Parts of the Bay Area are still drying out from last week’s big soaker. The numbers are in and it turns out area reservoirs got a nice boost from all that rain. One of the larger reservoirs in the Santa Clara valley, Lexington, in the mountains above Los Gatos is now at just over 40 percent of capacity. That’s a roughly 5 percent increase over a week ago. It represents a good start for the year.
Flint, Michigan, has shone a spotlight on the decrepit state and lack of investment in the U.S.’s water infrastructure, but the city isn’t alone in facing these challenges. A new policy brief from the Brookings Institute breaks down how cities with large drinking water utilities are financing their water systems, and what challenges they’re facing. The new research finds a significant mismatch between the need for investment and the resources available.
Saving the Delta requires sacrifice by all, not just residents of this region. I hope someone drilled that idea into the State Water Resources Control Board. The board, whose Sisyphean job is to ensure California’s water is used fairly, brought its road show to Stockton last Friday for a public hearing on its dubious Water Quality Control Plan.To save dying fisheries, and to make the Delta healthier, the board proposes to bump up flows on three rivers that feed the San Joaquin River: the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced.
With the stroke of a pen Friday President Barack Obama solidified $415 million in federal funding for projects in and around Lake Tahoe, along with providing funding for drought relief in California and other water projects. In signing the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act Friday, Obama did not mention Lake Tahoe in his statement. Rather, the president mentioned the complexity of the drought provisions, which had threatened to derail the overall bill.
Flint, Michigan, has shone a spotlight on the decrepit state and lack of investment in the U.S.’s water infrastructure, but the city isn’t alone in facing these challenges. A new policy brief from the Brookings Institute breaks down how cities with large drinking water utilities are financing their water systems, and what challenges they’re facing. The new research finds a significant mismatch between the need for investment and the resources available.
President Barack Obama recently signed the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act. This historic legislation, which included elements from the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), will authorize California drought relief, provide aid to address lead contaminated drinking water, and will provide over $10 billion in flood control, navigation, beach re-nourishment, and environmental restoration projects. The WIIN Act will deliver critical support to Orange County Water District’s (OCWD; the District) efforts to safeguard the region’s limited water supplies and to develop sustainable and innovative solutions to mitigate the drought’s impacts to north and central Orange County.
A pre-Christmas storm with rain, wind and mountain snow will affect much of the western United States. While the storm will bring another dose of drought-denting rain and dump more snow onto the ski slopes, it has the potential to cause major travel disruptions. Enough rain can fall on the urban areas of California to cause sporadic flash flooding. Motorists should allow extra time to travel and reduce their speed on area highways and city streets. Airline delays are likely at the major hubs. Drenching rain will first arrive in southern Oregon and northern California early on Friday morning.
NRDC submitted comments this week on California’s draft plan for implementing Governor Brown’s executive order to make “water conservation a California way of life.” The plan aims to push our cities and farms to more efficiently use our state’s precious and limited water resources. We joined a coalition with 10 other NGO partners to submit comments on the agricultural components of the plan.
Many years ago, leaders in our region came together to figure out how to ensure a reliable water supply for the future. They recognized not just the importance of water to our quality of life, but how essential it is for a healthy economy. We were in a vulnerable position, and we knew it. The region relied on imported water for 95 percent of its supply. Carlsbad was 100 percent dependent on imported water.
Merced elected officials and community members alike gave the State Water Resources Control Board a tongue lashing Monday during a public hearing on the board’s Bay-Delta Plan. Officials called the state board members “the grim reaper,” “the assassin squad” and “domestic terrorists” for their proposal to send 40 percent of Merced River’s water into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to boost salmon populations, which critics have characterized as a “water grab.” “Water is life in this region, and you appear to have no other purpose than to take that life away,” Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, said.
