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Fed-Up Farmers Drive Tractors To Protest At State Water Board Hearing

/in /by /Merced Sun-Starby Brianna Calix

Merced elected officials and community members alike gave the State Water Resources Control Board a tongue lashing Monday during a public hearing on the board’s Bay-Delta Plan. Officials called the state board members “the grim reaper,” “the assassin squad” and “domestic terrorists” for their proposal to send 40 percent of Merced River’s water into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to boost salmon populations, which critics have characterized as a “water grab.” “Water is life in this region, and you appear to have no other purpose than to take that life away,” Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, said.

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Water Talks: What Climate Change Will Mean for California Water

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Eline Gordts

On Tuesday, December 20, Water Deeply will hold its second Water Talk – a monthly lunchtime conversation on hot topics in California water. Senior climate scientist Juliet Christian-Smith of the Union of Concerned Scientists and Max Gomberg, water conservation and climate change manager of the State Water Resources Control Board, will join Water Deeply’s managing editor Tara Lohan to talk about the challenges ahead for California water amid a changing climate. The conversation will cover climate action in California, how climate change is impacting water resources in California and the current political (and ecological) state of climate change.

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Rainstorms Give California Reservoirs A Much Needed Boost

/in /by /CBS SFBayAreaby Len Ramirez

It was the most powerful storm of the season so far, and now we’re seeing the benefits. A new report card shows an impressive boost to the Bay Area water supply. The San Pablo Reservoir is one of many Bay Area reservoirs that have ballooned with recent rains. Others reservoirs around the state, are also now above their historic averages. The Lexington Reservoir above Los Gatos is one of the reservoirs that, after many years of drought, is finally looking a lot like normal.

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OPINION: Tell The State It Needs A Better Plan To Share Our Water

/in /by /The Modesto Beeby The Editorial Board

The state of California knows its plans to send more water down our rivers into the Delta will cause a lot of pain. In the words of the board’s latest blueprint, it’s “unavoidable.” That’s all: Unavoidable. The state produced a 3,100-page document describing a plan to save salmon – available in virtually every fish restaurant in America and anything but endangered. In all those pages, not a word about mitigating human pain, or easing the economic catastrophe the state is about to wreak. It’s unavoidable. It’s also unacceptable.

 

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Long-Term Plan For Colorado River Water Won’t Be Sealed Before Trump Takes Office

/in /by /Arizona Daily Starby Tony Davis

A long-term plan for protecting Lake Mead and preventing severe shortages in deliveries of Colorado River water to Arizona and two other states won’t be approved before the Obama administration ends, throwing more uncertainty into the outlook. While the three states keep discussing a drought contingency plan, Arizona water officials say they’ve reached general agreement with water users here for a shorter-term fix for Lake Mead’s chronic declines.

 

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Group Urges 11th Hour Shift In Plan For Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

/in /by /KQED (San Francisco)by Matt Weiser

If two water diversion tunnels could help solve California’s water delivery woes, can one tunnel be even better? Over the past decade, state officials have designed a massive plumbing solution for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Known as California WaterFix, it involves building two giant tunnels to divert a portion of the Sacramento River’s flow underneath the estuary and directly to existing diversion pumps and canals near Tracy. The cost is estimated at more than $15 billion.

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Irrigation Water Necessary To Sustain California Agriculture

/in /by /Western Farm Pressby Todd Fitchette

With no fanfare President Obama signed a massive water infrastructure bill that would take the average person longer to read than Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” given that the average person is more apt to read the famous novel than suffer through the paper dump of such a bill. That said, the water officials I spoke with recently agreed that it’s a necessary first-step for California. If you’re interested, you can read it for yourself, starting at Subtitle J, Section 4001.

 

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BLOG: Think Tank Urges Fresh Look at the Delta Water Tunnel Plan

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Matt Weiser

If two water diversion tunnels could help solve California’s water delivery woes, can one tunnel be even better? Over the past decade, state officials have designed a massive plumbing solution for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Known as California WaterFix, it involves building two giant tunnels to divert a portion of the Sacramento River’s flow underneath the estuary and directly to existing diversion pumps and canals near Tracy. The cost is estimated at more than $15 billion.

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Water Conservation Push Could Put California Utilities In A Tough Spot: Fitch

/in /by /Reutersby Rory Carroll

New rules floated by California water regulators would force utilities to sell less water at a time when it is becoming more difficult for them to raise customer rates, credit ratings agency Fitch said on Monday. “Water rates have risen faster than incomes. If this trend continues, Fitch would expect that overall rate flexibility – the ability for utilities to raise rates – could be tested,” it said in a note. California has been in the grip of a drought since 2013 that has cost the state’s agricultural economy billions.

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OPINION: Water Efficiency Must Become A Permanent California Habit

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dave Cogdill and Joe Grindstaff

A few weeks ago, Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration released draft recommendations to develop water use targets for water suppliers and to improve drought planning as part of a new statewide framework to permanently use our state’s precious water supplies more wisely. The draft report identified statewide measures to eliminate water waste, strengthen local drought planning and resilience, and improve agricultural water use efficiency. The plan represents a shift from statewide mandates to the new water use targets and takes into account local conditions.

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