The city of Calexico is planning to spend more than $50 million on improvements for its outdated water and wastewater infrastructure as part of its five-year capital improvement plan. The monies will come from a combination of recently approved — and controversial — water and sewer rate changes, as well as the anticipated sale of up to $50 million in bonds.
California’s Sierra Nevada, the state’s increasingly crucial reservoir, is off to a well-above-normal snowpack to begin the wet season. Many of the peaks are seeing double the normal amount of snowpack compared to early-December averages. Several systems, including the disturbance that became Winter Storm Carter, have dumped feet of snow in the Sierra since late November. Snowfall totals ranged from three to five feet of snow in Carter alone. You can see the difference between a rather wimpy late November snowpack and the early December blanket of slow from the Sierra eastward below.
Water supply is clearly the most important long-term issue affecting California’s future. It’s also the most politically complicated. Incremental changes in California water policy typically take years, if not decades, to work their way through seemingly infinite legal, regulatory and political processes at federal, state and local levels — and the conflicts often are over the processes themselves.
A century ago, Los Angeles pulled a sensational swindle. Agents from the city posed as farmers and ranchers and strategically bought up land in the lush Owens Valley, 200 miles to the north. Water rights in hand, the thirsty metropolis proceeded to drain the region via a great canal.
Southern California was in the midst of its fourth rain event of the season this week and with another expected next week, some experts believe the arrival of the weather phenomenon known as El Niño could be imminent. While it may be too early to link the Pacific storms to El Niño, the federal Climate Prediction Center’s El Niño “diagnostics discussion” could make the call next week on Dec. 13.
A trio of tiny salamanders could stand in the way of a massive $1.4 billion project to raise the height of Shasta Dam. An environmental organization has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, asking a judge to force the federal agency to make a determination on whether three salamander species living around Lake Shasta should be protected under the Endangered Species Act.
More rain arrived in San Diego Wednesday, less than a week after a storm swept through the county, leaving some areas flooded and city crews preparing for the wet weather. In Coronado, on First Street, crews worked to clear pipes near the shoreline. This is a large reason for flooding in the area. Public Services Director, Clifford Maurer, says flooding comes after sand and sediment gets into the storm drain from the high tides.
Shame on Gov. Jerry Brown and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Their betrayal of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ignores respected scientists’ research, circumvents the state’s management of water and could negatively impact California water politics for the next decade. Without a public hearing. Without proper vetting. And possibly without the support of any West Coast senator except Feinstein.
Congressman Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) issued the following statement after the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a $449 million loan to Sites Reservoir Project Authority to build the interconnection facilities to move water in and out of Sites Reservoir. LaMalfa said: “Sites Reservoir is a project that I’ve been fighting to see completed since I’ve been in Congress. After many years of working with the USDA and my California colleague, Congressman John Garamendi, this newly acquired funding will allow the Sites project to finally take the next steps. I’ve said many times before – surface storage projects like this one are absolutely critical to securing the future of our state’s water supply.
While San Diego has a reputation for beautiful weather in a sunny seaside setting, its growing population in the southernmost area of rain-starved California is a recipe for trouble in paradise. That challenge has spurred the creation of Pure Water San Diego — a multi-phase, multi-year program with the goal of using recycled water for up to one-third of San Diego’s water supply by the year 2035.
