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Storm swooping in to dump 2 to 5 inches of rain on Bay Area

/in /by /SFGate (San Francisco)by Evan Sernoffsky

One of the strongest rainstorms of the season is set to gush over the Bay Area on Thursday just as unusually high tides and blustery winds hit, making for what forecasters expect to be a day of mayhem.

City work crews were gearing up for the super soaker that’s forecast to dump up to 2 inches throughout the day in San Francisco and in the East Bay, and twice that amount in parts of the North and South Bay. Commuters all over the Bay Area should expect hellish driving conditions during the morning and afternoon, when the most intense rain sweeps through.

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King tides expected to have more impact as sea levels rise

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicleby John King

As she stood at the edge of the Embarcadero on Tuesday, the bay waters surging high but rarely spilling toward her feet, Lori Lambertson stated the obvious.

“Tides are real tricky,” said Lambertson, a staff teacher at the Exploratorium science museum. She was explaining the phenomenon known as king tides, when the oceans’ water levels reach higher than at any other time of the year and offer a taste of how sea level rise might alter our shoreline. There was only one problem, so to speak: The tides weren’t putting on much of a show.

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California’s Lake Davis to refill, 20 years after pike disaster started

/in /by /Associated Press (As Published by The San Jose Mercury News)

Water regulators plan to allow a lake in Northern California to fill to the brim this winter for the first time since using chemicals to kill off non-native fish.

The Sacramento Bee reports (http://bit.ly/2hli5sQ ) that the Department of Water Resources lowered Lake Davis in the 1990s to prevent storms from washing predatory northern pike into the waterways below the dam, where they could kill native fish.

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Storms could see Northern California river surging up to 24 feet

/in /by /SFGate (San Francisco)by Amy Graff

As what’s expected to be the biggest storm of the season batters Northern California on Thursday, rivers throughout the region are expected to swell.

Creeks and streams in the Bay Area will likely rise only a few feet and won’t come close to flooding, but some flows on the North Coast and in the Sierra Nevada are predicted to reach moderate flood stage. As of Wednesday afternoon, the California-Nevada River Forecast Center predicted the Sacramento River at Fort Ord and the Truckee River in the town of Truckee may reach flood stage in the next 48 hours.

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Lake Tahoe filling up, what does that mean for Calif. drought?

/in /by /SFGate (San Francisco)by Amy Graff

The Sierra Nevada is getting soaked this year, and Lake Tahoe is one of the biggest beneficiaries.

The sixth-largest lake in the United States, which straddles California and Nevada, reached its natural rim after weekend storms dumped 12.5 billion gallons of water into the lake. A trickle is now flowing through the dam and into the Truckee River. This is a huge milestone for a body of water that has flirted with record-low levels amid an ongoing drought.

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Carlsbad desalination plant produces 15 billion gallons of fresh water in first year

/in /by /San Francisco Examinerby Nuala Sawyer Quoted: Mark Muir

A mere year after opening, the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant is seeing enormous success in its efforts to provide water for California in the midst of the state’s multi-year drought.

Opened on Dec. 14 2015, the Carlsbad plant uses the most technologically advanced seawater desalination equipment of any plant in the nation. Pulling water from the Pacific Ocean, it met around 10 percent of San Diego County’s water demands in its first year, producing more than 15 billion gallons of fresh water.

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Year of Living Desalinated: Carlsbad Water Plant Hails Anniversary

/in /by /Times of San Diegoby Ken Stone Quoted: Mark Muir

The nation’s largest and most technologically advanced seawater desalination plant celebrated its first anniversary Wednesday in the North County. In its first year of operations, the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant produced enough high-quality water from the Pacific Ocean to meet approximately 10 percent of the region’s demand, according to officials. The plant has relieved pressure on imported water supplies, reduced state mandates for emergency conservation measures and helped the region pass the state’s stringent water supply stress test.

 

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Carlsbad Desalination Plant Produces 15 Billion Gallons Of Fresh Water In First Year

/in /by /San Francisco Examinerby Nuala Sawyer Quoted: Mark Muir

A mere year after opening, the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant is seeing enormous success in its efforts to provide water for California in the midst of the state’s multi-year drought. Opened on Dec. 14 2015, the Carlsbad plant uses the most technologically advanced seawater desalination equipment of any plant in the nation. Pulling water from the Pacific Ocean, it met around 10 percent of San Diego County’s water demands in its first year, producing more than 15 billion gallons of fresh water.

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MWD Approves Perris II Desalter Subsidy

/in /by /Valley News (Fallbrook)by Joe Naiman

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California approved a Local Resources Program agreement with the Eastern Municipal Water District for the Perris II Brackish Groundwater Desalter which will provide EMWD with a subsidy of $305 per acre-foot. The MWD board action Nov. 8 will provide EMWD with the $305 per acre-foot subsidy for up to 5,500 acre-feet annually over a period of 25 years. If the maximum amount of groundwater is recovered for beneficial use MWD would subsidize $41.9 million for the 137,500 acre-feet.

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OPINION: Big ground water find not a Christmas gift after all

/in /by /Napa Valley Registerby Thomas D. Elias

There was big, very big, ground water news for California in 2016, but almost no one paid attention because it came in the midst of the most heated presidential campaign in modern memory. For those who did notice, it seemed almost like Christmas came early, at midyear.

The news was this: A Stanford University study found huge and previously unknown supplies of ground water far beneath the surface of the ever-thirsty Central Valley. At a minimum, the newfound water supply amounts to twice the amount pumped from Central Valley aquifers since California was settled, or about 270 million acre-feet (one acre foot is the amount of water needed to cover an acre of land, weighing about 10 tons).

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