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Outlook Bleak For California’s 2019 Fire Season

/in , , /by /Capitol Weeklyby Chuck McFadden

Everyone with any knowledge of the subject agrees: California is on the brink of a potentially disastrous fire season. And there is concern that the problem is not going to be solved soon.

“Our best efforts may still be inadequate,” said Michael Picker, president of the California Public Utilities Commission told reporters in June. Forty percent of California is in a fire danger zone, Picker added, and  half of the state’s new housing is being built in those danger zones

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Public Encouraged To Provide Input On Creating Climate-Resilient Water System

/in , , /by /California Water News Daily

In order to assist in fulfilling CA Governor Gavin Newsom’s April 29 executive order calling for a suite of actions to build a climate-resilient water system and ensure healthy waterways three state agencies are seeking the public’s input and assistance. Public input will aid the Natural Resources Agency (NRA), California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA), and Department of Food and Agriculture (DFA) craft recommendations for meeting future water needs and ensuring environmental and economic resilience through the 21st century.

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OPINION: Farm Bureau Endorses Senate Water Legislation

/in , , /by by Village News

Water legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate June 20 recognizes the continued crisis facing water reliability in the West, according to the California Farm Bureau Federation.

CFBF endorsed the Drought Resiliency and Water Supply Infrastructure Act by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who introduced the bipartisan legislation along with Sens. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., Martha McSally, R-Ariz., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.

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California Was Warned About Climate Change 30 Years Ago-Now It’s Feeling The Effects

/in , , /by /Phys.Orgby Julia Rosen

Back in 1989, Californians received a sobering warning: The accumulation of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere would likely bring more droughts, floods, fires and heat waves to the state.

In the 30 years since, those projections of what would happen in a warming world have proven to be remarkably prescient.”We’ve already observed some of the things we expected in 1989,” said Susan Fischer Wilhelm, a research manager at the California Energy Commission, the agency that compiled the report.

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Trump’s Pending Rules On California Water Marked By Missing Documents And Hurried Reviews, Say Scientists

/in , , /by /KQEDby Lauren Sommer

Independent scientists have raised serious concerns about a Trump administration plan to divert more water to California farmers, according to documents obtained by KQED.

In their analyses, they write that the plan poses risks to threatened fish; that the process is rushed; that they didn’t receive enough information to provide a complete scientific review; and that the Trump administration may be skewing the science to make the environmental impact look less serious.

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How Did California’s Rainfall Season Measure Up? Good, But Not Great

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Paul Duginski

Sunday is the end of the 2018-19 rainfall season in California, and you may have heard that the season’s precipitation totals were extraordinary. The figures show that the season was good — above normal — but not in the top 20% of wettest seasons. With the exception of a brief, early-June heat wave, Southern California has been relatively cool and moist with a thick marine layer through most of the month. The heat wave was more pronounced in Northern California, where the Bay Area experienced record heat, and those records will lift the state to warmer-than-average status for June 2019.

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Cal Am Desal Project Appeal Headed To Coastal Commission Next Month

/in , /by /Monterey Heraldby Jim Johnson

A Coastal Commission hearing on whether California American Water and others can appeal the Marina city denial of a key permit for the proposed desalination project is set for July 11 in San Luis Obispo. Cal Am, two members of the Coastal Commission and two local appellants are challenging the Marina city Planning Commission’s March 7 denial of a coastal development permit for the $329 million desal project, including seven slant source water wells and associated infrastructure proposed for the CEMEX sand mining plant, and segments of a source water pipeline to the desal plant and transmission main pipeline from the desal plant located inside both the city’s jurisdiction and the Coastal Zone under the Coastal Commission’s jurisdiction.

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Records Set As California’s Water Year Comes To A Close

/in , /by /ABC10 (Sacramento) by Monica Woods

The 2018-19 California water year will close with some good and some great news. June 30, 2019, marks the end of the California water year, which began July 1, 2018. The water year got off to a slow start, but then ramped up around January and February throughout California. In particular, the Sierra Nevada mountains saw a big increase in snow during February. The snowpack is an important part of the California water cycle, serving as our above ground savings account for water. During the warmer months, this snow melts providing water downstream to the rest of the state.

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OPINION: California Needs Clean Water

/in , , /by /Bloomberg

In 2012, former California governor Jerry Brown signed into law the Human Right to Water Act, recognizing that “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water.” At least 1 million Californians are still waiting to exercise that right, according to Brown’s successor, Governor Gavin Newsom, who has called the state’s water crisis a “moral disgrace and a medical emergency.”

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Lower Colorado River Basin Can Still Expect Shortage Next Year

/in , , /by /KJZZby Bret Jaspers

The Lower Colorado River Basin does not avoid a shortage in 2020 despite the plentiful snowpack on the Rocky Mountains this past winter. Why? Well, the new Drought Contingency Plan defines different “tiers” of shortage. The Lower Basin will not drop into a Tier One shortage next year because Lake Mead will almost certainly remain above 1,075 feet in elevation.  At the same time, Mead will likely remain under 1,090 feet. That triggers a Tier Zero shortage.

 

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