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Santa Fe Irrigation District Approves Rate Increase

The Santa Fe Irrigation District Board of Directors approved a scheduled 3% rate adjustment at its November meeting, according to a news release. The increase will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2022.

The scheduled rate adjustment was a part of the board’s three-year rate structure approved in January 2020. Last November, the board voted to freeze any rate increases for 2021 and use reserves to absorb the 4.8% San Diego County Water Authority increases, citing fiscal management and impacts of the pandemic on the region and customers.

The Drought is Going to Stick Around for a Third Year in California, Federal Scientists Project

California is likely to emerge from the winter with little relief from drought, federal climate experts said Thursday, setting the stage for a third year of dry weather and continuing water shortages. The monthly climate report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects that drought conditions will persist in almost all of California through February. With the next three months historically the state’s wettest, the opportunity for drought recovery is essentially lost.

Cut Back or Pay: Water Conservation to be Mandatory in South Bay After CA Approves New Restrictions

Despite recent rain, California is still in the depths of a drought. Conditions have improved, but barely. Most of the state is still in exceptional or extreme drought. In the South Bay, a million residents will soon be hit with the toughest water restrictions of any major urban area in California. Late Wednesday, the state PUC gave final approval to San Jose Water Company’s plan. Approval by state regulators means the call to cut water use is no longer voluntary for South Bay residents.

This Obscure Laboratory on Donner Summit Holds Answers to California’s Water Future. But Hardly Anyone Knows it Exists.

At the top of Donner Summit, an old cabin rests in a thicket of tall trees. The structure is three stories tall, including the basement. Still, in the heaviest of winters, the snow drifts are deep enough to bury the front door, so the only way into the building is through a window on the top floor.

Four San Joaquin Valley Groundwater Plans Deemed Inadequate

State officials warn some of the state’s most powerful and largest agricultural districts that their plans fail to address how over-pumping could harm local communities’ drinking water supplies.

Opinion: Pull the Plug On Proposed California Water Ballot Measure

Say this for Central Valley Republicans and Big Ag backers: When it comes to proposing water projects that benefit Central Valley farmers at the expense of urban users and the state’s fragile environment, they are as persistent as an annoying, leaky faucet.

California Spent Decades Trying to Keep Central Valley Floods at Bay. Now It Looks to Welcome Them Back

Land and waterway managers labored hard over the course of a century to control California’s unruly rivers by building dams and levees to slow and contain their water. Now, farmers, environmentalists and agencies are undoing some of that work as part of an accelerating campaign to restore the state’s major floodplains.

Biden Administration Acts to Restore Clean-Water Safeguards

The Biden administration took action Thursday to restore federal protections for hundreds of thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways, undoing a Trump-era rule that was considered one of that administration’s hallmark environmental rollbacks.

Trout Season Opens at Lake Jennings

The 2021 trout season opens Friday at Lake Jennings, the Helix Water District reservoir in Lakeside. The lake is one of San Diego County’s hot spots for trout fishing, ranked second in the county by SDFish.com. The first delivery of 2,000 pounds of trout traveled 913 miles from Idaho in an oxygenated truck to stock the lake.

‘Backsliding.’ California Mostly Ignores Newsom’s Plea to Conserve Water During Drought

Californians are still lagging behind Gov. Gavin Newsom’s drought-emergency plea to use less water. Urban residents reduced water consumption by just 3.9% in September, compared with a year earlier, according to data released Tuesday by the State Water Resources Control Board. The August figure was a slightly better 5.1%.