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More Work Needed On State’s Drinking Water Crisis

/in , /by /Capitol Weekly (Sacramento, Calif.)by Mary Creasman

California has a drinking water crisis. More than 1 million people in California lack access to safe, clean, and affordable drinking water. Four hundred schools in our state have lead contamination in their drinking water. About 300 public water systems in our state are not in compliance with drinking water standards. This is a public health and environmental crisis. In late July, Governor Newsom signed a law that will establish the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund. Starting next year and for the next ten years, this fund will provide $130 million in funding for cleaning up drinking water systems, including many rural areas that lack funding for ongoing operations and maintenance.

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Fears Of Coastal Climate Change Prompt Santa Cruz Action

/in , /by /Santa Cruz Sentinalby Jessica A. York

As coastal climate change concerns heat up, the issue increasingly has been catalyzing political debate locally.Looking to make proactive change, Santa Cruz’s sustainability and climate action manager is about eight months into the city’s Resilient Coast Santa Cruz initiative, which looks at and plans for how the effects of sea-level rise will come home to roost along the city’s West Cliff Drive, via worsening coastal storms, flooding and cliff erosion. Under the initiative, the city is working to create the West Cliff Drive Adaptation and Management Plan, a two-year project funded with a $353,677 California Department of Transportation grant matched by the city’s $45,825.

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California Water Board OKs $1.3 Billion For Clean Drinking Water

/in , /by /Courthouse News Service (Pasadena, Calif.)by Maria Dinzeo

California’s water regulator voted Tuesday to spend $1.3 billion over the next 10 years to provide safe drinking water to communities throughout California. The money allocated by the State Water Resources Control Board comes from the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund, created last month when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 200. Also known as the California Safe Drinking Water Act, the legislation written by state Senator Bill Monning, D-Carmel, guarantees $130 million annually for safe drinking water through 2030, using revenue from California’s cap-and-trade program. The budget passed by the Legislature in June provides the funding for this year.

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SFO’s Plastic Water Bottle Ban Draws Mixed Reactions On First Day

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Melia Russell

At San Francisco International Airport, there was water, water, everywhere, but not a Dasani to drink. The airport’s ban on the sale of single-use plastic water bottles at restaurants, cafes and vending machines took effect on Tuesday, though travelers still had plenty of options to quench their thirst. Fiji bottles were gone from the Skyline News and Gifts in Terminal 1. The airport bodega sold water in aluminum bottles. Travelers lugged empty canisters through security. They refilled them at the airport’s more than 100 “hydration stations,” the water dispensers mounted outside most bathrooms. The fountains had no lines early Tuesday morning.

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Arsenic, Nitrate Found In California Water Systems

/in , /by /Bloomberg Environment (New York City, N.Y.)by Emily C. Dooley

California’s water quality issues are most severe in the San Joaquin Valley and Central Coast Regions, and smaller water systems face more challenges than larger suppliers, according to a new first-ever statewide analysis of drinking water. California has the fifth largest economy in the world, but more than 1 million of the state’s nearly 40 million people don’t have access to safe and affordable drinking water. The California Office of Health Hazard Assessment looked at 2,903 community water systems across the state that serve at least 15 year-round connections and evaluated them based on contaminant exposure levels, sustainability, and cost…

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Reservoirs Sit Well Above Average In Late Summer Months

/in , , /by /Williamsport Sun-Gazette (Williamsport, Pa.)by John Lindt

The driest years on record continue to get farther and farther in the rearview mirror as reservoirs fill to the brim. California’s water masters have socked away a well-above average supply of snowmelt in the state’s reservoirs this summer after a wet year soaked most of the state. The Central Valley Project’s lakes north of the Delta are nicely above normal with total storage at 6,900 thousand acre feet (TAF). Trinity, Shasta, and Folsom reservoirs are at 134%, 134%, and 138% of their 15-year average storages respectively. The carryover is a wonderful insurance policy as California ponders if the 2019/20 water year could deliver another wet one or by contrast, a duster.

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The Fault Line And The Dams

/in , , /by /East Bay Express (Oakland, Calif.)by Erin Banks Rusby

The earthquakes that rocked Kern County in early July are a potent reminder of the East Bay’s own seismic risk. Last year, the U.S. Geological Survey imagined what could happen during a 7.0 quake on the Hayward Fault, which stretches 74 miles from north San Pablo Bay past San Jose. This so-called “HayWired Scenario” envisioned 800 people dying, 18,000 more being injured, and widespread damage occurring to property and infrastructure. The study also predicted that the surface of the earth would rupture in places “where the fault is currently creeping.” Some fault lines, which mark the edge of plates in the earth’s crust, only move during earthquakes.

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California Set To Authorize $1.3 Billion Safe Drinking Water Program

/in , /by /Bloomberg Environment (New York City, N.Y.)by Emily C. Dooley

The more than 1 million Californians without access to safe, affordable drinking water may soon see money flowing for water districts to regionalize, consolidate, install treatment, or take other actions to improve water quality. California’s State Water Resources Control Board is set to vote Aug. 20 on authorizing a safe and affordable drinking water program that would provide $1.3 billion over 10 years for those efforts and allow the hiring of 23 employees to help the state fund short- and long-term solutions. Arsenic, lead, nitrates, and other contaminants are present in water systems from the Mexican border to the…

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A Report Shows Trump’s Water Plan Would Hurt California Salmon. The Government Hid It

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall

Federal officials suppressed a lengthy environmental document that details how one of California’s unique salmon runs would be imperiled by Trump administration plans to deliver more water to Central Valley farms. The July 1 assessment, obtained by The Times, outlines how proposed changes in government water operations would harm several species protected by the Endangered Species Act, including perilously low populations of winter-run salmon, as well as steelhead trout and killer whales, which feed on salmon. But the 1,123-page document was never released.

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Flows Proposals: Sacramento River Water Agencies Aim For Certainty

/in , /by /Ag Alert (Sacramento, Calif.)by Christine Souza

As negotiations continue, representatives of Sacramento Valley water agencies say they’re hopeful voluntary agreements will serve as an alternative to state-mandated “unimpaired flows” plans being drafted by the State Water Resources Control Board. A proposal affecting Sacramento Valley tributaries would be the second phase of the water board’s Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan. The board adopted the first phase of the plan late last year, requiring water users in San Joaquin River tributaries to leave 30% to 50% of unimpaired flows in the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers to help fish populations, unless voluntary agreements on the three tributaries can be reached and adopted instead.

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