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OPINION: A New Water Tax? California Has A $21 Billion Surplus, Use That Instead

/in , /by /The Daily Press (Victorville, Calif.)by Jon Coupal and Phillip Chen

California has a record $21.5 billion surplus. That’s the good news. The bad news is that we have all that money because you are being overtaxed. Earlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom released his revised budget proposal, the largest in California history. At a staggering $214 billion dollars, the budget is larger than that of most nations and every other state. The budget also includes a new $140 million tax on water customers to help all Californians have access to clean water.

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OPINION: When You Dream Of California, Does Water Come To Mind? It Should

/in , /by /WBUR-FM (Boston)by Meghna Chakrabarti

On a summer day in the San Joaquin Valley, 101 in the shade, I merge onto Highway 99 past downtown Fresno and steer through the vibrations of heat. I’m headed to the valley’s deep south, to a little farmworker town in a far corner of Kern County called Lost Hills. This is where the biggest farmer in America—the one whose mad plantings of almonds and pistachios have triggered California’s nut rush—keeps on growing, no matter drought or flood. He doesn’t live in Lost Hills. He lives in Beverly Hills. How has he managed to outwit nature for so long?

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California Strawberry Growers Lose Thousands Of Berries To Recent Rains

/in , /by /Times-Standard (Eureka, Calif.)by Elaine Ingalls

Strawberry fields for now, not forever, are losing good berries because of recent rains. Dane Scurich, president of Scurich Berry Farms Inc. and a Driscoll’s strawberry and blackberry grower, said he expects to start cleaning up the damage from the weather in the next day or so, but can knock growers out of production for four to five days depending on the climate. He said the intense rain of the past week damages the berry itself because its delicate skin makes it subject to decay and loss in quality, the flower on the strawberry plant is likely also damaged.

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NorCal Reservoirs Approaching Capacity With More Snow In Sierra

/in , /by /KCRA 3 (Sacramento)by Brian Hickey

With more rain and snow in the forecast this week, managers continue to release water from Northern California reservoirs. Most lakes in the northern half of the state are approaching capacity with significant runoff still pouring in from the snowcapped Sierra crest. On Tuesday morning, Folsom Lake was at 95% of capacity and 118% of average for this time of year. The lake’s elevation was at 461.63 feet above sea level at 2 a.m. Tuesday, just 4.37 feet below the lake’s rim. Water was being released at nearly the same rate it was coming in to maintain the current water level.

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As States Gather To Sign Colorado River Drought Plan, Focus Turns To What’s Next

/in , /by /The Arizona Republic (Phoenix)by Andrew Nicla

After months of tense, difficult negotiations, a plan to spread the effects of anticipated cutbacks on the drought-stricken Colorado River is nearing completion.  On Monday, representatives of the seven states that rely on the river will gather for a formal signing ceremony at Hoover Dam, the real and symbolic center of the Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan. The plan is a blueprint for shortage sharing built around water levels in Lake Mead, the giant reservoir on the Arizona-Nevada border that has sunk to near-record low levels after two decades of drought.

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More Storms Eye California, Western US Into Memorial Day Weekend

/in , /by /AccuWeatherby Alex Sosnowski

Additional storms bearing rain, locally gusty thunderstorms and high-elevation snow will take aim at California and the balance of the western United States into the Memorial Day weekend. “A block in the jet stream is forcing storms to take a much more southern route onshore into western North America than usual for the latter part of May,” according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson. The first storm in the series brought disruptive snow and record-setting rainfall to California last Wednesday into Thursday. The second storm brought more rain and mountain snow to California on Sunday. In the wake of this system, dry conditions will briefly take hold across most of the state on Monday.

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Trump Signs Disaster Declaration For Flooded Northern California Counties

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Rachel Swan

President Trump signed a disaster declaration Saturday for 17 Northern California counties that endured battering rains and landslides this year, making them eligible for federal relief. The move followed three emergency proclamations this year by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who directed Caltrans to seek federal assistance for a string of brutal February storms that doused rural areas across the state, damaging roads and bridges. Newsom described the devastation in a letter to Trump last month in which he asked for the disaster declaration. “The storms caused widespread flash flooding, erosion, mud and debris flows, power outages, and damage to roadways and other critical infrastructure,” Newsom wrote. “In addition to the precipitation, heavy winds uprooted trees, impacting roads and power lines.”

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Siren Songs Of The Salton Sea: Ideas Abound To Fix State’s Largest Lake. But some say It’s Too Late

/in , /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Janet Wilson

Wade Crowfoot, California’s new secretary of Natural Resources, remembers the first time he saw the Salton Sea. He was in his early 30s, headed south to visit his cousin in El Centro, when he saw “this huge body of water next to this stunning, stark landscape, with great mountains to the west. It captivated me.” Jeff Geraci’s impressions of California’s largest inland water body are quite different. For 14 years, as the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s senior environmental scientist, he’s coordinated Salton Sea inspections. “The sea is a repository for sewage, industrial and slaughterhouse discharges and agricultural wastewater,” he wrote in an email, describing wading through rotting fish and partially dissolved bird carcasses, all while pesticide-tainted water still pours in.

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Lawmakers Advance Bill To Increase Oversight On Cadiz’s Mojave Desert Water Project

/in , /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Sam Metz

A bill that could block a Los Angeles-based water supply company from pumping water out of a Mojave Desert aquifer passed through the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday, extending the yearslong fight over whether the environmental impact of groundwater extraction merits additional scrutiny. The entire State Senate will vote on S.B. 307 later in the legislative session and, if it passes, it will need to also be approved by the State Assembly and signed by the governor. The bill would impose additional environmental review requirements on Cadiz Inc.’s water project, which would pump 16.3 billion gallons of groundwater out of an aquifer and transport it across public lands to the Colorado River Aqueduct. Cadiz projects the project could make them $2.4 billion.

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The Not-So-Crystal Clean History Of San Francisco’s Drinking Water

/in , /by /KQED News (Sacramento)by Rachael Myrow

To the west of Interstate 280 along the Peninsula south of San Francisco, there’s a long stretch of beautiful greenery. The hills are carpeted with trees, a thick bank of coastal fog hugs the ridge line, and nestled in the middle sit two crystal clear lakes. It all looks so pristine, untouched even. But it’s entirely man made. When Jackie Nuñez moved to San Mateo from Santa Barbara, she couldn’t help but notice the Crystal Springs reservoirs.

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