Six months ago, regulators with California’s State Water Resources Control Board made an example of four local agencies by slapping them with $61,000 fines for failing to comply with mandatory drought rules requiring reductions in water use.
Now two of those agencies, the Coachella Valley Water District and the Indio Water Authority, have reached deals with the state that will allow them to use the money locally to promote water conservation.
The East Bay’s largest water district is ending the fines and public embarrassment for households that use excessive amounts of water in the drought.
The Environmental Protection Agency failed to review water quality standard changes for California’s Bay-Delta estuary that could harm at least half a dozen imperiled fish species, environmental groups claim in court.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, Bay.org and Defenders of Wildlife sued the EPA in Federal Court on Friday, claiming the agency ignored its mandate to review changes that already have harmed at least two endangered fish species.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, campaigning for U.S. Senate, said Tuesday that she would consider amending the federal law governing endangered species to help improve the water supply across the parched state of California.
To help address the drought, Sanchez said she wants to take a broader approach that calls for continued conservation measures, increased storage sites and the construction of Gov. Jerry Brown’s twin Delta tunnels project to move water south. Asked whether the Endangered Species Act should be looked at, Sanchez said yes.
State and federal regulators have failed to protect Delta fish and the environment during the drought by repeatedly relaxing water-quality standards so as to keep water flowing to California cities and farms, three conservation groups argued in a federal lawsuit filed Friday.
Does it make sense to start the Delta tunnels? The Metropolitan Water District pays into the State Water Project every year for an allotment of water. The agreed-upon allotment of water is roughly 4 percent of the water flow from the Delta. In 2015, the State Water Project was only allowed to send 10 percent of the allotment (10 percent of the 4 percent). In 2014 and 2013, it was 5 percent of the allotment. The contracts of the State Water Project have been in place for over 50 years.
The Metropolitan Water District has been paying 100 percent of its agreed-upon fees but only receiving 5 to 10 percent of its allotment. This pain has caused great concerns over the reliability of water flow for the future of California.
Scientists are increasingly focused on shifting warm Pacific waters as a possible cause for Southern California’s lack of predicted winter rain.
The season’s El Niño weather phenomenon, characterized by historically warm waters along the equatorial Pacific, was similar to those that triggered record rainfall in Southern California in 1983 and 1998. Thus, many scientists and weather forecasters reasonably predicted an unusually wet winter for greater Los Angeles. Some even warned that a “Godzilla El Niño” would inundate us with heavy weather. They were wrong.
The warning was stern and unequivocal: The days of unkempt, browning lawns in the gated community of Blackhawk were officially over. “We believe that allowing the drought to negatively impact the landscaping at any Blackhawk home does a disservice to property values throughout the community,” the homeowners association announced. “We believe there is no longer any reason that all landscaping in the community cannot flourish as it once did.”
Starting on June 1, any of Blackhawk’s 2,000 homeowners who fail to maintain green lawns or install drought-tolerant landscaping will now risk fines or litigation.
Water is once again flowing into Diamond Valley Lake near Hemet for the first time in three years, which will allow boat launches to resume on Southern California’s largest reservoir in mid-May, just in time for Memorial Day weekend fishing.
Metropolitan Water District has been sending significant amounts of water into the drinking water reservoir since late March, district officials announced Tuesday, April 26. The lake has been about one-third full after the district has been drawing water out during California’s continued drought.
San Diego is continuing to beat the state’s aggregate savings target for the region, reducing potable water use by 21 percent from June 2015 through March 2016, according to the San Diego County Water Authority.
Starting in March, the region’s aggregate cumulative target is 13 percent — down from 20 percent during the initial phase of the state mandates due to credits for drought-resilient water supplies from the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant. The plant produces up to 56,000 acre-feet per year, enough to serve roughly 400,000 residents.
