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Why California’s Limit On Residential Water Use Doesn’t Really Exist

/in , /by /Pacific Standard Magazine (Santa Barbara)by Matt Weiser Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

California has always been America’s leader on environmental policy, and water is no exception. So it was hardly surprising when the state made headlines across the nation in early June with a new policy on residential water use: Californians will be limited to 55 gallons per person per day for their indoor water needs. The rule is apparently the first of its kind in the nation. But lost in the excitement is the fact that water agencies have no way to measure how much water their customers use indoors.

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Oroville Dam: Senate Passes Bill To Require Independent Risk Analysis

/in , /by /Chico Enterprise-Recordby Risa Johnson

The U.S. Senate passed on Monday the 2019 Energy and Water Development appropriations bill, which requires an independent risk analysis of Oroville Dam. Additionally, the bill would order the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to report the findings of an independent panel reviewing the state Department of Water Resources’ dam safety practices to the Senate committee. Next, the proposed piece of legislation will head to the House of Representatives for reconciliation and a final vote. It passed through the Senate energy and water development appropriations subcommittee on May 24.

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OPINION: Sites Reservoir Is Too Smart An Investment For California To Pass Up

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Jeff Harris

When California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 1, they specifically called for new storage to help the environment. The Sites project, a proposed off-stream reservoir north of the Delta meets this need, providing as much as 200,000 acre-feet a year of new flows for fish. Sites is a smart and long overdue investment that the California Water Commission must seize by giving its final approval on Wednesday to as much as $1 billion in Prop. 1 money.

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OPINION: California Water Board Should Adopt Holistic Approach To Management

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Mike Wade

Clean, reliable water supplies are vital to everyone who calls California home. The efforts by California citizens to conserve water during the drought helped stretch limited water supplies during a desperate time. Urban landscapes were parched. Many farms did without any water at all. Another drought could occur at any time and yet the State Water Resources Control Board is about to make a decision that could take billions of gallons of water from our farms and urban communities based only on an outdated premise.

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Santa Clara Valley Water District To Buy Site For Huge New Reservoir, Largest In 20 Years In Bay Area

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

Saying it needs an insurance policy against future droughts, the Santa Clara Valley Water District is moving forward with plans to purchase a key property to build the largest reservoir constructed in the Bay Area in the past 20 years. The water district’s board is scheduled to vote Tuesday afternoon on an agreement to purchase 274 acres near Pacheco Pass for the project.

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Americans Are Conserving Water Like Never Before, According To The Latest Federal Data

/in , /by /The Washington Postby Christopher Ingraham

Americans are conserving water in their homes like never before, according to a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report released this month. In per capita terms, domestic water use has plummeted from 112 gallons per day in 1980 to just 82 gallons in 2015, a 27 percent decrease. Take 30 gallon-sized milk jugs, fill them up with water and set them aside — that’s how much water you’re saving, every day, relative to the average American in 1980. For a typical family of four that means about a half-ton of water saved, or eight cubic feet, every single day relative to 1980.

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How Splitting California Into 3 Could Hurt The Water System

/in , /by /Malibu Patchby Hoa Quách

An effort to split California into three states may be a good idea to some voters, but it could hurt the region’s complex water system. The Sacramento Bee reported dividing the water system might not be possible. “California has spent more than a century crafting one of the world’s most elaborate — and interdependent — networks for storing, allocating and delivering its water,” the Sacramento Bee reported. “Billions of dollars have been poured into reservoirs, pumping stations and aqueducts, mostly to move water from the rainy north to the arid and densely populated south.”

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Dry Wells, Sinking Land And Fears Of A Global Food Crisis

/in , /by /E&E News (Washington D.C.)by Jeremy P. Jacobs

The bottom is falling out of America’s most productive farmland. Literally. Swaths of the San Joaquin Valley have sunk 28 feet — nearly three stories — since the 1920s, and some areas have dropped almost 3 feet in the past two years. Blame it on farmers’ relentless groundwater pumping. The plunder of California’s aquifers is a budding environmental catastrophe that scientists warn might spark a worldwide food crisis.

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Colorado River Water Managers Can Imagine The Future And It Doesn’t Look Pretty

/in , /by /KUNC (Greeley, Colo.)by Luke Runyon

Fear can be a powerful motivator. The mention of one plausible future scenario along the Colorado River is enough to make some water managers in the West break into a sweat. It’s called the Compact Call, and even though it’s never happened — and is years away from ever happening — its invocation conjures up dystopian imagery of a southwest battling over scarce water supplies.

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Senate Approves $145B Spending Bill To Fund Energy, Veterans

/in , /by /Associated Pressby Matthew Daly

The Senate on Monday approved a $145 billion spending bill to fund the Energy Department and veterans’ programs for the next budget year. The 86-5 vote in favor of the bill sends it back to the House, which approved a similar bill this month. Lawmakers hope to send a unified bill to President Donald Trump as the first of what they hope will be a series of spending bills signed into law before the new budget year begins Oct. 1.

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