California and the U.S. Archives

Feds Set To Lock In Huge Water Contract For Well-Connected Westlands Water District

November 12, 2019/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Los Angeles Times by Bettina Boxall

Westlands Water District, a sprawling San Joaquin Valley farm district with ties to the Trump administration, is poised to get a permanent entitlement to a massive quantity of cheap federal irrigation supplies.

Westlands is the first in line to permanently lock in its contract for Central Valley Project deliveries under a 2016 law. Other valley farm districts are expected to follow, but as the project’s biggest customer, Westlands arguably has the most to gain.

The deal would entitle Westlands to annual deliveries that are roughly double what the entire city of Los Angeles uses in a year.

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2 Years After Spillway Crumbled, Lessons Learned At Oroville Dam

November 12, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /KCRA 3 (Sacramento, Calif.)by David Manoucherl

It is the tallest earthen dam in the country, standing at 770 feet. The central feature standing over the town of Oroville, the dam brings water and electricity to parts of the state using water from the Feather River.

Today, construction crews are still busy doing some final grading on work that has spanned more than two years. It all began in February 2017 when the main and emergency spillways were damaged. More than 180,000 people were forced to evacuate downstream from the dam.

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Sonoma County Drills Wells To Study Groundwater Sustainability

November 12, 2019/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.)by Guy Kovner

The shallow wells Sonoma County’s water agency is drilling near 11 waterways have nothing to do with delivering water to 600,000 residents of Sonoma and Marin counties.

Instead, the 21 wells will serve as measuring sticks to determine whether pumping groundwater in the county’s three basins — the Santa Rosa Plain, Petaluma Valley and Sonoma Valley — is curbing the flow in creeks inhabited by federally protected fish and other species.

The $300,000 project is the latest consequence of a state law, enacted during California’s five-year drought, requiring long-term sustainability of underground water supplies that were heavily tapped during the prolonged dry spell.

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Yorkshire Water Launches World’s First Poo-Powered Pub

November 8, 2019/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Water & Wastewater Treatment (England)by Alec Peachey

In what will be the first time a public space has been powered by electricity made from poo, The Number Two Tavern is launching for a limited time in The Light, Leeds from 7th until 9th November.

The company is holding its first ever carbon week to spread the word and share knowledge about how we can all reduce our carbon footprint.

The power for The Number Two Tavern is coming from a ground-breaking process, called “anaerobic digestion,” which converts waste into biogas that can be used to generate heat and electricity. Yorkshire Water has charged a Hybrid Power battery with the poo-power, which is being created at Yorkshire Water’s Knostrop Recycling Centre.

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The Water Is Already Low At A Florida Freshwater Spring, But Nestlé Wants More

November 8, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /NPRby Greg Allen

In Florida, Nestlé is taking heat from environmental groups and others concerned about the future of one of the state’s most endangered natural resources — its freshwater springs. Florida has more than a thousand freshwater springs, which provide drinking water, important natural habitat and places for recreation. Nestlé wants to begin taking more than a million gallons of water each day from Ginnie Springs, a popular destination in north Florida for swimming, canoeing and tubing.

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California Red-Legged Frog Delays Construction of Morro Bay Water Reclamation Facility

November 8, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /KSBY-TVby Megan Healy

Morro Bay leaders hoped construction of the new Water Reclamation Facility would begin in October, but a frog has delayed those plans. The site, located near the intersection of South Bay Boulevard and Highway 1, is habitat for the California red-legged frog, a threatened species according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS). Environmental leaders at the USFWS worry construction could impact the species, which is already on the verge of being endangered.

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As Wildfires Grow More Intense, California Water Managers Are Rewriting Emergency Playbooks

November 7, 2019/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Water Education Foundation (Sacramento)by Gary Pitzer and Douglas E. Beeman

It’s been a year since two devastating wildfires on opposite ends of California underscored the harsh new realities facing water districts and cities serving communities in or adjacent to the state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t just level homes, it can contaminate water, scorch watersheds, damage delivery systems and upend an agency’s finances.

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Supreme Court Leans Toward Expanding Clean Water Act To Protect Oceans From Wastewater

November 7, 2019/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Los Angeles Times by David G. Savage

Supreme Court justices, both conservative and liberal, appeared skeptical Wednesday of a Trump administration argument that the federal Clean Water Act should not apply to sewage plant wastewater that flows into the ground and eventually seeps into federally protected waters, such as rivers or oceans.

The case from Hawaii has emerged as a major test of the federal anti-pollution law’s scope even as the Environmental Protection Agency under President Trump cuts back on enforcement. If justices side with environmentalists, their ruling could extend federal regulation to water treatment plants across the country.

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Study: Switching to Solar And Wind Power Will Reduce Groundwater Use

November 7, 2019/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Courthouse News Service (Pasadena, Calif.)by Carson McCullough

Increasing energy output from solar and wind power could result in less groundwater usage and more drought-resistant environments, according to a study published Wednesday in Nature Communications.

Researchers found solar and wind power, often viewed as valuable tools to help reduce reliance on fossil fuels and combat air pollution, can also lead to significantly less groundwater usage in areas where water management is most crucial, such as California. These reductions in spent groundwater, according to the study, have the potential to increase resistance to severe, long-lasting droughts.

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California Wildfire Outlook Through End of 2019, Early 2020 | Need to Know

November 7, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /ABC 10 San Diego by Tracy Humphrey

Each month the National Interagency Fire Center releases a report on the likelihood of wildfire development across the continental United States. Here’s a breakdown of the most recent report released on November 1, 2019.

The Sacramento Valley and Foothills, entire Bay Area and the western slopes of the Cascade-Sierra range are projected to have above-normal significant fire potential in November, with noted emphasis on the first half of the month.

Warmer and drier than normal conditions to continue into the middle of November across the region. In fact, no rainfall is expected within the region through the first week of November.

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