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Carlsbad to buy more desalinated water

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Phil Diehl Mentioned: Carlsbad Desalination Plant

Carlsbad, home to one of the largest desalination plants in the world, will buy a bigger share of filtered seawater produced at the plant than other cities in San Diego County under an agreement approved this week.

The Carlsbad City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to sign a 30-year contract with the County Water Authority to purchase an additional 2,500 acre-feet of water annually from the $1 billion desalination plant, which was completed last year and began production in December.

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Countries with water shortage problems can learn from Israel’s conservation policies, speaker says

/in /by /The Advocateby Amy Wold

In 1952, the newly formed country of Israel faced a number of critical issues: The country had no money and was accepting new immigrants at a rate that was doubling its size.

The government — with main priorities of security, immigration and water — made the unlikely decision to spend what would end up being billions of dollars building a water system that would transport treated sewage to agriculture and other uses. The program took 30 years to complete.

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OPINION: Obsolete California water system lets farmers grow hay in drought

/in /by /San Francisco Chroniclesby Christopher Thornberg

El Niño has brought much-needed rain back to California, but this doesn’t mean we should stop talking about water policy as the state can quickly veer back into drier conditions. Dealing with the problem that lies at the heart of the water crisis now will help ensure the state is able to prosper through the toughest times, because the state has plenty of water — it just uses it in very wasteful ways.

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California drought fears ease, don’t vanish, with rain

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Jeremy B. White

Well over half of California voters dubbed an enduring lack of water a major problem, with 62 percent of Field Poll respondents calling the state of affairs “extremely serious.” But that still marked a sharp decline from October of 2015, when 76 percent of Californian voters called the drought extremely serious.

“Obviously the high point of public concern was back in October, prior to the current rainy season, because, hey, it hadn’t rained yet,” Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo said.

Last year, signs pointed to a drought of historic severity.

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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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