Hoping for a March Miracle to bail out California’s dry winter? It’s not likely. A review of more than 100 years of rainfall records of major cities in California — including San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Rosa, Redding and Fresno — shows that none have ever finished the rainy season with normal rainfall totals after ending January with the amount of rain they’ve had so far this winter.
We hear plenty these days about breakthroughs in green energy, robotics and communications. But as everyday technologies go, water management is virtually invisible to the general public. One organization that’s working to change that is ImagineH2O, a startup accelerator based in San Francisco. A nonprofit, it provides support to emerging companies working on water problems, helping them find investors and customers.
California is once again suing the Trump Administration, joining New York and eight other states in a case about water. The states filed the lawsuit Tuesday just hours after federal agencies announced a new delay in the federal Clean Water Rule. The Obama-era rule expands what water bodies must comply with federal standards, including streams that do not flow year-round. Courts have blocked the rule while it has undergone complicated lawsuits about jurisdiction.
The initial scoring is out, and those pushing for Sites Reservoir have some work to do if they expect to receive a chunk of the $2.7 billion in available Proposition 1 funding for water storage projects. The California Water Commission is responsible for determining the public benefits of each of the projects competing for funding. Using a scoring system, the commission is essentially looking at whether or not every dollar invested on a particular project will come back to the state in the form of a public benefit of equal value.
While it has been assumed the federal government will pay 75 percent of the now-$870 million cost for repairing the Oroville Dam spillways, the agency that actually would allocate the money has been hedging on whether that is the case, according to two north state congressmen. A joint press release from Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, and John Garamendi, D-Fairfield, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been telling Congress it’s uncertain whether FEMA has the authority to pay for the types of repairs being made.
Officials in Cape Town, South Africa, recently announced that the city will run out of water, perhaps as soon as April. On “Day Zero,” Cape Town will turn off the taps, leaving some 4 million people without basic access to water. Residents are bracing for the worst, with many fearing a breakdown in public order amid rising social tensions.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said Thursday that California public schools built before 2010 must test for lead in drinking water. The requirement comes several months after Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 746, which requires community water systems statewide, beginning Jan. 1, to complete lead testing in these older schools by July 1, 2019.
Nine individuals or entities from Yuba-Sutter are suing the California Department of Water Resources for more than $27 million in damages suffered as a consequence of the Lake Oroville spillway crisis last February. The action is part of a larger lawsuit involving more than 40 individuals or groups from around the North State that reportedly suffered more than $100 million in damages from the ordeal.
The City of Antioch’s plan to build a brackish water desalination plant on the San Joaquin River received a boost from the State Department of Water Resources, which is recommending a grant of $10 million in Proposition 1 Water Bond funds to the city for construction of the project. “I am pleased to see the hard work we put into passing the Water Bond paying off on a local project that will improve the quality and reliability of fresh water for Antioch residents,” said Assemblymember Jim Frazier, D-Discovery Bay.
The dry winter stemmed back to much of the last six or more months, weather that is more typical of spring than mid-winter, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Temperatures have been well above average, which tends to dry out vegetation, soils, and water resources, tying in to the growing risk of wildfires, according to the report. The National Weather Service noted that temperatures in the Santa Clarita Valley for this weekend will be in the mid 80’s with wind speeds of up to 20 miles per hour.
