You are now in San Diego County category.

Sen. Boxer Calls for Quicker Action on the Salton Sea

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Ian James

Sen. Barbara Boxer called for urgent steps to fix the problems of the deteriorating Salton Sea, saying state and federal agencies need to speed up efforts to control dust and protect habitat as California’s largest lake declines. Boxer visited an expanse of dry, dusty lakebed on the south shore Thursday and talked with federal wildlife officials about their plans to build 500 acres of wetlands along the receding shoreline. “The sea is drying up at an alarming rate, and we better deal with it. It is our job,”

Full Story

Water-use disclosure bill sinks in California Senate

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Alexei Koseff

A measure to expand public disclosure of commercial, industrial and other institutional water uses in California fell far short of passage in the state Senate on Friday.

Assembly Bill 1520, which would have removed exemptions to the Public Records Act for business customers of local water agencies, garnered only 15 votes on the floor, well below the 21 it needed to advance. The proposal, by Assemblyman Mark Stone, D-Scotts Valley, was opposed by a long list of agricultural and business groups, including winemakers, car washes and restaurants.

Full Story

In California, Who Owns the Water?

/in /by /U.S. News & World Report (Washington, D.C.)

Santa Barbara County may be one of the wealthiest areas in California but when it comes to water, the residents are just like anyone else in the state — wondering if the day will come when nothing flows out of the tap.

California is in its fifth year of an historic drought with mandated state and local water cutbacks to avoid rationing. So when the county’s Goleta Water District discovered that a neighboring ranch was planning on drawing water out of its underground aquifers to benefit a celebrity enclave, things got testy.

 

Full Story

Bill targeting water secrecy scrapped in California Senate

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Ian James

Strong opposition in the Legislature has scuttled a bill that would have required agencies in California to release information about water use by businesses such as farms and golf courses.

With the bill’s demise in the Senate, water districts will be able to continue keeping confidential information about how much water businesses are using during the drought.

Assembly member Mark Stone, who backed the measure, said there weren’t enough supporters in the Senate to take up the bill for a vote.

Full Story

California Homeowner Drought Relief Bill Passes Senate

/in /by /The Fresno Bee

A bill to let drought-stricken homeowners seek state grants or low-interest loans for water and wastewater projects has passed the state Senate and is now in the Assembly.

Assembly Bill 1588, authored by Assemblyman Devon Mathis, R-Visalia, passed the Senate unanimously on Wednesday. “This is an important measure for the Central Valley and I greatly appreciate the bipartisan support it has received,” Sen. Andy Vidak, R-Hanford, said in a statement. The bill now goes back the Assembly, where it passed 76-0 in June, for a concurrence vote following amendments to the bill.

Full Story

Smithsonian Exhibit Comes to Western Science Center

/in /by /The Friday Flyer

A new Smithsonian Institution exhibit, highlighting the importance of water, made its national debut at the Western Science Center in Hemet on August 13, where it will be on display until November 27, 2016. The exhibit, entitled “H2O Today,” is organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibit Service (SITES). The Western Science Center is a Smithsonian affiliate. Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) is a co-sponsor of the exhibit, along with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

 

Full Story

Riverside Could Increase Sale of Unneeded Water

/in /by /The Press-Enterprise (Riverside)by Alicia Robinson

Riverside’s utility hopes to make $3.5 million this year on a deal to sell water to a nearby water district. Last year, the city sold a small amount to customers of the Western Municipal Water District. Officials with Riverside Public Utilities and Western say the deal benefits both agencies’ customers by helping Riverside make up lost revenue and saving Western money. Under the pact, Riverside would sell up to 5,000 acre-feet of water to Western between September and February 2017. An acre-foot is about enough water to serve two households for a year.

Full Story

OPINION: Desalination Plant’s Critics Are Partly to Blame for Expensive Water

/in /by /Voice of San Diegoby Kevin Dayton Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Environmental activist Marco Gonzalez was irked to see the San Diego County Taxpayers Association recently give a Golden Watchdog award to the Carlsbad Desalination Plant. Besides arguing that the region should simply use less water, he argues that desalinated seawater is more expensive than imported water from the San Joaquin Delta and the Colorado River. It’s surprising to see an environmentalist prefer imported water over desalinated seawater. Extracting water from the Delta and Colorado River has negative impact on fish and birds, and some of that water is lost on its way to San Diego County through evaporation and seepage.

Full Story

Call for new Delta Tunnels EIR

/in /by /Central Valley Business Times (Stockton)

The draft environmental impact report for the governor’s tunnels fails to disclose and analyze adverse environmental impacts, says a coalition of ten environmental groups. The draft also fails to develop or even consider a reasonable range of alternatives to increase water flows in the California Delta, the groups say in a letter. The governor’s tunnels project as it stands violates both the National Environmental Policy Act and the California Environmental Quality Act, say the groups in a letter Thursday to Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell.

Full Story

Video: Ocean Could Rise 6 Feet in San Diego by 2100

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Daniel Wheaton

San Diegans are blessed with miles of beautiful coast and beaches, but all of that may be vastly different in a little more than one human lifetime. Children born today may see a San Diego with six more feet of sea by the time they are 84. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration keeps track of various climate scenarios, and the six-foot-rise projection is the more dire calculated. Despite San Diego’s climate action plan, few communities are making concrete plans to deal with a future with more water, thanks to melting ice at the poles.

Full Story