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EBMUD Board Votes to Suspend Excess Water Use Fines

/in /by /NBC Bay Area (San Jose)by By Elyce Kirchner

Nearly a year after the East Bay Municipal Utility District was the first supplier in California to limit household use and publicly list violates, its board unanimously voted Tuesday to suspend excess-use fines.

Customers in the district have cut their water use by 24 percent since last summer, according to officials. “From the time that we implemented (the excess-use fines), we accessed approximately $596,000 in fines,” said Sherri Hong, EBMUD manager for customer and care community services. Since last summer, households in the district using more than about 1,000 gallons per day were fined $2 for each 748 gallons in excess of their limit.

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States Consider More Cuts on Colorado River to Prop Up Lake Mead

/in /by /Las Vegas Review-Journalby By Henry Brean

Top water officials in Nevada, Arizona and California have negotiated a deal to cut their use of the Colorado River and slow the decline of Lake Mead, but the landmark agreement is far from finished.

Negotiators from Arizona and California are now shopping the plan to various water users and policymakers in their states, where the proposed cuts are likely to be painful and in some cases unprecedented. Arizona would shoulder most of the reductions, but the tentative deal marks the first time California has agreed to share the pain — if the drought worsens.

 

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California Drought: Using Fines to Fuel Conservation

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs) by By Ian James

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.

 

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East Bay Drought: EBMUD Ends Penalties for Water Guzzlers

/in /by /San Jose Mercury News by By Denis Cuff

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.

Saying it will have enough water this year, the East Bay Municipal Utility District Utility board voted 7-0 to suspend its excess use fines that garnered widespread public attention because EBMUD was the first large supplier in California to limit household use and disclose the names of violators.
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Greens Continue Fight Over California Delta

/in /by /Courthouse News Service (Pasadena)by By Nicholas Iovino

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.

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Loretta Sanchez Says Relaxing Species Law ‘On the Table’ to Help State

/in /by /Associated Press (As Published by The Sacramento Bee)by By Carlos Avila Gonzalez

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.

 

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Delta Battle Over Water and Fish Lands in Court

/in /by /San Jose Mercury News by By Denis Cuff

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.

The complaint against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mirrors a persistent one by conservationists: that California water managers have let the environment suffer disproportionately from the drought.
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OPINION: Start the Tunnels

/in /by /Ventura County Starby By Mike Anderson

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.

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How El Niño Sidestepped Southern California

/in /by /LA Weekly by By Dennis Romero

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.

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This Gated Community Insists California’s Drought is Over, Wants Green Lawns Again

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby By Joseph Serna

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.

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