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Judge Orders A New Look At California Water Transfer Program

/in /by /Courthouse News Service (Pasadena)by Nick Cahill

A federal judge ordered federal regulators to reevaluate the environmental impacts of a popular California water program that allows farmers to sell water to parched southern cities and water districts during droughts. In a 133-page ruling on Feb. 15, U.S. District Judge Lawrence O’Neill declared “unlawful” parts of environmental reviews approved by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for a 10-year water transfer program. The plaintiffs, led by AquAlliance, include water agencies of the south, central and north delta, and the California Sportfishing Alliance.

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Coldest Temperatures Of The Year Blanket Bay Area, With A Few Record Lows

/in /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)by Mark Gomez

A blast of cold air from Canada delivered record-low temperatures to a handful of Bay Area locations Tuesday morning as the mercury dropped near or below freezing across the region. As of 6 a.m., locations setting or tying record-low daily temperatures for Feb. 20 include San Francisco airport (36, previous record 37 in 2011) and Oakland 34 (tying previous mark set in 2006), according to the National Weather Service. It is likely other records will fall, but official temperatures are not reported until the afternoon, according to the weather service.

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OPINION: California Officials On Water Storage: What, Me Worry?

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune

A defining quality of California’s state government is sluggishness. It’s common for audits of state agencies to note that problems identified in previous audits remain unresolved. Now Californians are witnessing an especially egregious example of this state trait. Forty months after state voters reacted to a brutal drought by lopsidedly approving a $7.5 billion water bond, none of the $2.7 billion the measure set aside for water storage projects has been appropriated by the California Water Commission.

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California Weighs Permanent Restrictions For Water Wasters

/in /by /NBC 4 (Los Angeles)

That sign in hotel rooms asking guests if they really need their towels and sheets washed each day would become the rule in California, enforced with a $500 fine, if water officials vote to make a series of smaller-scale conservation measures permanent in the drought-prone state. Members of the state Water Resources Control Board are scheduled to decide Tuesday whether to bring back what had been temporary water bans from California’s 2013-2017 drought and make them permanent.

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California Watchdog Delays Making Water-Wasting Rules Permanent

/in /by /Courthouse News Service (Pasadena)by Mathew Renda Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

California’s water regulator punted a raft of regulations to fine water hogs up to $500, even as the Golden State plunges back into drought. While the California State Water Resources Control Board delayed making a decision until next month in order to add to the regulations, opponents of the new restrictions – or how they’re being implemented – hinted at future litigation and the possibility of a prolonged battle. “We support the regulations but we remain concerned about the means and the process,” said Rob Donlan, a Sacramento-based water rights attorney.

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California, Drying Out Again, Weighs Permanent Ban On Wasting Water

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

Sprinklers that splash more water onto the sidewalk than the lawn, which have increasingly drawn scornful looks in drought-distressed California, are about to be banned forever. Same goes for hosing down a driveway or patio, or washing a car with a garden-variety hose. Recognizing California’s increasing propensity for parched weather — this winter being no exception — state water officials are planning to resurrect many of the temporary water restrictions that were enacted during the recent five-year dry spell and make them permanent.

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California Looks To Permanently Ban Hosing Off Driveways, Over-Watering Lawns

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

California’s top water officials are considering permanent conservation rules that would outlaw hosing down driveways, over-watering lawns and running sprinklers on grassy street medians. The proposed regulations would target wasteful water use in cities and towns statewide, permanently bringing back some of the temporary restrictions imposed during California’s record-setting 2012-16 drought. The State Water Resources Control Board is taking up the measures as California faces worsening drought conditions near the end of a record-warm winter.

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State To Ban Wasteful Uses Of Water, But It Won’t Actually Save That Much

/in /by /89.3 KPCC (Pasadena)by Emily Guerin

You’ve seen them: the sprinklers that only water the sidewalk, or the people who let the hose run while they wash their cars. On Tuesday, state water officials are expected to vote to ban those and other wasteful uses of water—for good. But the catch is, it won’t actually save that much water.

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Many Of North Valley’s Dams Are Deemed High-Hazard

/in /by /Chico Enterprise-Recordby Risa Johnson

Everyone knows about the risk from Oroville Dam after the spillway crisis, but most of the dams in the north valley are considered to have a high-hazard potential. That means at least one person would likely die if the dam were to fail.New requirements for these high-risk dams, including annual inspections, will come into play if Gov. Jerry Brown signs the dam safety bill on his desk soon. The bill was unanimously approved by the Assembly on Feb. 12, the one-year anniversary of the Oroville Dam spillway evacuation. It was penned by Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-Yuba City.

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Interstate Water Storage Deals Violated State Law, Former Arizona Water Chiefs Say

/in /by /Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, Ari.)by Tony Davis

Two former Arizona water directors told the State Auditor General’s Office last year that the agency that runs the Central Arizona Project exceeded its authority under state law. The former directors, Rita Maguire and Herb Guenther, said recently that they told state auditors the Central Arizona Water Conservation District (CAWCD) legally overstepped its bounds. The district did so, they said, by negotiating two rounds of water-storage deals with Southern California’s Metropolitan Water District (MWD) and a Nevada water agency in the 1990s and a third deal with the Southern California district in 2015.

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