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One Possible Delta Tunnels Deal Would Give Cheap Water to Farmers — and More Expensive Water to Cities

/in /by /Los Angeles Times

Months of behind the scenes talks have failed to drum up enough money to pay the full costs of replumbing the center of California’s sprawling waterworks with two giant water tunnels. That has left the state with little choice but to scale down a roughly $17-billion water delivery project to fit a funding pot of less than $10 billion. State officials are expected to soon announce exactly what form a revised California WaterFix would take.

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Idea of ‘Maximizing’ Water Deliveries Takes a Beating

/in /by /Chico Enterprise-Record

The Bureau of Reclamation came to Chico Thursday to take input on a proposal to maximize water deliveries from the Central Valley Project, and for two hours a succession of speakers told them it was a bad idea. The meeting was nominally to get comments just on what the environmental studies for the proposal should look at, but most of the speakers objected to the basic idea of taking more water from the north to deliver to the San Joaquin Valley for what more than one speaker called “desert agriculture.”

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DWR Says There Was Redundant Power for Spillway Gates

/in /by /Chico Enterprise-Record

The state Department of Water Resources now says there were “many redundant systems” to ensure the Oroville Dam spillway radial gates had power during February’s crisis. This comes after environmental groups voiced concern in an article published in this newspaper Wednesday about, seemingly, a lack of backup generators that would allow the department to control the gates even if crucial power lines went down. Radial gates at the top of the spillway allow for water releases.

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OPINION: Options for Gov. Brown’s delta tunnel project look to be drying up

/in /by /The Orange County Register

Gov. Jerry Brown’s $17 billion plan for two massive tunnels to move water under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta could be on the rocks. The governor’s office is reportedly holding talks with water contractors around the state to gauge support for downsizing the project to one tunnel at a cost of about $10 billion. But whether the smaller project would accomplish its goals or justify its cost remains unclear.

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State Of The State: Brown Focuses On Environment, Legacy Projects In Final Address

/in /by /Capital Public Radio News (Sacramento)

Thursday marks the final State of the State address for California Gov. Jerry Brown. He’s entering his record sixteenth and last year in office. Check back here throughout the day as we’ll be adding updates on Gov. Jerry Brown’s State of the State address, including a transcript of the governor’s remarks and analysis from Capital Public Radio reporters.

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Bay Area Expected To Get Hit With Heavy Rain; Snow In Sierra

/in /by /SF Gateby Sophie Haigney

One of the Bay Area’s last storms of the winter is expected Wednesday, with rainfall likely beginning this morning and continuing into the evening. “The rain will enter the North Bay early this morning and slowly push southward for the day,” said Brian Mejia, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

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Could A Major California City Run Dry Like Drought-Stricken Cape Town?

/in /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)by John Woolfolk

A dystopian drama is unfolding in Cape Town, a popular tourist destination of nearly 4 million on the coast of South Africa that in April is expected to become the modern world’s first major city to run out of water after three years of drought. For Californians, who panted through five years of record drought before last winter and have seen a fairly dry winter so far this year, it raises the worrisome question: Could it happen here?

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Oroville Dam: DWR Could Have Lost Control of Spillway Gates During Crisis

/in /by /The Mercury News‎ (San Jose)

The state Department of Water Resources could have lost control of the spillway radial gates for days during the Oroville Dam crisis if crucial power lines had gone down, according to department officials. DWR leaders Cindy Messer and Joel Ledesma stated this Jan. 10 during a legislative oversight hearing on the dam at the State Capitol. This has since led some local groups to wonder why there was no backup power supply.

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California WaterFix Project Delayed Over Secret Meetings

/in /by /The Press (Brentwood)

The past week was a difficult one for supporters of the California WaterFix project, formerly referred to as the Delta tunnels project, as allegations of ex parte communications between the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the California State Water Board have come to light, largely as a result of work done by the Discovery Bay-based Save the California Delta Alliance (STCDA).

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Scientists Observe Cloud Seeding For The First Time Ever

/in /by /89.3 KPCC (Los Angeles)

Water agencies across the West, including in Southern California, have for decades shot silver iodide into clouds from cannons and airplanes. The theory is that the particles make the clouds drop even more snow than would fall otherwise. But there is very little scientific evidence that it works. “You do get the question, how much snow did we make? I can’t really tell you. I don’t really know.” said Chris Harris, executive director of the Colorado River Board, a California state agency that represents Southern California water agencies on Colorado River issues and spends up to $250,000 annually on cloud seeding in the Rocky Mountains.

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