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San Diego Water Authority Dismisses Some Claims in Suit Against Metropolitan Water

/in , , /by /City News Service Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Friday applauded the dismissal of several legal claims stemming from lawsuits filed by the San Diego County Water Authority over water rates and charges, which could end a decade-long legal battle between the agencies.

The Water Authority voted Thursday to dismiss some claims in its lawsuits, which the Water Authority said would allow the parties to avoid a trial scheduled for June. The water authority filed several lawsuits regarding water rates and charges set by MWD and paid by water authority customers spanning from 2010 to 2018.

The resolution was at least partially brought on by the MWD Board of Directors’ approval of more than $350 million in “Water Stewardship Rate” benefits for the San Diego region late last year.

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California’s Driest February and Coming Drought?

/in , , /by /California WaterBlog (UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences)by Jay Lund

February has been amazingly dry in California, if anyone hasn’t noticed.  No precipitation at all in February, a dry forecast, about 51% of seasonal Sacramento Valley precipitation (a bit less for the San Joaquin and Tulare basins), and only about half (45-57%) of normal snowpack for this time of year.  Unless March is wet, this dry year seems likely to advance the onset of the fire season and threaten forest health this year.

Reservoir levels are still not bad for this time of year.  Many are fuller than average, perhaps reflecting some snowpack loss.  Some other reservoirs are a bit low.  This is inherent in the first year of a drought, low precipitation and snowpack, but mostly ok reservoirs.

Groundwater has recovered somewhat from the previous 2012-2016 drought, better in the north, but less in the state’s more overdraft-prone areas in the San Joaquin and Tulare basins.

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California’s Winter: Wet Times, Dry Times and Water Supplies

/in , , /by /Water News Networkby Ed Joyce Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

After a wet and snowy start, California’s winter has gone bust. The 2019-2020 water year started off with robust precipitation, after a series of storms in November and early December 2019.

But the new year has not been as bountiful. Dry conditions in January and February added little to the Sierra Nevada snowpack.

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Drought In California Seems Inevitable. But Experts Say Don’t Panic

/in , , /by /Capital Public Radioby David Ezra Romero

Some communities in California just experienced the driest February ever, and there’s around an 80 percent chance the state will enter a full-blown drought this year.

If that happens, it could be the third-driest year in over a century, according to modeling by the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis.

But even though around a quarter of California is undergoing moderate drought conditions experts say it’s too early to panic — they say a second year of drought is where things get dicey.

“The first year of a drought is really mostly a wake-up call,” said Jay Lund, the center’s director. “It will be prudent, if this turns out to be a dry year, for us to prepare for it to be a longer drought.”

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Rural Utilities Sue 3M, DuPont Over PFAS Well Contamination

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Environmentby Amena H. Saiyid

Rural water utilities are accusing 3M Co., E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. and other companies of potentially contaminating groundwater wells with firefighting foam containing chemicals that take forever to degrade.

The city of Millington, Tenn., joined by the National Rural Water Association, alleged in a complaint Tuesday that the companies developed, marketed, and sold chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, despite knowing about the environmental and health risks they posed.

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Dozens of High-Risk Bay Area Dams Lack Required Emergency Plans

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Joaquin Palomino

The Bay Area is dotted with at least 145 dams where failure or misoperation could result in death or property destruction, yet many lack required emergency plans, according to an analysis of state data.

Most of these “high-hazard” dams were built before 1960. While not at a higher risk of failure, they could endanger countless homes and businesses that rest below the aging facilities, making emergency planning and maintenance increasingly important, experts said.

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California Bills Tackle Water Contamination, PFAS, Wildfire

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Environmentby Emily C. Dooley

California could one day have a quick-strike panel focused on spotting emerging contaminants in drinking water to see if they pose a danger and need immediate attention.

The state also could certify labs to increase the amount of so-called forever chemicals that can be tested for in drinking water, aquifers, lakes, and streams.

The two initiatives are among more than 300 bills relating to energy and environment policy filed by California legislators in the 2020 session. They tackle issues like water contamination, wildfires, recycling, air quality, and other matters affecting the state’s nearly 40 million residents.

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Drought or Dangerous Flooding? Research Aims to Tame Atmospheric River Risks – and Save California’s Rain

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Rachel Becker

We were flying about 200 nautical miles off the coast of California when a voice over the headset reported a strong smell of fuel in the back of the plane.

I was in the cockpit with the U.S. Air Force’s “Hurricane Hunters,” who spend the summer and fall flying into the eyes of hurricanes. On a Tuesday at the end of January, though, we flew out of Travis Air Force Base in California toward a different kind of storm: an atmospheric river that was moving east across the North Pacific, toward the West Coast.

Opinion: Newsom Hopes to Broker a Peace Treaty in California’s Water War. Some Worry He’ll Cave to Trump

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Times by George Skelton

Gov. Gavin Newsom may be piloting a lifeboat that will rescue the sinking California Delta. Or he may be in water over his head on a doomed mission.

The governor gets angry with skeptics who say he’s being delusional. But history sides with the doubters.

“I love reading all that, ‘Hey, he’s naive. He’s being misled,'” Newsom recently told a forum sponsored by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, his voice rising with a touch of sarcasm.

“It means we’re doing something a little different.”

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California’s Snowpack Shrivels, Raising Fears of Future Wildfires

/in , , /by /Discover Magazineby Tom Yulsman

What a difference a year makes.

As the comparison of satellite images above shows, last year at this time California’s Sierra Nevada range was buried in snow. And even as recently as January of this year, snowpack was looking pretty good.

But since then, the jet stream has ferried storms north of California, causing the snowpack to shrivel — from about 150 percent of average last February down to just a little more than 50 percent now.

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