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

Prop. 3 Would Provide Funds For California Water Projects, But Opponents Argue Few Will See The Benefits

/in , /by /Capital Public Radio (Sacramento)by Ezra David Romero

Should a bond for both habitat restoration and water-infrastructure projects be paid for by all Californians or just the groups that would directly benefit? That’s up for voters to decide. Proposition 3 would authorize $8.9 billion in state bonds for water-related infrastructure and environmental projects, including $30 million for repairs along the American River. But with interest it could cost Californians more than $17 billion.

Full Story

President Trump Approves Funding For Water Projects That Could Mean More California Reservoirs

/in , /by /Capital Public Radio (Sacramento)by Ezra David Romero

President Donald Trump signed a bipartisan infrastructure bill this week that could lead to raising the Shasta Dam and funding other reservoir projects. The plan is to spend $6 billion throughout the country over 10 years. The president says the funding will go toward ports, reducing flood risk, restorying ecosystems and performing upkeep on waterways — “which are in deep, deep trouble, but they won’t be for very long,” Trump added.

Full Story

Oregon, Already Struggling With Drought, May Have Still More to Come

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Matt Weiser

Oregon is known by many as a wet place, with persistent rain and forests enveloped in fog. This year is different. In a matter of just six weeks over the summer, one-third of Oregon was instead enveloped by extreme drought. That figure comes from the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), a branch of NOAA. The results also rank 86 percent of Oregon in severe drought territory, a slightly less severe category.

Full Story

Soot-Filled Rivers A Concern Following Wildfires

/in , /by /The Weather Network

During the record-breaking 2018 fire season, the typically clear waters of Cameron Falls in Waterton Lakes National Park in southern Alberta flowed black. But it had nothing to do with the extensive fires that torched much of British Columbia and a small part of Waterton. The carbon came from the remnants of another wildfire that had raced 26 kilometres — from one end of the park to the other — in less than eight hours the year before. Heavy rain from a violent thunderstorm in July 2018 flushed the ash, soot and blackened debris that lay on the forest floor into the Cameron River.

Full Story

Will The Doheny Desalination Plant Stay On Track? It Could Depend On The Election

/in , /by /The Orange County Registerby Martin Wisckol

Amid California’s list of contentious desalination proposals, the plant slated for Doheny Beach in Dana Point has had remarkably smooth sailing. Key environmentalist groups battling plans in Huntington Beach and El Segundo have largely taken a hands-off approach to the south Orange County project, recognizing Doheny’s innovative environmental technology and dearth of local water options there. Additionally, a draft countywide analysis earlier this month ranked Doheny well above the Huntington Beach plant proposed by the Poseidon company.

Full Story

Trump Signs The Water Infrastructure Act

/in , /by /Pacific Standard (Santa Barbara)by Emily Moon

President Donald Trump signed a bipartisan water infrastructure bill into law on Tuesday, authorizing billions of dollars for state-level projects aimed at improving the nation’s rivers, harbors, and drinking water. The law will also defund programs Congress deems “inefficient,” the Hill reports. Provisions that made the cut include funding for studies on wetland restoration and risk management in flood-prone areas, such as Tangier Island, Virginia; extending a program to improve contaminated drinking water in Flint, Michigan; prioritizing lead testing in low-income schools; and requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to appoint at least one employee to serve as a “liaison to minority, tribal, and low-income communities.”

Full Story

OPINION: Here’s What Trump Gets Wrong About California’s Water Supply

/in , /by /Pacific Standard (Santa Barbara)by Kate Wheeling

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump fanned the flames of a long-standing debate in California between the state’s environmentalists and farmers. At the White House State Leadership Conference, Trump called California’s dry and fallow fields “one of the most ridiculous things” he saw on the campaign trail in 2016, when the state was still in the midst of a record-setting drought. At a campaign rally in Fresno that year, Trump claimed the government was “taking the water and shoving it out to sea,” and promised to deliver more water to Central Valley farmers.

Full Story

Riverside County Says Its New Salton Sea Plan Could Bring Back Tourism, Generate $1 Billion In Tax Revenue

/in , /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Sammy Roth

Riverside County is moving forward with a Salton Sea restoration plan that officials say could generate more than $1 billion in tax revenue, which would help fund construction of a permanent, horseshoe-shaped lake at the north end of the dying sea. The board of supervisors voted Tuesday to create an enhanced infrastructure financing district, or EIFD, that encompasses Mecca, North Shore, Oasis, Thermal and other unincorporated communities near the Salton Sea. If voters in the newly created district approve the plan, the county would issue bonds to fund construction of a so-called North Lake.

Full Story

Sick Of Paying $5 For Bottled Water? Tap App Will Find You A Drinking Fountain Instead

/in , /by /Forbesby Andria Cheng

The epiphany moment for Samuel Ian Rosen came when he found himself at an airport shelling out $5 for a bottle of Evian water. “Nobody up till now has built a Google Map for (drinking) water,” Rosen, a serial entrepreneur, said in an interview. “Finding water is inconvenient. When I go to Google Map and type ‘water fountain,’ there is nothing. We solve it by building Google Map for water….We are a search engine. We tell you where the water is.”

Full Story

Austin Boil-Water Mandate Could Last Less Than A Week As City Faces Possible Shortage

/in , /by /National Public Radioby Vanessa Romo

Travis County emergency management officials told Austin residents on Tuesday they’ll need to boil their tap water for the next several days, and urged residents to cut water consumption as the city faces a potential shortage. In a meeting with county commissioners, Chief Emergency Management Coordinator Eric Carter said Austin Water could take 10 to 14 days to stabilize all three treatment plants and restore production to last week’s preflood levels.

Full Story