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Silicon Valley Wants to Solve Our Water Problems

/in /by /Bloomberg

Gary Kremen—the founder of Match.com, former owner of Sex.com, and serial investor—is into water. The entrepreneur started investing in water tech startups a few years ago. Today he’s an elected member of Silicon Valley’s water district, an agency that manages water and flood control for 2 million people. Earlier this year, he helped craft a proposal to build a tunnel under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta that could improve drinking water reliability for cities from San Jose to San Diego.

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‘These things add up.’ Could Recurring Problems Compromise Safety of California Dams?

/in /by /The Sacramento Bee

When it comes to inspecting dams, California is second to none. A panel of national experts examined the state’s Division of Safety of Dams last year and declared it tops in the field, citing inspectors’ knack for flagging small problems before they turn serious. Getting dam owners to fix those flaws quickly is another matter.

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Cracks, Clogged Drains, Broken Valves Among Litany Of Problems At California’s Dams

/in /by /The Sacramento Bee

Cracked concrete. Plugged drains. Unchecked tree and brush growth. Broken outlet valves. These are some of the problems that have gone uncorrected for years at California dams in spite of being flagged repeatedly by inspectors from the state Department of Water Resources. The sample below is based on a Sacramento Bee analysis of five years of inspection reports at the 93 dams singled out for further review by state officials following the February crisis at Oroville Dam. All of the dams mentioned below are classified as “high hazard” by the state because of their proximity to people living downstream.

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See The Inspection Reports For Important California Dams In Your Region

/in /by /The Sacramento Bee

State inspections of California dams reveal that owners of the facilities have a pattern of delaying important maintenance, according to a Bee review of recent inspection records. The Bee reviewed five years of inspection reports by the California Department of Water Resources for 93 dams that the state identified as potentially problematic in the wake of the Oroville Dam spillway failure. All 93 dams are classified as high-hazard, which means that a dam failure could risk lives downstream. The state inspects 1,249 dams in California – federal dams such as Folsom and Shasta are not included.

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Cal WaterFix Doesn’t Promise More Water – New Water Supplies Needed To Meet Local Development Needs

/in /by /News Mirror (Yucaipa)

Southern California is still healing from a historic drought. Yet most people take clean, affordable water for granted because it continues to spout freely from our shower heads and faucets, said Charley Wilson, President of the Southern California Water Committee, at a recent California WaterFix Summit. During a panel discussion at the Summit, water experts agreed that Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed California WaterFix tunnel project will help hedge against predicted losses of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, but will not yield enough water supplies to meet new development demands.

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Stressed California Dams Often Go Years Without Repairs. Do ‘Little Things’ Add Up To Danger?

/in /by /The Sacramento Bee

When it comes to inspecting dams, California is second to none. A panel of national experts examined the state’s Division of Safety of Dams last year and declared it tops in the field, citing inspectors’ knack for flagging small problems before they turn serious. Getting dam owners to fix those flaws quickly is another matter.

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OPINION: DWR to Award up to $1 Billion in Contracts for Proposal, Before Completing Permit Process & Financial Analysis

/in /by /YubaNet (Nevada City)

Officials for CA WaterFix Industry Day announced that while not all funding is available for WaterFix presently, that the first $1 billion for four contracts will be made public today, December 7, 2017. The Design Construction Enterprise (a CA WaterFix unit staffed by Metropolitan Water District employees and associates embedded in the Department of Water Resources), will be organizing into a Construction Joint Powers Authority and awarding contracts despite reports of dubious financial arrangements and project management qualifications as reported by the State Auditor.

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Arizona’s Recent Six-Year Dry Spell Was The Worst In Nearly 700 Years

/in /by /Phoenix New Timesby Ray Stern

The six-year dry spell in Arizona that ended earlier this year was likely an unprecedented event not seen in the past 675 years. The interesting and spooky factoid comes from studies of tree-ring data that were used to estimate flows from the rivers that provide water to metro Phoenix and other parts of central Arizona. As you might think, the freaky stretch of poor river flow doesn’t bode well for the state’s future.

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Dry Start To Water Year

/in /by /Hanford Sentinelby John Lindt

It’s been day and night comparing rainfall between northern and southern California through the first week of December. While Northern California stands at 112 percent of average for this date, the Tulare Basin is only 39 percent of average. The beleaguered city of Ventura stands at just 1.5 percent of average rain for this date says the National Weather Service. High pressure across the state this month is blocking any storm system in the Pacific from coming in at least until Dec 22.

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Santa Barbara Hits Its Seventh Year Of Drought

/in /by /Sana Barbara Independantby Nick Welsh

Santa Barbara is now entering the seventh year of drought conditions, a circumstance City of Santa Barbara Public Works czar Rebecca Bjork called “unprecedented.” Bjork’s remarks ​— ​it’s been seven years since Lake Cachuma has spilled ​— ​came as she gave the City Council its monthly update on drought and water supply issues. The good news is that city residents are using less water now than they have anytime since 1985. They used 35 percent less in the month of October than they consume during a so-called “normal” month. Annualized, the numbers are even more dramatic: 40 percent less.

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