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Delayed Colorado River Deal Will Likely Fall To Trump Administration To Finish

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Ian James

Several months ago, managers of water agencies in California, Arizona and Nevada were expressing optimism they could finalize a deal to use less water from the dwindling Colorado River before the end of the Obama administration. Now that Jan. 20 deadline no longer seems achievable and parties to the talks acknowledge they likely won’t be able to finish an agreement until at least several months into President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.

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U.S. and Mexico Push To Extend Accord On Colorado River

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Sandra Dibble Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

With the prospect of reduced Colorado River deliveries as early as 2018, U.S. and Mexican negotiators have been in a race against the clock to forge an agreement that involves sharing any future shortages — and are hoping for a signing before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20th. Water managers on both sides of the border say the accord will be crucial in spelling out how the United States and Mexico would take cuts when a shortage is declared on the river, a lifeline for some 40 million people in both countries.

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Delayed Colorado River Deal Will Likely Fall To Trump Administration To Finish

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Ian James

Several months ago, managers of water agencies in California, Arizona and Nevada were expressing optimism they could finalize a deal to use less water from the dwindling Colorado River before the end of the Obama administration. Now that Jan. 20 deadline no longer seems achievable and parties to the talks acknowledge they likely won’t be able to finish an agreement until at least several months into President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.

 

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A $1-Billion Desalination Plant Might Be Coming To Huntington Beach, But It Will Test California’s Environmental Rules

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall Mentioned: Carlsbad Desalination Plant

Poseidon Water hopes to help quench Orange County’s thirst, but first the company’s proposed desalination project must slake a thirst of its own. That’s why Poseidon has long eyed a coastal power plant that has, for more than a half-century, sucked up seawater to cool its massive generators. The AES Huntington Beach Generating Station’s giant smokestacks and steam boilers will be gone in a few years, replaced under state orders by a smaller plant that uses air, rather than the ocean, to keep from overheating.

 

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Heavy rain is on its way, and that could mean dangerous mud flows in the Southern California foothills

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Joseph Serna

Powerful winds and rain will sweep across Southern California on Thursday, bringing the potential for dangerous mud flows in the foothills of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, the National Weather Service said.

Starting early Thursday in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, the storm will spread southeast across Los Angeles County and the San Gabriel Mountains, where it’s expected to drop 1 to 3 inches of rain by Friday morning, meteorologist Joe Sirard said.

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A tale of two droughts in California: Wetter in the north, still bone dry in the south

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Matt Stevens

When California water officials assess the drought, the first place they look is the northern Sierra Nevada mountains.

Rain and snowmelt from the area feed into a complex system of rivers, canals and reservoirs that send water across the state. And by almost all measures, the drought picture in Northern California has dramatically improved over the last two months, as a series of storms have helped replenish the state’s two major water projects. So far this season, rain levels in the northern Sierra are 180% of average, with 23.5 inches of rain falling — and more on the way this week.

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Can These Tree ‘Shots’ Save Urban Park Trees From Deadly Beetles And Disease?

/in /by /The Press-Enterprise (Riverside)by David Danelski and Steve Scauzillo

UC Riverside’s Akif Eskalen pointed to a pattern of small holes in the bark of a majestic California sycamore tree growing in a Riverside park and lamented that it will be dead in about two years. The holes are the work of invaders from Southeast Asia, beetles smaller than a sesame seed that probably hitched a ride to the Golden State in packing wood. First discovered but misidentified in 2003 in Los Angeles County, the beetles have since infested at least 49 species of trees in seven Southern California counties, said Eskalen, a plant pathology professor.

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KPBS Drought Tracker Update: Warm Temps Keeping Snowpack Thin

/in /by /KPBSby David Wagner

Thursday night’s forecast shows rain coming into San Diego County. Up to an inch of rain is expected in some coastal areas, and more is predicted to fall in the mountains. An update from the newly relaunched KPBS Drought Tracker shows the storm coming in the midst of a wet season that has so far brought California increased rain — but paltry snow — compared to previous drought years. Since the state’s wet season officially began on Oct. 1, California has seen a bit more rain than in many previous drought years.

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Major Storms Barrel Into California: ‘Every Field Is A Big Lake’

/in /by /Los Angeles Times

The drought-plagued state was slammed with rainstorms Thursday night, with Northern California hit particularly hard. In Southern California, rains started moving in Thursday afternoon. The storm is expected to drop 1 to 3 inches of rain by Friday morning, National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Sirard said. The weather service issued a flash flood watch for the Santa Monica and San Gabriel mountains and foothill communities in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and San Gabriel valleys.

 

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Capitol Journal Everyone Is At Odds Over Gov. Brown’s Delta Tunnels Plan — Here’s A Compromise That Could Stop The Fighting

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby George Skelton

When enemies are in face-to-face combat, they’re often blind to an obvious path to potential compromise.That’s certainly true of water warriors, who have been battling over California’s most valuable and limited resource since statehood. Fights don’t get any more ferocious than over water in this state. Agriculture just won a major battle over environmentalists in Congress because of an alliance between House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). But still raging in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is a decades-long struggle that will affect 25 million Californians and 3 million acres of farmland.

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