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Trump Signs Disaster Declaration For Flooded Northern California Counties

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Rachel Swan

President Trump signed a disaster declaration Saturday for 17 Northern California counties that endured battering rains and landslides this year, making them eligible for federal relief. The move followed three emergency proclamations this year by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who directed Caltrans to seek federal assistance for a string of brutal February storms that doused rural areas across the state, damaging roads and bridges. Newsom described the devastation in a letter to Trump last month in which he asked for the disaster declaration. “The storms caused widespread flash flooding, erosion, mud and debris flows, power outages, and damage to roadways and other critical infrastructure,” Newsom wrote. “In addition to the precipitation, heavy winds uprooted trees, impacting roads and power lines.”

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Siren Songs Of The Salton Sea: Ideas Abound To Fix State’s Largest Lake. But some say It’s Too Late

/in , /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Janet Wilson

Wade Crowfoot, California’s new secretary of Natural Resources, remembers the first time he saw the Salton Sea. He was in his early 30s, headed south to visit his cousin in El Centro, when he saw “this huge body of water next to this stunning, stark landscape, with great mountains to the west. It captivated me.” Jeff Geraci’s impressions of California’s largest inland water body are quite different. For 14 years, as the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s senior environmental scientist, he’s coordinated Salton Sea inspections. “The sea is a repository for sewage, industrial and slaughterhouse discharges and agricultural wastewater,” he wrote in an email, describing wading through rotting fish and partially dissolved bird carcasses, all while pesticide-tainted water still pours in.

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Lawmakers Advance Bill To Increase Oversight On Cadiz’s Mojave Desert Water Project

/in , /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Sam Metz

A bill that could block a Los Angeles-based water supply company from pumping water out of a Mojave Desert aquifer passed through the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday, extending the yearslong fight over whether the environmental impact of groundwater extraction merits additional scrutiny. The entire State Senate will vote on S.B. 307 later in the legislative session and, if it passes, it will need to also be approved by the State Assembly and signed by the governor. The bill would impose additional environmental review requirements on Cadiz Inc.’s water project, which would pump 16.3 billion gallons of groundwater out of an aquifer and transport it across public lands to the Colorado River Aqueduct. Cadiz projects the project could make them $2.4 billion.

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Prado Dam Rated A ‘High Urgency’ Risk After Spillway Problems Discovered

/in , /by /The Press-Enterprise (Riverside)by David Downey

Federal officials are working urgently to strengthen the spillway at Prado Dam near Corona to prevent it from failing in a major flood, which could imperil hundreds of thousands of people living downstream in Orange County. After a May inspection determined the dam’s spillway could perform poorly in a major flood, the dam’s risk rating was changed from “moderate urgency” to “high urgency.” Dena O’Dell, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokeswoman, said Thursday, May 16, that the agency is taking immediate measures to reduce the risk that the spillway will fail. And she said the agency was preparing to launch a project in 2021 to bolster the spillway and raise it 20 feet.

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The Not-So-Crystal Clean History Of San Francisco’s Drinking Water

/in , /by /KQED News (Sacramento)by Rachael Myrow

To the west of Interstate 280 along the Peninsula south of San Francisco, there’s a long stretch of beautiful greenery. The hills are carpeted with trees, a thick bank of coastal fog hugs the ridge line, and nestled in the middle sit two crystal clear lakes. It all looks so pristine, untouched even. But it’s entirely man made. When Jackie Nuñez moved to San Mateo from Santa Barbara, she couldn’t help but notice the Crystal Springs reservoirs.

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$3 Million Earmarked For Three California Coastal Habitats By U.S. Department of the Interior

/in , /by /California Water News Daily

Three California coastal wetlands habitats will each be receiving $1 million for restoration projects according to an announcement by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI). U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt announced last week that 11 coastal states will be sharing in a total of $20 million for 22 projects in 11 coastal states to protect, restore or enhance more than 7,000 acres of coastal wetlands and adjacent upland habitats under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program.

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Water Authority Supports Bill To Spur Pumped Storage Projects

/in , /by /Water News Network

A bill that the San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors voted to support in March is scheduled for a hearing Thursday in the state Senate Appropriations Committee. The proposed state legislation promotes the development of pumped hydroelectric storage projects to help meet state energy and climate goals. Senate Bill 772 by Sen. Steven Bradford of Gardena promotes the development of pumped hydroelectric storage projects to help meet state energy and climate goals.

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OPINION: Legislature Should Support More Water Projects, Not Work To Defeat Them

/in , /by /The Orange County Registerby Bill Manis

All of us remember California’s recent five-year drought when residents were encouraged to cut back their water use, let their lawns go brown, and use barrels to collect precious rainwater. Now, well-funded, politically-connected interest groups are trying to block a new source of clean drinking water for Southern California. According to a recent report by the State Water Resources Control Board, more than one million Californians don’t have access to safe, reliable drinking water.

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Owens Valley Groundwater Basin Goes Low

/in , /by /Sierra Wave Mediaby Deb Murphy

California’s Department of Water Resources came out with its latest prioritization of state groundwater basins and, tentatively, the Owens Valley basin is now low. Over the short life of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, Owens Valley has gone from medium to high and now low priority. That prioritization would have had an impact three years ago.

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Opinion: Key Conflicts Roil California’s Ever Evolving Waterscape

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

As 2018 was winding down, one of California’s leading newspapers suggested, via a front-page, banner-headlined article, that the drought that had plagued the state for much of this decade may be returning. Just weeks later, that same newspaper was reporting that record-level midwinter storms were choking mountain passes with snow, rapidly filling reservoirs and causing serious local flooding. Neither was incorrect at the time, but their juxtaposition underscores the unpredictable nature of California’s water supply.

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