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Recycled Water From Sewers Coming To California Taps

/in /by /SF Gateby Ted Andersen

Water that once coursed through city sewers may soon find new life coming out of your home faucet. New regulations approved Tuesday by the California State Water Resources Control Board allow treated recycled water to be added to reservoirs, the source of California municipal drinking water. The regulations specify the percentage of recycled water that can be added and how long it must reside there before being treated again at a surface water treatment facility and provided as drinking water, according to the Water Board.

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Pressure Mounts On WaterFix Agencies

/in /by /The Press (Brentwood)by Tony Kukulich

As the clock winds down on Gov. Jerry Brown’s time in office, pressure appears to be mounting on state agencies to move the California WaterFix project forward. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) surprised many during a Bay-Delta Special Committee meeting on Feb. 27 when it was disclosed that the agency was examining the opportunity to finance the $11 billion cost of  building the first of two tunnels in accordance with the Department of Water Resource’s (DWR) revised construction plan. 

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OPINION: California’s Water Hole

/in /by /The Wall Street Journal

Storms like the one that have doused arid California in recent days are cause for celebration, but also for better conservation. The Sierra Nevada mountains received nearly six feet of snow, which was especially welcome in a dry winter. Snowpack in the Sierras had measured a quarter of its historical average.

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California Would Require Electricity To Be 100 Percent Renewable By 2045 If This Bill Passes

/in /by /Capital Public Radio (Sacramento)by Ezra David Romero

Electricity in California would all come from sources like wind and solar if a bill in the Assembly becomes law. Senate Bill 100 starts by boosting the state’s renewable electricity requirement to 60 percent by 2030. Democratic state Sen. Nancy Skinner says the bill also sets a goal of getting 100 percent of electricity from non-carbon emitting sources by 2045. “If we pull that off, then we will be the largest users of energy in the world with such a goal,” said Skinner, who co-authored the bill.

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Water Reuse Approved By California Water Board

/in /by /Courthouse News Service (Pasadena)by Matthew Renda

California’s water regulator paved the way for the increased use of recycled water on the same day it instituted new pesticide thresholds for a river on the central coast. The State Water Resources Control Board unanimously passed regulations that hold local water agencies accountable for the amount of pesticides that flow from agricultural operations into the Salinas River. “I understand the benefits of pyrethroid pesticide use as it makes food production possible at this time,” said water control board member Steven Moore.

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Scientists Engineer Crops To Conserve Water, Resist Drought

/in /by /Phys.Org

Agriculture already monopolizes 90 percent of global freshwater—yet production still needs to dramatically increase to feed and fuel this century’s growing population. For the first time, scientists have improved how a crop uses water by 25 percent without compromising yield by altering the expression of one gene that is found in all plants, as reported in Nature Communications.

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SF To Charge Vacant-Lot Owners For Rainwater That Runs Down The Drain

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Matier and Ross

When it rains, it pours — and that has San Francisco water officials looking into charging property owners a new “storm-water fee” to help with the upkeep of the city’s aging sewer system. The first target will be the owners of vacant lots. “It’s a tax on rain,” fumed Jason Sanders, who was just notified that effective July 1, he will be assessed $31.46 a month for runoff on his vacant lot on Ashbury Street.

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Winter Storm Provides Much-Needed Boost To California’s Sierra Snowpack, But Water Content Still Below Average In Third Snowpack Measurement Of 2018

/in /by /Sierra Sun Times (Mariposa)

Monday’s snow survey at Phillips Station tells a more positive story than it did before the recent storm, but totals are still well below average. Despite the recent late-winter storm that brought much-needed snow to the Sierra Nevada, the snow water equivalent (SWE) is 9.4 inches, which is 39 percent of normal for early March. “California has unquestionably experienced a dry winter this year, with a near-record dry February,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth.

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Welcome Snow Slows California’s Plunge Back To Drought

/in /by /Fox News

Welcome drifts of fresh snow awaited California’s water managers on their late-winter survey of the vital Sierra Nevada snowpack Monday after a massive winter storm slowed the state’s plunge back into drought. The storm piled up to 8 feet (2.4 meters) of new snow in the mountains from late last week through the weekend, forcing Department of Water Resources officials to postpone the measurement for a few days.

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Drought Has Returned To The U.S. This Winter, NASA Map Shows

/in /by /The Weather Channelby Sean Breslin

Drought conditions have returned to much of the Desert Southwest and southern Plains due, in part, to a dry winter that left the land parched in several states.Using data from the U.S. National Drought Monitor, NASA compiled a map that shows the areas of the country that have fallen back into some of the worst drought categories just nine months after 95 percent of the nation was drought-free. The map, using data acquired Feb. 27, shows extreme drought taking over parts of Texas and the Desert Southwest, with moderate or severe drought seen in the Southeast, northern Plains and parts of California.

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