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OPINION: No: State Can’t Afford To Take On More Debt

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby John Moorlach

It’s time, Californians, to hold on to our collective wallets. “It does NOT raise taxes,” proponents of Proposition 68 insist in the official state voters’ guide. Then where do they think the money will come from to repay the $4 billion inbonds that are supposed to go for parks and “climate adaptation,” whatever that is? Bonds are debt. Debt needs tobe repaid, with interest. The debt payments will increase the state budget or something in the budget will have to be cut to provide the required funds. But most likely, taxes will have to be raised.

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How Much Water Should California Cities Use? New Data Could Help

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Erik Porse

The relatively dry 2017-18 winter in California resurfaced recent memories of drought conservation mandates. From 2013-16, urban water utilities complied with voluntary, then mandatory, water use limits as part of Executive Order B-37-16. Urban water utilities met a statewide 25 percent conservation target, helping the state weather severe drought. Winter rains in 2016-17 led to a reprieve from mandatory conservation. Freed from statewide requirements, urban water agencies ended mandatory cutbacks by meeting “stress tests” that included several years of secured water supplies. A useful outcome of the 2013-17 drought period was long-needed reporting data on monthly urban water use and conservation.

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California Congressman Jim Costa Crosses Party Lines To Bring More Water To The Central Valley

/in , /by /Sierra Sun TImes (Mariposa)

On Wednesday, Congressman Jim Costa (CA-16) again crossed party lines in the House Natural Resources Committee to support two bills that could dramatically improve the reliability and quantity of Valley water supplies. The first bill – introduced by Representatives Ken Calvert (CA-42) and Costa (CA-16) – aims to bring all Endangered Species Act regulation of species that have a portion of their lifecycle in the ocean, like salmon, under a single regulating government agency.

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Twin Satellites Circling The Globe Find California’s Losing Groundwater At A Steady Pace

/in , /by /KPCC (Pasadena)by Sharon McNary

The earth’s wet regions are getting wetter, and dry ones, like California, are getting drier, according to a first-of-its-kind study that used NASA satellites to track 14 years of change in how water is moving around the globe. Southern California loses the groundwater equivalent of the volume of Lake Mead every 15 years due to drought and farming.  That’s 32 gigatons of water, said Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. A gigaton is one cubic kilometer of water. That loss matters because groundwater makes up about one-third of our water supply.

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Water Planners Work To Enhance Snowpack Data

/in , /by /AgAlert (Sacramento)by Christine Souza

Access to precise, real-time data about the amount of water in the Sierra Nevada snowpack has become more critical than ever, California water managers say, in order to assist them in making informed decisions about an ever-less-predictable supply of water. That’s why water managers came to a panel discussion about advancements in snow-measurement technology during an Association of California Water Agencies conference in Sacramento last week. The discussion focused on the Airborne Snow Observatory, or ASO program, developed by researchers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

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Hemp Legalization Poised To Transform Agriculture In Arid West

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

Amid all the excitement around marijuana legalization in America, another newly legal crop has received comparatively little attention: hemp. And yet hemp may prove to be even more transformative, especially in the West’s arid landscapes. Hemp is a variety of the cannabis sativa plant that is not psychoactive. Whereas marijuana plants can produce both the psychoactive tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and the non-psychoactive cannabidiol (CBD) extracts, hemp produces only the latter.

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This Zombie Dam Project Underscores California’s Dilemma Over Water

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Michael Hiltzik

Despite what you may have gleaned from television and the movies, zombies aren’t always constituted of flesh and blood. Sometimes they come in concrete and rock. Exhibit A is a $3-billion dam proposal on the San Joaquin River known as Temperance Flat. The project’s beneficiaries, chiefly growers in the San Joaquin Valley, have struggled for years to justify its construction. Its critics say they’ve done so by exaggerating the probable water yield from the dam and reservoir while understating its negative impact on the region’s ecology and cultural and recreational environmental impacts, and overstating its recreational resources.

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NASA Finds ‘Human Fingerprint’ In Many Areas Of Water-Supply Change Worldwide

/in , /by /13WMAZ (Macon, Ga.)by Ian James

Humans are dramatically altering water supply in many places worldwide, say NASA scientists who have been tracking regional changes via satellite. The researchers analyzed 14 years of data from NASA’s twin Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites, which the space agency has dubbed GRACE. They studied areas with large increases or decreases in freshwater — including water stored in aquifers, ice, lakes, rivers, snow and soil — to determine the most likely causes of these changes.

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IDE Technologies Opens California Wastewater Reuse Demo Facilities

/in , /by /Filtration+Separation (United Kingdom)

IDE Technologies’ technology is being used in two new wastewater reuse demo facilities in California: the Central Coast Blue Advanced Water Purification Demo Facility, in partnership with the City of Pismo Beach, and the Regional Recycled Water Advanced Purification Center Demo Facility, in partnership with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County.

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OPINION: Bond Measure Will Protect The State’s Future

/in , /by /The Acorn (Agoura Hills)by Fran Pavley

On Tues., June 5, you will be able to vote on Proposition 68, a $4.1-billion ballot measure that will provide funds toward parks, the environment and water projects throughout California. This is a simple majority vote, general obligation bond. As a bond, it is paid back through the state’s general fund over a 20- to 30-year period of time. It is not an assessment or tax on local property. The advantages to our area in helping protect and enhance our quality of life makes this a proposition worthy of your support.

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