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OPINION: The Drought Doesn’t Mean Your HOA Has To Look Like A Wasteland

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Donie Vanitzian

Our homeowner association near Santa Clarita has a problem that most of the other associations around us don’t seem to share. Our association board appears to go out of its way not to approve drought-resistant landscaping or makes it difficult for owners to pick out plants. Several dozen of our 500 or so homeowners have stopped watering because of the drought. Trees, shrubs and lawns are completely dead. Most of the dead grass has even disappeared and all that is left at many properties is just dirt.

 

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Residents Upset As Carlsbad Hikes Water Rates

/in /by /The Coast News Group (Encinitas)by Steve Puterski Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Residents spoke and sent letters en masse but to no effect as water rate increases were approved by the City Council on Tuesday. Mayor Matt Hall, though, stressed the action was unavoidable and the average 4.85 percent rate increases were limited as the Carlsbad Municipal Water District dipped into its reserve fund to ease the cost hike. City Finance Manager Aaron Beanan reported to the council the rate increase is due to a massive spike from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which hit customers with a 12.1 percent increase.

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Fall Snow, Rains Have ‘Satisfied The Drought Debt’ In Northern Sierra Nevada, Climatologist Says

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Joseph Serna

At Heavenly Ski Resort, thousands of feet up in the northern Sierra Nevada, the heavy snowfall around Lake Tahoe forced the lodge to close its small roller coaster due to poor visibility this week. In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, concerns over dry conditions were quickly dispatched when more than two feet of snow dropped around the lake in just two days. Now, if past weather patterns are fulfilled this year, experts say, Northern California’s winter — and long-term relief from years of drought — could be just around the corner for the state’s most important watershed.

 

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BLOG: What California Can Learn From Canada About Water Technology

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Tara Lohan

Californians hear a lot about the lessons they can learn from other areas that have coped with water scarcity, like Israel’s development of desalination or how Australia handled its Millennial Drought, which lasted more than a decade. But not all water issues come down to scarcity. And that’s why looking north to Canada could also provide some inspiration when it comes to technologies to treat water (and ways to save energy in the process), tools for finding and fixing leaks, faster processes for testing water and software for analyzing important water data.

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OPINION: A Grand Compromise For The Delta Outlined

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Ellen Hanak, Jeffrey Mount and Brian Gray

Conflict over water allocations from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the most intractable water management problem in California.The sources of contention are many, but three interrelated issues dominate the debate: whether to build two tunnels that divert water from the Sacramento River, how much water to allocate to endangered fish species, and what to do about the 1,100 miles of Delta levees that are essential to the local economy. All of these issues need to be addressed to reduce unproductive conflict and litigation and resolve our water problems.

 

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OMWD Completes Recycled Water Project

/in /by /The Coast News Group (Encinitas)by Aaron Burgin Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The Olivenhain Municipal Water District recently completed the installation of miles of recycled water pipelines in the Village Park community, and Flora Vista Elementary is the project’s first beneficiary. The project, which began last April, included the conversion of a million-gallon water storage tank near Via Cantebria from drinking water to recycled water and the completion of a pump station that propelled the water to newly installed purple pipelines throughout Village Park.

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OPINION: Cook: Orange County Water District Should Distance Itself from the Cadiz Water Project

/in /by /Voice of Orange Countyby Debbie Cook

I am opposed to the Orange County Water District entering into a non-binding water purchase agreement with Cadiz Inc. as it is yet another water scheme that is both economically and environmentally flawed. Even though the amount of water being proposed for purchase by OCWD is trivial, less than 1% of its demand, it would consume far more than 1% of staff time, and divert attention away from worthy projects like the Groundwater Replenishment System expansion. If you are not familiar with Cadiz, it is no surprise.

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SDCWA Approves Grant Application For Anza Baseline Groundwater Basin Study

/in /by /Anza Valley Outlook (Fallbrook)by Joe Naiman Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The November 2014 election included the passage of Proposition 1, whose allocations included $510 million to the state Department of Water Resources to support projects included in Integrated Regional Water Management programs approved by DWR. Proposition 1 also stipulated 12 IRWM funding areas which are based on hydrologic areas rather than county boundaries. The San Diego County Water Authority coordinates grant applications for the San Diego Funding Area which includes the Upper Santa Margarita Planning Region and the South Orange County Planning Region as well as the San Diego Planning Region.

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City and County Groundwater Sustainability Agencies End Jurisdiction Dispute

/in /by /Kern Golden Empire (Bakersfield)

A temporary truce has been called today in an ongoing dispute between Kern County, Bakersfield and the Kern Delta Water District. Six months ago, the city and KDWD announced that they were forming the Kern River Groundwater Sustainability Agency. Afterwards the county filed its own GSA application with the state in order to protect its policing and land use powers. California law says that if competing GSA organizations fail to resolve their differences, the state may come in and take over the use and management of ground water resources.

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World’s First City To Power Its Water Needs With Sewage Energy

/in /by /NewScientist by Kata Karáth

A city in Denmark is about to become the first in the world to provide most of its citizens with fresh water using only the energy created from household wastewater and sewage. The Marselisborg Wastewater Treatment Plant in Aarhus has undergone improvements that mean it can now generate more than 150 per cent of the electricity needed to run the plant, which means the surplus can be used to pump drinking water around the city.

 

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