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The time period for legal challenges to the controversial San Bernardino County Mojave Desert underground water transfer plan has passed, officials for Cadiz Inc. said this week.

“As a result, all challenges to the environmental review and approval of the Cadiz Water Project under the California Environmental Quality Act, the toughest environmental law in the U.S., are now final having withstood scrutiny by state superior and appellate courts,” the company said in a statement.

 

 

Water from the Colorado River could transform several thousand acres of desert into farmland under a change in policy adopted by the Coachella Valley’s largest water district.

The Coachella Valley Water District’s board made the change in a contentious 3-2 vote Tuesday, approving new guidelines that allow for water from the Colorado River to be supplied in a larger zone than in the past. The decision has the potential to open up new areas to agriculture, pushing farmland farther outward along the dry fringes of the eastern Coachella Valley.

Southern Californians are conserving water as never before. Yet based on one government formula, we are not conserving at all.

Southland water use is down, the same as if local water agencies were imposing a 30 percent rationing mandate. But the official conservation target by these same agencies, based on a new state reporting requirement, is officially “zero.”

What is going on? California agencies at various times have cajoled, motivated or mandated residents and businesses to use less water. Sometimes conservation mandates take the forefront. At other times, conservation is a way of life.

In advance of a political showdown in the state Legislature, Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration made its first formal effort Tuesday to extend the life of the program central to California’s bid to combat climate change.

The California Air Resources Board, which is controlled by the governor, released a plan that would continue the state’s cap-and-trade program to cut carbon emissions beyond 2020, the date when the program currently expires. Cap and trade functions by forcing companies to buy permits in order to pollute, providing a financial incentive for power plants, oil refineries, manufacturers and other businesses to reduce their emissions.

The San Diego Sustainable Landscapes Program (SLP) has launched a website, SustainableLandscapesSD.org, to help the region’s residents easily find information to transform turf-based urban landscapes into sustainable ones that provide multiple environmental benefits, such as increased water-use efficiency and improved storm water management, according to a San Diego Water Authority press release.

The SLP is a grant-funded partnership created by the San Diego County Water Authority, the City of San Diego, the County of San Diego, the Surfrider Foundation, the California American Water Company and the Association of Compost Producers.