Colorado lawmakers, citing lower revenue forecasts and competing needs, have dramatically reduced proposed funding for the Colorado Water Plan and Colorado River drought work, providing roughly one-third of what Gov. Jared Polis had requested in his budget for this year.
The City Council approved a regional plan for managing the area’s groundwater resources, which brings a measure of local control and to qualify for state funds for water-related projects. The Fremont Basin Integrated Regional Water Plan has been in the works for at least four years, filling in a hole in water plans in the area, as the surrounding groundwater basins already have plans in place.California City is one of three primary stakeholders in the document, with the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency and the Mojave Public Utility District.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, wants to create a tax on water customers to fund a safe drinking water program in disadvantaged communities. But a rival proposal by a lawmaker from his own party seeks to tap into the state’s record budget surplus instead. One million Californians live without clean water for drinking or bathing, according to Newsom. He recently called attention to hundreds of water systems in the state that are out of compliance with primary drinking water quality standards because of contamination by lead, arsenic or uranium.
The federal government Thursday added to the pile of lawsuits challenging new state requirements to boost river flows in order to help struggling fish populations. The U.S. Department of the Interior, which manages California’s largest irrigation supply project, argues that the flow standards will interfere with its operation of the New Melones Dam and reservoir on the Stanislaus River. The federal complaint, filed in both state and federal court, is the 11th lawsuit launched against the State Water Resources Control Board since it voted in December to require greater flows in the Stanislaus and two other tributaries of the San Joaquin River.
As waterlogged storms repeatedly pounded California this winter, social media was filled with variations on a distinct photo theme. The subject was a freshly-plowed road, wedged in between towering white walls of snow measuring 10, 20 feet tall. As long as vehicles had safe passage, a wintry trench would be fine – that snow had to go somewhere, after all. But with an early-spring heatwave in the forecast, it’s time to start thinking about what a massive amount of snowmelt will mean for the state – that water has to go somewhere, after all.
A bipartisan agreement on Drought Contingency Plan (DCP) legislation has been reached and lawmakers plan to introduce it “very soon,” according to U.S. Sen. Martha McSally. State officials from the Colorado River watershed are in Washington D.C. this week. Along with Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman, they appeared on Wednesday before the Senate Subcommittee on Water and Power, which McSally chairs. The Drought Contingency Plan needs congressional approval before it can become law of the river. The plan includes incentives for users to keep water in Lakes Mead and Powell in times of “shortage.” In the lower basin, keeping Lake Mead above certain levels reduces the risk of it falling so low that no water can escape from it.
A coalition of 27 fishermen, Native Americans and environmental organizations sent a letter expressing concerns about the impacts to salmon and water quality from proposed diversion associated with the Sites Reservoir Project. The groups allege that the Sites Project Authority has left out key facts in its environmental review which serves to downplay impacts. “We are here to demand a full accounting of the environmental impacts to the Trinity and Sacramento rivers,” said Noah Oppenheim, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations.
For more than 20 years. there has been an ongoing debate about the impact of the four Snake River dams on the Pacific Northwest’s salmon population. Since the 1970s, billions of dollars have been spent to upgrade the dams and to improve salmon habitat. The results? According to the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), the average number of returning salmon and steelhead are more than double what they were when counts first began when the Bonneville Dam started operations in 1938. Despite this clear evidence that dams and fish can coexist, the debate continues.
In Mark Demuth’s research orchard in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the peach tree twigs glow a soft red-brown under the strengthening late winter sun. The peaches are emerging from hibernation, he says, as he points out which of the stirring buds will open as leaves and which as blossoms come early April. Until then, the trees must undertake their most perilous journey of the year.
The ever-decreasing cost of electricity from batteries is giving fossil fuels a run for their money as renewable energy projects combined with battery storage become increasingly competitive power supply options. The LCOE for lithium-ion batteries has fallen 35% to $187/MWh since the first half of 2018, research company BNEF said Tuesday. Going back to 2012, BNEF found the cost of battery storage has dropped 76%, from almost $800/MWh.
