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OPINION: IRS Should Stop Taxing Water Conservation Rebates

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Bob Baker and Art Levine

Today, along with more than 100 other elected and municipal water leaders, we are asking the White House to support local efforts to promote water-use efficiency, reuse and green infrastructure solutions in our communities.As cities and towns across the West have risen to the challenge of conserving water in the face of historic drought, consumer rebate programs have grown significantly and have been imperative to our success. However, these rebates may be considered taxable income by the Internal Revenue Service, a clear financial disincentive and one that could seriously undermine conservation efforts.

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Desalination of Seawater—Much Needed Help Worldwide

/in /by /Canada Free Pressby Jack Dini Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The world is on the verge of a water crisis. Rainfall shifts caused by climate change plus the escalating water demands of a growing world population threaten society’s ability to meet its mounting needs. By 2025, the United Nations predicts 2.4 billion people will live in regions of intense water scarcity, which may force as many as 700 million people from their homes in search of water by 2030, reports Thomas Sumner. (1) Population growth is one factor requiring drinking water and sanitation, but there is also the need to produce more food. Agriculture accounts for 70% of water use. (2)

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FPUD Chooses Raftelis For Rate Study And Long-Term Financial Plan

/in /by /The Fallbrook/Bonsall Village Newsby Joe Naiman Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Raftelis Financial Consultants, Inc., has been chosen to assist the Fallbrook Public Utility District with the development of a rate study and a ten-year financial plan. FPUD’s board voted 5-0 September 26 to authorize a contract for up to $106,162 with Raftelis, which is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and has offices in Los Angeles and Murrieta.  The FPUD action also authorized an additional $30,000 for short-term staffing support if necessary. “We expect by the end of the year, November/December, the initial results will go back to the board,” said FPUD general manager Brian Brady.

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OPINION: California Twin Tunnels Plan Should Raise Concerns for San Diego Ratepayers (By Mark Muir)

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Mark Muir Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

When you visit your local coffee shop and hand over $5, the barista gives you the drink you paid for. If you only got coffee half the time you paid, or you got saddled with bills for other customers, you would quickly find another café. The same approach must now be applied to a complex challenge with statewide implications — the water reliability and environmental issues in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta.

 

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California Designs First Statewide Water Affordability Program

/in /by /Circle of Blue (Traverse City, Mich.)by Brett Walton

Prompted by a 2015 state law, the State Water Resources Control Board has begun designing a program to provide state aid to individuals and families who need help paying their water bills. Due to the Legislature by February 1, 2018, California is determined to be the first to use state funds to subsidize water service for poor residents, water rate experts say.

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Brown Administration Applies for Permit To Take Endangered Species In Delta Tunnels

/in /by /YubaNet.com (Nevada City)by Dan Bacher

Governor Jerry Brown and other state officials have constantly claimed the Delta Tunnels project will “restore” the Delta ecosystem, but they revealed their real plans on October 7 when the administration applied for a permit to kill winter-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt and other endangered species with the project. The California Department of Water Resources (DWR)  submitted an “incidental intake” application for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) in alleged “compliance” with the California Endangered Species Act (CESA) in order to build the Delta Tunnels, also known as the California WaterFix.

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8 Things Southern Californians Should Know About The Controversial Delta Tunnels Project

/in /by /89.3 KPCC (Pasadena)by Emily Guerin

It’s called the California WaterFix. The project, formerly known as the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, would build two massive tunnels beneath the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, replacing the northern portion of the State Water Project, a 600-mile-long system of tunnels, reservoirs and canals that moves water from Northern to Southern California. The tunnel proposal has been in the works for years, and similar ideas have been kicked around for decades.

 

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Submeters: A New Incentive for California Tenants to Save Water

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Matt Weiser

If you live in an apartment in California, you don’t pay for the water you use – not directly, anyway.

Apartments in California, with few exceptions, don’t have individual water meters, known as submeters. Instead, water usage is wrapped up in the rent payment, which means tenants have no idea how much water they’re using, and no direct financial incentive to conserve.This also means millions of Californians aren’t helping the state survive its ongoing drought. 

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How Will The Lurking La Niña Affect Our Winter?

/in /by /USA Todayby Doyle Rice

Look out weather watchers: La Niña is lurking. And that could mean a warm and dry winter for the USA’s southern tier and a potentially cooler, stormier one across the north, federal scientists announced Thursday morning. The La Niña climate pattern — marked by cooler-than-average ocean water in the central Pacific Ocean — is one of the main drivers of weather in the U.S. and around the world, especially during the late fall, winter and early spring.

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Farmers Were Paid $32M To Pump And Not Farm. Was It A Waste Of Money?

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Ryan Sabalow

In a move that could have ramifications across the arid West, a government watchdog agency accused federal water regulators of wasting taxpayer funds when they gave Klamath Basin farmers more than $32 million to stop growing crops and to pump groundwater instead of drawing from lakes and rivers.The funds were spent in a failed bid to protect endangered fish and wildlife near the California-Oregon border, the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of the Interior said in a report this week.

 

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