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OPINION: Repairs Should Not Be Limited To Oroville Dam

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Richard Bloom

With the first phase of repairs to the Oroville Dam spillway completed, residents downstream can breathe a little easier. Hundreds of engineers and laborers worked around the clock to fortify the nation’s tallest dam before winter rains, and the Department of Water Resources should be congratulated for expediting this enormous task. But there is a key part of this repair that is still to be done to ensure that California’s water system is ready to withstand the challenges of extreme weather events predicted for the future.

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California May Make Hosing Off Your Driveway a Permanent “Prohibited” Practice

/in /by / KFSN-TV (Fresno)

The State Water Resources Control Board is considering a number of regulations that could impact how and when you use water. The Board may move to permanently prohibit practices that waste potable water, such as: Hosing off sidewalks, driveways and other hardscapes; Washing automobiles with hoses not equipped with a shut-off nozzle; Using non-recirculated water in a fountain or other decorative water feature; Watering lawns in a manner that causes runoff, or within 48 hours after measurable precipitation, and irrigating ornamental turf on public street medians.

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Can the Private Sector Save America’s Aging Water Systems?

/in /by /CBS News

Who owns the water pipes beneath your street? Increasingly, it is a private company, a shift from the mostly public ownership of the systems used to provide drinking water and remove waste that has prevailed in the U.S. since the early 1900s.

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District Presses on With Desalination

/in /by /Laguna Beach Indy

The South Coast Water District voted to take another step towards building a $100 million plant that converts ocean water into drinking water for its customers by 2021. The five-acre Doheny desalination plant is proposed for district-owned land alongside San Juan Creek in Dana Point. It could initially produce up to 5 million gallons of water per day, providing 75 percent of district needs within five years. Eventually, the plant could yield 15 million gallons of water per day.

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Huntington Beach Desalination Plant Challenged in Court

/in /by /The Orange County Register

A coalition of non-profits is asking a superior court to reverse a state agency’s decision to greenlight a long-proposed, controversial desalination plant in Huntington Beach. In a lawsuit filed in Sacramento Friday, Nov. 17, the three coastal advocacy groups allege an inadequate environmental review was conducted on the impacts of building a desalination plant and that the State Lands Commission failed to examine the plant’s impacts on the ocean in its entirety.

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More Rain On The Way; Flood Watch Issued

/in /by /Eureka Times-Standard

More rain is on the way. A lot more rain. “That’s really the theme now,” said National Weather Service Eureka meteorologist William Iwasko on Sunday. “… Nice sunny skies probably are not going to happen this week.” So much rain is expected, a flood watch was issued by the weather service for parts of Humboldt, Trinity and Del Norte counties on Sunday.

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Thanksgiving Is Going To Be A Real Scorcher, Forecasters Say

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Alene Tchekmedyian

Angelenos can expect a hot Thanksgiving this year, with record-breaking temperatures forecast across the region. The mercury is expected to steadily rise throughout the week, with Wednesday and Thursday forecasted to be the hottest days. Forecasters predict a high of 89 degrees in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, which would tie a record set in 1950, and 87 degrees on Thursday, said Kathy Hoxsie, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. At Los Angeles International Airport, temperatures will reach 86 and 84 on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

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Rainbow Water District Allows Meter Size Reductions

/in /by /Fallbrook and Bonsall Village News Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The update of the Rainbow Water District capacity charges included allowing for smaller meters. The Rainbow board voted 4-0, with Hayden Hamilton absent, July 27, to approve the revisions in the district’s capacity fee ordinance which also changes the wastewater capacity fee variable for single-family homes from number of bedrooms to square footage of the house. Capacity fees are one-time charges to developers who purchase system capacity for water and sewer services. “It’s primarily a buy-in charge,” Rainbow general manager Tom Kennedy said.

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Faulconer Move Puts Pressure on SDG&E, Moves San Diego Closer to Buying Its Own Power

/in /by /Voice of San Diego

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer is moving ahead with the city’s plans to buy power from someone other than San Diego Gas & Electric, but he’s given the power company a chance to make its case to preserve its monopoly. The city has an ambitious plan to fight climate change. It says 100 percent of electricity sold within city limits must come from renewable sources by 2035. Right now, SDG&E is the greenest major power company in the state but still gets most of its power by burning natural gas.

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Study: Media Coverage of Drought Spurred California Water Conservation

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)

When the California drought began to take hold in 2011, a mysterious thing happened: People began cutting back drastically on their water consumption – even before mandatory conservation was ordered by their local water agencies and state government. Newsha Ajami, director of Urban Water Policy with Stanford University’s Water in the West program, started hearing about this from water utilities during the drought. After the drought ended, she and a team of graduate students started to investigate why it happened.

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