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Quick-Hitting Storm Will Deliver Rain, Snow To Us

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Benjy Egel

After weeks of dry fall weather, the Sacramento region is finally expected to receive a little relief from the heavens beginning Tuesday night. Up to a quarter-inch of rain is predicted throughout the Sacramento Valley along with a half-inch to an inch in Grass Valley, according to the National Weather Service. Mountain passes are expected to see 2 to 8 inches of snow, mostly in Wednesday morning’s early hours, and cold temperatures will help produce snow as low as 3,500 feet.

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State Water Board Laying Out Water Regulation For Marijuana Growers

/in /by /Your Central Valley Newsby Gregory Woods

Is drought stricken California ready for the cannabis industry? The State Water Resources Control Board laid out their plan to potential marijuana growers on how they can get access to water. “People that do not have storage will need to get a small irrigation use registration which is also a new program we’re rolling out for cannabis,” said Daniel Schultz, Environmental Program Manager. A new wave of marijuana growers, also means an increase in water consumption.

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How Craft Brewers Are Embracing New Water Technologies

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Robert Glennon

At the other Half Brewery Company in Brooklyn on a frigid morning in January 2017, hundreds of people waited in line at dawn to buy the latest India pale ale, although the brewery wouldn’t open until 10 a.m. Across the United States, craft beer enthusiasts wait like this for hours, or even camp out, to purchase six-packs of a limited-edition offering from a favorite brewery, even though each bottle may cost as much as a bottle of fine wine.

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Don’t Force Us To Pay For Delta Tunnels, Valley Farmers Say

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler and Ryan Sabalow

Already short of funding, Gov. Jerry Brown’s Delta tunnels project is being challenged in court by a bloc of San Joaquin Valley farmers insisting they shouldn’t be forced to help foot the $17.1 billion price tag. The valley farmers, located mainly in Kern and Kings counties, voiced their objections in a Sacramento court filing opposing the Brown administration’s plan to issue bonds to pay for the tunnels.

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Environment Report: Water Authority Extends Controversial Deal By A Decade

/in /by /Voice Of San Diegoby Ry Rivard Quoted: Dan Denham

The San Diego County Water Authority extended by 10 years a multibillion-dollar deal it has to buy water from the Imperial Irrigation District. That deal remains the largest water purchase of its kind in the United States. The Water Authority began talking about the deal in 1995, shortly after a major drought hit the state. The Water Authority pays Imperial County farmers to stop using some of the Colorado River water they have rights to and, in turn, San Diego gets long-term access to enough water for roughly 1.6 million city folk.

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Expert: ‘Grim’ Snowpack In Tahoe Basin Can Quickly Change With 1 Storm

/in /by /Tahoe Daily Tribuneby Bill Rozak

The snowpack in the Tahoe Basin is “grim” right now, but at this point one cold storm could quickly turnaround everything, according to one expert. The snowpack in the Tahoe Basin is 35 percent of median, said Jeff Anderson, water supply specialist with the Nevada Natural Resources Conservation Service. Rainfall totals are 113 percent, he added.

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Progress On New Drought Plan In Colorado Basin Is Slow Going

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicle

States, federal and Mexican officials hailed a binational agreement this fall that they said could lead to a radical shift in how the region prepares for and responds to drought. But three months later, they appear no closer to a drought contingency plan, as negotiations have pitted states and water districts against one another, as the U.S. tries to hammer out details of the plan.

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Lawmakers Ask Interior Department To Recover ‘Misspent’ Funds

/in /by /Daily Journal (Ukiah)

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) has sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, urging him to recover $84.8 million in taxpayer money that was identified in a recent inspector general report detailing how the funds were misspent, according to information released Friday by Huffman’s office. The funds were to benefit a select few California water districts participating in the “WaterFix” planning process, according to a report titled “The Bureau of Reclamation Was Not Transparent in Its Participation in the [San Francisco] Bay Delta Conservation Plan.”

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Lessons From Disastrous Wine Country Fires Helped In Battling Southern California Infernos

/in /by /Los Angeles Times

Both sieges began in darkness with fierce winds that made the flames impossible to stop. Hurricane-force gusts pushed the flames over highways that should have been barriers and into neighborhoods so quickly that officials said they were helpless to protect the homes in their path. The wine country fires that ravaged Northern California in October and the firestorm in Southern California this month have capped the most destructive year for fires in state history.

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How Dry Is It? Scientist Says California Has Only Slim Chance Of Normal Rainfall This Winter

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

This is how dry it has been so far this season: California’s chances of having a normal “water year” have fallen to around 33 percent in much of the state, according to a federal scientist. Michael Dettinger, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said those dismal odds are based on the amount of rain and snow that has fallen so far this year – and the history of how much precipitation California traditionally gets in the remaining months of the rainy season.

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