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Water districts sue Bureau

/in /by /The Porterville Recorder

The San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority and Westlands Water District filed a lawsuit in federal court Friday to compel the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to examine the effectiveness of the existing measures intended to protect endangered species, the environmental impacts of those measures, and whether there are alternatives to those measures that would better protect both endangered fish species and California’s vital water supplies.

The existing measures, adopted in 2008 and 2009, are based on biological opinions issued under the Endangered Species Act.

 

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Delta Plan Overturned

/in /by /The Independent (Santa Barbara )by Carolee Krieger

The recent move by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny to invalidate the Brown administration’s Delta Plan is good news for water reform advocates. The Delta Plan was an administration blueprint to restore the beleaguered Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta. That was its putative purpose, at least. In reality, it was a flawed — even cynical — document drawn up by Department of Water Resources staffers to expedite construction of the Twin Tunnels, Governor Brown’s massive and prohibitively expensive megaproject that would drain the Delta of life-sustaining freshwater for export to the corporate farms of the western San Joaquin Valley.

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Water for Pot No Longer Unregulated

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Matt Weiser

Within less than a year, as many as 50,000 marijuana growers in California could be required to obtain state permits for the irrigation water they consume. It is an unprecedented step aimed at preventing harm to the environment and other water users resulting from the rapid growth of marijuana cultivation in the state.

“Most of them are operating below the radar,” said Cris Carrigan, chief of enforcement at the State Water Resources Control Board. “As a result, we’ve gotten ourselves into an acute problem with streamflow and pollution associated with these activities.”

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More lawns becoming drought-tolerant

/in /by /Appeal-Democrat (Marysville)by Chris Kaufman

After multiple drought years, many Californians converted their lawns to more water-wise, native and low- maintenance landscaping — mostly with success, they report. Marysville and Yuba City both have landscaping following the trend, in collaboration with other agencies.

 “After a full year, we consider it a huge success,” said Lee Seidel, California Water Service district manager, of the landscaping at Marysville City Hall. “The planning and design itself has gotten nothing but compliments from the people that work at City Hall.”
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OPINION: There’s More to Drought-Proofing Than Water Mandates

/in /by /Voice of San Diegoby Mark Weston Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

As the regional water supplier, the San Diego County Water Authority is responsible for providing reliable, long-term water supplies to support the region’s 3.3 million people and its $222 billion economy, rain or shine.

The public demands it, and we have delivered using a two-fold strategy: reducing demand through conservation and water-use efficiency, and securing a diversified water supply portfolio and regional water infrastructure that meets our needs day in and day out.

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Los Angeles Looks for Extra Water Down Its Alleys

/in /by /The New York Timesby TATIANA SCHLOSSBERG

Of the roughly 300,000 acres in the city of Los Angeles, more than 2,000 are alleyways that cut through city blocks. And because they’re mostly paved, they do little to capture one of the city’s most prized resources: water.

Following the examples set by Chicago, Seattle and other cities, Los Angeles is working to transform these narrow spaces into networks of green alleys.

The main purpose, beginning with a green alley network in the South Park neighborhood of South Los Angeles, is to capture some of the storm water that is otherwise lost.

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More Investors Asked to Join Sites Reservoir Planning

/in /by /Chico Enterprise-Recordby Heather Hacking

Calling all water users: If you would like to buy in on water from a future Sites Reservoir, now is the time.

Plans for Sites Reservoir are moving forward, with a deadline of June 2017 to ask the state Water Commission to pay for half of the estimated $4.4 billion construction cost. Sacramento Valley water users had the first chance to ask for (and pay for) a future of the water supply pie. Sacramento Valley water districts are on paper to purchase about 128,000 acre-feet of water annually.

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BLOG: Growing Marijuana? State Will Now Regulate Water Use for Pot Cultivation

/in /by /KQED (San Francisco)by Matt Weiser

Within less than a year, as many as 50,000 marijuana growers in California could be required to obtain state permits for the irrigation water they consume. It is an unprecedented step aimed at preventing harm to the environment and other water users resulting from the rapid growth of marijuana cultivation in the state.

“Most of them are operating below the radar,” said Cris Carrigan, chief of enforcement at the State Water Resources Control Board. “As a result, we’ve gotten ourselves into an acute problem with streamflow and pollution associated with these activities.”

 

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Fires, Drought, Beetles Taking Toll on Tahoe Forest

/in /by /Tahoe Daily Tribune

Despite a good winter, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service Tahoe Management Unit says the basin’s forests are still stressed and in danger from wildfires.

“We had a better snow pack this year and a better precipitation season in the Tahoe Basin,” said Brian Garrett, urban forest manager for USFS. “But the trees in the forests are still extremely stressed and one season of 100 percent precipitation does not take you out of that condition.”

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Food shortages and sea level rise US voters’ top climate change concerns

/in /by /The Guardian (New York)by Oliver Milman

Diminishing food and water security and ruinous sea level rise are the leading climate change concerns of a section of the American electorate that is aghast at the lack of discussion of global warming during the presidential debate. A Guardian US survey of its readers found that pressure on food and water supplies is considered the most important consequence of climate change. Sea level rise, which is set to inundate coastal areas currently occupied by millions of Americans, is second on the list of the most urgent issues.

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