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Cox Introduces $800 Million Water Bill

/in , /by /The Porterville Recorder

Rep. T.J. Cox-D, who represents a portion of Southwestern Tulare County, introduced the Western Water Storage Infrastructure Act, an $800 million bill addressing surface and groundwater storage and water delivery.

The bill is another in a series of bills addressing water infrastructure in the Central Valley that have been introduced in Congress. California representatives Jim Costa-D and John Garamendi-D are co-sponsors of the legislation.

The bill is designed to essentially replace funding authorized by the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation, WIIN, Act, which has been exhausted. The $800 million is more than double what was previously available. The bill also extends the operational and environmental authorities of the WIIN Act to provide continued water supply without adverse impacts to listed species.

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The World’s Largest Battery Could be the Answer to California Blackouts

/in , /by /High Country News and Gristby Emily Pontecorvo

Move over, Australia — California has stolen the claim for largest battery installation in the world. In the middle of a vicious heatwave where demand for air conditioning led to rolling blackouts, an energy development company called LS Power was working hard to add more lithium-ion batteries to its Gateway Energy Storage project in San Diego.

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San Diego County Water Authority Seeks Rate Relief at MWD

/in , /by /Water News Network Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

With the recession and the COVID-19 pandemic causing economic havoc nationally and across Southern California, the San Diego County Water Authority has adopted several cost-cutting strategies to reduce rate increases and it’s asking the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to do the same.

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EPA Announces Short-Term Projects to Plug Border Sewage Flow

/in , , /by /Courthouse News Serviceby Bianca Bruno

Emphasizing the “unprecedented” bipartisan cooperation between local and state governments, Border Patrol and the International Boundary & Water Commission, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced short-term projects Wednesday to plug the international sewage flow across the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Its Electric Grid Under Strain, California Turns to Batteries

/in , , /by /The New York Timesby Ivan Penn

Last month as a heat wave slammed California, state regulators sent an email to a group of energy executives pleading for help. “Please consider this an urgent inquiry on behalf of the state,” the message said.

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FPUD Approves Additional LAFCO Deposit

/in , , /by /Fallbrook Village Newsby Joe Naiman Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

San Diego County’s Local Agency Formation Commission requires a deposit to process applications to LAFCO for jurisdictional changes, and the Fallbrook Public Utility District will be providing an additional deposit to process the application for FPUD to detach from the San Diego County Water Authority and annex into the Eastern Municipal Water District.

A 5-0 FPUD board vote, Monday, Aug. 24, authorized an additional $62,220 deposit to LAFCO. The deposit is expected to cover an additional 510 hours of LAFCO staff time at LAFCO’s rate of $122 per hour.

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California Legislature’s End-of-Session Scramble Leaves Environment Bills on Cutting Room Floor

/in , , /by /Palm Springs Desert Sunby Mark Olalde

Monday at midnight marked the deadline for California lawmakers to pass bills out of the Legislature. But in a session replete with the COVID-19 pandemic, racial justice and wildfires, numerous bills were left to die on the cutting room floor.

Among them was the majority of the environmental agenda in what some legislators, environmentalists and public health advocates labeled a disappointment.

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An Extraordinary Summer of Crises for California’s Farmworkers

/in , , /by /National Geographicby Alejandra Borunda

Rosa Villegas woke up at two in the morning on a late August Monday to make her way to the lettuce fields in California’s south Salinas Valley, where she was scheduled to start bagging heads of romaine at 4 a.m. The sky overhead wasn’t its usual dark, star-dotted self as she walked to her car. Instead, it glowed a sickly red, colored by the fires burning on the flanks of the Santa Lucia mountains, just a few miles west.

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Can Community Microgrids Fill the Gap in California’s Plans for 100% Renewable Energy?

/in , /by /PV Magazineby K Kaufmann

The Goleta load pocket is a 70-mile stretch of Southern California coastline that includes the cities of Santa Barbara, Carpinteria and Goleta — combined population around 220,000 — all served by one 220-kV transmission line snaking its way over 40 miles of mountainous terrain.

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Top EPA Official Promises Short-Term Fixes to Tijuana Sewage

/in , , /by /Voice of San Diego

In a rare California appearance for President Donald Trump’s appointed Environmental Protection Agency leader, Andrew Wheeler promised the region millions in funding this budget cycle for some quick-er fixes to the age old Tijuana River sewage crisis.

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