The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday announced final plans to redefine and thus shrink the waterways that must be protected under the law, a move likely to be swiftly challenged legally by environmentalists.
The final plans to repeal the 2015 Obama-era Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule would stymie the federal government’s capacity to regulate pollutants in wetlands and tributaries that feed into large rivers.
Senate Bill 513, authored by Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger), is headed towards Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk for approval. The bill, which received bi-partisan support, will provide relief for families without reliable access to water by delivering a temporary alternative source of water supply.
“Today, water shortage in the southern Central Valley continue to impact thousands of families who face limited access to clean drinking water,” stated Sen. Hurtado
The latest salvo is California’s long-running water wars, SB307, has the potential to emerge as one of the most important pieces of water regulation in recent years. Although its target was narrow — it was designed to undercut the capacity of Cadiz, Inc. to pump annually upwards of 16 billion gallons of groundwater in eastern San Bernardino County and sell it to ever-thirsty Southern California — the legislation may prove to be far-reaching in its consequences.
Imperial Beach shorelines remain closed after nearly 100 million gallons of sewage-tainted runoff recently poured over the border from Mexico.
The Trump administration plans to revoke an Obama-era regulation that provided federal protection to many U.S. wetlands and streams, according to two Environmental Protection Agency officials with knowledge of the plan.
The rule defined which waterways are subject to federal regulation. The administration plans to replace it with its own version, according to the officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the decision and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
In Jordan, desalination is major component in meeting rising demand for water.
Seawater desalination is the “only option” for countries seeking to become more resilient and have reliable water supply, according to an expert in water resource management, who stressed that water facilities should seek diversification of their water supplies.
While acknowledging that desalination of seawater is an expensive, highly technical and long process, the water resource management expert said that “… in some areas you have to make that investment because you just do not have the other sources of supply or resources that you can tap into.”
A California State University, Monterey Bay professor will receive a substantial grant from the Defense Department to find methods to harness fog.
The $266,589 gift will fund research on ways to use mesh-based devices to collect water circulating in fog, according to CSUMB. The DoD is interested in the study to collect usable water for drinking or irrigation, which may be useful for military personnel in remote foggy regions.
San Diego has been trying for decades to wean itself from water supplied by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which is dominated by Los Angeles. The feud between San Diego and The Met, as it’s known, has been waged in the Legislature and in the courts.
