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GOP Push to Shift State Water Policy Away from Conservation

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Carolyn Lochhead

With a friend in the White House and their party in control of both chambers of Congress, House Republicans have embarked on their most ambitious effort yet to change the way water flows in California. Legislation that the House sent to the Senate last week outlines a bold effort to build big new dams and shift water from fish, birds and other wildlife to farms in the San Joaquin Valley. The legislation would dry up long stretches of the state’s second-longest river, the San Joaquin, and end efforts to restore its obliterated salmon runs.

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San Diego Water Authority Seeks Proposals For Energy Storage Project

/in /by /North American Windpower (Oxford, Conn.)by Betsy Lillian Quoted: Mark Muir

The San Diego County Water Authority has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a potential joint energy storage project with the City of San Diego. According to the public agency, the project could lessen upward pressure on water rates and also increase opportunities for renewable energy penetration throughout the region by leveraging existing infrastructure at San Vicente Reservoir. The facility would consist of a closed-loop interconnection and pumping system between the existing San Vicente Reservoir (which is owned by the City of San Diego) near Lakeside and a new, smaller reservoir located uphill.

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Sonoma County Water Agency Manager Named Head Of California Department Of Water Resources

/in /by /Santa Rosa Press Democratby Guy Kovner

Grant Davis, general manager of the Sonoma County Water Agency, was tapped Wednesday by Gov. Jerry Brown as the state’s new director for the Department of Water Resources, handing a veteran of North Bay politics and water policy a central role in Brown’s controversial bid to overhaul California’s water system with a $17 billion pair of tunnels under Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Davis, 54, has led the county Water Agency since 2010 and is set to begin in his new post in Sacramento in August, pending confirmation by the state Senate.

 

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San Diego Water Authority Seeks Proposals For 500MW Pumped Storage Facility

/in /by /Clean Technology Business Review (London, U.K.) Quoted: Mark Muir

San Diego County Water Authority is seeking proposals for a potential 500MW joint pumped storage project at San Vicente Reservoir with the City of San Diego. The potential project is expected to not only increase renewables penetration, but can also lessen pressure on water rates throughout the region by using existing infrastructure. The project would consist of closed-loop interconnection and pumping system between the existing reservoir and a new smaller reservoir located uphill. With a potential to produce 500MW of renewable energy, water from the downhill can be pumped uphill during off-peak times.

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Deadline for San Diego Water Authority’s Pumped Hydro RFP

/in /by /Energy Storage News Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Potential developers for a 500MW pumped hydropower energy storage facility at a reservoir in San Diego have until mid-September to respond to a request for proposals (RfP). Energy-Storage.News reported back in late April that San Diego Water Authority was gauging interest from industry in executing the vast project, which would net revenues that could lower water rates for consumers in California, while assisting in the integration of renewables, particularly solar PV. The project would be jointly owned by the Water Authority and the City of San Diego, which owns the site where the facility would be built.

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San Diego’s Effort to Turn Sewage into Drinking Water Could Get Huge Financial Boost from Feds

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith

The federal government is poised to invest as much as $492 million to get Pure Water, the city of San Diego’s effort to turn sewage into drinking water, off the ground. Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce that San Diego is one of a dozen applicants chosen to participate in a low-interest loan program under the Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act. The invitation, which comes after initial vetting by the EPA, doesn’t guarantee funding but signals a very high likelihood of acceptance. Invited applicants from past years routinely obtained the funding amounts they sought.

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BLOG: California Is Poised For Big Gains In Recycled Water Use

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Jennifer West & Bobbi Larson

The state’s recently released survey about California’s use of recycled water was disappointing for recycled water use advocates, but it doesn’t tell the full story. The survey, by the State Water Resources Control Board and Department of Water Resources, found that recycled water use has increased by 44,500 acre-feet since 2009. California used 713,653 acre-feet of recycled water in 2015. While we had hoped for greater gains, progress and opportunities abound. Recycled water use is poised to provide over a million acre-feet of water to augment local drinking water supplies in addition to continuing to reduce potable water use for irrigation and industrial applications.

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The Water Treatment Demonstration Facility In CA To Be World’s Largest

/in /by /The Edition Truth (Brooklyn, N.Y.)by Hiren Samani

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has stepped towards the potential advancement of what might be one of the world’s biggest water reusing programs. The area’s Board of Directors voted on Tuesday, July 11 to grant a $13.9 million contract for the development of a propelled water treatment exhibit facility that will take treated wastewater and cleanse it through different propelled procedures to deliver a protected, top notch water source to renew the district’s groundwater.

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California Drought: Water District Looking to Buy Land to Construct Largest Bay Area Reservoir in 20 Years

/in /by /The Mercury News‎ (San Jose)by Paul Rogers

In a significant step toward construction of the Bay Area’s first major new reservoir in nearly two decades, Silicon Valley’s largest water provider has begun negotiations to buy more than 12,000 acres of rural ranch land — an area nearly half the size of San Francisco. The Santa Clara Valley Water District is hoping to build an $800 million reservoir in southern Santa Clara County near Pacheco Pass, along with a dam up to 300 feet high. The reservoir would hold 130,000 acre-feet of water — enough to meet the water needs of 650,000 people for a year.

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Kevin McCarthy Ignores Key Facts in Claim on California Water Storage

/in /by /PolitiFactby Chris Nichols

One of the biggest backers for building new dams and reservoirs in California is House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield. The Republican, who’s been described as the most powerful Californian in Washington D.C., recently spoke on the House floor in favor of a bill to speed up studies on five water storage projects in the state. “Water is not optional. Not in my district. Not in California. Not anywhere,” McCarthy told his colleagues. “But over the past five years my constituents have struggled to survive without life-giving water in the face of a catastrophic drought.”

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