California farmers and Southern California cities were aghast last winter when much of the heavy rainfall that fell in Northern California washed through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and out to sea. In their view, it represented a lost opportunity to capture high river flows and pump water to arid regions south of the Delta.
Few people expected a California water fight in the final days of a lame-duck Congress, and fewer still expected landmark water legislation to pit the state’s U.S. senators against each other in the last moments of their 24-year partnership. It took years of negotiations, and the right political timing, to bring the first major water policy affecting California in decades through the House and Senate. Over frayed feelings and filibuster threats, both chambers overwhelmingly passed the bill, which changes how much water is pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to San Joaquin Valley farmers and Southern California.
The Helix Water District said goodbye last week to two members who collectively served a total of 28 years on the governing board.
Chuck Muse, in Division 3, and John Linden, in Division 1, were defeated in the November election for three open seats. Incumbent Joel Scalzitti ran unopposed for his seat in Division 5.
Mark Gracyk beat out Muse, 83, who was elected to the board in 2004. Luis Tejeda beat out Linden, 82, who was elected in 2000. Helix district General Manager Carlos Lugo thanked the longtime directors their leadership at the Dec. 7 meeting.
After the recent rainy weather, several reservoirs are seeing increased water levels. Folsom Lake has increased by nearly 10 feet since Saturday.
October was wet, November dry. And December? The soft but steady rains this weekend were enough to push the Sacramento region to 155 percent of normal precipitation for the season. And there’s more to come. After a break between storms, wet weather is expected to return Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. The wet system should linger over the region through Thursday, dropping two to three inches of rain in Sacramento and five to eight inches of rain and snow in the Sierra.
The Senate yesterday passed the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act. This $12 billion bill reauthorizes the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act and funds a wide range of programs addressing the county’s water and wastewater infrastructure, ports and inland waterways, flood protection, ecosystem restoration and drought resiliency. The bill also authorizes $170 million to address the drinking water crisis in Flint, Mich.
It’s all about water. At least this column will be. If you haven’t read the big, giant water bill that had Sen. Barbara Boxer’s panties in a big, giant twist, I encourage you to give it a skim. That bill has everything in it. Sure, it has provisions that will authorize some operational changes in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The report’s findings were unequivocal: Given the current pace of water diversions, the San Francisco Bay and the Delta network of rivers and marshes are ecological goners, with many of its native fish species now experiencing a “sixth extinction,” environmental science’s most-dire definition of ecosystem collapse. Once a vast, soaked marsh and channel fed by the gushing Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, the Delta has diminished dramatically over the previous century as those rivers and their mountain tributaries have been diverted to irrigate Central Valley farms and Bay Area urbanity.
It was a rainy Saturday in Northern California. The Valley has had less than a half-inch of rain, but the foothills have seen between 2 and 5 inches of rain. Below are places that were slammed by Saturday’s wet weather. Grass Valley police said Wolf Creek crested early Saturday morning. It led to flooding on areas like Mill Street.
The California water bill now ready for the president’s signature dramatically shifts 25 years of federal policy and culminates a long and fractious campaign born in the drought-stricken San Joaquin Valley. A rough five years in the making, the $558 million bill approved by the Senate early Saturday morning steers more water to farmers, eases dam construction, and funds desalination and recycling projects. Its rocky road to the White House also proved a costly master class in political persistence and adroit maneuvering.
