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Outlook Improves For Colorado River Reservoirs, But A Drought Deal Is Still In The Works

/in , /by /Arizona Central (Phoenix, Ariz.)by Ian James

Winter storms have covered the Rocky Mountains with snow from Wyoming to northern New Mexico, leaving a bounty of runoff that should boost the levels of the Colorado River’s depleted reservoirs this spring and summer. The snow that fell during the past month has pushed the accumulated snowpack across the Upper Colorado River Basin to nearly 140 percent of average. Federal officials now estimate there could be enough snow to narrowly avert a declaration of a shortage at Lake Mead next year, which would hold off water cutbacks in the Southwest for another year.

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Wastewater Treatment Startup Wins $200,000 At San Diego Angel Conference

/in , /by /San Diego Business Journalby Elise Reuter

AquaCycl, a San Diego-based wastewater treatment startup, took home the grand prize at the San Diego Angel Conference on March 15. A panel of angel investors that had vetted the finalists for months selected AquaCycl as the winner, for a $200,000 cash prize. The company was also voted in as the audience favorite. AquaCycl was co-founded in 2016 by CEO Orianna Bretschger, Vice President of R&D Sofia Babanova and Vice President of Hardware and Manufacturing Ryoji Naito. The company developed a technology that uses electricity-generating bacteria to speed up wastewater treatment rates, resulting in a more efficient, lower-cost option.

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Water District GM: Listen To Consultants On Cal Am Buyout Feasibility

/in , /by /Monterey Heraldby Jim Johnson

Feasibility of a potential public buyout of California American Water’s local water system should be based on a consulting team’s advice on an acquisition plan that could succeed in a public necessity court trial while seeking cost savings for local ratepayers and keeping all costs contained in water rates. That’s according to a recommendation from Monterey Peninsula Water Management District general manager Dave Stoldt to be considered by the water board on Monday. The board is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. at water district headquarters, 5 Harris Court at Ryan Ranch in Monterey.

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What Are The Environmental Impacts Of Two Major Ventura Water Projects? Reports Shed Light

/in , /by /Ventura County Starby Arlene Martinez

Ventura has released reports detailing the environmental impacts of two sizable projects expected to increase the city’s water supply and reliability while ensuring it complies with the terms of a 2011 legal settlement. One involves tapping into the city’s long-held investment into state water. A 7-mile pipeline would tap into the Calleguas Municipal Water District, which gets water via the Metropolitan Water District in Los Angeles.

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Santa Barbara County Supervisors Poised To Declare End Of Drought-Caused Emergency

/in , /by /Santa Ynez Valley News (Solvang, Calif.)by Mike Hodgson

Full and rising reservoirs from this winter’s storms have the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors poised to terminate the drought-caused emergency declaration, although South Coast purveyors are worried a water shortage will persist for an extended time, according to a county staff report. Office of Emergency Management Director Rob Lewin noted that despite the recent abundance of precipitation, it could take years of above-normal or at least normal rainfall before the county’s severely depleted groundwater basins are recharged.

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Water War In California: Two Agencies Fight Over Colorado River Drought Plan With A Crucial Deadline Looming

/in , /by /CNBCby Jeff Daniels

California remains a holdout on a drought emergency plan for the Colorado River that is due next Tuesday by all seven river states. Holding up the plan has been a fight between two powerful water agencies in Southern California. The drought contingency plan is designed to produce voluntary cuts that would keep the river and Lake Mead from reaching critically low levels. If the plan doesn’t get finalized, the federal government could step in and force mandatory cutbacks instead of voluntary ones for a river that serves 40 million people and some 5 million acres of farmland.

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Pipeline Rehab Project Coming To La Jolla Shores And La Jolla Heights

/in , /by /La Jolla Lightby Ashley Mackin-Solomon

By the beginning of May, areas of La Jolla Shores and La Jolla Heights will undergo a pipeline replacement project — in piecemeal segments — to replace or rehabilitate more than seven collective miles of underground sewer lines. Arterial streets east of La Jolla Shores Drive, portions of Torrey Pines Road, some of La Jolla Scenic Drive North, and other smaller streets are slated for work.

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Garcetti’s Hyperion Hyperbole

/in , /by /CityWatch Los Angelesby Jack Humphreville

On February 21, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that the City of Los Angeles, the Department of Water and Power, and the Bureau of Sanitation would embark on an $8 billion plan to recycle 100% of its wastewater by 2035.  This ambitious sixteen-year plan will involve recycling over 200 million gallons a day of wastewater into around 195,000 acre feet of potable water a year. This new source of water represents about one-third of the City’s annual consumption.  It will allow to City to reduce its dependence on expensive water from the Southern California Metropolitan Water District that is pumped in from the Bay Delta in Northern California via the energy intensive California Aqueduct.

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Salton Sea Management Effort Lags As Water Continues To Recede

/in , /by /KPBSby Erik Anderson

Imperial Valley officials are reportedly close to finishing an important habitat restoration project at the Salton Sea. The remake of Red Hill Bay was supposed to be a model for a management plan around the shrinking lake, but the effort is two years overdue and still months away from completion. The Salton Sea needs a management plan because water is evaporating faster than it’s being replaced, and that’s leaving large swaths of lakebed exposed to the elements. “You got the Salton Sea probably a mile out there. Along the shoreline. You see the playa here,” said Bruce Wilcox, California Resources Agency Assistant Secretary of Salton Sea Policy.

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Historic Pipeline Project Boosts Long-Term Water Reliability

/in , /by /Water News Network

San Diego County Water Authority crews successfully completed the first of three coordinated shutdowns of the First Aqueduct in early March to launch a major renovation of dozens of structures on two pipelines, including the historic Pipeline 1 that first delivered imported water to the region in 1947. The series of shutdowns was carefully planned for nearly four years to minimize impacts on the community and retail water agencies during retrofits of Pipelines 1 and 2, which comprise the First Aqueduct.

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