What Gov. Jerry Brown has been pitching as his California WaterFix is seen by many San Joaquin Valley farmers as a checkbook buster. History may be repeating itself. Hang around long enough and comets return. Brown is having the same problem he had 35 years ago trying to update the waterworks created in the 1960s by his father, Gov. Pat Brown.
In the next couple weeks, we’ll likely know if California water agencies will bite the bullet and spend $17 billion to shore up the water system that brings water south from the rivers of Northern California. The project involves the construction of two 35-mile underground tunnels to keep water coming south through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta.
In part one of our report on rethinking drought and water,” (“Out of the woods?” Sept. 23, 2017) California State Climatologist Michael Anderson and University of California Riverside Professor of Environmental Economics and Policy Kurt Schwabe discussed the changing nature of drought in our region. But to merely focus on droughts may be shortsighted. According to both experts, the key to navigating the next drought will likely lie in how well we plan for change.
Poseidon Water announced this week that its proposed ocean desalination plant in Huntington Beach would employ an environmental protection and energy efficiency plan. But that didn’t halt criticism of the controversial facility. Poseidon said the plan includes several tactics aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of the $1-billion plant proposed at Newland Street and Pacific Coast Highway, including installing as many solar panels and purchasing as much “green” power as allowed by law.
Lilia Valeeva’s Spanish revival bungalow in Mission Hills was purchased as a fixer-upper in 2013. The landscaping was also in need of an overhaul. The front yard was mostly Bermuda grass, with bushes on the perimeter and an oak tree that was causing problems with the home’s foundation. She envisioned a front yard that suited the historically designated house and wanted the landscape to be drought-tolerant, too. To get ideas, Valeeva did online research, visited parks and the zoo, and walked around the neighborhoods of Mission Hills.
Customers in the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District who have already been hit with a series of annual rate increases could see their bills on the rise again as agencies across the state figure out how to pay for the $17-billion Delta tunnels. The LVMWD board of directors met Sept. 12 to endorse Gov. Jerry Brown’s California WaterFix project that will use a pair of 30-mile-long tunnels in a way that changes the how Northern California water moves through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and into the state’s Central Valley and points south.
Local leaders are working to make greater Los Angeles more reliant on local water in order to prepare for a hotter and more crowded future. A UCLA study published today is a reminder that achieving water independence would require a delicate balancing act—in particular for how the region manages the Los Angeles River.
At a “Wet and Wonderful” symposium at Descanso Gardens Saturday, water officials will promote the necessity of California WaterFix — a $17-billion plan to reengineer the flow of Northern California water past the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta into Central and Southern California. The plan involves the installation of two underground tunnels that would bypass the environmentally delicate delta and move Sierra Nevada runoff from the Sacramento River through aqueducts to water districts southward to San Diego.
A $16 billion-dollar plan to upgrade California’s water system would increase a ratepayer’s water bill upwards of $3 a month. However, the Metropolitan Water District and Department of Water Resources said the upgrade is necessary to update a 50-year-old system, improve water reliability, and protect the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta environment. “It’s absolutely essential that we take care of this,” said Department of Water Resources Director Grant Davis. “This resource is akin to the heart and lungs of the state of California.”
Despite opposition by a number of consumer and water conservation groups, the Pasadena City Council Monday evening unanimously approved a resolution in support of the proposed $16 billion California WaterFix Program, due to be completed in 2030. The resolution is only a policy statement of support and not an official legislative action.
