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The drought may be over and Central Valley farmers are getting more water than they have in years, but that hasn’t stopped congressional Republicans from resurrecting a bill that would strip environmental protections for fish so more water can be funneled to agriculture. The bill is likely to meet the same fate as others before it, despite farmers having a new ally in the White House and Republican majorities in both houses of Congress.

The Sacramento Bee reported this week that the Board of Directors of the Westlands Water District were skeptical of paying for the Delta tunnels project (WaterFix).  This shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that prior analyses have shown that the project is not cost-effective, particularly for agricultural water users. But after digging into the presentation by Goldman Sachs to the Board of Directors of Westlands, it appears that the cost numbers for WaterFix are likely to be significantly higher than what Goldman Sachs presented.

 

Grant Davis, general manager of the Sonoma County Water Agency, was tapped Wednesday by Gov. Jerry Brown as the state’s new director for the Department of Water Resources, handing a veteran of North Bay politics and water policy a central role in Brown’s controversial bid to overhaul California’s water system with a $17 billion pair of tunnels under Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Davis, 54, has led the county Water Agency since 2010 and is set to begin in his new post in Sacramento in August, pending confirmation by the state Senate.

 

In a significant step toward construction of the Bay Area’s first major new reservoir in nearly two decades, Silicon Valley’s largest water provider has begun negotiations to buy more than 12,000 acres of rural ranch land — an area nearly half the size of San Francisco. The Santa Clara Valley Water District is hoping to build an $800 million reservoir in southern Santa Clara County near Pacheco Pass, along with a dam up to 300 feet high. The reservoir would hold 130,000 acre-feet of water — enough to meet the water needs of 650,000 people for a year.

In Santa Clara County, 40 percent of the water we need for our families, businesses and to grow our local food comes from the Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta. But the infrastructure that delivers this water is aging, at risk of collapse and subject to continual supply cutbacks due to the deteriorating condition of the Delta. Without upgrades to improve our water delivery infrastructure and to better protect the Delta environment, our region’s water supply is at risk.