You are now in California and the U.S. category.

OPINION: Implement California WaterFix in the Delta for the San Gabriel Valley

/in /by /San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Precarious environmental conditions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, coupled with the aging delivery infrastructure of the State Water Project, along with restrictive pumping regulations, threaten our ability to replenish the San Gabriel Valley’s vital groundwater basin. A declining Delta ecosystem and non-secure levees vulnerable to earthquakes, saltwater intrusion and climate change pose serious challenges for us all.

Full Story

Padre Dam’s East County Water Purification Program Moving Forward

/in /by /WaterWorld Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Padre Dam Municipal Water District’s Board of Directors unanimously approved a contract for the next phase of work on the East County Advanced Water Purification Program. The project, which is expected to produce up to 30% of East County’s water by 2023, is a collaboration between Padre Dam, Helix Water District, the City of El Cajon and the County of San Diego.

Full Story

L.A. City Councilman Wants Water Board to Call Off Delta Tunnels Vote

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune

A Los Angeles city councilman is calling on the council and Mayor Eric Garcetti to oppose a crucial vote by a Southern California water board on a $17-billion project that would be funded in part by Los Angeles ratepayers. Councilman Paul Koretz introduced a resolution Friday that asks the city and Garcetti to formally object to a vote by the board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California on the project, known as California WaterFix. The 38-member board is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to commit $4.3 billion in MWD funds to the project.

Full Story

Blocked By Old Contracts and Modern-Day Infighting, California’s Big Water Project Staggers To Its Deathbed

/in /by /Los Angeles Times

No one should have been surprised when the giant Westlands Water District voted Sept. 19 against joining the state’s equally imposing $17-billion water infrastructure project. After all, the Central Valley district — at 600,000 acres the largest agricultural water district in the nation — had been signaling its uneasiness about the California WaterFix for months. The district accepted that the reliability and volume of the water supply for Southern and Central California could be enhanced by the plan to build two 30-mile, four-story-high tunnels to carry water under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Full Story

US Winter Forecast: La Niña To Fuel Abundant Snow In Rockies; Bitterly Cold Air To Blast Midwest

/in /by /Accuweatherby Jillian MacMath

Some chilly winter weather is in store for the Northeast and mid-Atlantic, with January threatening to bring the coldest air of the season. Although however cold, low temperatures will pale in comparison to those in the northern Plains where the mercury is set to dip to minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit at times. Meanwhile, the southern Plains, Southwest and California can expect a milder and drier winter than last season.

Full Story

Oroville Dam: Spillway Is 70 Percent Filled With One Month To Go

/in /by /Chico Enterprise Record (As published by, the San Jose Mercury News)by Risa Johnson

The wide-open middle section of the Oroville Dam spillway is 70 percent filled, with the deadline for this season’s work fast approaching. The contractor Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. remains on track to have the 3,000-foot spillway ready to pass flows of 100,000 cubic-feet per second by Nov. 1, said Jeanne Kuttel, chief of engineering for the state Department of Water Resources, in a media call on Wednesday morning.

Full Story

City Council Plans To Sue Federal Government Over Tijuana Sewage Spills

/in /by /NBC San Diegoby Cassia Pollock

The San Diego City Council has announced plans Wednesday to sue the federal government over millions of gallons of raw sewage that poured into the Tijuana River. City Councilmember David Alvarez said that the City of San Diego will join forces with the cities of Chula Vista and Imperial Beach, along with the Port of San Diego, in taking the first step to prevent sewage spills in the future. The city will file a Notice of Intent to sue the federal government and the International Boundary and Water Commission, he announced.

 

Full Story

Gov. Brown Visits L.A. to Lobby for the $17-Billion Delta Water Project

/in /by /Los Angeles Times

With two key California WaterFix votes looming, Gov. Jerry Brown expressed confidence Thursday that water agencies will commit to enough funding to sustain the massive project. Brown was in Los Angeles to lobby for the $17-billion proposal, which would re-engineer the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the hub of California’s complex waterworks. “I’m just trying to put the ball over the goal line,” he said in a telephone interview in between visits to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

Full Story

Audit Delivers Another Hit to California Tunnels Project

/in /by /Los Angeles Times

Clifornia’s water managers appear to have violated state law when they hired a consultant to help plan Gov. Jerry Brown’s $16 billion project to build two massive water tunnels, state auditors said Thursday. The audit also faulted the state Department of Water Resources for not finishing a cost-benefit analysis as the price of the tunnels climbs. The audit is the latest blow to Brown’s plan to build twin tunnels east of San Francisco to deliver water from the Sacramento River mostly to farms and cities hundreds of miles away in central and Southern California.

Full Story

Audit Blasts California’s Handling of Delta Tunnels Project

/in /by /Courthouse News Service (Pasadena)

California’s mammoth $17 billion plan to overhaul the West Coast’s largest estuary took another hit Thursday, after state auditors revealed that a combination of skyrocketing costs and shaky oversight plague the contentious water project. In a much-anticipated financial report of the California WaterFix, state auditors said planning costs have ballooned to $280 million and that the state has failed to prove that the project is financially viable going forward. The report also blasted the California Department of Water Resources for violating state law by awarding lucrative contracts to an unqualified firm without a bidding process.

Full Story