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OPINION: Desalination Makes More Sense For California Than A Multi-Billion Dollar Water Tunnel

/in , /by /Ventura County Starby Ted Kuepper and John P. MacHarg

There is an obvious connection between the proposed multibillion-dollar Sacramento Delta Water Tunnels, the proposed mining/pumping of water from the Mojave Desert, Central Valley farmers lacking the water resources to maximize food production, and the Sacramento River and fishing stocks suffering from inadequate water flows. That connection is the State Water Project, which pumps water to Southern California and reduces the river water needed for fisheries, farmers, and the river itself. The reality is Southern California needs water and if we don’t produce it here, then we’re going to take it anywhere we can find it, regardless of environmental damage and economic considerations.

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New History Exhibit Shows City’s Deep Relationship With Water Is Everywhere

/in , /by /Long Beach Postby Barbara Kingsley-Wilson

Long Beach’s origin story is awash in water. It was a resort and farming town of transplanted Iowans who got water from aquifers under Signal Hill; the drill bits even found a more lucrative resource underneath: oil. Then when the city outgrew the wells, the Metropolitan Water District was forming and voters jumped in. Freshwater for drinking and saltwater for playing. The Pike, the L.A. River, the aquarium and Alamitos Bay, then there are the coastal wetlands that have largely disappeared, though, thanks to climate change, those wetlands seem to be coming back. The city’s evolving relationship with water is the subject of the Historical Society of Long Beach’s new exhibit “Water Changes Everything.”

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San Diego Company Awarded EPA Grant To Develop Water Quality Testing Tech

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby Debbie L. Sklar

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday that it awarded a $100,000 contract to a San Diego-based technology company to develop technology to monitor water quality. The grant, awarded to 2W iTech LLC, is one of nearly two dozen awarded by the EPA through its Small Business Innovation Research program. The EPA awarded grants worth a combined $2.3 million to 21 companies across the country to develop technologies to improve environmental and human health, monitor air and water quality and clean contaminated areas. With its grant, 2W iTech will develop a low-cost method to identify trace amounts of perfluoroalkyl substances in water at a rate as small as 10 parts per trillion.

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Five Most Fascinating L.A. Dams, Where Disasters Struck And Catastrophes Were Averted

/in , /by /KCETby Sandi Hemmerlein

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was one surefire way for man to conquer nature in Southern California. Build a dam. With dams, water agencies could control the flow of raging rivers, stockpile emergency water supplies and even create giant lakes out of natural dry (or mildly soggy) basins. But the water that was supposed to be held and controlled sometimes overcame some of these great civil engineering feats. And so, many of the stories of the Los Angeles Basin’s tragedy and triumph can be told through the histories of its dams – those that still exist and those that have been lost to failure.

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Rep. Scott Peters Pledges Town Hall On Climate Crisis Following Activist Pressure To Support Green New Deal

/in , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith

Rep. Scott Peters of San Diego has agreed to hold a town hall meeting on climate issues following months of pressure by local activists on him and other members of Congress to support the Green New Deal. Peters’ announcement comes after Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego, cosponsored the hotly debated resolution in June, which calls on the federal government to zero out greenhouse emissions by 2030 and create jobs in renewable energy and other sectors. After initially brushing off calls to support the Green New Deal, the congresswoman surprised constituents and local climate groups when she announced her support for the resolution during a town hall-style event last month.

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San Diego’s Water Portfolio Approach ‘Model for California’

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

State officials Thursday toured San Diego County water infrastructure to get a first-hand look at the region’s successful water portfolio approach for supply diversification. California Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot, Deputy Natural Resources Secretary Thomas Gibson, State Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross, and State Water Resources Board Chair E. Joaquin Esquivel were here to assess the region’s water projects as part of their new role in developing a water portfolio strategy for the state. “The region is proof that the portfolio approach works,” said Water Authority Board Chair Jim Madaffer. “The Water Authority and its 24 member agencies continue to develop local projects and explore opportunities that would benefit the region, the state, Mexico and the Southwest.”

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After 800,000-Gallon Spill, Chevron Site Is Still Leaking Oil

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Piper McDaniel

On the same day Sen. Dianne Feinstein chastised Chevron Corp. for keeping an 800,000-gallon spill outside Bakersfield “under wraps,” California officials confirmed Thursday that the site was once again seeping a hazardous mix of oil and water. The new leakage occurred in a surface expression vent in the Cymric oil field, near the Kern County town of McKittrick, according to the state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources. The vent is one of the locations where three previous leaks released about 800,000 gallons of oil and water.

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No Earthquake Damage To Dams

/in , , /by /Kern Valley Sun (Lake Isabella, Calif.)by Kathe Malouf

Shortly after two major earthquakes rocked buildings and rattled nerves in the Kern River Valley earlier this month, U.S. Army Corps of Engineer officials reported that it was “business as usual” at Isabella Dam, stating that the 6.4 magnitude earthquake on July 4 and 7.1 magnitude earthquake on July 5 did not cause any structural damage or safety concerns. Safety inspections on Isabella Dam were conducted immediately following the two earthquakes that were both centered outside of Ridgecrest with the use of both digital technology and on-the-ground inspections. Due to the ongoing construction that has been underway for the past three years at Isabella, Corps officials have been monitoring both Main and Auxiliary dams for seismic activity on a regular basis.

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LA’s Kern County Sludge Farm To Stop Receiving Free Bakersfield Water

/in , , /by /Bakersfield.comby Sam Morgen

It was a match made in heaven, at least for the residents of Los Angeles, but it will soon be coming to an end. For around 20 years, Los Angeles has shipped a large portion of “biosolids” from its toilets to fertilize a farm it owns just west of Bakersfield. Bakersfield, in return, has been providing an annual load of 18,000 acre-feet of free water to the farm, Green Acres, in a deal that was meant to benefit both cities. However, Bakersfield is choosing not to renew the water contract with LA, and the farm will have to find another source to irrigate its crops.

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Sweetwater Authority Decides To Post Audio Of Committee Meetings Online

/in , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby David Hernandez

In a move intended to provide access to discussions that happen at the committee level, the Sweetwater Authority has decided to post audio it records of those meetings online. The decision, announced this week by the South Bay water agency’s general manager in an email to the governing board, came after a July 11 report and subsequent critical editorial in The San Diego Union-Tribune about a policy change that did away with a requirement to keep minutes of meetings when board members on committees convene. Staff still planned to record audio. The revision to the policy on committees was criticized by Director Josie Calderon-Scott, who has represented the Bonita area since 2016, as well as some ratepayers.

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