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Democrats’ House Takeover Could mean Big changes For California Water Policy

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Sarah D. Wire

Among the changes ahead when Democrats take control of the House in January, add this one: The switch will upend the balance of power in California’s water wars. In the two years since Republicans’ 2016 election triumphs, party members from the Central Valley led by the current House majority leader, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, have gotten several water bills for their area through Congress. Those included the first significant California-specific policy in decades, as part of the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act, also called the WIIN Act.

 

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As Colorado River Stakeholders Draft A Drought Plan, The Margin For Error In Managing Water Supplies Narrows

/in , /by /Water Education Foundation (Sacramento)by Gary Pitzer

As stakeholders labor to nail down effective and durable drought contingency plans for the Colorado River Basin, they face a stark reality: Scientific research is increasingly pointing to even drier, more challenging times ahead. The latest sobering assessment landed the day after Thanksgiving, when U.S. Global Change Research Program’s Fourth National Climate Assessment concluded that Earth’s climate is changing rapidly compared to the pace of natural variations that have occurred throughout its history, with greenhouse gas emissions largely the cause.

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How Best To Share The Disappearing Colorado River

/in , /by /High Country News (Paonia, Colo.)by Paige Blankenbuehler

As early as 2020, hydrologists forecast that the level of Lake Mead, the largest reservoir on the Colorado River, could drop low enough to trigger the first water shortages in its downstream states of Arizona, Nevada and California. The three states in the river’s Lower Basin have long feared shortages. But the continued decline of Lake Mead reflects a reality they can no longer ignore: Demand for the river’s water, which supports 40 million people from Wyoming to California, has long outpaced the supply.

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Deal Could Avoid Shutdown, But California Wildfire And Water Measures Have To Wait

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Emily Cadei

Congressional leaders reached a short-term spending deal Wednesday that effectively punts most of the contentious funding decisions into the new year. That includes the question of whether to extend a federal law designed to deliver more Northern California water south, which has become a factor in the Delta water-sharing agreement reached earlier this month. Congressional aides said federal wildfire recovery funding will have to wait until the new year. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Wednesday morning that the Senate would vote on a “simple measure that will continue government funding into February.” More precisely, the spending bill will fund the government through Feb. 8.

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OPINION: Peace In California’s Water Wars Is Within Grasp

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Jeffrey Mount and Ellen Hanak

Dare we say it? The outlines of a truce in California’s unending water battles began to come into focus last week, though not everyone is willing to sign the treaty. The State Water Board adopted the first phase of a far-reaching revision to the Water Quality Control Plan for the Sacramento‒San Joaquin Delta and its watershed. This first phase, which has been many years in the making, focuses on the San Joaquin River and its tributaries, and would allocate a greater share of water to the environment.

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Lawsuits Await After California Water Board Adopts Flows Plan, CFBF Reports

/in , /by /Sierra Sun Timesby Christine Souza
 Irrigation districts along three Central California rivers say they will be suing the state of California and—simultaneously, in some cases—negotiating with it, now that the State Water Resources Control Board has voted to redirect significant flows along the rivers in an effort to improve fish populations. The state water board voted 4-1 last week to adopt the first phase of its disputed Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan, which requires districts along the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers to leave 30 to 50 percent of “unimpaired flows” in the San Joaquin River tributaries to help fish.
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Wide Fluctuation In October Water Conservation Numbers

/in , /by /Chico Enterprise-Record

Water conservation numbers for October were announced last week by the Water Resources Control Board, and the savings were all over the place. Statewide, urban water use was down 13.4 percent compared to October 2013, the pre-drought benchmark year. That was down from 14.6 percent in September, but the conservation rate has been pretty static since July. However the Sacramento River watershed, usually one of the more thrifty regions, had savings of just 12.1 percent in October. The conservation rates were higher on the South Coast, 13.1 percent, and in the Bay Area, 14.0 percent.

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OPINION: Did Jerry Brown Do Enough On Climate Change?

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Jacques Leslie

Jerry Brown, in the last term of his two-part, 16-year governorship, came close to redeeming his environmental faults. Brown deserves a salute for striving to get out the message that climate change is indeed, in his words, a global “existential crisis” and that we are living in the “new abnormal.” He has been doing what a U.S. president ought to do, finding allies among nations, regions and cities for a crucial struggle — in contrast to President Trump , who abdicated the job.

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What Caused Nearly 20,000 Quakes At Oroville Dam? Scientists Weigh In On Mystery

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

The earthquakes hit just days after last year’s near-catastrophe at Oroville Dam, when the spillway cracked amid heavy rains and 188,000 people fled in fear of flooding. The timing of the two small tremors about 75 miles north of Sacramento was curious, and frightening. Were the quakes part of a seismic hot spot that caused the giant concrete spillway to tear? Was the weight of the water behind the dam triggering the quakes? Could all of Lake Oroville be prone to slipping?

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OPINION: Arizona Has No Choice But To Act On The Drought Contingency Plan

/in , /by /The Arizona Republic (Phoenix)

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman has issued an edict to Arizona and the two other lower Colorado basin states: Come up with a drought contingency plan by Jan. 31 or she will step in and do it for us. Burman is right to throw down the gauntlet. The Colorado River is in trouble. A nearly two-decade drought and the ravages of climate change have reduced water levels in Lake Mead, the lower basin reservoir, to record lows. Hydrologists predict water levels in Lake Mead will likely drop below levels that, under the existing multistate agreement, trigger the first tier of mandatory cutbacks in Colorado River water deliveries to lower-basin states.

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