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Data Collection Begins Toward Raising Shasta Dam

/in , /by /Paradise Post (Paradise, Calif.)

Geologists are beginning take core samples to collect data for a proposal to raise Shasta Dam by 18 1/2 feet. The Bureau of Reclamation says the samples will be taken over the next few months from on, around and deep within the dam, in order to characterize concrete and geology conditions. The federal government has been studying the idea of raising the dam and enlarging Shasta Reservoir on and off since the 1980s. But the state of California, environmental groups and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe have been and remain opposed.

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California’s Looming Water Pollution Problem

/in , /by /Pacific Standard Magazine (Santa Barbara)by Kate Wheeling

In the winter of 2001, Tom Frantz and a friend were cruising in his pick-up truck along a stretch of Highway 33 in Kern County, California. Known as the Petroleum Highway, this particular stretch of the roadway cuts across some of the state’s largest oil fields. Frantz, a mustachioed man whose wispy white hair is usually hidden beneath a beige fedora, was born and raised in Kern County; he was used to seeing pumpjacks bobbing up and down on the west side of the region, but on this cool winter day, a plume of steam in the distance caught his eye.

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Congress Must Move to Renew Federal Fund Vital For Watershed Protection

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Jay Ziegler

FOR MORE THAN 50 years, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) has protected national parks and open spaces in every corner of the United States. In many ways, it is the most important conservation and recreation program in the U.S. But it will expire at the end of this month, unless Congress acts to reauthorize it prior to that. We need the LWCF to protect iconic outdoor places, increase public access to public lands for hunting, fishing, hiking and other outdoor activities, and create parks for our communities.

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California’s Plan To Store Water Underground Could Risk Contamination

/in , /by /KQED (San Francisco) by Amanda Heidt

As California begins handing out $2.5 billion in state funds for several new water management projects, a shift is taking place in the ways officials are considering storing water. To contend with the likelihood of future extreme droughts, some of these new strategies rely on underground aquifers — an approach far removed from traditional dam-based water storage.

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Congressman Garamendi Says Delta Tunnels Letter Is Full Of Misrepresentations

/in , /by /The Reporter News (Vacaville)by Melissa Murphy

Congressman John Garamendi’s office (D-Solano) confirmed Wednesday he sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler describing the “misrepresentations” present in the Delta Conveyance Finance Authority (DCFA) Letter of Interest (LOI) for the Delta Tunnels project known as California WaterFix. The DCFA submitted a Letter of Interest to the EPA’s Water Infrastructure, Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan program seeking $9.5 billion in funding for the Delta Tunnels. The total estimated project cost is $19.8 billion.

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New Tool For Water Managers Untangles CA’s Groundwater Management Act

/in , /by /Environmental Leader (Fort Collins, Colo)by Jennifer Hermes

Sustainably managing groundwater is one of the most important and complex challenges that California will face in coming decades, water experts in the state believe. Now, water managers have a new tool to help them understand California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA): the Groundwater Exchange, a free, collaborative online platform that offers tools and resources to support successful implementation of SGMA.

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Record Summer Heat Across Much Of State Retreats; Some Deeper Thoughts On El Niño

/in , /by /The California Weather Blogby Daniel Swain

After a truly searing start to summer across most of California, especially in the south, the last several weeks have felt rather mild by comparison. The record-breaking heatwaves of July, followed by record warm ocean temperatures later in the summer in SoCal, made for very uncomfortable conditions across some of California’s most densely populated regions for much of the summer. Meanwhile, in interior NorCal, record daytime highs were few and far between–but relentless overnight warmth and persistently above-average daytime temperatures again combined to produce record or near-record summer temperatures. Indeed: across many parts of southern and interior California, 2018 was the warmest summer on record.

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OPINION: Fitzgerald: How WaterFix Hurts The Poor

/in , /by /The Record (Stockton)by Michael Fitzgerald

California’s system of dams and canals is made of equal parts concrete and injustice. Injustice is baked into the system, which unfairly burdens Stockton and the Delta. A “vast and powerful” constituency of Delta water exporters — the south-valley water districts of Big Ag, southland urban consumers — likes it that way. Their latest baby, the California WaterFix, is more of the same. On Monday Restore the Delta unveiled a new way of fighting the WaterFix, with its twin tunnels: showing its impacts will fall most heavily on the so-called “environmental justice community” of Stockton and the Delta region.

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Reps. Denham, Costa Bring Water Storage To The Valley

/in , /by /Turlock Journal (Turlock)by Angelina Martin

The last large-scale water storage facility to be built in California was constructed in 1979, and now, almost 40 years later, the drought-stricken state will receive funding for projects to help secure its water supply thanks to two local representatives. Valley Congressman Jim Costa (D-Fresno) and Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) made sure that America’s Water Infrastructure Act, which passed the House last Thursday, included provisions that will support local irrigation districts and water agencies in their effort to improve and expand water projects throughout the state.

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To Manage Future Water Shortages, California Must Update Its Water Grid

/in , /by /News Deeplyby Ellen Hanak, Jeffrey Mount

CALIFORNIA’S CLIMATE IS changing, and droughts are becoming more intense. Five climate pressures will seriously stress the state’s water system: warming temperatures; shrinking snowpack; shorter and more intense wet seasons; more volatile precipitation; and rising seas. While California is making good progress in addressing some areas of climate vulnerability, a more focused plan of action is needed.

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