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OPINION: Lois Henry: Groundwater Repayment Coming Due Early For Some Valley Farmers

/in /by /The Bakersfield Californianby Lois Henry

Fixing our groundwater deficit will be painful. No way around it. And growers in the massive Semitropic Water Storage District are learning that sooner than most.Though the state has set a series of short- and long-term deadlines to restore the depleted water table, Semitropic is so far in the hole it got special legislation passed in September allowing it to ramp up its own timeline — and landowner fees. It’s holding a vote on Wednesday to slap a $500-per-acre surcharge on any “new” ground developed for farming and is proposing to use satellite imagery to determine exact water consumption by crop.

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Are Floating Solar Panels Energy’s New Frontier?

/in /by /KQED News by David Gorn Quoted: Kelly Rodgers

When you’re trying to generate a lot more solar power, you’re limited by the size and heft of those big solar panels. Where can you put them? The answer so far has been the desert, or on rooftops. There have even been efforts to put panels on top of landfill sites. Solar entrepreneur Troy Helming of the San Francisco-based solar company Pristine Sun has a new idea: floating on water.

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OPINION: The Value Of Water Independence

/in /by /The Orange County Register by Carolyn Cavecche Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Twenty years ago, the elected officials who served on the boards of the Orange County Sanitation District and Orange County Water District had a visionary idea to recycle treated wastewater to drinking water standards and percolate that water into our underground aquifer where it could eventually be used again for drinking water. The project — which would be known as the Groundwater Replenishment System — was not without opposition, much of it surrounding the cost of the project and the water it would produce.

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Court Wary of Earlier Water Authority Win

/in /by /Voice of San Diegoby Ry Rivard Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

On Wednesday, a state appeals court expressed skepticism about a San Diego County Water Authority’s court victory over the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. At stake is up to $7.4 billion in San Diego ratepayer money. The Water Authority’s earlier victory is “in jeopardy,” according to the Daily Journal. Last year, a San Francisco judge handed the Water Authority a major win by ruling that Metropolitan, which supplies most of San Diego’s water, had been overcharging the Water Authority to deliver some water from the Colorado River. The two water agencies are locked in a series of expensive and high-stakes legal and political battles.

Delta Levees Still At Risk From Water-Heavy Snowpack

/in /by /The Delta Confluence

While the levees in the Delta are currently holding, heavy rains accompanied by increased temperatures in the spring and early summer could cause further damage. Over the winter, there were numerous levee breaks and breaches throughout the system. This year’s record-breaking precipitation levels have caused millions of dollars in damages in the lower basins of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley and Delta.

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State Officials Get Slammed For The Oroville Dam Spillway Failure At Sacramento Hearing

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ralph Vartabedian

The California Department of Water Resources came under blistering criticism at a hearing Thursday in the Legislature for its management of the Oroville Dam, three months after nearby residents were evacuated out of concerns about possible flooding. State dam officials reminded the critics that no one had died and that people’s property had been protected even as water that was released during a historic storm in February virtually washed away the dam’s 3,000-foot spillway.

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Water Authority’s $233M Award In Jeopardy After Appellate Panel Hearing

/in /by /The Daily Transcriptby Kevin Lee Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

A landmark $233 million judgment won by the San Diego County Water Authority in a water fee dispute is in jeopardy following oral argument Wednesday before the 1st District Court of Appeal. Two 1st District justices of the three-member panel appeared reluctant to agree with San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Curtis E.A. Karnow’s rulings in favor of the local water authority, with one justice openly wondering how to apply the superior court’s decision.

Bipartisan Group Of Senators Seek $100 Million For Levee Repairs Following The Failure Of Oroville Dam Spillway

/in /by /Carmichael Times

On behalf of their constituents whose lives and properties are continuously impacted by potential flooding, Senators Jim Nielsen (R-Tehama), Cathleen Galgiani (D-Stockton), Bill Dodd (D-Napa) and Dr. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) requested $100 million for critical and serious levee repairs in the state budget. Following is an excerpt from their letter to Senator Bob Wieckowski, Chairman of the Senate Budget SubCommittee No.2: “The significant amount of rainfall received this year and the severe damage to the Oroville Dam spillways have caused substantial damage to flood control structures that need to be addressed as soon as possible.”

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Metropolitan Water GM Defends Agency From Accusations

/in /by /Times-Advocate (Escondido) by David Ross Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The first part of this article, about the current water situation in the state, will run this week. Part II will talk about the Metropolitan Water District’s general manager, Jeffrey Kightlinger, defending his agency from accusations made by one of its member agencies, the San Diego County Water Authority. Although this article was written for our sister publication, the Valley Roadrunner, we felt that the regional issues are of enough pertinence to Escondido to reprint the article in this publication.

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OPINION: San Diego Will Drink Water Recycled From Sewage. Cheers.

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune

The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board used to be among the skeptics who maligned “toilet to tap” — the purification of sewage for regular water uses — and questioned a proposal by local officials on health and cost grounds. Then six years ago we changed our minds with an editorial headlined, “The yuck factor: Get over it.” The science is clear that such water is safe. And history is clear that California is deeply vulnerable to droughts, and that the San Diego region must diversify supplies, given the capricious history of its main water supplier, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

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