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Napa County Says Groundwater Picture Continues To Be Good

/in /by /Napa Valley Register

Napa Valley’s annual groundwater checkup yielded the verdict that the water table in the world-famous grapegrowing region is “generally very shallow” and that the basin is “full.” There are problem spots, such as the Petra Drive area northeast of the city of Napa that the county is studying. The Coombsville area still faces groundwater challenges, though the county sees the situation as having stabilized. But overall, the county’s 2016 groundwater report by consultating engineers Luhdorff & Scalmanini to the Napa County Board of Supervisors last week emphasized the positive, especially when it came to the valley floor.

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Will California’s Twin-Tunnels Delta Water Project Become Reality?

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Angela Hart

Gov. Jerry Brown’s $17.1 billion plan to build two massive tunnels through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta relies on key changes to the water rights permit held by the Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which are seeking to add new water diversion points. Brown’s administration has said construction of the twin Delta tunnels could begin as soon as 2018, clearing the way for a massive alteration in the way water is diverted from the Delta to the Central Valley and Southern California.

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Fixing Oroville Dam Will Cost Hundreds Of Millions. Who Should Pay The Bill?

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Jim Miller

The damage has been done and the repair contract awarded. Yet more than two months after damaged spillways at the Oroville Dam prompted authorities to order the evacuation of 188,000 people, the question of who will ultimately pay the bill remains murky. How much will be the responsibility of homeowners, businesses, farmers and other customers of the more than two dozen local and regional agencies that contract with the State Water Project?

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Heavy Rain Won’t Lessen Calif. Wildfires – It Will Fuel Them

/in /by /SF Gateby Michelle Robertson

California emerged from its five-year drought after heavy winter rains filled reservoirs and turned our golden hills green. But don’t be fooled by the emerald hues. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) expects wildfires to burn just as fiercely as they did during drought years – if not more so.

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Atmospheric Rivers Hit California

/in /by /California Ag Todayby Patrick Cavanaugh

California needs an average of three atmospheric rivers annually to reach its average yearly rainfall. So far this year, the state has seen an incredible 46 atmospheric rivers. This intense rainfall has pushed much of California out of longstanding drought conditions. California Ag Today spoke with Steve Johnson, a private meteorologist for farmers in California. We discussed atmospheric rivers (AR) and the abundance of rain California has seen in late winter and early spring.

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Bay Area May Be All But Done With Rain Until Fall

/in /by /SF Gateby Filipa Ioannou

The time to put away the umbrella may have arrived. After a seven-month stretch that set rainfall records in some parts of Northern California, what could be the last rainfall of the season will brush the Bay Area on Wednesday. It will probably be limited to the North Bay, and even there, it doesn’t look to be heavy, said Bob Benjamin, a forecaster with the National Weather Service. “It’s going to be extremely light — maybe a tenth of an inch in northern Sonoma County,” Benjamin said. After that, chances are it’s warmer and dry until October or so.

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Rising Seas Are Claiming California’s Coast Faster Than Scientists Predicted

/in /by /Times of San Diegoby Julie Cart

A slow-moving emergency is lapping at California’s shores — climate-driven sea-level rise that experts now predict could elevate the water in coastal areas up to 10 feet in just 70 years, gobbling up beachfront and overwhelming low-lying cities. The speed with which polar ice is melting and glacier shelves are cracking off indicates to some scientists that once-unthinkable outer-range projections of sea rise may turn out to be too conservative. A knee-buckling new state-commissioned report warns that if nothing changes, California’s coastal waters will rise at a rate 30 to 40 times faster than in the last century.

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California Water Chief: Oroville Emergency Spillway Worked

/in /by /The Associated Press (As published by U.S. News)by Jonathan J. Cooper

The head of California’s water agency on Tuesday repeated his assertion that an emergency spillway at the Oroville Dam worked, drawing an incredulous response from a state lawmaker who represents tens of thousands of people ordered to evacuate when it was feared erosion at the spillway could lead to catastrophic flooding. Bill Croyle, acting director of the Department of Water Resources, faced lawmakers for the first time since the evacuations in February. Authorities feared a concrete wall at the top of the emergency spillway was on the verge of collapsing and sending a wall of water rushing uncontrolled through downstream communities.

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Santa Fe Irrigation District Faces Brighter Financial Outlook

/in /by /Rancho Santa Fe Review by Joe Tash Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

In a proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, the Santa Fe Irrigation District expects an increase in water sales revenue of $4 million over the current year, according to report presented at the agency’s board meeting on Thursday, April 20. The district attributes that increase to two factors – an 8 percent rise in customer demand for water, and a potential rate increase by the district of 9 percent, beginning on Jan. 1, 2018. The district also will pass along to customers an anticipated rate increase by its wholesale supplier, the San Diego County Water Authority.

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Why LADWP Customers Won’t See A Big Snowmelt Dividend On Their Bills

/in /by /KPCC (Pasadena) by Sharon McNary

Although Los Angeles city water customers paid extra for costly imported water during the five-year drought, their water bills will drop very little now that the Department of Water and Power has a plentiful supply of its own, officials said. The DWP surplus does not translate into big savings for individual bill payers because water rates were restructured last year.  The new rates are intended to raise more money for water system improvements.”The money that would have gone to purchased water is now going to infrastructure investment,” said DWP spokeswoman Amanda Parsons.

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