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OPINION: Marc Joffe: State Should Piggyback Off Federal Efforts To Ease Water Woes

/in /by /Monterey Hearldby Marc Joffe

Over the objections of California Sen. Barbara Boxer, this month the U.S. Senate passed a new water infrastructure bill that will open the tap of federal money for projects that increase California’s water supply. It’s a good start, but it won’t be enough to solve the Golden State’s water woes. Critics have focused on the bill’s impact on Northern California salmon, the Delta smelt and other endangered species fisheries — impacts that the bill’s supporters strongly reject.

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Mountain Snowpack Low, But It’s Early, California Water Officials Say

/in /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)by Suzanne Hurt

The Sierra Nevada snowpack remains almost 30 percent below average for this time of year despite a boost from the weekend storm, state water officials reported Tuesday, as agencies begin snow surveys by hand throughout the mountain range. Electronic measurements show the snowpack’s statewide water content at 10.5 inches, which is 72 percent of normal for Tuesday. Staff at the California Department of Water Resources and other state, federal or private agencies will snowshoe or walk to about 20 key monitoring stations throughout the Sierra over a 10-day period starting this week for the first manual snow survey of the 2016-17 winter.

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Still Time To Tap Rain Barrel Rebates

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Phil Diehl Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

In San Diego County, there’s still time to buy water-conserving rain barrels without getting soaked. A $75 rebate on rain barrels, offered by the San Diego County Water Authority and Solana Center for Environmental Innovation, drops to $35 on Jan.1. The barrels are made of heavy duty recycled plastic, hold 50 gallons, have a lid with a screen at the top, and a spigot at the bottom. They sell for $90 each before the rebate, discounted from $149.

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Water Levels Rise at Lake Elsinore After Years Of Drying Up

/in /by /ABC Newsby Rob McMillan

Thanks to a series of rain storms, water is once again flowing from a dam into Lake Elsinore after years of drying up.
Peggy Cockerill made her morning walk around the lake and noticed something she’d never seen before – the flow of water back into Lake Elsinore. “I’m hoping it’s coming back,” she said. “I have been visiting my daughter here for over three years and this is the first time I’ve seen water.” It’s the first time water has flowed into the lake since 2011.

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Series Of Earthquakes Hits Near California-Nevada Border

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Brian De Los Santos

A series of moderate earthquakes rocked the California-Nevada border Wednesday, shaking residents in both states but producing no reports of major damage or injury. The first temblor, with a magnitude of 5.7, occurred at 12:22 a.m. near Hawthorne, Nev. It was followed by a second 5.7 quake and then more than 100 aftershocks. Light shaking was felt as far away as South Lake Tahoe, Fresno, Visalia and Merced.

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Statewide Water Savings Exceed 19 Percent In October While Most Of State Still Experiencing Drought Conditions

/in /by /Valley News (Fallbrook)

The State Water Resources Control Board recently announced that urban Californians’ monthly water conservation was 19.5 percent in October, up from 18.3 percent in September and a bit below the 22.3 percent savings in October 2015, when state-mandated conservation targets were in place. The State Water Board stressed the need for continued conservation despite early rains in Northern California. The cumulative statewide savings from June 2015 through October 2016 was 22.8 percent, compared with the same months in 2013.  Since June 2015, 2.26 million acre-feet of water has been saved — enough water to supply more than 11 million people, or more than one-quarter the state’s 38 million population, for a year.

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BLOG: Humans Are Missing In Delta Restoration Plan

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Matt Weiser

The largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas lies at California’s heart. It’s a place of constant change, affected by daily tides, sea-level rise, water diversions that serve 25 million residents and a growing population closing in around it. Yet most of those people have no idea the Delta is the subject of one of the largest habitat restoration projects ever proposed in the U.S. Known as Eco Restore, it is a companion to another proposal called California WaterFix, which calls for reforming water diversions by building two giant tunnels.

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In The U.S. Senate, Boxer Is Out And Harris Is In – So What’s That Mean For The Valley?

/in /by /Merced Sun-Starby John Ellis

Sen. Barbara Boxer was almost out the door of the U.S. Senate a few weeks ago when she broke ranks with Dianne Feinstein, her fellow Democrat and Capitol Hill colleague, on a massive water-projects bill that included key provisions for California. Boxer echoed environmental groups and backed Bay Area interests in opposing the bill, calling it a “last-minute backroom deal” that would destroy the Endangered Species Act and benefit “big agribusiness.” She lost the battle.

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OPINION: What State Water Board Is Doing Wrong

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Aubrey Bettencourt

After years of working on water, environment and agriculture issues in California, it remains a mystery to me why the appointed State Water Resources Control Board and several other environmental boards and commissions so often don’t understand the pushback from ordinary Californians on their regulatory agenda. The latest example is occurring during the public comment period on the plan to vastly increase unimpaired water flows from eastern and southern tributaries into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

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OPINION: Putting Another Busy Year To Bed

/in /by /The Bakersfield Californianby Lois Henry

Amazing as it is, we’ve all made it through another year. Time to take stock of 2016. Or, as I like to put it, “Where the heck did those 12 months go?” Twenty-sixteen started off with a bang, so to speak, for me. I was solicited for prostitution after dropping my car at the repair shop early one Monday morning in the very first week of the year. I suppose you could look at that like, “Things can only improve from here!”

 

 

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