over water rights from California farmers, in the latest round of a politically sensitive and long-running lawsuit.

At issue is a decades-long case from major farmers claiming that the Bureau of Reclamation has failed to build a drainage system in the San Joaquin Valley’s Westlands Water District.

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Opinion: Speculators Buying Up Colorado Water Rights? Part Seven

/in , /by /Pagosa Daily Post (Colorado)by Bill Hudson

Buying water from Colorado farmers and ranchers and other water users, to provide it to California and Arizona farmers and ranchers, and to casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada, is not a simple matter. But a fair number of Colorado water experts, and financial experts, and agricultural experts, have been working with the Colorado Water Conservation Board to design a workable process.

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Creek Fire: Water Deliveries from Dams Might be Affected Due to Evacuations

/in , /by /ABC 30 Fresno Newsby Dale Yurong

Among the people forced to flee the Creek Fire were workers who keep the vast network of hydroelectric dams running. Eric Quinley is general manager of the Delano-Earlimart Irrigation District. He said reservoir releases were reduced to minimum levels. Friant Dam, located at the end of the water delivery network, was at just 30% capacity right now.

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