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How Cities Are Tackling Aging Water Systems

/in /by /Next City (Philadelphia Pa.)by Jen Kinney

Flint, Michigan, has shone a spotlight on the decrepit state and lack of investment in the U.S.’s water infrastructure, but the city isn’t alone in facing these challenges. A new policy brief from the Brookings Institute breaks down how cities with large drinking water utilities are financing their water systems, and what challenges they’re facing. The new research finds a significant mismatch between the need for investment and the resources available.

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Federal Water Legislation Supports Orange County Drought Solutions

/in /by /Orange County Breeze

President Barack Obama recently signed the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act. This historic legislation, which included elements from the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), will authorize California drought relief, provide aid to address lead contaminated drinking water, and will provide over $10 billion in flood control, navigation, beach re-nourishment, and environmental restoration projects. The WIIN Act will deliver critical support to Orange County Water District’s (OCWD; the District) efforts to safeguard the region’s limited water supplies and to develop sustainable and innovative solutions to mitigate the drought’s impacts to north and central Orange County.

 

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Pre-Christmas Storm With Rain, Wind And Snow To Roll Into Western US

/in /by /Fox News

A pre-Christmas storm with rain, wind and mountain snow will affect much of the western United States. While the storm will bring another dose of drought-denting rain and dump more snow onto the ski slopes, it has the potential to cause major travel disruptions. Enough rain can fall on the urban areas of California to cause sporadic flash flooding. Motorists should allow extra time to travel and reduce their speed on area highways and city streets. Airline delays are likely at the major hubs. Drenching rain will first arrive in southern Oregon and northern California early on Friday morning.

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BLOG: Improving California’s Plan for Agricultural Water Savings

/in /by /NRDC (New York)by Ben Chou

NRDC submitted comments this week on California’s draft plan for implementing Governor Brown’s executive order to make “water conservation a California way of life.” The plan aims to push our cities and farms to more efficiently use our state’s precious and limited water resources. We joined a coalition with 10 other NGO partners to submit comments on the agricultural components of the plan.

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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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