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Inflatable Dams and a Water Wheel: Latest Plan to Revitalize the L.A. River

/in /by /Los Angeles Times

Hydrologist Mark Hanna stood on the North Broadway Bridge recently and gazed out on an industrial vista of treated urban runoff flowing down the Los Angeles River channel between graffiti-marred concrete banks and train trestles strewn with broken glass. The forlorn scene is in marked contrast to the vision city officials and environmentalists long imagined for the river: Reviving it from a concrete wasteland into a nature center and recreational area.

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California’s First Big Winter Snow Storm Headed For Sierra Nevada

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

It’s only Halloween, but winter is on the way. Two storm systems moving out of the Gulf of Alaska are on track to bring the first substantial snow of the 2017-18 winter season to the Sierra Nevada, starting Friday, and widespread rainfall across the Bay Area over the weekend. Forecasters said Monday that gusty winds and 1 to 2 feet of snow are likely Saturday and Sunday along California’s main mountain passes, including Donner Pass near Lake Tahoe, Tioga Pass at Yosemite, Ebbetts Pass and Carson Pass, with perhaps a foot along the shoreline of Lake Tahoe this weekend.

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Two Years After California’s Biggest Dam Removal, Fish Rebound

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Enrique Gili

At a time when California was suffering from a record-breaking drought, removing a dam would have seemed counterintuitive. But that’s what happened in 2015 on the Carmel River when the 106ft San Clemente Dam was torn down in the name of public safety and for the benefit of an iconic fish. Now, two years later, scientists are evaluating just how big an impact the dam removal has had on steelhead trout, which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. So far, the results are promising.

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Rain Expected to Douse Wine Country Wildfires

/in /by /SF Gate

Firefighters expect to fully contain the deadly Wine Country wildfires this week, just as a final blow to the burn areas is anticipated from above — in the form of rain. The most vicious blaze to explode across Sonoma and Napa counties three weeks ago, the 36,807-acre Tubbs Fire, was 98 percent contained Sunday, nearing the 100 percent mark when crews are confident they’ve entirely surrounded the burn with fire breaks. The blaze has killed 22 people and leveled 5,300 structures, most in Santa Rosa.

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Oroville Dam, Months After Near Disaster, Ready for Another Winter

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicle

No one knows whether winter will bring pounding storms like those seen last season, but California water officials say Oroville Dam is ready for whatever comes. The nation’s tallest dam became one of the fastest construction projects in modern state history after the dam’s spillway partially collapsed in February amid heavy rain and caused the evacuation of thousands. Hundreds of workers have been laboring around the clock for five months to rebuild the chute before wet winter weather returns.

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NASA Ends Trailblazing Satellite Mission That Revealed Global Groundwater Trends

/in /by /Circle of Blue (Traverse City, Mich.)by Brett Walton

The unexpectedly long life of a pair of pioneering satellites that deepened scientific understanding of society’s influence on water and land is over. NASA and its project partners decided to end the GRACE satellite mission this week after the eighth of 20 battery cells on GRACE-2 failed. GRACE-1 was still working, but the mission, which measures fractional changes in Earth’s gravity based on the position of the satellites relative to each other, requires both to move in tandem. Losing one means losing all.

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OPINION: Editorial: Focus on Flood Prevention, Not Disaster Cleanup

/in /by /Chico Enterprise-Record

Once again, state legislators have done what is popular instead of what is necessary — and that’s one big reason California’s infrastructure is in such sorry shape. That reminder was driven home this week in a discussion about levees and flood protection. Flood experts gathered in Sacramento on Monday to mark the beginning of flood preparedness week. In a press conference, the president of the Central Valley Flood Protection Board pleaded for the state to make the investment in flood protection. Bill Edgar says the state spends $30 million a year in repairs and maintenance, but that the state needs to spend $130 million a year.

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Seawater Desalination Will Quench The Thirst Of A Parched Planet

/in /by /Yahoo News

Humanity has sought to make the Earth’s oceans potable for thousands of years. The Norse tale of Utgarda-Loki tells of Odin being tricked into drinking from a horn connected to the sea, while Exodus 15:22–26 of the Bible likely describes Moses desalinating the water of Marah: When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”

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OPINION: A Shrunken Delta Tunnels Project? Decision Time is Upon California

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Jay Lund

A new option has entered the discussion of Delta water supplies: one cross-Delta tunnel instead of two. For now, California’s WaterFix proposal, pushed by Gov. Jerry Brown, is for two tunnels under-crossing the Delta for 35 miles, allowing up to 60 percent of Delta water exports to come from the main channel of Sacramento River. Implementing such a major project requires extraordinary political and financial support that so far is lacking.

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VIDEO: LA 90: Trump Administration Will Help with California Water Project

/in /by /Los Angeles Times

The Interior Department will continue to work with California on its $17 billion water project. An earlier statement saying the Trump administration didn’t support the project confused state officials. An official later clarified the department will continue to help with the project but not in its funding.

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