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California drought and drainage bills could collide on Capitol Hill

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Michael Doyle

The politics of California water is becoming three-dimensional chess in Congress as lawmakers balance competing anti-drought ideas with a proposed San Joaquin Valley irrigation drainage settlement that’s going to get bigger.

In a fresh gambit, a key House subcommittee on Wednesday approved controversial California water provisions that would steer more water to farmers. Soon, some of these same farmers will be seeking additional legislation to settle a long-running drainage dispute.

While the California drought and drainage proposals are distinct, they involve many of the same lawmakers, incite similar regional tensions and in the end could become entangled in each other’s fate.

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SD Water Authority files lawsuit against L.A.’s water wholesaler

/in /by /CBS8 (San Diego)

The San Diego County Water Authority Wednesday announced the filing of another lawsuit over rates charged by the Metropolitan Water District, a Los Angeles-based water wholesaler.

In its complaint filed in Superior Court in Los Angeles, the Water Authority contends that the rate structure approved Tuesday by the MWD board for 2017 and 2018 used the same methodology as costs from 2011-14 that were previously ruled illegal by a Superior Court judge.

MWD was ordered to pay $243 million in damages to the SDCWA, which takes in water from various local and imported sources, and distributes it to local water districts and cities.

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Metropolitan Water District’s $175 Million Land Deal Raises Alarms in Delta

/in /by /KQED (San Francisco)by Molly Peterson

In a multimillion-dollar deal, Southern California’s major water provider is acquiring five tracts of land in the heart of the Sacramento Delta, where the state is proposing to re-engineer water delivery systems. With the land purchase, the Metropolitan Water District is also raising suspicions among its new neighbors.

Zurich American, a subsidiary of a Swiss insurance company, is selling Metropolitan about 20,000 acres, including Bacon Island, Bouldin Island, Webb Tract, most of Holland Tract and a piece of Chipps Island.

 

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Water Wars Between San Diego And MWD Boil Up Again

/in /by /KPBSby Maureen Cavanaugh, Pat Finn Quoted: Dennis Cushman

Twenty-five years ago, the San Diego County Water Authority, the organization that provides water to the region’s 24 water districts, decided its water supplies had become a bit too iffy during a severe drought and set about diversifying its sources of supply.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the county water authority’s main supplier, felt dissed when its largest customer publicly questioned the reliability of its services.

According to a San Diego Union-Tribune editorial, the water authority has been persona non grata with the MWD ever since.

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Tribe’s leader: Climate change threatens water supplies

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

As chairman of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, Jeff Grubbe looks at the supply of water from the Colorado River and sees an uncertain future, in part due to climate change.

Grubbe, who was re-elected in March to a third consecutive two-year term, has taken a strong interest in water issues and has called for leaders in the Coachella Valley to develop better long-term plans to prepare for growing strains on water supplies.

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Bill to protect state’s aquifers, groundwater moves forward

/in /by /Central Valley Business Times

Legislation to protect California’s aquifers and groundwater resources from permanent damage due to over-pumping has been approved by the state Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water on a 6-2 vote.

“This is a serious problem that affects everyone, and it’s getting worse,” says Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, the author of the legislation.

Groundwater extraction through new and deeper drilling has sharply increased across the Central Valley and much of the rest of the state during the drought, including in water basins critically overdrafted by established water demands.

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Now is California’s Watershed Moment

/in /by /Fox and Hounds Daily by By Jim Wunderman and Michael Kelly

It is now safe to say that El Niño will not solve California’s drought. Though this should have been obvious from the start, there is a silver lining – it has bought the state more time to put better policies in place to create a sustainable water supply for years to come for all Californians.

We are at a true “watershed moment.” If we take decisive and effective action, our state can thrive within the limits of its current and future water resources. But if we fail to act (or act as we have in the past), the challenges our growing state will face each year will grow.

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OPINION: Fitzgerald: Big Bad Wolf has moved into the neighborhood

/in /by /The Record (Stockton)by Michael Fitzgerald

Southern California’s biggest, thirstiest and most powerful water district is buying a big chunk of the Delta, the very estuary that is dying because outfits like them take too much water.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is going to buy Bouldin, Bacon, Webb and Holland islands in the central Delta, and a chip off Chipps Island near Suisun Bay.

The Met’s boss has said this is mostly about repairing Delta habitat. That’s like the Big Bad Wolf buying the Three Little Pigs’ houses and saying he’s into home remodeling.

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OPINION: Water Conservation Stalls

/in /by /San Diego Union-Tribune

Let’s face it, there is an absolute limit to the amount of water that can be conserved. The continuous statistics about water conserved and the admonishments are unending.

When we follow the recommendations, the rewards are increased water rates and the loss of the gorgeous vegetation that makes California so uniquely beautiful. We, the unrepresented voters, watch helplessly as legislators ignore the obvious way to make California drought-free. They plan to construct impractical, costly miles of underground pipes that will only partially help a small part of the state.

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Feds to Review if Funds Mishandled for California Tunnels

/in /by /Associated Press (As Published by 89.3 KPCC - Pasadena)by By Ellen Knickmeyer

The federal government will investigate allegations that the state and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation improperly used federal funds for a $15.7 billion tunnel project that would bring water from Northern to Southern California.

The inspector general of the U.S. Interior Department will look into accusations that California took $60 million meant for fish habitat to spend on preliminary work for Gov. Jerry Brown’s project and otherwise mishandled federal funds.

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