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State Plans To Stagger Construction Of $16 Billion Delta Water Tunnels

/in /by /Times of San Diegoby Chris Jennewein

State water officials announced Wednesday they will pursue staged construction of a proposed multibillion-dollar water-delivery project, leaving water agencies in Southern California to decide if they want to continue supporting the effort. The $16.3 billion project, known as California WaterFix, would divert water from the Sacramento River as it enters the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and carry it to existing federal and state pumping stations in the southern part of the delta through two 35-mile tunnels.

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BLOG: The Incredible Shrinking Delta Conveyance: A Timeline

/in /by /The Record (Stockton)by Alex Breitler

Delta “isolated conveyance” proposals — be it a canal, tunnels, whatever — have generally gotten less ambitious over the years, at least in terms of capacity. But they don’t seem to be any less controversial, if the reaction to the state’s latest announcement is any indication. Just for perspective: 1970s/80s Peripheral Canal: 22,000 cubic feet per second (cfs).

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Brown Tried To Smooth The Way For Delta Project. All He Got Was More Friction

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

California officials tried to smooth the way for the Delta tunnels project by slicing it in half. Instead they’re facing more pushback and the possibility of additional delays. One day after Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration downsized the Delta tunnels project, a host of project opponents tried Thursday to halt a state regulatory hearing that’s crucial to getting it built. They argued that Brown’s decision, after a decade of planning, creates such a monumental change that they need time to analyze the potential impacts on fish, agriculture and the rest of the Delta’s troubled ecosystem.

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How Dry Is This Winter? Sierra Snowpack On Pace To Shatter Record Low Of 2015

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

As relentless sunshine continued to pound California on Thursday, the Sierra Nevada hit a reckoning point: There’s less snowpack now than on the same date three years ago, when the winter went down as the driest in recorded history and sent shudders through cities, farmlands and the state Capitol. The troubling lack of snow during the winter of 2014-15 not only shortchanged the state’s drinking-water reservoirs but left the Sierra nearly unrecognizable.

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California’s Water Savings Dwindle When Drought Fears Subside

/in /by /Earth and Space Science News (Washington)by Emily Underwood

California’s population has almost doubled over the past 4 decades, growing from 22 million people in 1976 to 40 million in 2016. During that time frame the state experienced four major droughts, including the driest period on historical record, from 2012 to 2016. Now a new study examines how the public perception of water scarcity affects Californians’ urban residential water consumption.

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Butte County Prosecutor Wants State Agency Fined Up To $51 Billion For Oroville Spillway Failure

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Joseph Serna

Butte County prosecutors are seeking up to $51 billion in fines and penalties against California’s water agency for damage caused to local river-based wildlife after the Oroville Dam spillway failure last year, officials said. In a civil complaint filed Wednesday, Dist. Atty. Mike Ramsey accused the Department of Water Resources of failing to build the Oroville Dam’s spillway on sturdy bedrock, which led to its rapid deterioration last February amid the heaviest winter storms the region had seen in years.

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Oceanside Joins Cities Looking At Alternative Energy Plan

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Phil Diehl

Oceanside has agreed to join three other North County cities sharing the costs of a study to determine the feasibility of forming a renewable-energy alternative to San Diego Gas & Electric Co. The study, expected to be completed by mid-summer, will look at the possibility of creating a nonprofit joint-powers authority to purchase electricity at a lower cost and higher percentage of renewable sources than that provided by SDG&E. The program is called a Community Choice Aggregation, or community choice energy.

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More U.S. Drought In A Second-Year La Niña?

/in /by /WeatherNationby Nat Johnson

Currently, we are fully immersed in the second winter of a “double-dip” La Niña.   Although it will take some time before we can see how this event stacked up with past events, you might have noticed that it has been quite dry over much of the U.S. this winter, with drought expanding across several regions, particularly in the south.  Being the big ENSO fans that you are, you might have asked yourself, are these conditions typical in the second winter of a double-dip La Niña?

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San Diego Officials Looking To Solve Mystery Of High Water Bills

/in /by /KPBSby Claire Trageser

San Diego officials are taking on the mystery of why residents from across the city are receiving water bills for thousands of dollars. City Councilwoman Barbara Bry has asked the city auditor to examine the Public Utilities Department to determine the cause. She made the request after getting almost 100 complaints from constituents and hearing from other councilmembers that they had received reports of high water bills as well.

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San Diegans Hit With Surging Water Bills To Get Temporary Relief

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith

Council President Pro Tem Barbara Bry has called for temporary relief for San Diegans who continue to claim the city has charged them for water they didn’t use. Customers fighting high bills should continue to have access to water as long as they pay an amount equal to their average usage or what they were charged in the previous year during the same time period.

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