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Renewable energy: Australia Bets On A ‘Water Battery’

/in , /by /Financial Timesby Jamie Smyth, Tumut, New South Wales

It took 100,000 construction workers a quarter of a century to bore through the Snowy Mountains to build Australia’s largest hydroelectric scheme. The vast nation-building project links nine power stations and 16 dams via a network of 145km of tunnels and pipelines, providing irrigation water and energy that has helped transform the country’s economy since it began operating in 1974.

Now, almost half a century later, Australia’s newly elected government is placing the state-owned Snowy Hydro plant at the vanguard of another energy transition by transforming it into a massive “water battery” that will help keep the lights on as the country shifts from an electricity grid based mainly on fossil fuels to one built around renewable energy.

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Gas-Powered Engines, Democrats’ Turmoil, And Clean Water

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Dan Morain

A million Californians don’t have clean water when they turn on their taps. Most live in farm towns like East Orosi, as the New York Times detailed last week. And no policymaker doubts there is a problem. The question: How to raise the money to fix the problem. The cost of a solution is pegged at $140 million a year. That should be easy in a $213 billion budget. It’s not, evidently.

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Warmth To Ramp Up In California, Southwest At Late Week Following Unusually Chilly Weekend

/in , /by /AccuWeatherby Courtney Spamer

Following record cold across parts of California, temperatures will rebound to near-normal levels by the end of the month. During the Memorial Day weekend, afternoon high temperatures were held to the lowest levels in almost 10 years. Temperatures in Northern and Central California were mainly in the 50s to near 60 degrees Fahrenheit for the high on Sunday afternoon, while southwestern California failed to get out of the lower 60s.

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OPINION: A Water Portfolio Planning Report Card For California

/in , /by /California Water Blogby Jay Lund

Governor Newsom recently called for a state portfolio of actions to manage water under rapidly changing climate and other conditions.  This post reviews the state of water portfolio planning in California today. In this complex changing world, major problems are rarely solved with a single solution or a single problem-solver. Portfolio-based planning and management tries to do many things in an organized and coordinated way, often wit

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Support Newsom’s ‘Reset’ To A One-Tunnel Project

/in , /by /Bakersfield.comby Ted R. Page

One tunnel or two? It’s just four words, but if you say them around anyone familiar with California water issues they will know exactly what you are talking about, and it’s likely they will have a strong opinion. During Gov. Newsom’s State of the State speech, he made it clear that his administration will build one tunnel under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta instead of two as was proposed in Gov. Brown’s California WaterFix.

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Sewage Flows From Tijuana Completely Shutter Imperial Beach Shoreline

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith

A beach closure that has been in place for months for the southern part of the Imperial Beach was extended Sunday to include the city’s entire shoreline. The San Diego County Department of Environment Health issued the order to close the coastline to swimmers as a result of sewage-contaminated runoff in the Tijuana River. Signs warning residents of the contamination will be in place until testing indicates the water is safe for recreational use.

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As Late-Season Wet Weather Hits Northern California, Snowpack And Reservoir Levels Soar

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Claire Morgan

Northern California rain and snow levels have soared with record wet weather in May, leaving the Sierra with higher-than-normal snowpack levels and pushing several reservoirs toward full capacity. Downtown Sacramento already has broken record rainfall numbers in May, with more than 3.42 inches of rain this month, according to National Weather Service forecaster Karl Swanberg. The previous record of 3.25 inches was set in 1889. Current statewide snowpack levels are being recorded at 20 inches of “snow water equivalent,” the depth of water that would result if the snowpack melted at once, a figure that is 167 percent above average for this time of year, according to the California Department of Water Resources.

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California Reservoirs Near Capacity In May

/in , /by /Water News Network

It has been a winter – and spring – for the record books, for California reservoirs and ski resorts. And, it’s not over yet. Snow has continued to fall throughout May, with several inches or more in the Sierra Nevada and the southern California mountains. In the lowlands, the City of San Diego has experienced one of its wettest months of May on record. The San Diego National Weather Service reported that Alpine and El Cajon set daily precipitation records on May 23. The normal rainfall at Lindbergh Field during the water year (October 1 – September 30) averages about 10.3 inches. In the current water year, 12.7 inches of rain has been recorded at Lindbergh Field as of May 23.

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A Green Light For Carlsbad Desal Plant Expansion

/in , /by /The Daily Transcriptby Kerry Jackson

With more than 800 miles of coastline and a great big ocean out there, California shouldn’t be always be scrambling for water as if it were in the middle of the Sahara Desert. But politics tend to make goods scarce rather than plentiful. But sometimes there’s good news. Such as a recent report that the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board has issued a permit allowing a permanent seawater intake to be built at the Claude “Bud” Lewis Desalination Plant in Carlsbad. Once fully operable in 2023, the new intake system will supplement the 50 million gallons of “drought-proof” potable water the plant currently pumps out daily, most of it drawn from the Agua Hedionda Lagoon located next to the facility.

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Water Authority Proposes 4.3% Rate Increase To Local Agencies In 2020

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

San Diego County Water Authority staff have proposed a 4.3 percent increase in the cost of treated water in 2020, citing cost increases and continued investment in local supplies. Authority staff said the increase is driven by higher costs for water supplied and transported by the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District, as well as increasing maintenance costs for reservoirs at Lake Hodges and San Vicente, and spending for upgrades to the desalination plant in Carlsbad.

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