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Otay Student Poster Contest Winners Illustrate Importance Of Water-Use Efficiency

/in , , /by /Water News Network

Six talented elementary school students were recognized on August 7 by the Otay Water District Board of Directors as the winners of the District’s “Water is Life” Student Poster Contest. As one of the Otay Water District’s educational programs, the contest offers an opportunity for students to showcase their creativity while reflecting on the importance of using water efficiently in their daily lives. Students were encouraged to illustrate the value of water used both inside and outside the home as an informational poster intended to educate others. “We’re proud to offer students this opportunity to have fun and be creative, while at the same time thinking and learning about water conservation,” said Otay Water District General Manager Mark Watton.

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Toxic Groundwater Lies Beneath Phoenix, And A Cleanup Has Been Delayed For Years

/in , , /by /The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Ariz.)by Andrew Nicla

The water beneath a large swath of Phoenix isn’t fit to drink. A plume of toxic chemicals has tainted the groundwater for decades, and it’s now at the center of a bitter fight over how the aquifer should be cleaned up and what should happen to the water in the future. At issue are questions about why the cleanup has proceeded slowly, which government agency should lead the effort, and whether the polluted water, which isn’t flowing to household faucets, is releasing chemicals into the air at levels that may pose health risks for people in the area.

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Storms, Floods Cause $1.2B Damage To Public Infrastructure

/in , , /by /Associated Press

Storms and flooding have caused significant damage throughout the U.S. during the first half of 2019. The Associated Press tallied about $1.2 billion of damage in 24 states based on preliminary assessments of public infrastructure categories established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The tally includes damage to roads and bridges, utilities, water control facilities, public buildings and equipment, and parks. Each state must meet particular damage thresholds to qualify for federal aid based on their populations. Most, though not all, of the damage costs tallied by the AP will be eligible for federal aid. Figures for some states include updated damage costs provided to the AP by state agencies after their initial reports to FEMA.

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Reclamation Offering Grant Funding To Prepare For Drought Resiliency Projects In 2020 And 2021

/in , , /by /California Water News Daily

Extended, multi-year droughts have become more the norm in the exception throughout the western United States and the Bureau of Reclamation is keenly aware of the situation. Consequently, Reclamation recently announced that it is making grant funding opportunities available to assist communities in building long-term resilience for future droughts. This funding opportunity is part of the WaterSMART Drought Response Program for projects in 2020 and 2021. Up to $300,000 per agreement is available for a project that can be completed within two years. Up to $750,000 per agreement is available for a project that can be completed within three years. Recipients must match the funding with a minimum of 50 percent non-federal cost-share.

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California Will Check On ‘Forever Chemicals’ In Drinking Water. What You Need To Know

/in , , /by /KQED News (San Francisco, Calif.)by Molly Peterson

Over 75 years, a billion-dollar industry has grown up around a group of toxic chemicals that helps keep carpets clean, makes water roll off of camping equipment, and stops your food from sticking to frying pans. There are nearly 5,000 of these chemicals in a class called PFAS, for perfluoralkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. We’re just beginning to understand the risk they pose. What chemists know is that the tough carbon-fluorine bonds in these “forever chemicals” make them break down very slowly in the environment — posing a persistent risk to water supplies.  The Centers for Disease Control has profiled PFAS, which has been studied in people and in animals. Studies have linked to it developmental problems, thyroid disease, harm to the immune system, and impaired liver function.

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Directors To Consider Revising Untreated Water Rate Increases

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Julie Gallant

Ramona Municipal Water District (RMWD) Board of Directors will consider adjusting its rates for general untreated water at a Sept. 10 public hearing set for 2 p.m. at the Ramona Community Center, 434 Aqua Lane. RMWD directors already approved four types of rate increases at their July 9 meeting. The increases apply to treated and untreated water rates and fees, sewer service charges, capacity fees and connection fees, and emergency services fees. Increased water rates and fees were approved by the board on a 3-2 vote with President Jim Robinson and directors Thomas Ace and Bryan Wadlington in favor, and directors Jim Hickle and Jeff Lawler opposed. The recently approved rate for general untreated water was set to increase from $4.88 to $5.46 per unit — the equivalent of 748 gallons — beginning Aug. 1. Subsequent general untreated water increases were expected to follow effective July 1 of each year for the next four years. Those rates per unit are $5.85 in 2020; $6.26 in 2021; $6.70 in 2022; and $7.17 in 2023.

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OPINION: Common Ground Must Be Reached On Border Sewage Spills

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Serge Dedina

Over the past several months, and with his recent inflammatory comments on immigration, President Donald Trump has made the United States-Mexico border a point of contention in American political discourse. Yet while the nation focuses on the immigration battle at the Southern border, constituents in California are more concerned about pressing environmental issues that affect them every day. Over the past 30 years, the blue-collar beach town of Imperial Beach has battled a pollution crisis that poses a significant economic and public health threat to residents, visitors and communities on both sides of the California-Mexico border.

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New OCWD Director’s Poseidon Alternative

/in , , /by /Surf City Voice (Huntington Beach, Calif.)by John Earl

Kelly Rowe of Costa Mesa stunned the Poseidon underworld when he soundly defeated two-term Orange County Water District board-member Shawn Dewane in the 2018 election. Since 2013, Dewane and OCWD directors Cathy Green, Steve Sheldon, and Denis Bilodeau have fought hard for Poseidon Resources to build a $1 billion ocean desalination plant in Huntington Beach and sign a water purchase agreement with OCWD. Rowe will try to end that obsession by refocusing OCWD’s efforts. The remaining members of Poseidon’s coterie still obsess over Poseidon’s proposed desal deal: buy 56,000 AF of desalinated water every year for 30 years, regardless of need, at 3 or more times the price of imported water sold by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MET) for groundwater basin refills.

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Is It Too Late to Save Wild Salmon?

/in , , /by /Bloomberg (New York, N.Y.)by James Tarmy

Some of the world’s most famous conservationists have been hunters. Teddy Roosevelt, John James Audubon, and Ernest Hemingway each have the somewhat dubious distinction of saving animals’ habitats to try to kill them. Pacific salmon aren’t often mentioned alongside Roosevelt’s elephants or Hemingway’s tigers, but in Tucker Malarkey’s Stronghold (Random House, $28), fish is the biggest game of all. Malarkey’s protagonist is a charming misfit named Guido Rahr, who also happens to be her cousin. A naturalist almost as soon as he could walk, Rahr got hooked on fly fishing in his late teens, only to realize, to his horror, that the hydroelectric dams, agricultural runoff, commercial fishing industry, deforestation, and climate change in the Pacific Northwest could bring wild salmon to extinction.

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State Agency Hopeful Chevron’s Massive Kern County Spill Is Finally Over

/in , , /by /KQED-FM (San Francisco, Calif.)by Ted Goldberg

State regulators say they’re cautiously optimistic that a major release of crude oil from a Chevron well in Kern County — an episode that has continued for three months — is finally over. Chevron told state officials Wednesday that more than 1.3 million gallons of oil and water have flowed to the surface in the Cymric oil field, 35 miles west of Bakersfield, since May 10. An estimated one-third of that, or 445,130 gallons, is believed to be crude petroleum. The spill, which Chevron and the state’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources describe as a “surface expression,” has led to a major cleanup operation near the town of McKittrick.

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