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Gov. Brown Signs Water Conservation Measure

/in /by /Lake County Record-Bee (Lakeport)

Assembly Bill 1928, by Assembly member Nora Campos (D-San Jose) was signed by Governor Brown this week. The bill resets deadlines for the California Energy Commission to establish water efficiency performance standards and labeling requirements for landscape irrigation equipment by Jan. 1, 2018. “AB 1928 will help California further reduce water waste by taking the next step in improving outdoor water conservation and allow consumers to make informed choices about water-efficient equipment” said Campos.

 

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New State Water Plan May Force Tighter Conservation Restrictions

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Carolyn Lochhead

San Francisco faces potentially drastic cutbacks in its water supply, as state regulators proposed leaving more water in three Northern California rivers Thursday to protect wildlife in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta estuary, the linchpin of California’s water supply. The draft rules by the State Water Resources Control Board would raise the amount of water into the Merced, Stanislaus and Tuolumne rivers to 30 to 50 percent of what would naturally flow in them. That means less water would be available for urban users and farmers in the northern San Joaquin Valley, compounding their need to conserve.

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An Era of Limits: California Proposes Steering More Water to Fish, Less to Farms, Cities

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Ryan Sabalow and Dale Kasler

In a move that foreshadows sweeping statewide reductions in the amount of river water available for human needs, California regulators on Thursday proposed a stark set of cutbacks to cities and farms that receive water from the San Joaquin River and its tributaries. To protect endangered fish at critical parts of their life cycle, regulators proposed leaving hundreds of thousands of additional acre-feet of water in the San Joaquin River system.

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California to Save More Water for Endangered Fish

/in /by /The Wall Street Journalby Jim Carlton

California plans to reduce water for farms and cities from one of its biggest river systems in order to boost the amount of water for salmon and other threatened fish, state officials said Thursday. The plan, which still must receive final approval, rekindles a divisive fish-versus-farmers debate in the nation’s biggest agriculture state.

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Will Climate Change Make California’s Droughts Worse? A Mountain Lake Offers Clues

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall

In 2000, researchers took a coring from the bed of a small, shallow lake in the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains. They analyzed the organic matter and chemicals in the sediments to reconstruct a climate record of the past 10,000 years. They then compared it with reconstructions of ancient ocean temperatures. The results echoed previous studies that have found a link between past periods of climate warming, cool sea-surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean and centuries-long droughts in California and the West. Does that mean that global warming is pushing California to the threshold of endless drought?

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A Plan to Keep Rivers Flowing For Fish Triggers Another Water Fight

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall

State regulators want to leave more water for fish and wildlife in the heavily tapped tributaries of the San Joaquin River, setting the stage for another bruising California water fight. The proposal to keep more water flowing in the Merced, Tuolumne and Stanislaus rivers could spread the pain caused by environmentally related water cuts to irrigation districts and cities that have largely escaped them, thanks to their location and seniority in the hierarchy by which the state allocates water rights.

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The Water Authority’s Big, Strange Battery Bet

/in /by /Voice of San Diegoby Ry Rivard Quoted: Maureen Stapleton, Dennis Cushman, Fern Steiner, Michael Hogan, Mark Watton and Tom Kennedy

The San Diego County Water Authority is trying to become a player in the energy market. It’s not going very well.The agency’s biggest energy project is increasingly bogged down by a soaring price tag, relatively small returns and questions about whether it’s even needed. The project aims to address what’s become a major problem in the energy world: how to stop using fossil fuels without sacrificing reliability. Power generated from the sun, wind and water are better for the environment, but the sun doesn’t always shine, wind doesn’t always blow and hydroelectricity doesn’t work in a drought.

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Warner Springs District Struggling with Arsenic in Water

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Deborah Sullivan Brennan

A small school district in Warner Springs is still struggling with arsenic levels in its water that are above state limits, according to a new report. The Warner Unified School District is one of 95 water systems in California with arsenic levels that exceed the state threshold, the report by the Environmental Integrity Project found. The district, which serves about 210 students in the rural community in eastern San Diego County, had arsenic levels at 11.4 parts per billion, leaving it slightly above the state limit of 10 parts per billion, the report said.

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OPINION: Let’s Avoid a Man-Caused Drought

/in /by /The Porterville Recorder

As we enter the wet season when California gets more than 90 percent of its rainfall and snowfall, we urge state and federal officials to manage the state’s massive water system to ensure everyone gets their share of water this year. A University of California at Davis study found that mismanagement of the state’s water system has contributed to the water shortages facing all of California and has greatly contributed to the drawing down of the underground water supply in the San Joaquin Valley.

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Plan Divvies up Desert for Conservation, Energy Projects

/in /by /NewsOn6 (Tulsa, Okla.)by Alicia Chang

Swaths of public land in the California desert will be opened to solar and wind farms under a federal plan released Wednesday that preserves much of the landscape for conservation and recreation. The long-awaited blueprint finalized by the U.S. Interior Department after a years long process seeks to balance renewable energy development and species protection on 17,000 square miles (44,030 sq. kilometers) of desert managed by the federal government.The plan drew sharp criticism from clean-energy producers who warned it would severely limit development.

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