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State lets local water boards set conservation goals

/in /by /Fox5 San Diegoby Bob Ponting

State regulators have approved new water conservation rules that could loosen water restriction imposed by Gov. Jerry Brown last year.

The State Water Resources Control Board voted 4-0 Wednesday to allow local water districts to set their own water savings targets based on the water supply and demand forecasts for their areas, the Los Angeles Times reported. As a result, areas of the state that received a lot of rain this winter and areas that purchase water from suppliers with adequate supplies will be able to relax restrictions this summer.

 

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Groundwater overdrafting facing new regulations

/in /by /Inland Empire News

As a consequence of the drought, state water officials are moving toward regulations preventing overdrafting of groundwater basins.
The California Water Commission approved regulations Wednesday that will guide creation of sustainability plans by local groundwater agencies. For more than a century, groundwater pumping in California has been mostly unregulated.
Groundwater supplies over a third of the water Californians use. Unrestrained pumping in recent years has driven groundwater to lowest recorded levels in parts of the San Joaquin Valley. It has caused overlying land to fall, or subside, in some places. Subsidence threatens bridges, aqueducts, roads, and other infrastructure.

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Sierra Madre Excess Water Use Penalties to Increase

/in /by /Pasadena Now

This year’s El Niño rains have had a limited impact on our part of the state. Water conservation remains as critical as ever as California enters into its fifth year of drought. Sierra Madre City Council approved a measure earlier this month that would increase the penalty rate assessed on excess water use.

The City of Sierra Madre would like to thank its water-wise customers for doing their part to make every drop count. The latest water billing numbers for May show 75% of Sierra Madre customers met, or outperformed, their water conservation targets.

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Diamond Valley Lake Reopens to Private Boats After More Than Year-Long Suspension

/in /by /ABC7 (Los Angeles) by By Rob McMillan

One of the best fishing destinations in Southern California is now open again to private boats, just in time for the Memorial Day weekend.

For the first time in more than a year, private boats were allowed to drive down the boat ramp and skim the waters of Diamond Valley Lake near Temecula. The low water levels had prompted the suspension of boat launches.

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U-T Q&As with Supervisor Dave Roberts

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The U-T Editorial Board met with the Board of Supervisor candidates recently. Here is an edited transcript of the Q&A with Supervisor Dave Roberts.

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Sen. Dianne Feinstein Pushes Senate Subcommittee for Water Bill to Address California’s Drought

/in /by /Los Angeles Times by Sarah D. Wire

El Niño’s rains didn’t end California’s drought, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein urged Senate colleagues Tuesday to hurry and find a compromise on a package of bills to address the water crisis in the West.

“There appears to be no immediate end in sight,” Feinstein said. “The drought is going to continue through next year.” Feinstein testified Tuesday before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s Water and Power Subcommittee about her proposal, which includes short-term drought relief for California and long-term water projects for more than a dozen Western states.

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State to Let Water Districts Take More Control Over Conservation

/in /by /The Orange County Register by By Scott Smith and Amy Taxin

California decided Wednesday to allow hundreds of local water districts to set their own conservation goals after a wet winter eased the five-year drought in some parts of the state.

The new approach lifts a statewide conservation order enacted last year that requires at least a 20 percent savings. Beginning next month, districts serving nearly 40 million Californians will compare water supply and demand with the assumption that dry conditions will stretch for three years. The districts would then set savings goals through January and report their calculations to the state.

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Slide over these photos to see the drought’s effect on some of the state’s big reservoirs

/in /by /The Los Angeles Times

As of Wednesday, California’s two largest reservoirs, Shasta and Oroville, are more than 90% full, a significant reversal from the summer and fall of 2014, when the state was locked in severe drought. Folsom Lake is filled to about 86% capacity.

After four dry winters, storms have helped replenish these Northern California reservoirs with rain and runoff from the state’s relatively healthy snowpack. California’s complex water delivery system helps move the water from the northern part of the state, where most of the rain and snow falls, to the southern part of the state, where much of the population resides.

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California board allows water districts to set their own conservation targets

/in /by /The Los Angeles Timesby Matt Stevens

For its first four years, the California drought spread its pain across most corners of the state.

The great peaks of the Sierra Nevada were snow-deprived. Central Valley agricultural fields lay fallow. And the trademark green lawns of Southern California suburbia slowly turned brown.

But this summer is going to be different. A strong series of storms have left parts of Northern California rehydrated, with reservoirs brimming with water and once brown and dry hillsides radiating green again. But to the south, residents are enduring another record-dry year.

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