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Cuyama Passes Pay-To-Pump Groundwater Sustainability Structure

/in , /by /Santa Maria Sunby Kasey Bubnash

Cuyama landowners will soon have to pay to pump groundwater, a decision that some say will place the burden of Cuyama’s dwindling water supply largely on farmers’ shoulders.

At a board of directors meeting on July 10, the Cuyama Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency voted to approve a pay-to-pump funding structure, in which landowners are charged extraction fees each time they pump water from Cuyama’s groundwater basin. The pumping fees will fund the sustainability agency’s continued efforts to implement a groundwater sustainability plan as ordered by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, a state law that requires critically overdrafted basins to submit plans for groundwater sustainability by Jan. 31, 2020.

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Report: Nacimiento Dam Safety Needs Expensive Upgrade

/in , /by /Monterey Heraldby Jim Johnson

Monterey County’s Nacimiento Dam safety program is seriously deficient with an outdated program document, insufficient staff and a long list of outstanding dam safety repairs and maintenance estimated to cost more than $50 million that needs to be addressed in short order.

That’s according to an independent outside audit of the dam safety program conducted by GEI Consultants, Inc. whose findings and recommendations were presented to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. The program is operated by the county Water Resources Agency which is overseen by the county board in its capacity as the agency’s ultimate oversight authority. The audit report itself is not publicly released because it is considered critical energy infrastructure information under Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulations.

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The Importance Of Groundwater And Of Predicting Human Impacts On It

/in , /by /Forbesby Natalie Parletta

It may be out of sight, but it should not be out of mind. Water hidden beneath the earth’s surface comprises 98% of the planet’s fresh water. On average, this groundwater provides a third of all total water consumed, and its preciousness is ever more palpable since Cape Town’s water crisis sent shock waves rippling around the world.

Despite this, its regulation is far from ideal – especially now that drought conditions are intensifying around the globe and people are increasingly drilling downwards.

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California’s 2019-2020 Budget Has Millions For Water Projects And Healthcare Programs

/in , , /by /The Sun - Gazzete

Water and healthcare was forced into the State’s 2019-2020 budget as a priority this year.

With a $22 billion surplus and $215 billion in spending, the southern region of the Central Valley got the financial OK needed from the State’s budget to get some projects off the ground. Brokered in large part by rookie state senator for California’s 14 Senate District, Melissa Hurtado, the southern portion of the Valley has gained tens of millions of dollars of investment in drinking water, asthma mitigation, aging and disability resource centers and Valley Fever research.

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Don’t Say Retreat When Talking About Sea Rise In California

/in , /by /San Diego Readerby Sheila Pell,

Who knew back in 1977, when the Coastal Act was passed, that the sea would rise so quickly? Now, cities and the agency formed to protect the coastline, must deal with it – and with each other.

A workshop on July 12 brought together the League of Cities, California State Association of Counties, local government officials, and the California Coastal Commission. Sea level rise was a key topic, along with one of the most controversial tools in the arsenal.

“The big elephant in the room is managed retreat,” said Imperial Beach councilmember Ed Spriggs, who helped develop the workshop agenda, and whose low-lying community is one of the most vulnerable in California to sea rise.

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‘The River Disappears, But the Pollution Doesn’t’

/in , /by /E&E Newsby Ariel Wittenberg

The Big Lost River earns its name. Beginning in Idaho’s tallest peaks, moving through irrigation dams and diversions, the river flows into the desert here and simply ends.

An ancient tributary to the iconic Snake River, the Big Lost was cut off by volcanic eruptions millions of years ago. Lava cooled into porous basalt, now covered by volcanic ash. When the river reaches the aptly named Sinks, it disappears underground.

 

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

/in , /by /PBSby 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.

The Oroville incident forced the evacuation of nearly 190,000 people and cost the state $1.1 billion in repairs. It took its place as a seminal event in the history of U.S. dam safety, ranking just below the failures in the 1970s of two dams.

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California Pledges Millions To Battle Enormous, Destructive Swamp Rats

/in , , , /by /The Mercury Newsby Cat Ferguson

A growing menace in the form of 15-pound swamp rodents is threatening Delta waterways, and the state is throwing money, hunting dogs and birth control at the invasive pests which have the potential to destroy crops and wetlands.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has received $10 million in new funding for the eradication of nutria, or coypu, which are native to South America and have found their way to the Golden State after wreaking havoc in Louisiana and other places. Louisiana has lost hundreds of thousands of acres of wetlands to the rodent, a voracious herbivore with a largely indiscriminate palate

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OPINION: In California, we long ago ended the ‘War on Coal’

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Jan Smutny-Jones

In a series of demagogic tweets, President Donald Trump recently attacked Obama-era “clean power plan” policies as a “war on coal” and danger to U.S. energy independence. If there is a war on coal—as the president thinks—it’s long been decided in California and most of the West.

In 2008, coal comprised 18.2% of California’s electricity mix. By 2018, that number had fallen to 3%, with virtually all the coal coming from a single plant in Utah. This plant is scheduled to be retired within five years and replaced with cleaner resources pushing California coal generation to zero

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Monterey County Gives Cal Am The Green Light

/in , /by /Voices of Monterey Bayby Royal Calkins

Monterey County supervisors voted Monday to let California American Water start construction on its desalination plant even before the state Coastal Commission makes a decision on the technology involved.

On a fully predictable 3-2 vote, the supervisors also accepted unofficial state opinions about Cal Am’s water rights even though the courts have not made a binding decision on whether the company has the legal right to pump brackish groundwater as planned.

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