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Big Setback for Gov. Brown’s Twin Tunnels Delta Water Project

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Peter Fimrite

A crucial certification needed to build two tunnels that officials believe would help solve California’s water delivery problems was withdrawn Friday, ensuring that Gov. Jerry Brown’s pet water project won’t be approved before he leaves office in January. The California Department of Water Resources withdrew its petition seeking approval of Brown’s $17 billion twin tunnels plan, known as California WaterFix, which would take water out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and deliver it to users in the south.

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No Longer a ‘Boys Club’: In the World of Water, Women are Increasingly Claiming Center Stage

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

The 1992 election to the United States Senate was famously coined the “Year of the Woman” for the record number of women elected to the upper chamber. In the water world, 2018 has been a similar banner year, with noteworthy appointments of women to top leadership posts in California — Karla Nemeth at the California Department of Water Resources and Gloria Gray at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

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OPINION: We’d Prefer a Deal. But We’ll Fight to Protect our Rivers if That’s What it Takes

/in , /by /The Modesto Bee

Five appointed state regulators can do an enormous amount to help salmon and the state’s most-altered water system on Dec. 12. Or they can guarantee that water lawyers will stay busy for decades to come. The State Water Resources Control Board’s five members – including one added Thursday – are scheduled to vote on implementing the Bay-Delta Plan’s Substitute Environmental Document. If unchanged, the SED will require 40 to 50 percent of the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers to flow unimpaired to the Delta, for the sake of salmon. It would also require vast amounts of water be left in cold storage behind the region’s three dams to help salmon in an ever-warming environment.

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New Digital Map Shows Which Community Water Systems Have Lead

/in , /by /Paso Robles Daily News

A new digital map that highlights which community water systems have reported the presence of lead pipes and fixtures is the latest legislatively-mandated action to target the health risks of lead in drinking water and set a timetable to replace the potentially hazardous hardware. Released this week, the map uses State Water Board data from nearly 3,000 community water systems throughout California and places the information on an easy-to-read, color-coded document that is expected to change as testing continues statewide.

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Colorado River Drought Plan ‘Gaining Momentum’ As CAP Board Signals Support

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

The agency that manages the Central Arizona Project canal signaled its support for the latest outline of a Colorado River drought plan in a vote that could lay the groundwork for a deal aimed at preventing Lake Mead from reaching perilously low levels. Board members of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District passed a motion Thursday saying they support “key provisions” of the plan, which they’re calling Arizona’s implementation plan for the proposed three-state Drought Contingency Plan.

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Farm Bureau President Says Water Rights Will Be Priority In 2019

/in , /by /The Daily Democrat (Woodland, California)by Jim Smith

For months, the Santa Clara Valley Water District has been preparing for its annual flood awareness campaign. Our multi-language poster full of flood safety tips is hitting mailboxes in areas located in or near flood-prone zones. You may hear or see our new flood awareness ads, with the theme “Climate Changed.” The timing of this message could not be more fitting. The newly released Fourth National Climate Assessment shows that the effects of climate change are already being felt all over the country, including more frequent and intense extreme weather and climate-related events.

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OPINION: How Santa Clara Valley Water District Is Preparing For Flood Season

/in , /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)by Richard Santos

For months, the Santa Clara Valley Water District has been preparing for its annual flood awareness campaign. Our multi-language poster full of flood safety tips is hitting mailboxes in areas located in or near flood-prone zones. You may hear or see our new flood awareness ads, with the theme “Climate Changed.” The timing of this message could not be more fitting. The newly released Fourth National Climate Assessment shows that the effects of climate change are already being felt all over the country, including more frequent and intense extreme weather and climate-related events.

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One Of California’s Most Important Assets Is Off To Great Start This Year

/in , /by /The Weather Channelby Jonathan Belles

California’s Sierra Nevada, the state’s increasingly crucial reservoir, is off to a well-above-normal snowpack to begin the wet season. Many of the peaks are seeing double the normal amount of snowpack compared to early-December averages. Several systems, including the disturbance that became Winter Storm Carter, have dumped feet of snow in the Sierra since late November. Snowfall totals ranged from three to five feet of snow in Carter alone. You can see the difference between a rather wimpy late November snowpack and the early December blanket of slow from the Sierra eastward below.

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Jerry Brown’s New Water Deal Is Not Certain

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Dan Walters

Water supply is clearly the most important long-term issue affecting California’s future. It’s also the most politically complicated. Incremental changes in California water policy typically take years, if not decades, to work their way through seemingly infinite legal, regulatory and political processes at federal, state and local levels — and the conflicts often are over the processes themselves.

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The Surprise Reincarnation Of Owens Lake

/in , /by /California Sun (San Luis Obispo)by Mike McPhate

A century ago, Los Angeles pulled a sensational swindle. Agents from the city posed as farmers and ranchers and strategically bought up land in the lush Owens Valley, 200 miles to the north. Water rights in hand, the thirsty metropolis proceeded to drain the region via a great canal.

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