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Project to Build Deeper Lake Mead Water Intake Passes Key Milestone

/in , /by /Las Vegas Review-Journalby Henry Brean

After a three-year battle to keep their underground job site from flooding, the construction crew at Lake Mead is ready to let the water win. Sometime late next week, workers plan to shut off the pumps keeping the water out and allow it to fill the cavern they have carefully excavated more than 500 feet beneath the shore. The move will mark the latest milestone for the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s low-lake-level pumping station, a $650 million safety net for a community that draws 90 percent of its drinking water from Lake Mead.

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Imperial Valley Judge Warns Fight Over Water Rights Could Head To Congress Or The U.S. Supreme Court

/in , /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Janet Wilson

A group of powerful Imperial Valley farmers and their irrigation district need to work together for the benefit of the region, according to Superior Court Judge L. Brooks Anderholt. He warned a fight between the two sides over rights to Colorado River water and the need to address a prolonged drought across the Southwest could spur action by Congress, or end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Emergency Preparedness Pays Off For Fallbrook PUD

/in , /by /Water News Network

When residents in De Luz were forced to evacuate about 100 homes during the Rock Fire in July, an emergency generator installed by the Fallbrook Public Utility District proved its value by providing water to help firefighters extinguish the blaze. The generator was installed about a year ago at the Donnil Pump Station at a cost of about $140,000. Since then, several fires have sparked in the hilly backcountry community north of Fallbrook.

 

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Pacific Storm To Bring Rain, Mountain Snow To California

/in , /by /The Associated Press

California will see widespread rain and heavy Sierra Nevada snowfall through midweek, potentially bringing travel problems and raising the risk of damaging runoff from wildfire burn scars, forecasters said Tuesday. The wet pattern from a deep atmospheric fetch of Pacific moisture marks a significant change in the weather following conditions that contributed to disastrous and deadly wildfires up and down California, where hundreds of thousands of acres have burned this year.

 

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Dry And Getting Drier: Southwestern Water Scarcity The New Norm, Climate Study Says

/in , /by /KUNC (Greeley, Colo.)by Luke Runyon

The effects of climate change are not far off problems for future generations. They are existential problems for everyone alive today. That’s one big takeaway from the U.S. federal government’s latest roundup of climate science, the National Climate Assessment, now in its fourth iteration. Released the day after Thanksgiving, the newest report is unequivocal. In heavily footnoted, short declarative sentences it urgently tells readers that climate change is happening, it’s human-caused, and it could make life in the Western U.S. increasingly difficult.

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EPA Gives $614-million Loan To San Diego For Pure Water Project Development

/in , /by /CBS 8

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer accepted a nine- figure loan from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday to help the city finance phase one of the Pure Water San Diego water recycling program. Faulconer joined EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler to formally claim the $614 million Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan. The city estimates that the first phase of the program will cost roughly $1.4 billion, including funding from the loan.

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Trump Officials Announce $450 million Loan For New California Reservoir Project

/in , /by /Redding Record Searchlight by Damon Arthur

Trump administration officials were in California on Tuesday to announce a $450 million loan for the Sites Reservoir project in Colusa County. The money will be used to build a tunnel to carry water from the Glenn-Colusa Canal to an existing reservoir, giving farmers on the west side of the Sacramento Valley more access to irrigation water. The 12-foot diameter tunnel, called an intertie, will also be used to transport water to and from Sites Reservoir after it is built, said Jim Watson, general manager of the Sites Reservoir Authority.

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Imperial Irrigation District Fight Could Threaten Federal Colorado River Drought Plan

/in , /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Janet Wilson

A fierce local battle over water rights unfolding in a small Southern California courtroom Wednesday could threaten federal plans to replenish rapidly dwindling Colorado River water supplies. A third-generation farmer is seeking an injunction to block the Imperial Irrigation District from signing on to the seven-state compact.

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USDA Invests More Than $449 Million In Innovative Management Of California Water Supply

/in , /by /The Sierra Sun Times (Mariposa, Calif.)

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on Tuesday announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing more than $449 million to help build an innovative water management system that will increase the reliability of the California water supply and create more than 560 jobs in the Sacramento Valley. Secretary Perdue was joined by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Rickey “R.D.” James. The announcement follows on President Donald J. Trump’s memo to promote a reliable supply and delivery of water out west.

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Pure Water Program Set To Break Ground Early Next Year

/in , /by /The Daily Transcriptby Mark Armao

San Diego’s plan to use recycled wastewater to provide one-third of the city’s water supply by 2035 was given the green light earlier this month by city council, which voted to authorize Mayor Kevin Faulconer to begin awarding construction contracts for the first phase of the project. Phase one of Pure Water San Diego will cost roughly $1.4 billion and involve the construction of a water purification facility near the North City Water Reclamation Plant, located just east of interstate 805 near Miramar Road.

 

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