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Opinion: To Counter the Worsening Drought, California Needs Healthy Soils

/in , /by /CalMattersby Ellie Cohen, Torri Estrada

California is in the early stages of a severe multi-decadal drought, exacerbated by the climate crisis. As Dan Walters pointed out in his recent commentary, we must move quickly to prepare for water shortages and wildfires.

A potent strategy to improve the state’s water storage capacity involves an ancient technology so ubiquitous that it is often overlooked: soil. The urgency of California’s drought and wildfire risks require that we invest in soil health now.

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Scripps Oceanography Gets Share of California Energy Commission Contract to Simulate Climate Change

/in , /by /Del MarTimesby Elisabeth Frausto

The California Energy Commission has awarded a $1.5 million contract to three University of California campuses, including UC San Diego, that will work in tandem to better simulate climate change scenarios that can be used by utilities and others to anticipate the effects.

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Soil Probe Tips for Success

/in , /by /Water News Network

Knowing how to use a soil probe as an important soil management tool will support your effort to create a healthy, thriving landscape full of beautiful plants. You need to first know as much as possible about your soil to understand your irrigation needs. Irrigation is critical to keep your landscaping green and growing. But more isn’t better. One way to easily gauge your landscape’s needs is to use the Jar Test.

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Joe Biden Wants 100% Clean Energy. Will California Show that it’s Possible?

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Sammy Roth

The undersea power line would run south from San Luis Obispo County, hugging the California coast for 200 miles before making landfall in or near Los Angeles. It would be able to carry electricity from a fleet of offshore wind turbines, providing Southern California with clean power after sundown and helping to replace fossil-fueled generators.

Fewer planet-warming emissions, less risk of blackouts and no chance of igniting the wildfires sometimes sparked by traditional power lines: Those are the arguments for the $1.9-billion Pacific Transmission Expansion.

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Scripps Researcher Finds Ozone-Eating Chemical Level Falling

/in , /by /KPBS San Diegoby Erik Anderson

A San Diego scientist says a surge in outlawed ozone-depleting gasses appears to be easing. Scripps Institution of Oceanography researcher Ray Weiss says levels of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the atmosphere began rising a few years ago, even though they had been outlawed by the Montreal Protocol. The chemical was once used as a refrigerant and in the manufacture of foam, but CFCs were outlawed more than a decade ago.

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Hoch to Design Rainbow’s Hutton and Turner Pump Stations

/in , /by /Fallbrook Village Newsby Joe Naiman

Hoch Consulting has been given the Rainbow Municipal Water District contract to design the Hutton and Turner pump stations.

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Rainbow MWD Approves Lift Station Replacement MND

/in , /by /Fallbrook Village Newsby Joe Naiman

The work which includes the replacement of the Rainbow Municipal Water District’s Lift Station No. 1 will have an environmental Mitigated Negative Declaration along with a Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program.

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Hamilton Chosen as Rainbow MWD Board President

/in , /by /Fallbrook Village Newsby Joe Naiman

The Rainbow Municipal Water District board selected Hayden Hamilton to be the board president for 2021 and 2022 meetings.

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California’s Aging Dams Face New Perils, 50 Years After Sylmar Quake Crisis

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Louis Sahagún

It was a harrowing vision of the vulnerability of aging California dams — crews laboring feverishly to sandbag and drain the lower San Fernando Reservoir, as billions of gallons of Los Angeles drinking water lapped at the edge of a crumbling, earthquake-damaged embankment that threatened catastrophe on the neighborhoods below. Although the 1971 San Fernando earthquake and the near failure of the Lower Van Norman Dam have given rise to construction improvements — the much newer Los Angeles Dam survived an equivalent shaking in the 1994 Northridge quake — the overwhelming majority of California dams are decades past their design life span.

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Water Plant Cyberattack Is Wake Up Call, 20 Years in the Making

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Jake Holland and Bobby Magill

A cyberattack on a Florida water treatment plant underscores the need for strong security protections at the municipal level, attorneys and industry professionals say.

A hacker gained access to an Oldsmar, Fla. city computer on Feb. 5 and changed the level of sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, local authorities said. It isn’t yet known whether the breach originated from the U.S. or from outside the country. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is working with local authorities.

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