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Israel’s Mediterranean Desalination Plants Shift Regional Water Balance

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

The water that flows into Sorek desalination plant is drawn from near the Mediterranean Sea floor. Pumped inland, the water is cleansed, step by step, of salts and impurities. The transmutation does not take long. Forty minutes after entering the facility, the stuff of sailboats and sunbathers is now drinkable.

Sorek is the newest of five Israeli coastal desalination plants. A national mission in the last decade to develop the fleet, plus many more years of investment in wastewater recycling facilities, have turned Israel into as much a water producer as a water consumer.

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The Water Footprint of Our Everyday Lives

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

In California we commonly debate how much water is used by agriculture, the environment, industry and urban users. We talk about water in terms of acre-feet and entire sectors. But we spend less time thinking about water on the individual level.

California’s water conservation mandate helped bring this back into focus, at least for a time. But the information on water usage provided by water utilities on our monthly bills is only a small part of how much water we really use.

 

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Heat Wave, Drought Showing No Signs of Slowing Down

/in /by /Associated Press ( As Published by CNBC - Englewood Cliffs, N.J.)

The heat wave gripping parts of the country including Philadelphia, where tens of thousands are descending upon the city for the Democratic National Convention this week, is not going away anytime soon and will hit a peak Monday with temperatures in the city feeling like 108 degrees. Excessive heat warnings will continue Monday, the first day of the convention, in the Philadelphia area, most of the Midwest and regions out west.

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About That $17 Billion Water Project: Delta Tunnels 101

/in /by /KQED (San Francisco)by Lauren Sommer

This week, Governor Jerry Brown’s controversial water project is back in the public eye. State officials are launching a marathon series of hearings for the “twin tunnels,” as they’re known, that will ultimately decide the fate of the project. What are the Delta water tunnels? They’re two, 30-mile water tunnels that would be built in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, east of the San Francisco Bay Area. Each tunnel would be 40 feet in diameter, larger than the tunnels that carry BART trains under San Francisco Bay. The project, dubbed “California WaterFix,” would be buried 150 feet below ground.

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California wildfire season at ‘extreme point’ with months to go

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Gabby Ferreira

Wildfires are nothing new in Southern California, but as the record-breaking drought stretches into its fifth year, conditions in the southern part of the state are ripe for severe wildfires.

“In the normal season, it’s (wildfires) still threatening. Put in five years of drought and it’s exponentially threatening,” said Cal Fire Capt. Lucas Spelman. Though Southern California saw some rain this year, it wasn’t enough for fuels such as dry brush and already beetle-stricken trees to recover.

“We just haven’t stopped,” Spelman said. “Starting in the beginning of the year, we’re already at the extreme point and we just can’t imagine what the end of the season’s going to look like.”

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California Wildfire Season at ‘Extreme Point’ With Months to Go

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Gabby Ferreira

Wildfires are nothing new in Southern California, but as the record-breaking drought stretches into its fifth year, conditions in the southern part of the state are ripe for severe wildfires.

“In the normal season, it’s (wildfires) still threatening. Put in five years of drought and it’s exponentially threatening,” said Cal Fire Capt. Lucas Spelman. Though Southern California saw some rain this year, it wasn’t enough for fuels such as dry brush and already beetle-stricken trees to recover.

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Judge says Yorba Linda water board’s fee increase was legal

/in /by /The Orange Couney Registerby DENISSE SALAZAR

The Yorba Linda Water District won its legal fight Monday against a community group opposed to a $25 monthly water-rate increase imposed on ratepayers.

The suit suit, filed in January in Orange County Superior Court by the Yorba Linda Taxpayers Association, asked that the district’s increase be repealed or the issue be placed on a ballot for voters to decide.

But Judge Robert J. Moss ruled Monday in the water district’s favor.

 

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Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta: Battle Continues Against Water Weeds

/in /by /San Jose Mercury Newsby Lev Facher

Every year, the state battles invasive water weed species in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The state Division of Boating and Waterways is at it again in 2016, and the hot, dry conditions created by the ongoing drought continue to make the job even harder.

In Discovery Bay, the Port of Stockton and around the Delta, the department is attempting to beat back familiar foes including water hyacinth and Egeria densa. Other culprits like varieties of water pennywort and primrose aren’t new to the Delta but have recently begun to pose a bigger problem.
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Pace to build Brown’s tunnels steps up Tuesday

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

The State Water Resources Control Board’s five members, all of whom owe their 120,000-plus a year jobs to Gov. Edmund Brown Jr., on Tuesday begin the first part of a two-part, multi-month water right change petition hearing for what is marketed as the “WaterFix Project.”

The project would dig two massive tunnels beneath the California Delta to drain fresh water out of the Sacramento River before it could flow naturally into the Delta.

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Will the Delta Tunnels Get Built? Plan Enters Critical Make-Or-Break Phase

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

Still swirling in controversy, Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed $15.5 billion re-engineering of the troubled Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is heading into a critical phase over the next year that could well decide if the project comes to fruition. Crunch time starts Tuesday. The State Water Resources Control Board begins months of grueling public hearings on the details of Brown’s plan to burrow a pair of massive tunnels beneath the heart of the Delta, a grand public works project designed to shore up the reliability of water deliveries to millions of Southern Californians and San Joaquin Valley farmers.

 

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