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Water District Delays Tentative Deal With Poseidon For Desalination Plant

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

Acknowledging opponents’ concerns, the Orange County Water District board on Wednesday night postponed a vote on updated terms for buying water from the desalination plant proposed for Huntington Beach by Poseidon Resources. The nonbinding term sheet, which will be considered again July 18, would revise the groundwork for an eventual contract if Poseidon gets the final two regulatory permits needed for construction and the district decides to proceed. Some 18 residents, environmental activists and representatives from other water districts leveled criticism at the project, questioning the need, the cost and the track record of Poseidon’s 2 1/2-year-old desalter plant in Carlsbad.

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Imperial Irrigation District Elections: Candidates Backed By Powerful Farmers Fail

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

Southern California voters toppled one Imperial Irrigation District board member and re-elected another, in a low-turnout election that nonetheless could have major consequences for millions of people who depend on water from the Colorado River. With all precincts reporting, El Centro city councilmember Alex Cardenas led 55-45 percent over incumbent IID director Juanita Salas, with about 1,800 votes counted. Meanwhile, IID board president Jim Hanks led challenger Raul Navarro, a member of Calipatria Unified School District’s board of trustees, 52-48, with fewer than 2,200 votes counted.

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Dust Rising

/in , /by /The Vergeby Michael Zelenko

On May 29th, 2009, Michelle Dugan and her family began the 600-mile trip from El Centro, California to the Bay Area, where she was set to attend her college orientation. They left late Friday evening, driving through the dusty Imperial Valley landscape and its endless fields of onions, spinach, and alfalfa. Then on to Highway 86, past the desolate shores of the Salton Sea, toward Michelle’s grandmother’s home in nearby Coachella, where they would spend the night before the next day’s long drive.

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The Great California Laundry And Shower Meme, Explained

/in , /by /Mother Jones (San Francisco)by Kevin Drum

Last night I received the following peculiar tweet: Off-topic, but do you know if a new California law prohibits taking a shower and doing laundry on the same day? A lot of conservative sites are claiming that, but they’re not known for their factual accuracy. It just so happens that on Monday I took a shower and did a load of laundry. I’m pretty sure this is still legal, even here in the Golden State. But, um, what brought this up?

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Another Danger From Overpumping Groundwater: Arsenic

/in , /by /KQED (San Francisco)by Amel Ahmed

Sinking land caused by intensive groundwater pumping in the San Joaquin Valley is releasing trapped arsenic — a known carcinogen — into aquifers that supply irrigation and drinking water for a million people, according to a new study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications. Arsenic, a naturally occurring chemical in the Earth’s crust, is undetectable by the human senses and has been linked to a host of diseases including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Researchers at Stanford University say residents should be concerned about arsenic levels in their water supply.

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Californians Approve Bond Measure That Will Provide $200 Million For Salton Sea

/in , /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Ian James

Californians approved the $4.1 billion bond measure Proposition 68 on Tuesday, giving a boost to California’s long-delayed and underfunded effort to build thousands of acres of wetlands around the shrinking Salton Sea.  A total of $200 million for Salton Sea projects is rolled into the statewide ballot measure, which will also provide money for a variety of water projects, state and local parks, and wildlife conservation programs.

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Why Emergency Drought Assistance Will Be Needed In California For Years

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Tess Townsend

Gov. Jerry Brown declared the end of California’s five-year drought in April 2017 after a wet winter replenished shrinking reservoirs. But the lingering impact of the drought, especially on groundwater supplies, means some still rely on emergency water tanks while they wait for long-term solutions. This is particularly true in the San Joaquin Valley, where more than 300 domestic well users whose taps have run dry continue to use tanks provided by the state through a program originally slated to end in June.

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OPINION: This Is California. We Should Be Able To Drink The Water. Lawmakers, Fix This Disgrace

/in , /by /The Fresno Bee

In the world’s fifth-largest economy, in the richest state in the richest nation, some 360,000 Californians have water that is unsafe to drink. That’s the equivalent of about three and a half Flint, Michigans, and it’s an outrage. Worse, it’s a fixable outrage, and the fix is being blocked by vested interests. This stalemate has gone on for more than a year now at the state Capitol while vulnerable families, many of them in the Central Valley, have lived as if this is a Third World country. Enough is enough. Let’s deal with this.

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OPINION: Taxing Your Drinking Water Is No Solution

/in , /by /The Daily Journal (San Mateo)by Dave Warden

As a local water agency, the Mid-Peninsula Water District (MPWD) is committed to delivering safe and reliable water to our customers. We are among the vast majority of Californians with access to safe drinking water. Unfortunately, some in the state, who live in small, rural, disadvantaged communities, do not have access to safe drinking water. While we support the goal of ensuring safe drinking water for all Californians, the latest proposal to impose new state taxes on our drinking water is the wrong solution to a problem that we agree must be solved.

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SDG&E To Add Five New Battery Storage Facilities

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Rob Nikolewski

In California’s quest to blend more renewable energy sources into the power grid, energy storage has repeatedly become one of the answers the state’s policymakers have turned to. Late last week, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved a proposal from San Diego Gas & Electric to build five new energy storage projects, each using lithium-ion battery technology, at facilities in San Diego, Poway, Escondido, Fallbrook and San Juan Capistrano. The projects will total 83.5 megawatts — enough to power about 55,000 homes for four hours.

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