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A Decade After Signing of California Groundwater Law, Major Challenges Remain

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ian James

In 2014, Gov. Jerry Brown signed historic legislation establishing a framework for California to begin managing groundwater in an effort to curb widespread overpumping, which had sent aquifer levels into rapid decline, left hundreds of wells dry, and caused the ground to sink in parts of the Central Valley.

The law was based on the idea that groundwater could best be managed at the local level, and it called for newly formed local agencies to gradually adopt measures to address chronic declines in groundwater levels. The legislation laid out an implementation timeline stretching more than a quarter-century, giving many areas until 2040 to address their depletion problems.

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Sierra Club Sues for Changes in Major Water Deal to Protect Salton Sea and Residents

/in , /by /Desert Sunby Janet Wilson

The Sierra Club filed a legal challenge Thursday seeking to halt a huge Colorado River conservation deal between the Biden administration and the powerful Imperial Irrigation District, saying that rare desert wildlife and low-income residents near the shores of the already-fast dwindling Salton Sea would be further harmed if concrete steps weren’t taken immediately.

The environmental group on Thursday filed a request for an injunction in California Superior Court in Imperial County, saying both the water agency and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation had violated a tough state environmental law, the California Environmental Quality Act, by rushing through cursory approvals to conserve as much as 900,000 acre feet of water through 2026 — more than the entire state of Nevada receives annually, and enough to potentially supply 2.7 million households.

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How a California County Got PFAS Out of its Drinking Water

/in , /by /NPRby Pien Huang

Yorba Linda is a small, sunny city southeast of Los Angeles. It’s perhaps best known for being the birthplace of President Richard Nixon.

But in the past few years, Yorba Linda has picked up another distinction: It’s home to the nation’s largest per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) water treatment plant of its kind, according to the city.

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California Remains in Puzzling Earthquake ‘Drought’ Despite Recent Shaking

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Rong-Gong Lin II

Despite an unusual number of modest earthquakes this year in Southern California, the state overall remains in the midst of a “drought” of major earthquakes.

There have been no significant damaging earthquakes underneath California’s most populous cities in the last 30 years. That’s a stark contrast to the prior three decades, when earthquakes in suburban or mountainous areas caused catastrophic damage in the urban infrastructure, causing freeway and building collapses and resulting in the deaths of scores of people.

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OPINION: Water for the Future

/in , /by /Patchby Marie Waldron

San Diego County has made great strides to safeguard itself against California’s recurring drought cycle. For example, in 1991, 95% of our water was imported by the Metropolitan Water District (MWD). By 2023, only 14% of our water was imported by the MWD. Diversification efforts included building the Claude “Bud” Lewis Desalination plant in Carlsbad, increased conservation, an agreement to import water from the Imperial Irrigation District, and other measures. By 2045, it’s projected that only 8% of our water will be imported by the MWD.

But it’s a different story statewide. Most of our largest dams and reservoirs were built between 1945 and 1968, when our population was less than half its current size. Voter approval of a $7.5 billion water bond in 2014 has resulted in few, if any new projects. For more than 50 years, California has failed to make necessary investments in water infrastructure.

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‘Biggest Environmental Victory’: After More than a Decade in Limbo, San Diego County has a New Climate Plan

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Emily Alvarenga

After more than a decade of challenges, local environmental groups are rejoicing after the Board of Supervisors approved a new climate action plan this week that they say will keep the county accountable in slashing emissions.

The climate plan passed Wednesday along party lines will be used as a blueprint for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at county facilities and in unincorporated areas to reach net-zero emissions by 2045.

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Billion-Dollar Pure Water Project Stares Down $130M in Cost Overruns for Pipelines, Plants and Pumps

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby David Garrick

Inflation and major problems with tunneling and flooding have ballooned the price tag for San Diego’s Pure Water sewage recycling system by $130 million, a 10 percent hike that’s expected to raise sewer and water rates.

The city has already burned through nearly the entire $115 million contingency fund set aside to cover cost overruns and unexpected expenses when the $1.14 billion project was approved in 2021.

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Trump Threatens to Hold Disaster Money if California Rebels on Water Rules

/in , /by /Politicoby Tyler Katzenberger, Debra Kahn and Melanie Mason

Former President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to withhold federal disaster response funding from California over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s position on water deliveries to farmers.

Speaking to reporters from a golf course in Rancho Palos Verdes on Friday, Trump said he would strong-arm California’s governor into agreeing to send more water from California’s lush north to farm fields in its drier south.

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OPINION: No, American West, You Can’t Have Our Great Lakes Water

/in , /by /Governingby Dan Pogorzelski

It is my hope to put to rest the mistaken belief that Great Lakes water, now, or at any point in the future, will be used to solve the water woes of the western United States. This is not going to happen. Westerners cannot have an honest discussion about their future until we dispel this myth once and for all.

Standing anywhere on Chicago’s famous lakefront, it is easy to imagine the freshwater resource in front of you is limitless. I have seen visitors to our city stare in awe at Lake Michigan and say, “You call this a lake? That’s an ocean!”

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San Diego Receives $240 Million Loans for Lake Hodges Dam Replacement

/in , /by /KPBS

San Diego was selected Wednesday to receive $240.6 million in loans for Lake Hodges dam improvement projects and possible replacement by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers.

This funding comes from the Corps Water Infrastructure Financing Program, intended to provide low-cost loans to maintain, repair and upgrade dams not under the federal government’s jurisdiction. The CWIFP is part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

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