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California’s Trump-Blocking Environmental Bill May Be Delayed In Fight Over Water

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler and Ryan Sabalow

It started out as a bold effort by the California Legislature to prevent the Trump administration from rolling back protections for the environment and labor.

The bill, proposed by one of the state’s most powerful Democrats, would attempt to negate every environmental regulation proposed by President Donald Trump’s administration for the duration of his term or terms. It has a clause that would expire the day he leaves office in 2025 if he wins a second term.

 

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State Seeks Comment On Its Water Resilience Portfolio

/in , /by /AgAlert (Sacramento, Calif.)by Christine Souza

In a new effort to balance California’s water needs, Gov. Gavin Newsom has directed state agencies to prepare a water plan known as the California Water Resilience Portfolio that includes “a comprehensive strategy to build a climate-resilient water system.” The portfolio features a broad approach that addresses safe drinking water, flood risks, depleted groundwater aquifers, water supply uncertainty for agriculture, and native fish populations faced with extinction.

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OPINION: Farmers Are Not To Blame For Valley Subsidence, But They Can Help Solve It With Water

/in , , /by /The Fresno Beeby Kristi Diener

Why do farmers pump the water under their land (which California law clearly states belongs to them) in the first place? Unfortunately, you’ll rarely read the answer to this question in the press, but it is the most important part of the story.

Farmers pump groundwater because for more than 25 years, an innumerable myriad of Endangered Species Act-related laws, mandates, opinions, rulings and settlements have resulted in less and less surface water allocations for agriculture — even though all of these directives have failed to produce a rebound of endangered fish. When food producers receive the 0% and 5% water allocations like we saw in 2014, 2015, and 2016, they have no choice but to exercise their lawful property rights and to use water under their land.

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Can California Water Woes Be Solved?

/in , , /by /Western FarmPressby Todd Fitchette

Can California’s water woes be solved?

Some think that all it takes is money, which is exactly what the California Legislature may ask voters in 2020 for in the name of clean drinking water.

In the last several years Californians bought the arguments made by farmers, environmentalists and pretty much everyone else who was promised access to the cookie jar. Farmers were told they’d get more water storage to augment their annual allocation of irrigation water, which continue to shrink because of bad public policy. While not said overtly, the implications were “give us more money and we’ll get you back up to a full irrigation allotment.”

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Study Claims 99.9% Of Microplastics Removed From UK Drinking Water

/in , /by /Water & Wastewater Treatmentby Jamie Hailstone

The research carried out by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and commissioned by UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) found that untreated raw water contained on average 4.9 microplastics per litre while water that has gone through a treatment process contained only 0.00011 microplastics per litre.

While the study has shown that current treatment processes are effective at removing microplastics from drinking water and treated wastewater, the water industry has now called on government and business to do more to prevent plastic entering the water environment and the sewer network in the first place.

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Tweaks To Senate Bill 1 Leave Critical Calif. Water Questions Unresolved

/in , , /by /The San Joaquin Valley Sun by Alex Tavlian

Despite demands for key changes to Senate Bill 1 – California’s hotly-debated water legislation – from a chorus of Valley Democrats and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California legislative leaders appeared to have ignored those calls.

Senate Bill 1 would tie California’s environmental laws governing water and air quality to Federal standards as they existed on the final day of the Obama administration, Jan. 19, 2017.

Opponents of the bill said the move restricts scientific advancements in analyzing California’s water needs and air quality conditions by relying on outdated science.

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Was That Snow? Northern Sierra Gets Showers While Sacramento Heats Back Up

/in , , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Michael McGough

With some weird weather already in the books this month, Mother Nature may have one last hurrah in store for Northern California before summer officially ends.

A wave of thunderstorms passed over northeast California and near Reno on Tuesday afternoon, with the National Weather Service’s Reno office sharing a photo of what appears to be light snow on the Mt. Rose Highway at an elevation of about 8,500 feet.

 

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Cool Davis: Residential Graywater For Outdoor Irrigation

/in , /by /Davis Enterpriseby Leslie Crenna

Residential graywater offers up a huge potential for our city to offset potable water use. When the next drought rolls around, and it will, we could be sitting pretty with healthy trees and landscapes using less water from the Sierra than we do now.

How could we accomplish this? The answer is graywater, defined in California as the discharge from laundry wash water, showers, and bathroom sinks.

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Los Angeles Says “Yes” To The Cheapest Solar Plus Storage In The USA

/in , /by /pv magazine by John Weaver

Yesterday, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to approve a power purchase agreement (PPA) with 8minute Solar Energy for a solar power plus energy storage facility located in Kern County, California. Now that the LADWP commission has approved the project, it will move to a vote with the Los Angeles City Council before it can be delivered to the Mayor’s desk for a final signature. The project’s guaranteed commercial operation date is December 31, 2023 – about 12 years after it was initially filed in early 2012.

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Legislature Approves Dodd’s Plan For Water Management

/in , /by /Davis Enterprise

The state legislature has approved a proposal from Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, aimed at helping the state manage its water.

“Stream gages provide important information in this era of droughts and flooding, driven in part by climate change,” Dodd said. “This bill is an important step toward managing our water for the long run. You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”

 

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