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OPINION: Taxing Your Drinking Water Is No Solution

/in , /by /The Daily Journal (San Mateo)by Dave Warden

As a local water agency, the Mid-Peninsula Water District (MPWD) is committed to delivering safe and reliable water to our customers. We are among the vast majority of Californians with access to safe drinking water. Unfortunately, some in the state, who live in small, rural, disadvantaged communities, do not have access to safe drinking water. While we support the goal of ensuring safe drinking water for all Californians, the latest proposal to impose new state taxes on our drinking water is the wrong solution to a problem that we agree must be solved.

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OPINION: Brown May Leave With Two Big Projects On The Bubble

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Dan Walters Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

During Jerry Brown’s first stint as governor four decades ago, he was openly disdainful of big public works projects, often citing British economist E.F. Schumacher’s 1973 book, “Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered.” Brown’s attitude manifested itself in a virtual halt to highway construction, which led to constant bickering with his fellow Democrats in the Legislature who wanted projects in their districts.

 

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California Will Have Water Consumption Limits For The First Time After ‘Landmark’ Legislation Passed

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Alejandra Reyes-Velarde

For the first time in the state’s history, California is setting permanent water-consumption goals to prepare for future droughts and climate change, with a local elected official involved in the historic move. Assemblywoman Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) introduced Assembly Bill 1668, one of the bills signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown Thursday. Her district also includes Burbank. Brown also signed Assembly Bill 606 by Robert Herzberg (D-Van Nuys). The laws will go into effect in January. “A lot of us have taken water for granted, but it’s not something we can take for granted in Southern California,” Friedman said.

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Southwest Drought Worsens As Hot June Weather Arrives

/in , /by /The Weather Network

June is here and the heat is on across many areas of the southern U.S., including the Four Corner states. Despite some recent precipitation, which helped lower drought numbers in some counties, overall conditions continue to intensify and expand. Rivers and watering holes across different areas of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico are drying up, forcing the closure of popular mountain recreation areas. Water restrictions are becoming the norm across the region.

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These Fish Are At The Heart Of California’s Water Debate. But Extinction Could Be Close

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Ryan Sabalow and Dale Kasler

As a young biologist in the 1970s, Peter Moyle remembers towing nets behind boats in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and catching 50 to 100 translucent, finger-length smelt in a matter of minutes. Moyle doesn’t see those days coming back. “I think extinction is imminent the way things are going,” said Moyle, a prominent UC Davis fisheries biologist. State biologists have found hardly any Delta smelt in their sampling nets in the past two years. Consecutive surveys in late April and early May found no smelt at all. Those results don’t mean the smelt have completely vanished.

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360,000 Californians Have Unsafe Drinking Water. Are You One Of Them?

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler, Phillip Reese, and Ryan Sabalow

At the Shiloh elementary school near Modesto, drinking fountains sit abandoned, covered in clear plastic. At Mom and Pop’s Diner, a fixture in the Merced County town of Dos Palos, regulars ask for bottled water because they know better than to consume what comes out of the tap. And in rural Alpaugh, a few miles west of Highway 99 in Tulare County, residents such as Sandra Meraz have spent more than four decades worrying about what flows from their faucets. “You drink the water at your own risk,” said Meraz, 77. “And that shouldn’t be. We have families here with young children.”

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New Device Produces Water From Thin Air – No Electricity Required

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

Water is all around us. The only problem is that it remains trapped in the atmosphere until the right conditions release it as rain or snow. Now Omar Yaghi, a chemistry professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has helped find a way to grab that water anytime we need it.

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Drought Or No Drought: Jerry Brown Sets Permanent Water Conservation Rules For Californians

/in , /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)by Paul Rogers Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Although he declared an end to California’s historic five-year drought last year, Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday signed two new laws that will require cities and water districts across the state to set permanent water conservation rules, even in non-drought years. “In preparation for the next drought and our changing environment, we must use our precious resources wisely,” Brown said in a statement. “We have efficiency goals for energy and cars – and now we have them for water.”

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Get Ready To Save Water: Permanent California Restrictions Approved By Gov. Jerry Brown

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Taryn Luna and Alexi Koseff

The drought may be over, but California residents should prepare themselves for new and more permanent restrictions on water use. Gov. Jerry Brown signed a pair of bills Thursday to set permanent overall targets for indoor and outdoor water consumption. Assembly Bill 1668 by Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, and Senate Bill 606 from state Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Los Angeles, give water districts more flexibility than the strict cuts mandated under Brown’s emergency drought order and will eventually allow state regulators to assess thousands of dollars in fines against jurisdictions that do not meet the goals.

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Parks And Politics: What You Need To Know About Propositions 68 And 70

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Julie Cart

What to make of the propositions on California’s June 5 ballot? As ever, the issues span the political spectrum. But two address the environment, one asking voters to shell out billions to improve it and another that could make it more difficult for the state to spend billions on helpful projects. Taken together, these measures would provide money to shore up crumbling levees, give kids more places to play and help clean the air—albeit at a price—and affect how the state spends proceeds of the cap-and-trade system that California uses to reduce greenhouse gases. Let’s unpack.

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