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OPINION: How California Can Chart New Approach To Water Woes

For all of his accomplishments, when it comes to water issues, Gov. Jerry Brown is leaving Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom with a mess. What’s needed is a paradigm shift — a change in the conversation that doesn’t pit Northern California vs. Southern California and environmentalists against farmers and urban dwellers. Consider: What if Newsom borrowed a page from Brown’s climate change playbook, which called for a big move away from coal and oil in favor of renewable and green energy?

Yazdan “Yaz” Emrani Sworn In As New Member Of Metropolitan Water District Board Of Directors

Yazdan “Yaz” Emrani was recently sworn in as the newest member of the Board of Directors for Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Southern California. Emrani is the director of Public Works for the city of San Fernando and is also the city’s engineer. His responsibilities as part of the MWD board includes serving on four Metropolitan boards including: Audit and Ethics Committee; Communications and Legislation Committee; Facilities Naming Ad Hoc Committee; and the Organization, Personnel and Technology Committee. Emrani is succeeding San Fernando Mayor Sylvia Ballin on the 38-member MWD board. Ballin had served on the MWD board since 2007.

Oakland Finance Director And Veteran Muni Advisor Are 2018 Freda Johnson Award Winners

Katano Kasaine, director of finance for the City of Oakland, Calif., and Noreen White, co-founder of Acacia Financial Group, will receive the 2018 Freda Johnson Award for Trailblazing Women in Public Finance. The Northeast Women in Public Finance will formally present the awards at The Bond Buyer’s Deal of the Year ceremony in New York City on Dec. 6. The award is named for Freda Johnson, a founding board member of the organization who was an executive vice president and public finance division head at Moody’s Investors Service from 1979 through 1990.

America’s Water Infrastructure Act To Fund Up To $35 Million Towards West Basin’s Harbor South Bay Water Recycling Project

America’s Water Infrastructure Act, the comprehensive infrastructure legislation passed by Congress in the fall and signed by the president on Oct. 23, will allow West Basin Municipal Water District (West Basin) to access an additional $35 million in federal funding for its Harbor South Bay Water Recycling project. This major federal water infrastructure package includes a specific provision to allow West Basin to pursue significant funding through the Army Corps of Engineers to upgrade and increase capacity at the Edward C. Little Water Recycling Facility (ECLWRF) in El Segundo, Calif. S. 3021 includes provisions to double  the original project authorization from $35 million to $70 million, which will assist West Basin in ensuring that an adequate water supply for the Los Angeles region is met for current and future demands.

Plants With Wet Feet And Dry Feet

Plants and people have similar likes and dislikes when it comes to their feet. Of course, plants don’t literally have the kind of feet that take them on a stroll, but a plant’s roots are often referred to as “feet.” Just like most people enjoy a walk along the beach or wading in a pool on a hot day, plants like – and need – water on their roots to thrive. And just like people don’t like soggy feet in wet socks, plants don’t generally thrive with their roots in standing water. Horticulturists refer to plant roots in soggy soil as “wet feet.” Conversely, plants that can thrive without much water on their roots are said to have “dry feet.”

Farmers Keep Majority On Coachella Valley Water District Board As John Powell Jr. Defeats Ed Muzik

The Coachella Valley’s largest water agency will still have three farmers on its five-member board next year, as Peter Rabbit Farms CEO John Powell Jr. won re-election over Ed Muzik, general manager of the Hi-Desert Water District in Yucca Valley. Powell is one of several incumbents who won re-election to local water boards Tuesday. At Coachella Valley Water District, where Powell has served as board president since 2012, G. Patrick O’Dowd was also re-elected. So were three members of the Desert Water Agency’s board of directors, Jim Cioffi, Patricia Oygar and Joe Stuart.

Prop 3 Failed, So What’s Next For The Ailing Friant-Kern Canal?

Local water officials went back to the drawing board Wednesday, looking for a way to fund needed repairs to the Friant-Kern canal. The canal is damaged and requires an expensive project to repair. Farmers and water districts hoped voters would authorize the state to foot the bill by approving Proposition 3. They didn’t. The Friant-Kern is like a big water highway. It delivers water from Millerton Lake to farms all over the south valley. An Eyewitness News analysis found that the canal is directly involved in the production of approximately $2 billion of crops every year.

Prop. 3: California Water Projects Bond Measure Goes Down To Defeat

Backers mourned the loss of Proposition 3 on Wednesday, the nearly $9 billion bond measure that would have modernized old dams, restored tainted watersheds and created desalination plants, among dozens of other water projects throughout the state. Prop. 3 — backed by state water agencies, farming organizations, social justice advocates and environmentalists, but not the Sierra Club — lost by 52 to 48 percent, a difference of 320,000 votes out of nearly 7 million ballots cast.

Brown, Newsom Wade In To Delay Plan To Withhold Water From Cities, Farms

A river restoration plan that would restrict the water supplies of California cities and farms, including San Francisco, was put on hold Wednesday after Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom joined Gov. Jerry Brown in requesting more time for negotiations over the controversial initiative. The State Water Resources Control Board was scheduled to vote Wednesday on a years-long proposal to boost flows in the San Joaquin River and its tributaries, part of an effort to restore California’s declining salmon population and revive the languishing Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Three Things To Know About Colorado River Plans In The Works

Water managers along the Colorado River are trying to figure out how to live with less. Climate change is growing the gap between the river’s supply, and the demands in the communities that rely on it, including seven western U.S. states and Mexico. The federal government recently released proposals called Drought Contingency Plans designed to keep the Colorado River’s biggest reservoirs from falling to levels where water is unable to be sent through the dams that hold up Lakes Powell and Mead.