If every year were an average water year, the Tuolumne River could provide enough water to sustain a vibrant agricultural economy as well as a healthy river ecosystem. The problem is there are good years and bad years, and when a number of dry years line up we experience water shortages, often pitting economic interests against the environment.
A newly amended bill that would impose a monthly water fee on California water users to fund drinking water quality improvement projects was placed on the suspense file by the California Assembly Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, but is expected to be voted on again next week, according to officials. Senate Bill 623’s author Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel) said the fee revenue will fund improvements that will increase Californians’ access to safe and affordable drinking water.
Construction at the Lake Oroville spillways is on schedule to meet a Nov. 1 deadline for this year’s repairs, according to the Department of Water Resources. The department has passed the midway point on its construction timeline for this year’s repairs on the main spillway, which was badly damaged during high February releases. Construction efforts will remain focused on meeting the Nov. 1 deadline, DWR staff said during a conference call with media.
In early August, two Metropolitan Water District committees met to discuss a series of whitepapers on potential financing strategies for the comprehensive infrastructure upgrades known as California Water Fix. The plan calls on the state to invest billions into replumbing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, including Governor Jerry Brown’s signature tunnel project. In TPR, MWD General Manager Jeff Kightlinger discusses the need for an updated, reliable water conveyance system for Southern California. The veteran water leader also explains the importance of combining state projects like the Water Fix with MWD’s multi-state, and multi-national, work around the Colorado River watershed.
More than a dozen water storage projects are vying for money from the Proposition 1 water bond California voters approved in 2014. The largest request comes from supporters of Sites Reservoir, which would be built about an hour northwest of Sacramento in Colusa County. Mary Wells walks along a dirt road tucked into the valley there. She owns a cattle ranch here.
California is home to some of the most agriculturally productive regions in the nation. Yet in many small communities scattered throughout those regions, residents lack the most basic commodity of all: clean, safe drinking water. Instead, what comes out of the taps in upward of 300 rural public water systems is water contaminated with arsenic, nitrates and other toxins, according to the State Water Resources Control Board. Each year, around 1 million Californians are exposed to unsafe water to meet their basic human needs.
In California, a state that considers itself among the most advanced nations in the world, nearly 2 million people live without safe drinking water. These Californians reside in 300 small, sometimes remote, but always impoverished communities where the state’s 2012 first-in-the-nation law guaranteeing a right to safe and affordable drinking water is but an empty promise. It will take every Californian to ensure clean water is available to all. Groundwater in these communities is contaminated by naturally occurring pollutants, such as arsenic, but more typically by agricultural runoff.
A 3.2-magnitude earthquake struck Tuesday morning near San Francisco Tuesday morning at 5:36 a.m. The earthquake, reported at 5:36 a.m., was recorded at a 4.9-kilometer depth, according to United States Geological Survey. The quake occurred right along the San Andreas Fault Line. The epicenter of the tremor was in the Pacific, about 6.8 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge, 9.9 miles from San Francisco and 6.8 miles from Tamalpais-Homestead Valley in Marin County.
What’s new in water? Oh, I thought you’d never ask. I’ve got some important tidbits for you. Oh don’t whine, this is the last water column by me you’ll have to slog through so COWGRRRL UP! The biggest, immediate water question right now is: Will they? Or won’t they? I’m talking about the California WaterFix and whether local farmers will help pay for it. WaterFix is the new generation “peripheral canal” project being pushed by Gov. Jerry Brown to route water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta via two tunnels, to avoid further damage to endangered fish species.
What implications will Trump administration policies have for America’s rivers? When I was first asked this, I felt like a school kid caught daydreaming in class by the teacher. It was during the Q&A following a public talk I’d given at the Smithsonian a few months ago on the science of rivers, and I didn’t have a ready answer. I’m a science geek, not a policy wonk.
