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The proposed Temperance Flat dam on the upper San Joaquin River east of Fresno likely will be at the head of the line when the state awards big money for water storage projects. The San Joaquin Valley Water Infrastructure Authority last week submitted an application seeking $1.3 billion in bond funds from the California Water Commission, which is doling out $2.7 billion of Proposition 1 money for water storage projects around the state.

The research institute RTI International, in conjunction with Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, began a three year study in May, thanks to a USDA grant, to determine whether this type of water is safe to use on food crops. Researchers plan to sample water, soils, and crops from the farms that currently use OPW for irrigation, along with samples from farms that don’t use OPW, then assess any potential human or environmental problems through modeling and risk assessment techniques.

A sweltering heat wave will blanket Southern California through the middle of the week, elevating the fire danger and probably breaking many heat records, according to forecasters. The National Weather Service on Monday issued an excessive-heat warning through Wednesday, saying the high temperatures will create “a dangerous situation” this week. The Antelope Valley and other inland valleys are expected to face the worst heat this week, with triple-digit temperatures. The record books are already being rewritten in places such as Lancaster and Palmdale.

Success in water management requires broad agreement and coalitions. But people often seem to group themselves into communities of interests and ideology, which see complex water problems differently. Each group tends to hold different truths to be self-evident, as outlined below. These beliefs, when firmly held, do not stand up to scientific scrutiny, appear to other groups as self-serving nonsense, and hinder cooperative discussions on better solutions. The counter-productive aspects of these ideas make them dangerous to policy discussions.