Here’s a suggestion for decision-makers on the California Water Commission who are now finalizing the distribution of $7.5 billion in bond money for storage projects: Look underground. The state should give up — at last — on dated, expensive, environmentally destructive dams and instead put funds toward infrastructure and programs that would help us store more water in aquifers, where there’s plenty of room.
Eleven schools in San Diego County had unsafe levels of lead in drinking water last year, according to new data from the California State Water Resources Control Board, and more test results are expected soon as schools adhere to new legislation. Gov. Jerry Brown in October signed a law that requires community water systems to test drinking water for lead in all public schools that serve kindergarten through 12th grade by July 2019. It took effect in January 2017. So far, more than 500 schools in the county have been tested.
A plan to remove four dams on the Klamath River is now just one step away from final approval, which would make it the largest dam removal project in U.S. history. The Klamath River Renewal Project includes four separate dams on the Northern Portion of the Klamath River near the California Oregon border.
In early June, more than 1,000 people near Durango, Colorado, had to leave their homes as the 416 Fire swept across the landscape. Following a dismal snowpack, the region experienced a spring so hot and dry that the U.S. Drought Monitor labeled conditions “exceptional drought,” the worst category. Colorado wasn’t alone. An irregular bull’s eye of dryness radiated outward from the entire Four Corners region, where Colorado meets New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.
California lawmakers on Tuesday revived a long-stalled proposal to set a goal of generating 100 percent of the state’s energy from carbon-free sources. With other controversial and high-stakes energy legislation also moving forward, California lawmakers face an array of decisions with vast implications for the Western energy grid, the future of renewable power and consumers’ electric bills. A state legislative committee sent the 100 percent clean energy bill to the full Assembly, setting up a vote later this year.
Officials on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, failed to test base water for radiation over the final two quarters of 2017, according to a water report obtained by Military.com. Although never considered at an unsafe level, the base’s water supply had been found to contain radiation levels three points above the acceptable contaminant level in early 2017, an official with the state Water Boards told Military.com.
The Sweetwater Authority governing board next month will consider increases to its water rates under a proposal that would create three separate fees for customers. The charges would include a fee to cover the cost to purchase water from the San Diego County Water Authority and two separate fees to cover costs from the Metropolitan Water District for purchased water. The costs from the outside agencies are embedded in the Sweetwater Authority’s current water rates.
San Diego reveled in “Goldilocks” weather Wednesday — the Fourth of July. A sea breeze made temperatures “just right” countywide, drawing hundreds of thousands of people to parks and beaches for fireworks shows that were set to begin at nightfall. But there’s about to be abrupt change in a county that’s quickly falling into drought.
California is about to embark on one of the biggest public works projects not just in its own state history, but in any state’s history. The $17 billion WaterFix tunnel project was approved by the state Department of Water Resources in June 2017 after a decade of study, and now moves into the nitty gritty of construction planning.
Welcome to Alviso, where at any given time it can be 10 to 15 feet below sea level. This neighborhood, which used to be its own bona fide town, sits on the southernmost tip of the bay in San Jose, and it’s the next stop in our series about where our money from Measure AA is going. That’s the “Clean and Healthy Bay” tax measure that passed two years ago.
