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Obama Signs Water Bill; What Does It Mean For The Delta?

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Michael Doyle, Dale Kasler and Ryan Sabalow

President Barack Obama on Friday signed a massive infrastructure bill designed to control floods, fund dams and deliver more water to farmers in California’s drought-ravaged Central Valley. Obama signed the $12 billion bill in a distinctly low-key act. Controversial provisions that critics fear could harm fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta were wrapped inside a package stuffed with politically popular projects, ranging from Sacramento-area levees to clean-water aid for beleaguered Flint, Mich.

 

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U.S. and Mexico Push To Extend Accord On Colorado River

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Sandra Dibble Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

With the prospect of reduced Colorado River deliveries as early as 2018, U.S. and Mexican negotiators have been in a race against the clock to forge an agreement that involves sharing any future shortages — and are hoping for a signing before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20th. Water managers on both sides of the border say the accord will be crucial in spelling out how the United States and Mexico would take cuts when a shortage is declared on the river, a lifeline for some 40 million people in both countries.

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Obama Signs California’s Massive Water Bill, But Trump Will Determine Its Future

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Michael Doyle

President Barack Obama on Friday quietly signed and bequeathed to President-elect Donald Trump a massive infrastructure bill designed to control floods, fund dams and deliver more water to farmers in California’s Central Valley. While attempting to mollify critics’ concerns over potential harm to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Obama signed the $12 billion bill in a distinctly low-key act. The still-controversial California provisions were wrapped inside a package stuffed with politically popular projects, ranging from Sacramento-area levees to clean-water aid for beleaguered Flint, Michigan.

 

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Delayed Colorado River Deal Will Likely Fall To Trump Administration To Finish

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Ian James

Several months ago, managers of water agencies in California, Arizona and Nevada were expressing optimism they could finalize a deal to use less water from the dwindling Colorado River before the end of the Obama administration. Now that Jan. 20 deadline no longer seems achievable and parties to the talks acknowledge they likely won’t be able to finish an agreement until at least several months into President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.

 

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OPINION: California WaterFix Is The ‘Grand Compromise’ For The Delta

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Terry Erlewine

Public water agencies throughout California are looking to spend billions of dollars in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to address a fundamental physical reality: The existing water system in the southern Delta poses an intractable environmental problem. The only solution is to construct a new, sufficiently sized conveyance system to move water supplies. State and federal agencies have been working toward a solution for 10 years. Occasionally, one group or another has suggested dramatically constricting the water system by downsizing its capacity.

 

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OPINION: President Obama Should Veto This Harmful Water Bill

/in /by /The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa)

As feared, Sen. Dianne Feinstein has cut a deal with Congressional Republicans on legislation that will take much-needed water from Northern California’s fragile waterways — and its vulnerable fish — and hand it over to farmers and businesses in the Central Valley. To make matters worse, the deal was attached to a politically popular bill that sailed through the U.S. Senate early Saturday. The comprehensive measure, which gives the go-ahead to some 30 new infrastructure projects around the country, now heads for the Oval Office. But if President Barack Obama is willing to stand by his strong environmental convictions, he will veto it.

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Big Storm Hits California, Chopper Saves Homeless and Dogs

/in /by /The Associated Press as published by ABC Newsby John Antczak and Kristin J. Bender

A pre-winter storm drenched California with rain and dumped nearly three feet of snow to help bolster the vital Sierra Nevada snowpack but also triggered mud flows, street flooding and the dramatic rescue Friday of two homeless women and 10 dogs from a river island near Los Angeles. With thousands of acres of wildfire burn scars all over the state, authorities were warily monitoring barren slopes where parched earth soaked with rain can cause life-threatening mudslides.

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A $1-Billion Desalination Plant Might Be Coming To Huntington Beach, But It Will Test California’s Environmental Rules

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall Mentioned: Carlsbad Desalination Plant

Poseidon Water hopes to help quench Orange County’s thirst, but first the company’s proposed desalination project must slake a thirst of its own. That’s why Poseidon has long eyed a coastal power plant that has, for more than a half-century, sucked up seawater to cool its massive generators. The AES Huntington Beach Generating Station’s giant smokestacks and steam boilers will be gone in a few years, replaced under state orders by a smaller plant that uses air, rather than the ocean, to keep from overheating.

 

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Heavy rain is on its way, and that could mean dangerous mud flows in the Southern California foothills

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Joseph Serna

Powerful winds and rain will sweep across Southern California on Thursday, bringing the potential for dangerous mud flows in the foothills of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, the National Weather Service said.

Starting early Thursday in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, the storm will spread southeast across Los Angeles County and the San Gabriel Mountains, where it’s expected to drop 1 to 3 inches of rain by Friday morning, meteorologist Joe Sirard said.

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A tale of two droughts in California: Wetter in the north, still bone dry in the south

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Matt Stevens

When California water officials assess the drought, the first place they look is the northern Sierra Nevada mountains.

Rain and snowmelt from the area feed into a complex system of rivers, canals and reservoirs that send water across the state. And by almost all measures, the drought picture in Northern California has dramatically improved over the last two months, as a series of storms have helped replenish the state’s two major water projects. So far this season, rain levels in the northern Sierra are 180% of average, with 23.5 inches of rain falling — and more on the way this week.

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