You are now in California and the U.S. Media Coverage category.

Rare ‘Atmospheric River’ Storms To Soak California This Week

/in , /by /East Bay Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.)by Paul Rogers

Dig out that umbrella, and even the tire chains. It’s mid-May, but a series of rare, winter-like storms will soak the Bay Area and much of California through next week and bring up to 2 feet of new snow to the Sierra Nevada. Two atmospheric rivers are moving in from the Pacific, forecasters say. And although they are weak — expected to be a 1 on a scale of 1 to 5 — they will generate steady rainfall starting Wednesday and continuing through next Tuesday.

Full Story

Spillway Concerns? DWR, Sheriff Kory Honea Say No

/in , /by /Chico Enterprise-Recordby Brody Fernandez

The California Department of Water Resources released a Lake Oroville community update on Monday afternoon amid rumors of ongoing safety concerns regarding the Oroville Dam’s main spillway. These rumors have been circulated mostly on Facebook, according to DWR Public Information Officer Elizabeth Whitmore. “At this time, the community update should answer all questions regarding any safety issues with the main spillway, as well as concerns growing over the upcoming rain storm,” Whitmore said.

Full Story

Pumped Hydro With Better Financing Can Compete With Batteries

/in , /by /PV Magazineby William Driscoll Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Lazard’s well-known Levelized Cost of Storage analysis does not cover pumped hydro storage, and a pumped hydro cost estimate from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is not expected until late this year, as a follow-up to an interim report. Beating them to the punch is a report by UC San Diego professor David Victor and five co-authors, Pumped Energy Storage: Vital to California’s Renewable Energy Future. The report provides the following cost comparison between pumped hydro and battery storage:

Full Story

San Diego Water Department Ranks Low In National Customer-Satisfaction Survey

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Jeff McDonald

Customers in Fresno are much happier with their water service than residents of San Diego. So are ratepayers in Sacramento, Los Angeles, Honolulu and Denver. In fact, a new survey found only one water provider in the western United States less popular than the San Diego Water Department — the San Jose Water Co., a for-profit utility whose corporate owner is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The city of San Diego ranked 23rd out of 24 large water providers in a customer-satisfaction survey published by J.D. Power, the global marketing and information services company based in Orange County.

Full Story

Dam It All: More Than Half Of The World’s Long Rivers Are Blocked By Infrastructure

/in , /by /Salonby Rachel Ramirez

It hasn’t even been a week since the U.N. released a depressing report on biodiversity, and now, a new study in Nature shows that 63 percent of the world’s longest (at least 620 miles) rivers are impeded by human-built infrastructures such as dams and reservoirs. Dam(n). Rivers are a key source of food and water for agriculture, energy, and humanity. They’re critical to many cultures and communities and home to a plethora of species like salmon and trout. They also bolster ecosystems by restoring groundwater and serve as a buffer against drought.

Full Story

Desal Plant Operator Assumes Maintenance Of Carlsbad Lagoon

/in , /by /The San Diego Union Tribune by Phil Diehl Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

 

The company that built and operates the Carlsbad seawater desalination plant took over stewardship of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon this week, the only San Diego County lagoon that allows power boats, kayaks, paddleboards and other recreational and commercial activities. Poseidon Water will be responsible for dredging Agua Hedionda to keep it open and deep enough for public and private uses including a YMCA Aquatic Park, the Hubbs-SeaWorld Fish Hatchery, the Carlsbad Aquafarm shellfish operation and the lagoon foundation’s nature center.

 

Full Story

California’s Infrastructure Gets C- in New Report Card

/in , /by /NBC 7 San Diegoby Erika Cervantes and Brenda Gregorio-Nieto Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

A new report gave California’s infrastructure a grade of C-, which means it requires attention despite being better than the country’s average. The report by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) said California’s infrastructure is average when graded in 17 categories, including aviation, roads, transit, drinking water, and more. The annual infrastructure report card talked about the progress San Diego has made and where the city needs to improve.

Full Story

How LADWP Uses Two Lakes To Store Energy Like A Giant Battery

/in , /by /LAistby Sharon McNary

If L.A. is going to stop burning fossil fuels by 2045 a key goal of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s proposed Green New Deal it must store a lot more of the excess solar and wind energy it produces during the day so it doesn’t have to rely on gas and coal energy to power the city when the sun sets and the wind dies. There’s a growing focus on building big batteries — for example, the kind that use lithium ions. But L.A. needs energy storage that is far bigger than any traditional battery.

Full Story

San Diego Climate Change Group Advocates For Local Green New Deal Support

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Lauren J. Mapp

A San Diego-based group of environmental activists launched a 100-day campaign Monday calling on the region’s congressional representatives to support the Green New Deal to mitigate the effects and exacerbation of climate change. San Diego 350 hopes to convince Reps. Susan Davis and Scott Peters, D- San Diego, and Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, to support the resolution by inundating their offices with calls and postcards from constituents between now and the August congressional recess.

Full Story

Snow In May? Sierra Could Get Up To A Foot As Rare Cold Storm Sweeps Over California

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Michael McGough

In addition to wet weather and possible record-setting cold in the Sacramento Valley and foothills later this week, the Sierra will see snow showers Thursday and into the weekend. With temperatures dipping as low as 25, a rare mid-May snowstorm could affect the northern and central Sierra. In a special weather statement early Monday, National Weather Service’s Reno office warns that snow levels could fall to 6,000 feet by the end of the week. Forecasts for the mountains and foothills also show wind gusts up to 40 mph are possible by midweek, with even stronger winds expected.

 

Full Story