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OPINION: California’s WaterFix Was Always A Dangerous Deal. Now The Trump Administration Is Making It Worse

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Eric Wesselman and Robert Wright

There are many reasons to oppose the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta water tunnels project, now called the California WaterFix. The Trump administration has just added a few more. The WaterFix is the most controversial and expensive water project in California history. It would install two huge tunnels, at a cost of at least $20 billion, revamping the way the state diverts water from the Sacramento River and the delta to farms and cities to the south. The earlier “peripheral canal” version of this project was voted down in a statewide referendum by a 2-to-1 margin in 1982.

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Water Agencies, Farmers Fret Over California’s Move To Regulate Wetlands

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Matt Weiser

The State of California is working on a new regulatory program to oversee protection of wetlands and other ephemeral water bodies, such as seasonal streams. It comes in response to the Trump administration’s plan to roll back federal protection of such waters, which are critical for wildlife habitat, flood protection, groundwater recharge and water quality. Water Deeply explored the state’s proposal in detail in an article published this week. But what would this broad new California regulatory program mean to the water industry and developers in the state?

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Fire, Water And Trump’s Tweets

/in , /by /Capitol Weekly (Sacramento, Calif.)by Scott Soriano

On Aug. 6, President Donald Trump made his first Twitter statement on California’s summer fire season, which started on June 1. Unlike his statement on last year’s Wine Country fires, when the president tweeted condolences to victims of the fires and support for the firefighters, Trump used these latest natural disasters to troll California with nonsense. At 10:43 a.m., Trump tweeted, “Governor Jerry Brown must allow the Free Flow of the vast amounts of water coming from the North and foolishly being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Can be used for fires, farming and everything else. Think of California with plenty of Water –Nice! Fast Federal govt. approvals.”

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Why Some Water Managers Are Unprepared For Climate Change

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Lindsay Abrams

Water Utility Managers in California are far from unified in their use of climate change science to guide decisions, according to a recent study from the University of California, Davis. And as a result, they may be putting water supplies at risk. The study’s authors were interested in finding out what was happening on the ground, right at the local utility level. They interviewed 61 water managers across the state, ultimately dividing them into three groups based on how they engage with climate information.

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OPINION: Stop The Delta Debacle Before Property Owners Get Gouged

/in , /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)by Ed Clendaniel

Call it the Big Gouge. Tuesday, Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration will try for a third time to secure a political mega-deal that would commit millions of California property owners to pay for the $19.9 billion  Delta twin-tunnels water grab. Without approval of voters or the Legislature. It’s an atrocious abuse of the political system that must be stopped. Blocking the effort would save property owners thousands of dollars over the next 20-40 years and help preserve the health of the Delta for the next generation and beyond.

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Part Of California Is Sinking, Here’s Where And Why

/in , /by /The Weather Networkby Dr. Mario Picazo

Researchers from UCLA and the University of Houston have been tracking changes in the groundwater table that runs below California’s San Joaquin Central Valley. The study directed by UCLA’s Department of Geography Dennis Lettenmaier shows how between 2002 and 2016 there was a significant loss of groundwater from what is considered one of the largest agricultural hubs in the United States, as it provides more than half of the country’s fruit, vegetable and nut supply.

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Oroville Dam Repairs Hit $1.1 Billion, Could Climb Further

/in , /by /Bakersfield Nowby Paul Elias

The cost of repairs and other improvements stemming from last year’s near disaster at the nation’s tallest dam is $1.1 billion, a staggering total nearly $250 million over projections at the start of the year and that could go higher, California officials said Wednesday.

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Orange County Water District Awarded Two U.S. Bureau Of Reclamation Water Purification Research Grants

/in , /by /WaterWorld (Tulsa, Okla.)

The United States Bureau of Reclamation recently announced its selection of sixteen research projects to receive funding under the Desalination and Water Purification Research Program (DWPR), two of which will be conducted in part by Orange County Water District’s (OCWD) research and development staff. Of the $3.5 million that the DWPR awarded, $350,000 will go to OCWD research.

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Op-Ed: High-Tech Careers Abound In California’s Water Industry

/in , /by /San Jose Insideby Martin Kropelnicki

When you think of high tech in Silicon Valley, your mind immediately goes to the latest app or newest device. What you probably don’t think of is the “water” industry. You turn on your tap and there it is … clean, fresh water, a fundamental building block we often take for granted. What you probably don’t know is that the water industry is a leader in innovation, creating demand for exciting careers at all levels in a field that is essential to our health, safety and well-being.

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Deeply Talks: Fire & Drought – The Extremes Become Routine

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Lindsay Abrams

In this month’s episode of Deeply Talks, Water Deeply managing editor Matt Weiser discussed the American West’s dual challenges of water scarcity and wildfires with Crystal Kolden, associate professor of forest, rangeland and fire sciences in the College of Natural Resources at the University of Idaho, and Van Butsic, assistant cooperative extension specialist at the University of California, Berkeley.

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