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City To Hire Third Party To Take Over Smart Water Meter Program

/in , , /by /NBC 7 San Diegoby Sophia McCullough and Dorian Hargrove

After years of delays, and millions in cost overruns, San Diego will hire a third-party company to take over the city’s troubled conversion to smart water meters. The announcement was made after the city auditor released a new report highlighting management and staffing issues inside the city’s water department.  The City of San Diego launched its conversion to smart water meters in July of 2012 with a completion date of December 2017. But shortly after launching, numerous delays occurred due to a lack of oversight, staffing shortages, and performance issues with the meters. Currently only six percent of San Diego customers have smart water meters installed and the program is now $16 million over budget.

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Chevron Spills 800,000 Gallons Of Oil, Water In California

/in , , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Don Thompson

Officials began to clean up a massive oil spill Friday that dumped nearly 800,000 gallons of oil and water into a California canyon, making it larger — if less devastating — than the state’s last two major oil spills. The newly revealed spill has been flowing off and on since May and has again stopped, Chevron spokeswoman Veronica Flores-Paniagua said. She and California officials said the spill is not near any waterway and has not significantly affected wildlife. The last flow was Tuesday.

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California Legislators Halt Cadiz Water Project, Bill Heads To Gov. Newsom’s Desk

/in , , /by /Palm Springs Desert Sunby Janet Wilson and Sam Metz

The Cadiz groundwater pumping project in the Mojave Desert hit a major roadblock on Thursday, when the California State Assembly advanced a bill that could halt its progress for up to two years. If the bill becomes law, Cadiz, Inc.’s proposed project will need to undergo additional environmental review to prove its extraction plans will not harm the surrounding desert. S.B. 307, authored by Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, cleared the Assembly 49-23, where it was led by Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, who carried similar Cadiz-related legislation in 2017 and 2018 that stalled before final votes. After years of legislative battles and intense lobbying, the bill now only needs Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature to become law.

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The Fight Over Monterey Peninsula’s Water Future is a Debate Over Who Gets To Decide

/in , , /by /Monterey County Weeklyby Asaf Shalev

What is at stake is the water supply for the Monterey Peninsula. Consuming water drawn from the Carmel River is no longer feasible, neither ecologically nor legally. But the power to decide on an alternative supply is largely vested in the hands of public officials from outside the region.

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Federal Judge Remands Cadiz Water Project Pipeline Evaluation Back to BLM for Explicit Explanation

/in , , /by /California Water News Dailyby Staff

Judge George H. Wu of the Los Angeles Central District Federal Court recently issued a ruling in two consolidated cases brought against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) related to co-location of infrastructure in existing railroad rights-of-way, including the Cadiz Water Project’s proposed use of a local southern California railroad for water conveyance.

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Enormous Montana Pumped Hydro Project Gets Danish Investment

/in , , /by /PV Magazineby William Driscoll

A 400 MW pumped hydro project in Montana has received an equity investment from Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP).

While the technical potential of closed-loop pumped hydro storage is an estimated 500,000 sites worldwide, the cost of pumped hydro, especially as it compares to the cost of battery storage, remains an issue.

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USD Installs Second Wind and Solar ‘Nanogrid’ Tower on its Campus

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby Chris Jennewein

The University of San Diego dedicated on Wednesday the second free-standing solar and wind energy tower installed on its campus by a local startup.

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Flooding Spikes Along U.S. Coasts as Sea Levels Rise: NOAA Report

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Environmentby Jennifer Kay

High tides are flooding basements, streets and septic systems up and down U.S. coastlines more often as sea levels rise—and the future looks even more soggy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said July 10.

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In an Era of Extreme Weather, Concerns Grow Over Dam Safety

/in , , /by /Yale Environment 360 (New Haven, CT)by Jacques Leslie

It is a telling illustration of the precarious state of United States dams that the near-collapse in February 2017 of Oroville Dam, the nation’s tallest, occurred in California, considered one of the nation’s leading states in dam safety management.

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A Drier Future Sets The Stage For More Wildfires

/in , , /by /Science Daily (Rockville, MD)

November 8, 2018 was a dry day in Butte County, California. The state was in its sixth consecutive year of drought, and the county had not had a rainfall event producing more than a half inch of rain for seven months. The dry summer had parched the spring vegetation, and the strong northeasterly winds of autumn were gusting at 35 miles per hour and rising, creating red flag conditions: Any planned or unplanned fires could quickly get out of control.

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