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Prop 53: What’s The Real Impact On CA’s Infrastructure?

/in /by /KCRA (Sacramento)by Mike Luery

Millions of dollars are in play to sway your vote on Proposition 53. The TV ads are everywhere. Supporters call it the “No Blank Checks Initiative,” while Gov. Jerry Brown says it’s bad for California. FAST FACTS: Passage of Prop 53 could spell funding problems for Brown’s twin tunnels project, high speed rail.Opponents argue Prop 53 would threaten future infrastructure problems, while supporters tout expensive projects would require voter approval. If Prop 53 were in effect during rolling blackouts of 2001, electricity crisis would have been tougher to deal with

 

 

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Forecasters: Wet Winter Odds Aren’t Good

/in /by /Hanford Sentinelby Seth Nidever

Are you dreaming of a wet winter to turn Kings County’s fallowed fields green and end the drought? Prepare for disappointment. Forecasters are calling for a weak La Nina to last into the spring. That usually means dry conditions in Central California. La Nina refers to cooler sea water surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. Scott Borgioli, a meteorologist at www.WeatherAg.com, estimated a 75 percent probability that Central California will have below-average precipitation during the upcoming rainy season. Borgioli said that seven of the 11 weak La Nina episodes since 1950 have produced below-average precipitation.

 

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Chances For Wet Winter Stands 50 Percent, October Triumphs As Wettest Month

/in /by /Nevada Appealby Molly Moser

The last couple of weeks were rainy, but the month of October was probably the wettest month the area will experience for the rest of the year. That’s according to Climatologist Dan McEvoy at the Western Regional Climate Center in Reno. Although October is known to be the first water month of the year in the West, it isn’t going to fully mend the drought. However, the rain put many positive impacts on the area, McEvoy said. “The soil is moistening in high elevation before snowfall hits,” he said.

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The Dry Facts

/in /by /The Economist (San Francisco)

Thousands have lived without love; not one without water,” observed W.H. Auden. He omitted to add that, as with love, many people have a strong moral aversion to paying for the life-sustaining liquid. Some feel that water is a right, and should therefore be free. Others lobby governments to subsidise its distribution to favoured groups. All this results in vast and preventable waste. Water covers two-thirds of the Earth’s surface. It is not used up when consumed: it just keeps circulating.

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California’s drought divide rainy north, dry south

/in /by /Associated Press (As Published by U.S. News & World Report)by Ellen Knickmeyer and Amy Taxin

Among the changing red and yellow fall leaves of Yosemite National Park, nature artist Penny Otwell is marveling at the fullest rushing waterfalls and rivers she’s ever painted there in autumn. But down in the dry Southern California suburbs, David Cantuna laments the same dead and dying grass in his backyard. California’s historic drought finally is easing in parts of the north, thanks to October rains that were three or more times the norm.

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BLOG: Eleven Experts to Watch on California Water Innovation

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

California’s years-long drought has caused problems big and small, but it has also sparked a call to dramatically speed up innovation in the water industry. California of all places, advocates say, should lead the way in revolutionizing water management and water technology. “It’s not the first time the state has faced a major resource crisis, and, if history is a guide, the Golden State could lead the way to reinvent its – and the U.S. – water sector,” Stanford University’s Newsha Ajami wrote in a July op-ed for Water Deeply.

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Cortopassi’s Race Nears Finish Line As Showdown With Gov. Brown Draws Big Bucks

/in /by /Record Net (Stockton)by Alex Breitler

It was Monday afternoon, and Dino Cortopassi hadn’t yet heard about the latest jab which Gov. Jerry Brown had taken against Cortopassi’s Proposition 53 just a few hours earlier. Speaking at an event in San Francisco, Brown suggested that his dog, Sutter, had a message for Californians: “Pee on 53.” The 79-year-old Cortopassi paused upon hearing this, then said: “He’s getting pretty desperate, isn’t he?” The governor, that is.

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As Californians Fight Over Fresh Water, The San Francisco Bay Barely Survives

/in /by /Pacific Standard (Santa Barbara)by Jimmy Tobias

The San Francisco Bay is an estuary — an ecological mixing bowl where salty waters from the Pacific Ocean meet the fresh runoff that flows down from the high sierra through the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and eventually to the sea. The brackish blending together of these aquatic inputs produces one of the most abundant ecosystems on the planet. Shrimp, crabs, smelt, salmon, and many small but supremely important invertebrates swim (or scuttle) in its mild waters. Cormorants, pelicans, geese, and ducks galore wing overhead or waddle along its shores.

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BLOG: Social Norms Messaging: How Water Agencies Can Change Our Habits

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Tara Lohan

For years companies have targeted consumers with advertising that leverages social pressure – like saying seven out of 10 people prefer a certain brand of toothpaste or laundry detergent. More recently, that kind of thinking has been used not just to sell products, but also to change behavior. “Behavioral economists assert that in the absence of price signals, policymakers can change people’s behaviors by harnessing their natural inclination to conform to social norms,” wrote Nola Hastings and Galib Rustamov in a 2015 report on customer water use messaging for the California Urban Water Conservation Council.

 

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20 Devastating Photos Show What California’s Drought-Stricken Reservoirs Look Like Now Compared To A Decade Ago

/in /by /AOLby Erin Brodwin

California is in the middle of its fifth year in drought. Experts say it has been the worst the state has seen in 1,200 years. Dwindling reservoirs, shrinking lakes, and dried-up farm fields dot the state’s landscape — and despite some recent signs of recovery, the overall outlook is still ominously dry. Across the state, reservoirs remain far below their capacity and, more importantly, far below their historical average. And California isn’t alone. Last year, Dean Farrell of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill made a stunning interactive graphic showing the shrinking state of reservoirs across the western US.

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