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Why California’s New Groundwater Management Law is a Game Changer for Mine Operators

/in /by /JD Supra Business Advisor (Sausalito) by By Thomas Henry

Ready or not, California’s new Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (“SGMA”) is here and mine operators should be vigilant in monitoring and actively participating in developments under the law. Previously, the use of groundwater was largely unregulated.  Now local agencies are in the driver’s seat when it comes to addressing a very complex problem: managing groundwater to ensure sustainability.

Earlier this week, environmental consultant Bob Anderson, of Geosyntec and Stoel Rives attorneys Wes Miliband and Tom Henry hosted a webinar about the implications of SGMA for mine operators.

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Court Rejects Lawsuit to Drain Hetch Hetchy Reservoir

/in /by /San Jose Mercury News by By Paul Rogers

A judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to force the city of San Francisco to drain Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, a key part of the water system for 2.6 million residents of Bay Area cities stretching from Hayward to San Jose to San Francisco.

The ruling, by Tuolumne County Superior Court Judge Kevin Seibert, is the latest setback for Restore Hetch Hetchy, an Oakland-based group that says construction of the reservoir in Yosemite National Park 93 years ago was a grievous crime against nature that can be undone, restoring the submerged valley.
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Region’s Long-Term Water Management Strategy Released for Public Review

/in /by /Seaside Courier (Encinitas) Quoted: Bob Yamada

The development of drought-resilient water resources and a sustained emphasis on water-use efficiency mean that San Diego County will continue to have a safe and reliable water supply for decades, according to the San Diego County Water Authority’s draft 2015 Urban Water Management Plan.

The draft plan — known as the 2015 UWMP based on when the updating process began — was released Friday for public review, starting a public comment period that will include a public hearing on May 26 during the regular meeting of the Water Authority Board of Directors.

 

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BLOG: San Diego Water Authority Says Local Supply is Safe and Reliable

/in /by /Water Technology (Birmingham, Ala.) Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Releasing its draft Urban Water Management Plan (UWMP), the San Diego County Water Authority said that San Diego County will continue to have a safe and reliable water supply for decades. Urban Water Management Plans must be updated every five years by law.

The draft plan — known as the 2015 UWMP based on when the updating process began — estimates that the region’s future water demands will be about 14 percent lower in 2020 and about 15 percent lower in 2035 compared to projections in the 2010 plan.

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After a Rush to Build Costly Water Treatment Plants, They’re Now Sitting Unused

/in /by /Voice of San Diegoby Ry Rivard Quoted: Gary Arant, Jim Fisher, Mike Lee

Over a decade ago, Southern California water officials rushed to build or expand treatment plants so they could keep up with the demand for drinkable water. That cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Now demand for water has fallen dramatically. The treatment plants sit largely unused during parts of the year and officials are fighting over how to pay for some of them.

There are two kinds of water: treated water, which has been cleaned up for drinking; and raw water, which comes from a river or reservoir and is not yet fit for human consumption.

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Despite Drought, California Almond Acreage Rose 6 Percent in 2015

/in /by /Capital Press (Salem, Ore.)by By Tim Hearden

The increase came despite removals of about 45,000 acres of trees in 2015 — much of which occurred after harvest — and continues a trend in which acreage has doubled in the last 20 years, according to government and industry statistics.

 

 

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Congress is about to wipe out decades of progress in sustainable water use

/in /by /Los Angles TImesby Peter H. Gleick

As California enters its fifth year of official drought — and its ninth dry year in the past 10 — the elements of a modern, sustainable water system are finally taking shape. The state is improving water efficiency in agriculture and urban areas, expanding wastewater treatment and reuse, figuring out how to capture more storm water, and starting to monitor and manage badly over-drafted groundwater basins.

In Washington D.C., however, special interests are still pushing ineffective and inequitable water strategies. Nowhere is this tension between new water strategies and outmoded federal thinking more apparent than in the California drought legislation currently before Congress.

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Judge Throws Out Lawsuit Seeking to Drain Hetch Hetchy and Restore Valley

/in /by /KQED (San Francisco) by By Dan Brekke

A Tuolumne County judge has thrown out a lawsuit seeking to drain San Francisco’s Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, the linchpin of a system that supplies drinking water to 2.5 million people in the Bay Area.

In a ruling delivered Thursday, Superior Court Judge Kevin Seibert sided with San Francisco officials who have objected to emptying the reservoir, situated in Yosemite National Park, and restoring the valley it now occupies. Restore Hetch Hetchy, the group that sued to shut down Hetch Hetchy, had argued that the dam and reservoir violate Article X, Section 2 of the California Constitution.

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SoCal is Probably Going to Have a Very Bad Fire Season

/in /by /Curbed LAby By Bianca Barragan

Southern California didn’t get the El Niño rains that other parts of the state did this year, and is still very much mired in a drought that’s dragged on for years. Now, fire officials with the US Forest Service are bracing for the effect that persistent dryness will have on this year’s summer wildfire season. The federal government will put out its official wildfire outlook in three days, but they’ve already said things aren’t looking so great for the region, says the Daily News.

 

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Water Wasters in L.A. Will Soon Face Heavier Fines, Audits

/in /by /KTLA

As regulators mull softening the state’s drought restrictions amid outcry from some Northern California water districts, water wasters in Los Angeles will soon face stiffer fines and water audits under a plan approved this week by Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Under the city’s amended water conservation plan, which will take effect Tuesday, the Department of Water and Power will be able to fine residents between $1,000 and $40,000 a month for what it deems “unreasonable use” of water when the city is in an elevated phase of its emergency drought plan.

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