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Council Approves Drama-Less Committee Appointments

/in /by /The Coast News Group (Encinitas)by Aaron Burgin Mentioned: Mark Muir

For the second consecutive year, the City Council approved its appointments to various boards and committees with little fanfare. Mayor Catherine Blakespear will represent Encinitas on the board of directors for the powerful San Diego Association of Governments. Better known as SANDAG, the county’s transportation and metropolitan planning agency oversees regional pedestrian, motor vehicle and transportation projects and has the authority to propose tax increases to support those efforts.

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Lawsuit Seeks Records Of UC Legal Opinion On Expansion Of State Energy Grid

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Jeff McDonald

A water and power district east of San Diego is suing the University of California over records related to a legal opinion that supports Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to expand the state power grid across the western United States. The lawsuit, filed last week in Alameda County, said university officials refused to turn over documents that three law professors relied on to produce the study. The opinion was commissioned in March by the California Independent System Operator, or CAISO, the government nonprofit that manages most of the the grid.

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OPINION: Many Questions Linger in Water Tunnel Project

/in /by /Los Angeles Times

After many alternatives, iterations and tweaks, final environmental documents are to be made public Wednesday for a water re-routing project that has come to be known as the California WaterFix. Don’t expect the documents to mollify critics or to answer every question about environmental and financial costs, however — or to lessen the tension among the many interests that have a stake in the West’s shrinking supply of water.

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Folsom Dam Opens Floodgates

/in /by /The Folsom Telegraph by Rachel Zirin

Folsom Lake is filling up, which means the floodgates must open. On Thursday, Dec. 16, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released 35,000 acre-feet of water between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. According to Louis Moore, deputy public affair officer, starting at 9 a.m. they released 15,000 acre feet and every hour after released an additional 5,000 Acre feet until 1 p.m. Throughout the rainy season, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will be lifting the floodgates periodically to keep up with capacity, what will be coming into the lake and how much will need to be release to flow down the river to the delta.

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BLOG: Agriculture’s Clear Response To California: ‘Stop Taking Our Water’

/in /by /Western Farm Press (New York)by Todd Fitchette

Watching the live, online feed of the public hearing related to California’s proposal to take two major rivers by forcing water from them to flow unimpeded to the ocean says one thing to me: this is going to be a different fight for government officials who enjoy the view from their thrones.

 

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Free Sandbags Available For San Diego County Residents

/in /by /San Diego Patchby Kristina Houck

With two winter storms set to hit the region this week, San Diego County officials reminded residents of unincorporated areas Wednesday that they can pick up free sandbags to help protect their homes, neighborhoods and streets from flooding and erosion. “The region is still suffering through record levels of drought this year,” county officials said in a statement. “Because of that, rains could trigger erosion and even debris flow, especially in areas that aren’t covered by lawns, trees, shrubs and plants.”

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BLOG: Talking About The Future Of California’s Water In The Face Of Climate Change

/in /by /Water Deeply (As Published by KQED (San Francisco)by Tara Lohan

In less than a month, the United States will be led by a president who denies climate change exists. President-elect Donald Trump has also said he wants to see the U.S. withdraw from the Paris Agreement and wants to roll back environmental regulations. In California, a state that has already seen the impacts of climate change and has been a leader when it comes to efforts to slow its pace and mitigate its results, many are wondering what the new direction on the federal level will mean for the state.

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US Water Projects Aimed At Easing Drought To Get $225M

/in /by /The Business Journal (Fresno)by Susan Montoya Bryan

The federal government will spend nearly a quarter-billion dollars to finance several dozen projects aimed at easing the effects of drought in the western U.S. and restoring watersheds that provide drinking water to communities around the nation, officials announced Wednesday. The $225 million in funding will be shared among 88 projects, from California’s Central Valley to centuries-old irrigation systems in northern New Mexico and thousands of square miles of fragmented streams in Maine. More than half of the projects specifically address drought and water quality.

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Rain Totals Were 400% Of Normal In Parts Of Northern California This Fall

/in /by /SFGate (San Francicsco)by Bill Disbrow

A wet start to the rainy season means much of the Bay Area enters winter with well above average rainfall. The National Weather Service released maps on Thursday showing the majority of the Bay Area at over 110 percent of normal for this time of year. Much of Santa Clara and Contra Costa counties have seen over 150 percent of normal, with dotted areas in the state seeing as much as 400 percent of the typical rainfall by December 20th.

 

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State Water Project Customers Will Get Bigger Allocation Due To Winter’s Wet Start

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

California officials, acknowledging the wet start to winter, on Wednesday more than doubled the expected allocation of water from the State Water Project. The Department of Water Resources said customers can expect to receive 45 percent of what they’ve requested in 2017. That compared with the initial allocation of 20 percent a few weeks ago. The allocation generally grows as the winter progresses and rains fall. Last year the allocation grew from 10 percent at the start of the winter to 60 percent as reservoirs filled up.

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