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State Gets $1.2 Billion Boost for More Water Recycling Projects

/in /by /San Gabriel Valley Tribuneby By Steve Scauzillo

The state got a big financial boost in its quest to find more water sources — by recycling it.

 

The State Water Resources Control Board authorized the sale of $1.2 billion in revenue bonds Tuesday to fund additional recycled water projects. Supporters believe the money, an extension of the existing Clean Water State Revolving Fund, will help water agencies and cities build more water recycling plants, pipes and delivery facilities that will increase California’s water supply.

 

Already, the state board expects demand will increase this year, piggybacking on a 40 percent increase for project commitments in fiscal year 2014-2015.

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California Cut Water Use 20.3% in November; With the Rain, What Will Happen?

/in /by /The Los Angeles Timesby By Matt Stevens

As long-awaited rain comes to the state, regulators said Tuesday that California cut its water usage by 20.3% in November, staying on track to meet the target set by Gov. Jerry Brown.

 

The savings percentage, compared with November 2013, was the lowest in six months of reporting and moved California’s cumulative savings to 26.3% from 27.1% in October. The November savings is still slightly above the 25% cutback that Brown called for.

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VIDEO: Most of County Misses Water Conservation Goals

/in /by /KUSI News Quoted: interview with: Jason Foster

Two-thirds of the water districts in San Diego County failed to reach their conservation goals in November, though cumulative savings since June remains strong, the state Water Resources Board reported Tuesday.

 

The area’s largest water supplier to homes and businesses — the city of San Diego — failed to meet its state-mandated target of 16 percent for the first time in November, which saw a savings of 13.8 percent compared to the same period in 2013. State water officials set water consumption totals in 2013 as the benchmark for comparisons.

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Third Storm to Hit San Diego on Wednesday

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby By Gary Robbins & Robert Krier

If the weather so far this week is any indicator of what El Niño can bring to San Diego County and the rest of California, then people should be ready for a prolonged mix of relief and misery.

 

Relief because the extra rainfall and snow would go a long way toward ending the state’s drought, which has lasted four consecutive years.

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California Misses Mark for Saving Water 2 Months Running

/in /by /ABC Newsby By Scott Smith

Residents of drought-weary California in November fell short of hitting a 25 percent water conservation mandate for a second month running, state officials say.

 

The monthly tally comes as a series of much-anticipated El Nino storms line up, expecting to drench the state for several days and boost the snowpack.

Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, said California remains on course to beat its long-term goal through February. Marcus wouldn’t reveal ahead of Tuesday’s formal announcement exactly how much the state fell short of its target.

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A Steady Conveyor Belt of El Niño Storms Is What Has Officials Concerned

/in /by /The Los Angeles Timesby By Rong-Gong Lin II and Rosanna Xia

To understand the power and potential dangers of El Niño, look at satellite images of the Pacific Ocean on Sunday.

 

At least four storms were brewing — the farthest still getting going in Asia — and all aimed at California.

 

It’s this pattern, a series of back-to-back-to-back storms seemingly arriving on a conveyor belt, that concerns officials bracing for potential damage from the predicted winter of heavy rains.

 

“El Niño storms: it’s steady, not spectacular. But it’s relentless,” said Bill Patzert, climatologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. “It’s not 10 inches in 24 hours and nothing afterward.

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Shasta Lake to Study Whether To Raise Water Rates

/in /by /Record Searchlight (Redding)by By Joe Szydlowski

Amid California’s worst drought in recent memory, the city of Shasta Lake is eyeing looking into studying whether to raise water utility rates.

 

“The loss of revenue due to decreased water sales coupled with the rapidly increasing cost of water supply cannot be sustained for a prolonged period of time,” said John Duckett, city manager.

 

He will ask the City Council to approve a $66,030 contract with the Los Angeles-based Raftelis Financial Consultants, Inc., for a water rate study at the council’s meeting Tuesday night.

 

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Kings River Conservation District Names New General Manager

/in /by /The Fresno Beeby By Marc Benjamin

 

Paul G. Peschel has been named the Kings River Conservation District’s new general manager, agency officials announced Monday.

 

Peschel, the planning and engineering manager for the Imperial Irrigation District Energy Department in El Centro, will begin his new job for the Fresno-based agency on Jan. 25. He replaces David Orth.

 

A registered civil engineer, Peschel has a background in water resources, engineering and management. He was employed by the Imperial Irrigation District for nearly 30 years, starting as an assistant engineer for the district located in southeast California.

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Hefty Amounts of Rain and Snow Expected In Central San Joaquin Valley, Sierra

/in /by /The Fresno Beeby By Marc Benjamin

Up to an inch of rain or more could fall on the central San Joaquin Valley on Tuesday, the National Weather Service said, as the first in a series of El Niño-fueled storms arrives in California.

 

Around the Valley, workers were preparing by making sandbags available to residents and pumping water through the basin systems, but the storms are expected to drop large amounts of rain over a long period instead of brief, strong showers that frequently cause flooding.

 

“It will pretty much be a steady rain,” said David Spector, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Hanford.

 

 

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New Storms Could Make For Wettest Week in 5 Years in Central California

/in /by /The Fresno Beeby By Troy Pope

The kind of rainy weather pattern shaping up for Central California this week has not occurred since 2010, the National Weather Service said Saturday.

 

A series of storms is expected to roll into Central California and will make for the most days with rain since before the drought began.

Three separate storms are on track to hit the central San Joaquin Valley Valley, meteorologist Brian Ochs said. The total expected rainfall for the three systems in the Valley is around 1 to 1.5 inches.

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