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The release of a lengthy collection of environmental documents has the California WaterFix marching on, even as many continue to doubt the viability of Gov. Jerry Brown’s nearly $16 billion plan to reroute water deliveries to the Central Valley and Southern California. The road is far from over for the massive plan, but experts and stakeholders believe that the release of the Final Environmental Impact Report before the Christmas holiday set the stage for the project to move forward and for its opponents to continue fighting it in both courtrooms and the court of public opinion.

 

The U.S. imports vehicles, equipment, fresh produce and other goods from Mexico. That list may soon include water too, now that a San Diego County water district is looking south for help to diversify its supply. The Otay Water District serves a population of 220,000 people in southeastern San Diego County, in a service area spanning 125 square miles (201 square km), from the border city of Chula Vista to the unincorporated areas in Jamul. It currently buys potable water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) and the Helix Water District.

Drought-weary California is getting soaked this week. Most of the state is already having a wetter-than-normal rainy season, it’s been raining and snowing for the past couple of days, and on Saturday and Sunday an “atmospheric river” of precipitation is expected to arrive. That sounds like great news — California needs water, right? What it needs even more is snow, though, and that’s where this weekend may disappoint.

 

The Bureau of Reclamation is getting ahead of this weekend’s storm by incrementally releasing 3,500 cubic feet of water per second to 15,000 cubic feet per second below the Nimbus Dam to manage potential Sierra runoff. “The reservoir can come up quite quickly,” said Louis Moore, deputy of public affairs with the bureau. “So we’re making some adjustments today to increase our releases to accommodate that new water coming.” With this super soaker expected to drench Northern California, water levels will no doubt rise.

 

The American River water level will continue to rise Thursday as operators have begun increasing water releases through Nimbus Dam. First Nimbus Dam gate opened at 7:30 a.m. American River to steadily rise all day. By late afternoon, 15,000 c.f.s out of Nimbus. The first gate at the dam opened at 7:30 a.m., releasing 5,000 cubic feet per second of water downstream. “Been such a long time since the drought started. It’s a treat to see,” said Glen Lutz who came to watch the gates open. Throughout the day, the water releases were scheduled to increase steadily.