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Water Contractors Sue Federal Government For $350 Million

/in /by /KBAK (Bakersfield)

Seventeen California water districts have filed a lawsuit for $350 million against the federal government for not delivering water to contractors in the drought year of 2014. The Fresno Bee reports that the districts in the San Joaquin Valley and the city of Fresno filed the suit Wednesday in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C. Attorney Craig Parton, who is representing the contractors, says the claim seeks to recover the fair market value of Friant Division water not delivered to the contractors even though there were sufficient supplies in Millerton Lake that year.

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Nottoli remains critical of Delta tunnels proposal

/in /by /The Galt Heraldby Lance Armstrong

Sacramento County Supervisor Don Nottoli last week expressed his ongoing opposition to the controversial California WaterFix – aka “Delta tunnels” or “twin tunnels.”

The Gov. Jerry Brown-supported project calls for the construction of a pair of 35-mile-long, 40-foot-wide tunnels 150 feet beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for the purpose of rerouting Sacramento River water to parts of Central and Southern California.

 

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Do environmentalists really want to destroy Valley farms? No

/in /by /The Modesto Beeby Gary Bobker

I was surprised to read in the op-ed by Lance Johnson (“Learn from history; fight to hold onto your water,” Oct. 2, Page 1D) that he learned from me and other conservationists that our secret agenda was to bring an end to Central Valley agriculture.

That’s simply untrue.

I’ve never heard anyone in the environmental or fishing communities express that desire. Like everyone, I enjoy the products of Central Valley agriculture – the tomatoes, pistachios, lettuce and many other crops, increasingly grown with highly efficient drip irrigation. California’s Central Valley will continue to thrive and be our nation’s breadbasket, as it should.

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San Diego Researcher Discovers New ‘Potentially Significant’ Earthquake Fault

/in /by /KPBSby Susan Murphy

Southern California is an epicenter for earthquakes, with an estimated 10,000 small temblors hitting the region every year. Now, there’s a discovery of a new, potentially significant fault line located 120 miles east of San Diego. It runs parallel to the notorious San Andreas fault, said Neal Driscoll, professor of geology and geophysics at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

 

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Weaker water conservation numbers prompt fears that California is going back to its old bad habits

/in /by /The Los Angeles Timesby Matt Stevens

Californians’ water conservation slipped for the third consecutive month in August, prompting new alarm from regulators about whether relaxed water restrictions may be causing residents to revert to old habits as the state enters its sixth year of severe drought.

The trend raises new questions about Californians’ willingness to continue austere conservation after spending the last two years dramatically reducing their water use by ripping out lawns, installing water-sipping appliances and shortening their showers.

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The Southwest Will Probably Suffer a Crippling Megadrought This Century

/in /by /Popular Mechanics (New York)by William Herkewitz

People living in the American Southwest have seen their share of drought. But the West’s recent water woes may pale in comparison to what’s coming later in the century, researchers say. The Southwest may very well face a decades-long megadrought before the 21st century is out.

A team climate scientists led by Toby Ault, an atmospheric researcher at Cornell University, has just calculated the risk of a Southwestern megadrought occurring by 2100. By “megadrought” they mean an extreme, bone-dry period that can last for more than 35 years.

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BLOG: Legislative Update: Six New California Laws Impacting Water

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

The end of September meant both the end of the 2016 water year and a deadline for signing new legislation. In the past few weeks California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bevy of new bills into law, many of them addressing drought or water issues in the state. Some affect water indirectly. Senate Bill (SB) 859, which establishes a Healthy Soils Program, is written to help build quality agricultural soil to increase carbon sequestration, but healthy soils also help retain more water. SB 1414 aims to help increase energy efficiency, which can also help save water.

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Water Creates the Connection Between Farms and Our Families

/in /by /Merced-Sun Starby Leonard Van Elderen

Maybe it was a tomato, head of lettuce or a chunk of cheddar. Chances are, the Central Valley farmers our firm has financed through loans or lines of credit have grown something that has reached your dinner table. We have a farm-to-fork connection. Today, the challenging part of that connection is water. Rural and urban California have done a great job following state directives to lower rural and residential water use during the historic five-year drought. The actual savings varies throughout California, from 100 to 200 gallons per person each day around the home. That’s a very significant savings.

 

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New Report Finds Water Recycling Regulations Feasible For Direct Potable Reuse

/in /by /Orange County Breeze

On September 8, the California State Water Resource Control Board released its draft report concluding that it is feasible to develop uniform water recycling criteria for direct potable reuse in California. Orange County Coastkeeper and California Coastkeeper Alliance are pleased to see this economic and environmentally preferred method to securing California’s future water sources moving forward. In California, recycled water is already used for non-potable purposes, such as agricultural and landscape irrigation, in a practice known as purple pipe recycled water.

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OPINION: Growing Evidence Highlights Cracks in California Delta Tunnels Plan

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla

As water deeply readers already know, the Peripheral Canal was rejected by California voters in 1982 when Jerry Brown was governor. But the proposal was reborn in 2015 as the California WaterFix, often referred to as the Delta tunnels. Recently, advocates for the Delta tunnels have been experiencing severe heartache over revelations that undermine their proposal. Using the California Public Records Act, Restore the Delta found that the state commissioned an economic analysis of the proposed tunnels, but it was never published. The Associated Press picked up the story and put it on their international wire.

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