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California Will Use Toilet Water to Grow Vegetables

/in /by /FreshPlaza

By the end of 2017, toilet water and other wastewater will be used to irrigate a large swath of Central Valley farmland near Interstate 5, an area that is known as California’s agricultural hub because it produces more than 360 products. “As long as we keep taking showers and flushing toilets, we can guarantee you water,” Modesto Mayor Garrad Marsh said at a news event last August to farmers. Treatment facilities in the two inland cities, Modesto and Turlock, will collect the water from sinks, showers, washing machines and toilets, and process it into what’s commonly referred to as “gray water.”

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Why the State is in Such a Hurry to Fix Oroville Dam

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

California officials are trying to speed up repairs on Oroville Dam’s battered flood-control spillway. The Department of Water Resources have asked federal regulators to let it demolish and replace an additional 240 feet of the spillway’s 3,000-foot concrete chute before the rains comes this fall, leaving less work for next year. That 240-foot section originally was going to be replaced next summer as part of the two-year plan for repairing the spillway, whose massive structural problems in February sparked the emergency evacuation of 188,000 downstream residents.

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Water Authority Celebrates Award for World’s Top Civil Engineering Project

/in /by /Times of San Diegoby Chris Jennewein Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority
Quoted: Maureen Stapleton, Mark Muir

The San Diego County Water Authority celebrated Tuesday its award for the world’s top civil-engineering project — a network of dams, pumps and pipelines that can protect the region’s water supply for six months. The $1.5 billion Emergency & Carryover Storage Project received the 2017 award from the American Society of Civil Engineers earlier this year, beating out the iconic new One World Trade Center in New York and the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport Terminal 2 in Mumbai, India, among other projects. On Tuesday a plaque was officially unveiled at the remote Olivenhain Dam, one of the four key parts of the project.

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Controversial Calif. Drought Bill Heads To Floor

/in /by /E&E News (Washington, D.C.)

The House will consider a controversial bill this week to adjust water policies in California and the West. The “Gaining Responsibility on Water Act,” H.R. 23, from Rep. David Valadao and 11 other California Republicans, would reduce the cost of water delivery contracts and amend the 1992 Central Valley Project Improvement Act to give users more authority over how restoration funds are spent. Amendments to the legislation are due to the Rules Committee today, and the panel will meet on the bill tomorrow evening before sending it to the House floor for a vote.

 

 

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Negotiations Toward a Salton Sea Consensus Are Progressing, Water Agency Says

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Ian James Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The Imperial Irrigation District has been using its clout as the agency with the biggest water entitlement along the Colorado River to press for California officials to live up to their commitment that they will keep the Salton Sea from turning into an environmental disaster. During the past year, IID has warned the state that without a credible, well-funded “road map” to restore deteriorating shoreline habitats and cover up growing stretches of dust-spewing lakebed, the district won’t take part in a proposed deal to use less water from the dwindling Colorado River.

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Gov. Brown and Democratic Leaders Offer Plan to Extend Cap and Trade, With Aim For Approval This Week

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Melanie Mason

After weeks of back-and-forth between environmentalists and business interests, Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders introduced a proposal Monday evening to reauthorize California’s cap-and-trade program, the centerpiece of the state’s efforts to battle climate change. The plan consists of two bills: Assembly Bill 398, which would extend the life of the program until 2030 and modify how the cap-and-trade market operates, and AB 617, which aims to address concerns about air quality in communities by increasing monitoring and imposing stricter penalties on polluters.

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Messer Named Acting Director of California DWR After Croyle Retires

/in /by /HydroWorld.com (Tulsa, Okla.)by Elizabeth Ingram

Cindy Messer has been named acting director of the California Department of Water Resources following William R. Croyle’s retirement effective July 1. Messer formerly was chief deputy director of DWR and will serve as acting director until a new director is appointed. Previously, she was assistant chief deputy director. Before joining DWR in early 2017, Messer was deputy director of the planning, performance and technology division at the Delta Stewardship Council. She has a bachelor’s degree in environmental policy analysis and planning for the University of California, Davis and a master’s degree in conservation biology from California State University in Sacramento.

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OPINION: Jerry Brown’s Tunnels Would Cement His Family Legacy

/in /by /E&E News (Washington)by Jeremy P. Jacobs

Sixty years ago, California Gov. Edmund Gerald “Pat” Brown built the biggest waterworks the world had ever seen. The State Water Project transformed California, moving billions of gallons of water from the wet north to the dry south using dozens of dams, pumping stations and a 400-mile-long man-made river. It serves 25 million people and irrigates hundreds of thousands of acres of cropland. But spectacular as it was, the project was flawed.

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Weather Wreaking Avoc on Agriculture

/in /by /The Daily Herald (Washington)

Agriculture is always a challenge, thanks to the weather. Even when things are going well farmers and ranchers are reluctant to trust their good fortune, knowing from experience how quickly it can turn on them. Last winter’s copious precipitation in California may have ended a years-long drought, great news for fruit and vegetable growers there, but this summer’s intense heat in the state is impacting livestock operators hard. Throughout California’s Central Valley, dairy cow mortality is reaching worrisome levels. In Fresno County alone, 4,000 to 6,000 livestock were killed by the heat during June.

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House Expected to Approve Water Bill This Week

/in /by /Central Valley Business Times (Stockton)

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives this week is expected to approve H.R. 23, the so-called “Gaining Responsibility on Water Act” that is written by Hanford Republican Davis Valadao. Unless blocked in the Senate, the bill is expected to sail to final approval within weeks. But before then, it might run into some stormy opposition from California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris. “California’s Central Valley helps feed the world. It deserves sensible and responsible water solutions—this measure doesn’t even come close to meeting that test,” they say in a joint statement.

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