U-T Q&As with Supervisor Dave Roberts
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
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.
State to Let Water Districts Take More Control Over Conservation
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.
Slide over these photos to see the drought’s effect on some of the state’s big reservoirs
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.
California board allows water districts to set their own conservation targets
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.
San Diego Taps a Bottomless Well: The Pacific Ocean
In Southern California, fresh water is constantly in short supply. But the San Diego area can now tap into a resource that’s not dependent on rain — a new $1 billion desalination plant that is the largest in the Western Hemisphere.
In Carlsbad, California, intake pumps pull water from the Pacific Ocean. “We bring 100 million gallons of water through our intake pump system and up the hill to the desalination plant,” said Jessica Jones, spokesperson for Poseidon Water. “We get a 55 percent recovery. We turn half of it into fresh drinking water.”
California’s Estimated 29 Million Dead Trees Fueling Increased Wildfire Risks
The Forest Service survey of California shows that the number of dead trees in the state rose from 3.3 million in 2014 to an estimated 29.1 million in 2015. The 2015 surveys covered almost all of the state. Scientists and fire officials are concerned because under normal circumstances forests lose between 1 percent and 1.5 percent of their trees annually, but the state is losing between 7 and 20 percent of its forests.
Fact Check: North County Wants Its ‘Fair Share’ of SANDAG Tax
The board for the San Diego Association of Governments – a regional planning agency of elected leaders from around the county – is asking voters in November if they want to increase sales taxes for a host of regional transportation, infrastructure and preservation projects. The plan has drawn opposition from all sides, including one dissident group of North County leaders who argue their part of the county won’t get a fair cut.
Border Fence Impact on Wetland Mixed
As birds sing and lizards scuttle in the lush vegetation of the Tijuana River Valley, helicopters circle overhead, and Border Patrol agents on all-terrain vehicles comb the area looking to stop illegal border-crossers.
Two big metal fences and stadium lighting divide homes in Mexico from this largest intact coastal wetland in Southern California. Over the decades, fencing construction and associated roadwork have affected wildlife habitat along a 14-mile stretch between the Pacific Ocean and the Otay Mesa Port of Entry.
Water Regulations Ease, but Drought Still Dominates in California
The past few day have been big for water news. First, Governor Jerry Brown announced plans to ease up on some water restrictions, then Southern California’s Metropolitan Water District said it’ll end limits on the amount of water local suppliers can purchase.
All of this comes as the U.S Drought Monitor reported that Del Norte County and parts of Humboldt and Siskiyou counties are actually drought free. This news is welcome relief after four years of brutal drought.
