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San Francisco, Agricultural Interests Band Together For Water Rights Fight

/in , /by /Redding Record Searchlightby Mike Wade

“The judiciary is the safeguard of our liberty and of our property under the Constitution,” said U.S. Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes in Elimra, New York in 1907. That quote exemplifies the reason that five irrigation districts on tributaries to the San Joaquin River as well as the city of San Francisco filed lawsuits recently against the State Water Resources Control Board. They are defending their water rights. In December, ahead of the Water Board hearing, Governor Brown and Governor-elect Newsom both asked the Water Board to hold off and let the districts, the State, and the federal government finalize the voluntary agreements.

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Governor’s Budget Targets Safe Drinking Water, Wildfires, Healthy Soils

/in , /by /Public Policy Institute of California (San Francisco)by Gokce Sencan and Henry McCann

Governor Newsom’s first proposed state budget, released earlier this month, addresses several critical water and natural resource management challenges. Here are highlights from his plans to mitigate problems with safe drinking water, improve forest health and reduce the risk of wildfires, and encourage healthy soils to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase drought resilience. The governor’s budget proposal revives last year’s failed legislative proposal to tap urban water customers, agricultural fertilizer users, and dairies to pay for safe drinking water projects in small, disadvantaged communities with water quality challenges.

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January Storms Added 580 Billion Gallons Of Water To California Reservoirs

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

Storms that soaked California during the first half of January did more than bring tons of snow to Sierra Nevada ski resorts. They also significantly boosted the state’s water supplies. Over the three weeks from Jan. 1 until this Tuesday, 47 key reservoirs that state water officials closely monitor added 580 billion gallons of water, according to an analysis by this newspaper. That’s as much water as about 9 million people use in a year.

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Atmospheric River Boosted California Snowpack Well Above Average By Mid-January

/in , /by /The Fresno Beeby Alyssa Hodenfield

Snowpack across California is about 110 percent of normal for this time of year, thanks in no small part to an atmospheric river that brought heavy snowstorms to the Sierra range, the state Department of Water Resources’ most recent data show. As of last Friday, the northern Sierra snowpack measured at 113 percent of normal. The central and south Sierra were each observed at 110 percent of normal, for a statewide average of 111 percent, according to DWR’s latest snow survey.

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A Dallas Engineering Firm Goes To Work Solving California’s Water Problem

/in , /by /The Dallas Morning News (Fort Worth, Texas)by Paul O'Donnell

A Dallas-based engineering firm is being tapped to help design California’s plan to bolster its water supply system. Jacobs’ initial $93 million contract is for preliminary and final engineering design of a 15-year program known as California WaterFix. The Golden State’s largest water conveyance project carries a $17 billion pricetag. WaterFix, slated to begin this year, will upgrade 50-year-old infrastructure dependent on levees, which the state said puts clean water supplies at risk from earthquakes and sea-level rise.

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OPINION: Newsom Must Set New Course On California Water Issues

/in , /by /Lake County Record-Bee (Lakeport, Calif.)

Since taking office Jan. 7, Gov. Gavin Newsom has not indicated how he intends to approach one of the state’s most pressing issues: water. Former Gov. Jerry Brown wasted eight years trying to force California to push through his misguided $19 billion Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta twin-tunnels scheme, which wouldn’t add a drop of new water to the state’s supply. It’s time to set a new course. Newsom should signal that it’s a new day in California water politics by embracing a more-sustainable water policy that emphasizes conservation and creation of vast supplies of renewable water.

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Arizona Water Leaders Lean On Developers To Support Drought Plan

/in , /by /Phoenix New Timesby Elizabeth Whitman

As the Colorado River teeters on the brink of shortage, water leaders in Arizona are begging developers to pressure legislators to sign off on a drought plan, while also aiming to reassure those developers that despite a drier future, it’s safe to come to Arizona and build. “We need all of you to go to your favorite legislator and express your support for the Drought Contingency Plan,” Tom Buschatzke, the director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, told a group of 250 development industry representatives and others during a breakfast meeting Friday. “I implore you.”

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A Recap Of California’s Water Year So Far

/in , /by /ABC10 (Sacramento) by Rob Carlmark

When the skies clear and the weather gets calmer, it’s a good time to take stock of our storms and see where we are with water in California. Starting with snowpack, Sierra storms have been strong lately, with many adding feet of fresh, new snow. As of Monday, the snow is above average at 111 percent, and that number is expected to grow with additional snow from the last storm. About 30 percent of California’s water comes from snowpack, so when that metric is in good shape, it tends to set the tone for other indicators.

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California Water Projects Would Get Boost Under Budget Fund

/in , /by /Bloomberg by Emily C. Dooley

Nearly one million Californians use contaminated water to drink, shower, and cook, but the state’s politicians want to change that—including by amending the constitution or taxing certain products. Two state assembly members, Republican Devon Mathis and Democrat Eduardo Garcia, filed language Jan. 16 to amend the state constitution to require that 2 percent of the general fund budget be set aside each year for water quality, supply, and delivery projects in the thirsty state.

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OPINION: Why Gov. Newsom Should Save The Delta Ecosystem

/in , /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)by Barbara Barrigan-Parilla

The confluence of California’s two great rivers, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin, create the largest estuary on the West Coast. Those of who live here call it, simply, the Delta. It is essential to California’s future. That’s why we must save it. In the early 1800s, this estuary teemed with salmon migrating to and from the rivers of the Sierra Nevada. Salmon were, as documented in photographs, so plentiful that you could harvest them from the river with a pitchfork.

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