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Details Of Newsom’s Drinking Water Tax Plan Revealed

/in , , /by /SFGate (San Francisco)by Filipa Ioannou

California Gov. Gavin Newsom revealed new details of his plans to charge water customers in the state a new tax to fund safe drinking water for disadvantaged communities. He announced Wednesday his plans to charge water customers an extra amount ranging from 95 cents to $10 a month — money that, combined with fees on animal farmers, dairies and fertilizer sellers, he projects would raise $140 million a year that could be put toward testing wells, aiding public water systems and treating contaminated water. The amount paid would depend on the size of one’s water meter.

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Coronado Considers Building $24 Million Sewage Treatment Plant

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Gustavo Solis

Coronado wants to stop using drinkable water to irrigate its municipal golf course. And it is willing to spend millions to do that. On Tuesday, the City Council asked staff to move forward with a proposal to build a $24 million sewage treatment facility on the Coronado Golf Course. Between debt payments and maintenance and operating costs, the plant will operate at a deficit for at least the first 14 years of operation and won’t break even for 30 or 35 years.

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California Governor Pushes For Fee To Clean Up Tainted Water

/in , , /by /The Associated Press by Kathleen Ronayne

Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to charge California water customers up to $10 per month to help clean up contaminated water in low-income and rural areas, but he will face resistance from some legislative Democrats hesitant to impose new taxes. The Democratic governor says up to 1 million California residents have some type of contaminated or unclean water coming through their taps that can cause health issues. He has called it “a moral disgrace and a medical emergency.”

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2019 State Water Project Allocation Increased To 70 Percent

/in , , /by /23ABC (Bakersfield)by Kelly Broderick

The California Department of Water Resources announced today that public water agencies are now projected to receive 70 percent of contracted water supplies from the State Water Project this year. According to the Department, the 35 percent increase from the past month was due to a nearly constant wet hydrology over the winter, and DWR staff, who have worked tirelessly to keep the State Water Project operating safely and efficiently.

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Water Managers Decry Blind Eye For Shrinking Salton Sea

/in , , /by /Courthouse News Service (Pasadena, Calif.)by Matthew Renda

Residents and officials who packed a yacht club on the north shore of the Salton Sea in Southern California on Tuesday vented their anger about what they perceive as unnecessary delays and obfuscations about the environmental and public health disaster unfolding here. The California Water Resources Control Board held the workshop at the North Shore Yacht and Beach Club designed to both inform the public and garner the opinions and experiences of residents living in proximity to the sea, which is rapidly vanishing into the desert.

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US Official Declares Drought Plan Done For Colorado River

/in , , /by /The Associated Press by Felicia Fonseca

Seven states that rely on a major waterway in the U.S. West have finished a yearslong effort to create a plan to protect the Colorado River amid a prolonged drought, the federal government declared Tuesday. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman commended Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming for reaching a consensus on the Colorado River drought contingency plan. Now the states are seeking approval from Congress to implement it.

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Third Time A Charm? New Site Eyed For Water Plant In Escondido

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby J. Harry Jones

It could be called the Washington Avenue shuffle. Three times now, Escondido has proposed building a large recycled water treatment plant on lots along Washington Avenue, first near its eastern terminus, the second time in the middle of the city, and now near the western end of the street. The first try was on city-owned land near where the street ends at El Norte Parkway, property surrounded on three sides by newer housing whose residents screamed bloody murder. That location was rejected by the City Council in 2016.

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Reclamation Drought Plan Would Nix Environmental Reviews

/in , , /by /E&E News (Washington, D.C.)by Jeremy P. Jacobs

As the Trump administration moves toward a drought contingency plan for the Colorado River, the Bureau of Reclamation is pushing legislation that would exempt its work from environmental reviews. That includes potential impacts on what has emerged as a major sticking point in the drought negotiations: Southern California’s Salton Sea, a public health and ecological disaster. Draft legislation obtained by E&E News would authorize the Interior secretary to implement the drought plan “notwithstanding any other provision of law” and “without delay.”

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Two California Water Agencies Battling Over Colorado River Drought Plan

/in , , /by /KQED (San Francisco)by Felicia Fonseca and Jonathan J. Cooper

A major Southern California water agency is trying to push the state through a final hurdle in joining a larger plan to preserve a key river in the U.S. West that serves 40 million people. Most of the seven states that get water from the Colorado River have signed off on plans to keep the waterway from crashing amid a prolonged drought, climate change and increased demands. But California and Arizona have not, missing deadlines from the federal government.

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California Is Drought-Free For The First Time In Nearly A Decade

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Alejandra Reyes-Velarde

It’s official: California is 100% drought-free. For the first time since 2011, the state shows no areas suffering from prolonged drought and illustrates almost entirely normal conditions, according to a map released Thursday by the U.S. Drought Monitor. Former Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order in 2017 that lifted the drought emergency in most of the state, leaving some breathing a sigh of relief. But he cautioned Californians to keep saving water as some parts of the state were still suffering from extreme drought.

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