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Last Month Was The Wettest April For The U.S. In 60 Years

/in /by /The Washington Postby Greg Porter

“April showers bring May flowers” took on a whole new meaning this year: The United States just experienced its second-wettest April on record. Average precipitation across the Lower 48 was 3.43 inches. In other words, if you spread all of the rain and snow out across the continental United States, each location would have received nearly 3 ½ inches. That is a lot of water. This record is second only to April 1957 and nearly a full inch more than the average April rainfall in the 20th century.

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‘Re-wilding’ a Santa Monica Beach to Protect Against Sea Level Rise

/in /by /89.3 KPCC (Los Angeles)by Emily Guerin

At the north end of Santa Monica Beach, there’s a fenced off 2-acre section that looks a bit unkempt. It’s an experiment in “re-wilding,” or restoring the beach to what it looked like before humans altered it. The pilot project, a partnership of The Bay Foundation and Santa Monica, could also help protect the city from sea level rise. The Bay Foundation first staked out the plot in December 2016, but waited until Tuesday to hold the official ribbon cutting, so visitors could see dune plant seedlings emerging from the sand.

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Mayors: California Not Operating Damaged Dam Safely

/in /by /The Associated Press (As published by US News)by Ellen Knickmeyer

California is putting communities downstream in danger of flooding with the way it runs the now-crippled Oroville Dam, mayors and county leaders wrote this week in a strongly worded letter to Gov. Jerry Brown. The letter — signed by mayors of the city of Oroville and six other communities downstream, county leaders, state lawmakers and others — comes in the wake of a February spillway emergency at the dam that forced the evacuation of 188,000 people.

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Snowmelt Triggers a Flood Warning in Yosemite and a River Closure in the Central Valley

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Veronica Rocha

The melting of this year’s record snowpack is continuing to create problems, with authorities warning of more flooding in Yosemite National Park and fast-moving, high water at a popular Central Valley river. The National Weather Service issued a flood warning Tuesday as Yosemite’s Pohono Bridge was expected to be swamped overnight. By 4 a.m. Wednesday, the Merced River probably will reach its flood stage of 10 feet, said Christine Riley, a weather service meteorologist in Hanford, Calif.

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San Diego Water Rate Dispute Heads Back To Court

/in /by /KPBS by Erik Anderson Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The San Diego County Water Authority hopes to recover more than $250 million in fees it says it was overcharged by the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District. Local water managers already won a lower court ruling. A judge found Metropolitan over-charged San Diego for water during a four-year period. Attorney Dan Purcell was hired by San Diego water managers to litigate the case. He argued the San Diego Water Authority negotiated a long-term contract to buy water from the Imperial Valley, replacing the water they had bought from Metropolitan.

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Oh, Well. California Water Info Can Remain Secret, Court Rules

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Michael Doyle

Crucial details about the location and depth of certain California water wells can be kept secret, and out of the hands of an environmental group, a top federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. Although targeting a specific request for California information, the ruling by what’s sometimes called the nation’s second-highest court could shape at least a few of the other Freedom of Information Act requests nationwide. More than 700,000 FOIA requests were filed in Fiscal 2014, and the question of what can be denied recurs often.

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San Diego Water Rate Dispute Heads Back To Court

/in /by /KPBSby Erik Anderson Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The San Diego County Water Authority hopes to recover more than $250 million in fees it says it was overcharged by the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District. Local water managers already won a lower court ruling. A judge found Metropolitan over-charged San Diego for water during a four-year period. Attorney Dan Purcell was hired by San Diego water managers to litigate the case. He argued the San Diego Water Authority negotiated a long-term contract to buy water from the Imperial Valley, replacing the water they had bought from Metropolitan.

 

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Court To Hear Appeals In Water Authority Litigation Over Illegal MWD Rates

/in /by /Public Now Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

On Wednesday, May 10, the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco will hear oral argument in the appeals of the San Diego County Water Authority’s victories in two lawsuits against the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. A decision from the Court of Appeal is due within 90 days of oral argument. Superior Court Judge Curtis E.A. Karnow ruled in November 2015 that MWD’s rates for 2011-2014 were illegal.

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Sacramento State Is Fixing 43 Drinking Fountains And Water Sources With High Lead

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Diana Lambert

Sacramento State consultants have identified 43 water fountains, bottle filling stations and sinks that must be repaired or replaced due to high lead levels, according to new reports released Monday. The university initially shut down 85 sinks and fountains with lead levels above 5 parts per billion on Jan. 13. That came after students and professors found high lead levels when they tested 449 sinks and fountains over three days in January as part of a research project.

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California Asks Federal Taxpayers To Fund Repairs At Dam

/in /by /Associated Press (As published by The Union Democrat-Sonora)by Ellen Knickmeyer

California is asking the federal government to pay 75 percent of the hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs to the badly damaged spillways at the nation’s tallest dam, a state water agency spokeswoman said Monday. The question of whether taxpayers or the water contractors that get water via the Oroville Dam would foot the biggest share of the bill has been one of many contentious ones in the aftermath of this winter’s damage at the dam, which is an anchor of the state’s water supply system.

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