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Weather Helped California’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Drop 5% Last Year

/in /by /Times of San Diego

As Gov. Jerry Brown was making his way through Europe last month, striking an evangelical tone about the global peril represented by climate change, California’s Air Resources Board released good news about emissions reported by companies covered under the state’s cap-and-trade system. Its report showed greenhouse gas emissions reduced by almost 5 percent in 2016, propelling the state toward meeting its ambitious goals. And for that we can thank Mother Nature.

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Oroville Dam: Phase Two of Spillway Construction May Be More Challenging

/in /by /East Bay Times (San Jose)

Phase two of construction at Oroville Dam — with work on both spillways — might prove more challenging than the first feat, the contractor’s project director said in a media call Thursday. Jeff Petersen, project director for Kiewit Infrastructure West Co., said finishing work for the 3,000-foot main spillway including concrete finishing, joint sealing, drain work and clean up, should be done by the end of the year.

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Lawmakers Push for Transparency on Feasibility of Delta Tunnels

/in /by /KQED News (San Francisco)

State lawmakers opposed to Gov. Jerry Brown’s Delta tunnel plan are stepping up calls for greater transparency into the project’s finances, as the proposed water delivery system suffered a series of setbacks this fall. At a Thursday town hall in the Delta town of Walnut Grove, lawmakers representing the region called on the Brown administration to drop the tunnel plan in the absence of greater cost certainty.

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BLOG: U.S. Households Are Using Less Water, But What Does That Mean for Metros and Infrastructure?

/in /by /The Brookings Institution (Washington, D.C.)

The last few months have seen a growing number of climate concerns – from historically devastating floods to record forest fires – with many regions still assessing the damage. Beyond recovery, planning and paying for more resilient infrastructure also remains an enormous challenge, and no quick and easy solutions seem to be on the way from Washington or elsewhere.

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Life Amid the Levees

/in /by /Earth Island Journal (Berkeley)

At Big Break Regional Shoreline, nestled in Northern California’s San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta, Michael Moran, supervising naturalist for East Bay Regional Park District, leads about 30 people out along a path into the park. The group consists of various stakeholders from the Metropolitan Water District (met), a regional wholesaler that supplies water to 19 million people across 26 public agencies in Southern California, hundreds of miles away. Big Break is one stop on a tour of the Delta, an educational trip for those involved with the met.

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Delta Residents Vent About Jerry Brown’s Twin Tunnels Water Plan

/in /by /SF Gate

A throng of people, nearly 200 strong, came to this delta town Thursday, many of them wearing work boots and ball caps, blue jeans and plaid, and all of them hoping to learn something good about Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to solve California’s water delivery problems. The folks from the river towns and rural communities along the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta didn’t like what they heard about the plan that is being called California WaterFix.

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State Sets Initial Water Allocation of 15%; Amount Likely Will Rise

/in /by /Redding Record Searchlight

The state Department of Water Resources on Wednesday announced an initial water allocation of 15 percent for most of its State Water Project contractors for 2018. The low percentage is a conservative figure, which is typical of the department’s early season forecast. But already, things are looking up. Shasta Dam is holding more water in Lake Shasta than historical averages, officials said.

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Delta Tunnels: Cost Study Coming, State Says

/in /by /The Record (Stockton)

A long-awaited study on the costs and benefits of Gov. Jerry Brown’s Delta tunnels should be finished by next spring, a state official said Thursday after an independent audit concluded such a study should have already been done. The tunnels have been in the planning stage for 11 years, but state officials have never completed a comprehensive analysis of whether the project pencils out financially. Such a study could answer basic questions like whether the tunnels will benefit the state as a whole and whether they should be built at all.

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Pipe Break Leaves East County Stores Left Without Water, Roadway Closed

/in /by /ABC 10 (San Diego)by Mark Saunders

A 14-inch water line break left an East County shopping center without water for most of Wednesday. The break occurred at about 12 p.m. on Camino Canada near Los Coches Road off Interstate 8 in an unincorporated area of El Cajon, near the East County Square shopping center. A Padre Water District spokesperson said about 34 retail stores in the center were without water. Water is not expected to be restored until about midnight, according to the spokesperson.

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Increase In Water Replenishes Groundwater Supply

/in /by /23ABC (Bakersfield)by Leah Pezzetti

Thanks to a wet winter, California’s water supply is being replenished. One of the state’s crucial outlets is groundwater. The Kern Water Bank’s uses ponds to soak water into the ground, adding to the supply of groundwater. However, these ponds have been dry for the past six years because of the drought. This year, the two-feet-deep ponds are full again and the groundwater supply is being restored. With the full ponds comes wildlife that utilizes the wetlands. More than 200 species of birds can be found at the water bank.

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