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Amid Trump Rollbacks, California Moves To Regulate Wetlands On Its Own

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

California officials are poised to seize control over a major arena of federal regulation in response to Trump administration rollbacks: the management and protection of wetlands. Wetlands are vital features on the landscape. Basically low spots in a watershed, when they fill with water they provide important habitat for birds, fish and other species. Wetlands also help control floods and recharge groundwater, and they filter the water we drink. On the other hand, being generally flat and maligned as “swamps,” they are popular places to pave and build.

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Water Authority Has An Ally In Atkins

/in , /by /Voice Of San Diegoby Sara Libby and Ry Rivard Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The San Diego County Water Authority helped delay a legislative hearing about the future of the State Water Project, the 700-mile water system that provides water from Northern California’s rivers to over 25 million state residents. The Water Authority is seeking to lower its own rates, even though it may be increasing others’. The agency hopes the state or the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California will agree to spare San Diego ratepayers certain expenses associated with Gov. Jerry Brown’s $20 billion twin tunnels project. After years of outright skepticism, the Water Authority supports the project, but only under certain conditions.

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Jack Bebee Officially Named General Manager For Fallbrook Public Utility District

/in , /by /Water News Network

After a nationwide search with a pool of 54 candidates, the Fallbrook Public Utility District has a new general manager at the helm. Jack Bebee has been the district’s acting general manager for months. Prior to that, he served as the district’s chief engineer and assistant general manager. Bebee was selected by the board of directors in March but remained in the “acting general manager” role until his contract was approved at the Aug. 27 board meeting.

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Trump Administration Talks Of Boosting Central Valley Water Deliveries. But Is It Just Talk?

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall

With talk of boosting water deliveries to Central Valley agriculture, the Trump administration is telling growers exactly what they want to hear. But given California’s complex water system and a web of federal and state environmental regulations, such promises could prove more political than practical.

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Bathers, Dogs Should Stay Out Of Lake Elsinore Because Of Toxic Algae Blooms

/in , /by /Pasadena Star-Newsby Martin Wisckol

Algae blooms have reached toxic levels in Lake Elsinore, prompting state water officials to issue a danger alert and urge people — and their pets — to stay out of the lake until further notice. Lake Elsinore was the only body of water in Southern California to reach the “danger” level in the statewide advisory issued Friday by the California State and Regional Water Boards, which tested water quality in the state’s lakes last week. No area lakes received a “warning” level, in which people and animals are also told to stay out of the water, although three have received “caution” designations.

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Wildfire Risk Likely To Increase Into Late September As Hot, Dry Weather Builds Across West

/in , /by /AccuWeather (State College, Pa.)by Alex Sosnowski

The western United States remains a tinderbox, and wildfire conditions may worsen as September weather patterns progress. A persistent northward bulge in the jet stream allowed temperatures to soar to well above average and at times record levels in parts of the West this summer. That same weather pattern may return later in September. Most of the large wildfires in California that have burned 875,000 acres as of Aug. 28 are now mostly contained. However, multiple large fires in the Northwest continue to burn with with substantially less containment.

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Record-Hot August, Dry Year Leave High Fire Risk In County

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Robert Krier

This month will go down as San Diego’s hottest August on record. It was the second hottest month, any time of year, in city history. The month set or tied 15 daily records for either the highest maximum or minimum temperature. The August heat follows a similarly toasty July, making the July/August combination the second hottest in city history. And the heat comes near the tail end of the second driest rainfall season on record, dating back to 1850. The heat and the prolonged dryness set up the county for a challenging fall, which historically is when the region’s biggest and most destructive wildfires have struck.

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California Is Sinking: Drought Conditions Are Causing The San Joaquin Valley To Shift By Up To A Half-Meter Annually

/in , /by /Daily Mailby Mark Prigg

California is sinking. New researcher has found that ongoing droughts are causing some areas in the central California to dip by up to 50cm a year. Despite heavy higher-than-normal amounts of rain in early 2017,  when the rain stopped, drought conditions returned and the ground has continued to sink, researchers say. ‘With the heavy storms in early 2017, Californians were hopeful that the drought was over,’ said Kyle Murray, a Cornell doctoral candidate in the field of geophysics who worked on the new study in Science Advances. ‘There was a pause in land subsidence over a large area, and even uplift of the land in some areas.

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Is Help On The Way For Californians Whose Tap Water Is Tainted?

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by David Gorn

Karen Lewis knows about water problems. The 67-year-old lives in Compton, where the water coming out of her tap is tinged brown by manganese, a metal similar to iron, from old pipes. The water is supplied by the troubled Sativa Los Angeles County Water District. The district has been plagued by administrative scandal and charges of mismanagement, and it hasn’t been able to generate the money needed to fix the brown water. Lewis has sat through innumerable community meetings and heard years’ worth of explanations, and she’s had enough. “Nothing’s been changed,” she said. “They’re not going to change.”

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Is Your Drinking Water Dangerous? In Some Parts Of California, It Could Be

/in , /by /San Gabriel Valley Tribuneby Kurt Snibbe

Five years ago, California became the first state in the nation to recognize the human right to safe, clean, affordable and accessible water. Today, we look at how the state is working to ensure that right and where the biggest concerns for Californians are. The California Water Resources Control Board’s records show more than 266 water suppliers were not in compliance with drinking-water standards as of May 2018. Most of the violations were in the rural agricultural regions of the state.

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