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Arizona Utility Tries To End Multi-State Colorado River Feud

/in , /by /AP News (New York)by Dan Elliot

Arizona’s largest water provider tried Tuesday to defuse a multi-state dispute over the Colorado River, saying it regretted the belligerent-sounding words it used to describe its management strategy for the critical, over-used waterway. The Central Arizona Project, which provides water to about 5 million people, pledged to be more cooperative with other river users and promised “to have a more respectful and transparent dialogue in the future.” The river serves 40 million people in seven U.S. states and Mexico, and consumption is tightly regulated and closely monitored.

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Coast Line: ‘Stage 1’ Water Restrictions Begin Tuesday In Santa Cruz

/in , /by /Santa Cruz Sentinel News

In an effort to maintain water storage in the city’s only drinking water reservoir, Loch Lomond, the Santa Cruz City Council adopted a Stage 1 Water Shortage Alert, which takes effect Tuesday. Below normal rainfall and runoff, coupled with water supply needs for fish habitat, have reduced the amount of water available for city of Santa Cruz water customers. During water shortages, customers are restricted from landscape watering between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. from using a hose without a shut-off nozzle, washing down hard or paved surfaces and filling swimming pools.

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Where Water Is Scarce, Communities Turn To Reusing Wastewater

/in , /by /Yale Environment 360 (New Haven, Conn.)by Jacques Leslie

Then California’s Orange County Water District began distributing drinking water derived from sewage in the mid-1970s, it acted out of simple need. The aquifer it relied on for most of its drinking water had been so overdrawn that saltwater from the nearby Pacific Ocean was seeping into it, and allocation limits prevented increases in exports from the Colorado River and Sierra Nevada Mountains, sources of the rest of the district’s water. Orange County was then a bastion of political conservatism, not the sort of place associated with environmental innovation, but water scarcity is a powerful motivator.

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LA County Officials Considering Property Tax For Stormwater Measures

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timeby Nina Agrawal

At Los Amigos Park in Santa Monica, 11-year-old Pony League baseball players wearing Padres and Dodgers uniforms huddled with their coaches after a recent game. Standing atop a grassy area next to the baseball diamond, many may not have been aware of what lay underneath: a 53,000-gallon storage tank for stormwater runoff. Built in 2017, the project was designed to divert some 550,000 gallons of water from a nearby storm drain each year, reducing the pollution that flows into Santa Monica Bay.

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Resurrecting The Delta For Desirable Fishes

/in , /by /California Water Blogby Peter Moyle, Carson Jeffres, John Durand

The Delta is described in many ways. When extolling the Delta as a tourist destination, it is described as a place of bucolic beauty; islands of productive farmland are threaded by meandering channels of sparkling water, a place to boat, fish, view wildlife, and grow cherries and pears. But when its future is discussed, especially in relation to big water projects, this heavenly place is often portrayed as being on its way to an aquatic Hellscape. The Sacramento Bee recently (April 8, 2008) published a reasonable editorial advocating a holistic approach to solving Delta problems.

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Filling California’s Biggest Groundwater Gap

/in , /by /Water Deeplyby Ellen Hanak and Sarge Green

The San Joaquin Valley – California’s largest agricultural region – has been in a state of perpetual water stress that can only be partly attributed to the latest drought. Decades of unchecked pumping have resulted in a chronic groundwater deficit averaging nearly 2 million acre-feet per year – equivalent to about two Folsom reservoirs. The clock is ticking for overdrawn basins to comply with the state’s 2014 groundwater law and get their water supply and use into balance. One strategy that can help make a substantial dent in this deficit is to encourage more storage in the valley’s depleted aquifers.

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Owens Lake: Former Toxic Dust Bowl Transformed Into Environmental Success

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Louis Sahagan

Fearsome gusts of desert wind routinely kicked up swirling clouds of choking dust over Owens Lake on the east side of the Sierra Nevada after 1913, when its treasured snowmelt and spring water was first diverted into the Los Angeles Aqueduct. It was not until 2001, and under a court order, that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began transforming the lake’s grim heritage, flooding portions where toxic, powder-fine dust exceeded federal pollution standards. In what is now hailed as an astonishing environmental success, nature quickly responded.

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Editorial: Water Investment Must Include Flood Preparation

/in , /by /Santa Rosa Press-Democratby Editorial Board

The next huge natural catastrophe to strike California might not be an earthquake. New research suggests that a major flood could inundate large swaths of California in the next few decades. The last “200-year flood” was more than 150 years ago, and climate change is jacking up the odds of a repeat sooner rather than later. In order to prepare, state water officials must rethink whether big, costly dams really are the best investment of limited resources.

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Can San Diego Ditch The Power Company? Not Without A Fight

/in , /by /New York Timesby Ivan Penn

For the last 18 years, California regulators have shaped energy policy largely based on fear. They wanted to avoid repeating the disastrous experience that followed the deregulation of the energy market, which left the state vulnerable to manipulation by the energy traders and caused a power crisis that led to soaring electricity prices and blackouts. In response, they approved new power plants — more than the state could even use. They expanded the network of power lines with billions of dollars. They developed a system of trading electricity throughout the West.

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Jerry Brown Disses The Central Valley … Again

/in , /by /Fox & Houndsby Senator Andy Vldak

Many of my Central Valley legislative colleagues are furious that the staff at Governor Jerry Brown’s Water Commission have rigged the system so the recently announced proposed funding for Temperance Flat Reservoir is just that – flat. It’s not surprising that environmentally-oriented staff at the California Water Commission (and other state agencies such as the State Water Resources Control Board or the multitude of regional water boards) would come down in favor of fish over people.

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