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OPINION: Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan Is Necessary Now

/in , /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Tom Buschatzke

Last week, the seven Colorado River basin states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — sent a letter to Congress calling for federal legislation to authorize the Drought Contingency Plan (DCP). Congressional House and Senate committees are holding hearings on the plan. It’s a historic moment for a river that supports two countries, seven states, 40 million people, 5.5 million acres of agricultural land, 22 federally recognized tribes, 11 national parks, seven wildlife refuges, four national recreation areas, and seven endangered species.

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Atmospheric Rivers: California Could Experience More Intense Rains In The Future

/in , , /by /Yale Climate Connectionsby Diana Madson

Imagine a river flowing through the sky – and all of its water dropping down to earth. That’s kind of what happens during many winter storms on the west coast. A so-called “atmospheric river” is a long, flowing band of water vapor – typically a few hundred miles wide – that contains vast amounts of moisture. When it moves inland over mountains, the moisture rises, causing it to cool and fall to earth as rain or snow. Duane Waliser of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory says atmospheric rivers are often beneficial, because they provide about half of California’s fresh water supply. But strong atmospheric river systems can also be dangerous – especially when they stall, or produce rain on top of snow.

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Spillway Could Be Used Next Week, DWR Says

/in , /by /Chico Enterprise-Record

The newly-renovated Oroville Dam spillway could be used as early as next week, the state Department of Water Resources said Tuesday. DWR is “closely monitoring Oroville reservoir levels and current forecasts,” the water agency said in a press release. With storms forecast in the Feather River basin, DWR said it is taking steps to prepare for use of the main spillway by the first week of April. Although the state water agency said the spillway was usable in October 2017 if needed, water has not flowed in significant amounts since the spillway crisis in February 2017, when a hole in the enormous concrete structure led to use of the emergency spillway concrete weir for the first time in history and eventually the evacuation of more than 188,000 downstream residents.

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Twelve Bay Area Water Agencies Award Outstanding Student Projects In Water Disciplines

/in , /by /California Water News Daily

Eleven Bay area water, wastewater and recycled water agencies have joined forces to form the Excellence in Water, Wastewater and Recycled Water Research award category at the annual Contra Costa County Science & Engineering Fair. The water division recognizes outstanding student projects in the disciplines of water.  The category is one of many as part of fair which was held at on March 14-16 at Los Medanos College in Pittsburgh, CA.

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A Closer Look At Environmental Impact Bonds

/in , /by /Water Finance and Management

Across the nation, countless cities with antiquated sewer and stormwater systems are under orders from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reduce stormwater runoff to decrease the amount of pollution entering local waterways. When Washington, D.C., faced this problem, city officials decided to experiment with green infrastructure rather than investing in expensive new pumps and pipes. Since green infrastructure had never been implemented on such a large scale, however, the city faced a huge challenge when it came to financing the project.

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OPINION: New Path On California Water Must Include Delta Communities

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla

Delta advocates agree about the need to break out of our silos. And we all agree, the Delta is an amazing estuary, and a vital water supply source for the state. But any new path on California water must bring Delta community and fishing interests to the table. We have solutions to offer. We live with the impacts of state water management decisions from loss of recreation to degradation of water quality to collapsing fisheries.

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Environment Report: What The Super Bloom Says About Backcountry Development

/in , /by /Voice of San Diegoby Ry Rivard

People are scrambling to find the so-called “super bloom” flowers in the far reaches of Southern California. People have taken off for the Anza-Borrego Desert or, less exotically, parked along the shoulder of Interstate 15 to photograph themselves serenely sitting in a flower patch by a six-lane highway. Getting out there is a healthy reminder that so much of San Diego County – 4,200 square miles of it – is undeveloped. It’s a bit amazing to stand in the dusty, often barren Anza-Borrego only to look up at the mountains and realize that 90 miles west is the country’s eighth-largest city and the world’s largest ocean.

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San Dieguito River Conservancy Cleaning Up Watershed

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Deborah Sullivan Brennan

The San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy is eradicating invasive weeds from the river course, and replacing them with native plants, in order to control fire risk and and improve the natural habitat. The restoration project covers almost 95 acres, and takes place along a 2.5-mile stretch of the San Dieguito River between Fairbanks Ranch and Rancho Santa Fe. That area is part of an ongoing revegetation program to improve the streamside environment.

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OPINION: California Water Tax Plan Is Back — And Newsom’s Version Is The Worst Yet

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune

Two years ago, The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board opposed a bill that would add a maximum 95-cents fee to the monthly bills of all but low-income water customers to help pay for water infrastructure improvements in some 300 communities with about 1 million residents. These residents, clustered in agricultural areas in the Central Valley, have to rely on unsafe water supplies.

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Reservoir Releases Shift From Flood Control To Storage

/in , , /by /KCRA (Sacramento)by Vicki Gonzalez

Water managers are shifting from flood control to water storage at reservoirs across the California. Folsom Lake is at roughly 70 percent capacity, with about twice the amount of inflow as outflow. “We can kind of buffer up and down — give or take — to try and get that target,” said Todd Plain with Bureau of Reclamation. “That target, as time goes on, is moving up as we fill. So, it’s OK to be to be a little bit above average right now.”

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