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Southern California water agency completes Delta islands purchase

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

A portion of the Delta is now owned by a powerful water agency from Los Angeles.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California said Monday that it has completed its purchase of five islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a $175-million deal that has aroused suspicion about a “water grab.”

Metropolitan announced the completion of the purchase in a two-paragraph memo to board members from the agency’s general counsel. The deal was finalized three days after the state Supreme Court turned aside legal efforts by San Joaquin County officials and others to block the acquisition.

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Metropolitan Water District CEO claims Delta tunnels are not a done deal

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

Gov. Edmund Brown Jr.’s biggest legacy – an underground Peripheral Canal – is not really a done deal, claims one of the most powerful executives in California water.

Jeffrey Kightlinger, general manager and chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, said that the massive twin water tunnels project the governor envisions to pipe fresh water away from the Delta to buyers in Southern California and the western San Joaquin Valley is not yet final. “Our Board has not voted and said, ‘We’re ready, willing and able to spend money to build these tunnels,’” Mr. Kightlinger told a forum sponsored by the Sacramento Bee.

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Huntington Beach desalination plant a matter of environmental justice

/in /by /The Orange County Registerby DAVE RODRIGUEZ Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

California is in the midst of its worst drought in history. Across Southern California, this year’s El Nino provided no relief. Climate scientists believe that drought conditions may simply be the “new normal” for our region. How can our local communities meet their own needs and responsibilities without simply taking limited water supplies from each other?

Semi-arid and drought-prone Southern California can no longer rely on overdrawn ground water sources for more than a small fraction of local needs. Meanwhile, the region’s two main sources of imported water have become increasingly less reliable.

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How revenue losses played into decision to relax conservation rules in California

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Ryan Sabalow

It wasn’t just generous spring rains filling north-state reservoirs that had California’s urban water districts pushing back so hard against mandatory water cuts this year.

All those brown lawns and shorter showers have cost them millions in customer revenue.

As water use plummeted because of the statewide conservation orders implemented last summer, many water agencies found themselves struggling to cover operating costs. Less water use has meant lower monthly utility bills, and for most utilities, there has been no correlating decline in basic operating costs, such as payroll, debt obligations and maintenance of pipes and treatment plants.

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Water, historic sites are subjects of Washington legislative flurry

/in /by /McClatchy DCby Michael Doyle

California has a stake in a sprawling public lands package moving through the Senate, including controversial water provisions that don’t even name the state.

The package includes expanding one national historic site honoring famed conservationist John Muir and designating a new historic site at the former Tule Lake camp that housed Japanese-Americans during World War II. Both proposals easily won approval Wednesday from a Senate panel.

A Western water bill inevitably is proving far trickier, squeaking through the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on a 12-10 vote and facing an uncertain future.

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State Supreme Court won’t hear Delta appeal

/in /by /Stockton Recordby Alex Breitler

The state Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by Delta interests attempting to block the sale of roughly 20,000 acres of land to a Southern California water agency. The court’s decision appears to clear the way for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to finalize its controversial $175 million purchase. San Joaquin and Contra Costa counties, Delta farmers and environmentalists fought the deal and were able to delay it twice, but their last-ditch request for the Supreme Court to get involved did not succeed.

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State Supreme Court clears major hurdle to Brown’s tunnels

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

The California Supreme Court has cleared one of the hurdles for the Metropolitan Water District to buy 20,000 acres, including five islands, in the California Delta, according to the Los Angeles Times Friday evening.

The court ruled that the sale may go ahead even as the lawsuit by San Joaquin County opposing the land sale, wends its way through the courts, the newspaper says.

There was no decision to that effect posted on the court’s website, however.

 

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State Supreme Court sides with Southern California in epic water war over delta islands

/in /by /The Los Angeles Timesby Matt Stevens Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The state Supreme Court has cleared the way for Southern California’s powerful Metropolitan Water District to buy five islands at the epicenter of the delta’s water system, officials said Friday.

Some officials and environmentalists in Northern California had fought to halt the sale, worried about what the MWD planned to do with the land. The agency has said it might use some of the land to provide access for the construction of a proposed delta tunnel system, a controversial project some oppose amid California’s five-year drought.

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The Strange Battle to Control a Bunch of Sewage

/in /by /Voice of San Diegoby Ry Rivard

For much of human history, we’ve tried to move sewage – worthless, dangerous and disgusting – as far away from us as possible.

Now, sewage has become a valuable commodity. Water agencies across San Diego County are working on projects to turn sewer water into water that’s clean enough to spread on lawns or even drink.

In Coronado, a dispute has erupted over who controls sewage from the island and who can profit from it. At the heart of the tension is the Navy’s new campus on the southern end of Coronado.

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Los Angeles County Proposal to Let Landowners Use Hauled-In Water Worries Environmentalists

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Louis Sahagun

Los Angeles County is considering a controversial plan to spur housing development in rural unincorporated areas by allowing property owners to haul in drinking water if no other source is available.

If adopted, the initiative would make 42,677 parcels in the northern one-third of the county potentially eligible to construct as many as 3,680 single-family homes over the next two decades, officials said.

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