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Big Water Moves Mark Brown’s Final Months

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Dan Walters

Nearly six decades ago, shortly after becoming governor, Pat Brown persuaded the Legislature and voters to approve one of the nation’s largest public works projects, the State Water Plan. New reservoirs in Northern California, including the nation’s highest dam at Oroville on the Feather River, would capture runoff from snowfall in the Sierra, and a miles-long aqueduct would carry water southward to San Joaquin Valley farms and fast-growing Southern California cities.

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This Summer’s Heat Waves Could Be The Strongest Climate Signal Yet

/in , /by /InsideClimate News (New York)by Bob Berwyn

Earth’s global warming fever spiked to deadly new highs across the Northern Hemisphere this summer, and we’re feeling the results—extreme heat is now blamed for hundreds of deaths, droughts threaten food supplies, wildfires have raced through neighborhoods in the western United States, Greece and as far north as the Arctic Circle. At sea, record and near-record warm oceans have sent soggy masses of air surging landward, fueling extreme rainfall and flooding in Japan and the eastern U.S. In Europe, the Baltic Sea is so warm that potentially toxic blue-green algae is spreading across its surface.

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With State Allocation Set, Sites Reservoir Officials Begin Securing More Funding

/in , /by /Appeal Democrat (Marysville)by Jake Abbott

The Sites Reservoir project will move forward, according to officials, despite being awarded in a recent California Water Commission announcement about half what project backers sought. They will spend the next few months securing the necessary financing to begin the next phase. The Commission announced Tuesday that Sites could expect $816 million in state funding. “We are pleased to reach this milestone,” said Jim Watson, general manager of the Sites Project Authority.

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OPINION: To Prepare For Climate Change, California Is Making A Huge Investment In Water Storage

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Armando Quintero and Carol Baker

On Tuesday, the California Water Commission completed a groundbreaking process to make the state’s largest investment in water storage in a generation. With the commission’s action, eight diverse projects around the state are in line to receive nearly $2.7 billion from Proposition 1, approved by voters in 2014. These projects – including $816 million for the Sites reservoir north of Sacramento – could add 4.3 million acre-feet of new water storage both above and below ground, better preparing California for climate change and drought.

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Water Still Top Enviro Issue; Motor Voter Registers 250,000 More

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Bryan Anderson

ThePublic Policy Institute of California released a poll Wednesday, examining the public’s attitudes on a range of environmental issues. Findings show water remains the top environmental issue for likely California voters. The poll also reveals a strong partisan divide on the issue of global warming. Here’s what you need to know:

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Controversial Bill Could Exempt California WaterFix From Judicial Review

/in , /by /The Press (Brentwood)

A federal spending bill containing three controversial riders that may impact California water management for decades passed the House of Representatives July 19 and will next face debate in the U.S. Senate. The Fiscal Year 2019 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill (H.R. 6147), was introduced by Rep. Ken Calvert (CA-42). Calvert, who serves as the Chairman of the Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, included a rider identified as Section 437 in the bill that would exempt the California WaterFix project from state and federal judicial review.

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Capitol Rally To Protest Water Agency’s Bay-Delta Plan

/in , /by /Western FarmPress

Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, is holding a rally on August 20th at noon on the steps of the State Capitol to protest Phase 1 of the State Water Resources Control Board’s Bay Delta Plan The plan would require an average of 40% unimpaired flows along the Merced, Tuolumne, and Stanislaus Rivers for the protection of fish.

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Sites Reservoir Earns $816 Million In Proposition 1 Funding

/in , /by /Chico Enterprise-Record

Nearly four years after voters approved billions of dollars for new water storage in California, the state finally announced how the pie would be divided. Sites Reservoir in Colusa County, west of Maxwell, will get the largest chunk. The proposed reservoir has been on the drawing boards since last century. It’s the largest and most expensive proposal of the eight projects considered by the California Water Commission on Tuesday. It received the largest award, too — $816 million.

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Temperance Flat Dam Gets $171 Million. Project Just Needs Another $2.6 Billion

/in , /by /The Fresno Beeby Lewis Griswold

The proposed Temperance Flat dam east of Fresno on the upper San Joaquin River has been awarded $171 million by the California Water Commission, which doled out $2.5 million Wednesday for water storage projects around the state. The amount for Temperance Flat is far less than the $1 billion that proponents had asked for. The cost of building the dam is estimated at $2.83 billion. But the project is not dead, said Tulare County Supervisor Steve Worthley, president of the San Joaquin Valley Water Infrastructure Authority.

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OPINION: Why A Water Board Plan Should Worry The Whole State

/in , /by /AgAlert (Sacramento)by Justin Fredrickson

It’s not just the northern San Joaquin Valley that should be concerned about the state water board’s plan to redirect water away from farms and cities in a misguided bid to save fish. No matter where you live in California—and no matter your source of water—you should be worried. For now, the focus rests on regions along the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers. From there, it moves to the Sacramento Valley and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and from there, who knows where?

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