Immigration and housing dominated the headlines from Sacramento this year. But with little fanfare, state lawmakers working with Gov. Jerry Brown also approved a sweeping measure to provide $4.1 billion in new funding for parks and water projects — everything from building Bay Area hiking trails to expanding Lake Tahoe beaches to constructing new inner city parks in Los Angeles.
California is increasing the pressure on millions of Californians to help pay for two giant water tunnels that Gov. Jerry Brown wants built. The Associated Press obtained documents Friday and confirmed the expanded funding proposal in interviews with state and local water officials. Brown wants to re-engineer California’s north-south water system in the $16 billion project. Amid doubts about whether the mega-project is worth the cost, no big water district has yet to sign on to help pay.
Several groups converged at Los Angeles City Hall Monday with a demand: that the official advocate responsible for fighting for the interests of Department of Water and Power customers be fired. Many took issue in particular with his conclusions on a controversial $16 billion water tunnel project in northern California. Representatives of Consumer Watchdog and other groups say the utility’s official “ratepayer advocate,” Fred Pickel, has not been working on the side of customers. They have launched a campaign to oust him.
Repairs to the Oroville Dam spillway are on track for the Nov. 1 deadline, state Department of Water Resources representatives say, but work will be far from over then. The November deadline was set in the hopes of beating the start of the area’s typical rainy season. The spillway will be functional by then, able to pass flows of 100,000 cubic-feet per second, or cfs, according to DWR’s plans, but the structure will have a higher capacity when the redesign is complete.
In the wake of hurricanes Harvey and Irma, large sections of southeast Texas and southern Florida were underwater. The massive flooding has claimed the lives of more than 100 people, and AccuWeather predicts that the economic cost of the two storms will be almost $300 billion. Right now, California may be dealing with more fire than flood, but there are still important lessons that the state can learn from Harvey and Irma, says Nicholas Pinter, the associate director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California, Davis.
Some of the state’s biggest water districts are about to make their opening moves in a financial chess game that ultimately could saddle the Southland with much of the bill for re-engineering the failing heart of California’s water system. In coming weeks, the districts are expected to decide if they want to sign on to California WaterFix — a long-planned proposal to construct two massive tunnels that would change the way water supplies move through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
With decision time approaching for water districts being asked to fund the most expensive water project in California history, the head of California’s largest water wholesaler Monday warned there is no room for subsidies or withdrawal from participation. “All of us have to work together to make this work, and all of us need to pay our share,” said Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the Southern California Metropolitan Water District (MWD).
With decision time approaching for water districts being asked to fund the most expensive water project in California history, the head of California’s largest water wholesaler Monday warned there is no room for subsidies or withdrawal from participation. “All of us have to work together to make this work, and all of us need to pay our share,” said Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the Southern California Metropolitan Water District (MWD).
Bringing more certainty to an unruly and unpredictable Colorado River system was a common theme among water managers speaking at the Colorado River District’s annual seminar on Friday, Sept. 15. Although the drought that has gripped much of the Colorado River basin for the past 16 years has eased up a bit, population growth and the long dry spell have pushed the river’s supplies to the limit, with every drop of water in the system now accounted for.
Every day, I walk into the kitchen, turn on the faucet, and clean drinking water magically appears. It’s a miracle, really, and I’ll bet, like me, you don’t even think about it — the water always flows. Even in the years of drought we endured, good local water management and conservation got us through the tough times. The water always flows. But not all of Orange County’s water is from local groundwater sources.
