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Newsom Backs One Water Tunnel, Curbing Brown Family Legacy

/in , /by /Voice of San Diegoby Ry Rivard Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Sixty years ago, California voters approved Gov. Pat Brown’s plan for a 700-mile system of dams, water pumps and aqueducts to control flooding in Northern California and send water south to Los Angeles and San Diego. His son, Jerry, spent the better part of four terms as governor trying to expand his father’s work. On Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom effectively capped the Browns’ multi-generation effort, known as the State Water Project, the source of about a third of Southern California’s drinking water.

 

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Massive Bird Die-Off At Salton Sea Raises Environmental Concerns

/in , /by /KQED (San Francisco)by Benjamin Purper

Thousands of birds were discovered dead at the Salton Sea last month, raising new concerns about the lake’s declining health. California Department of Fish and Wildlife workers cleaned up the carcasses at the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge after hunters initially reported the gruesome bird die-off. More than 400 species of birds use the Salton Sea’s wetlands as a stop along the Pacific flyway for migratory birds. The man-made Salton Sea is receiving less and less water from agricultural runoff and the Colorado River, causing it to shrink dramatically. Andrea Jones, director of bird conservation for Audubon California, said the birds fell victim to avian cholera, a contagious disease, due to overcrowding.

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American Canyon Keeps Sites Reservoir In Its Sights

/in , /by /Napa Valley Registerby Barry Eberling

American Canyon will continue looking to the proposed, massive Sites reservoir in Colusa County to someday help slake its thirst. The city of about 20,000 residents is the only Napa County city without a local reservoir. It depends on the state’s North Bay Aqueduct that pumps water out of Barker Slough, a dead-end slough in the Solano County portion of Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Supply reliability is tied to the Sierra snowpack that melts and sends water into the state’s Lake Oroville reservoir that feeds into the Delta. From year to year, it’s wait-and-see how much of the American Canyon allocation will actually arrive.

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An Atmospheric River Could Bring Torrential Rainfall To California Over Several Days This Week

/in , /by /The Washington Postby Mike Branom

California has all the elements in place for nasty flooding because of an “atmospheric river” event: Waterlogged soil from an already-wet winter? Check. Many square miles of land scorched by fire? Check. A thick snowpack on the mountaintops? Check. And wouldn’t you know it, the hours are ticking away before another atmospheric river makes landfall somewhere in the Golden State. Welcome to West Coast winter 2018-2019, responsible for a snowbound Seattle (the most snow in February since the Truman administration), a soaked Los Angeles (its wet season rainfall exceeding 13 inches, more than 50 percent above average) and totally stoked skiers in between.

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California’s ‘Dry Farmers’ Grow Crops Without Irrigation

/in , /by /Santa Cruz Sentinelby Donald Fukui

Jim Leap fondly recalls the first Early Girl tomatoes he grew at UC Santa Cruz’s farm in 1990. Sweet and bursting with flavor, they were raised without a single drop of irrigated water. Nearly three decades later, he remains deeply committed to “dry farming” — forsaking modern irrigation and relying on seasonal rainfall to grow tomatoes, winter squash, potatoes, dry beans and corn on the 4-acre San Juan Bautista farm that Leap and his wife, Polly Goldman, have owned for eight years. “What motivated us to dry farm was the environmental ethic,” Goldman said. “We are not using city water or groundwater.”

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Midweek California Storm To Bury Sierra Nevada Under Yards Of Snow, Bring Flooding Risk

/in , /by /Accuweatherby Alex Sosnowski

One of the more potent storms of the winter will hit California with heavy rain, excessive mountain snow and gusty winds from Tuesday night to Thursday night. The worst of the storm is forecast to focus on Central and Northern California with a heightened threat of flooding, mudslides, erosion, power outages and avalanches and road-closing snowfall in the mountains.

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Atmospheric River Possible Next Week For California, Raising Flood Concerns

/in , /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)by Paul Rogers

Computer models are showing a growing likelihood of an atmospheric river storm hitting California late next week, raising concerns that if a warm “Pineapple Express” barrels in with enough force, it could melt parts of the state’s big Sierra Nevada snow pack and increase flood risk. Atmospheric scientists and meteorologists say more will be known in a few days. The storm could still fizzle the way hurricanes that develop far out in the Atlantic Ocean sometimes fail to materialize or make landfall.

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Salton Sea: Fish And The Birds That Fed On Them Wiped Out This Winter

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

Tim Bradley crunched across a broad beach made of dead barnacles and fish bones. He bent down and stirred green slime, tinged with brown foam at the western edge of the vast lake unfurled before him. It was a sign for the longtime biologist that the much-maligned Salton Sea is alive. “It’s just algae and bacteria and scum and so forth, but it’s an incredible thing, because this could be a very productive site,” he said. “The water is so full of nutrients. See those bubbles there? The only question is, what’s going to take advantage of that?”

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Wet Winter Greatly Reduces Drought Conditions In California

/in , /by /Ventura County Starby As published by The Associated Press

A very wet winter has greatly reduced drought conditions in California, but Ventura County isn’t out of the woods yet. The U.S. Drought Monitor reports that more than 34 percent of the state including the Sierra Nevada, much of the Central Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area is free of any significant dryness. Ventura County is in a portion of the state rated as “abnormally dry” after rain eased the “moderate drought” rating for an area that stretched from the Central Coast down through the southern tier of the state.

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Californians With Bad Water Ask For Help While Opposition Mounts To Newsom’s Proposed Tax

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Maddy Ashmun

Californians with unhealthy drinking water pleaded for help from lawmakers this week but opposition quickly developed to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to pay for system improvements with a new fee. “We just upped our water rates, and to turn around and give them a tax on their meter is just not feasible,” said Maxine Israel, director at the Cabazon Water District, which serves about 2,500 customers near Palm Springs.

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