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Slow Progress on Salton Sea Projects as Time Runs Low

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs) by By Sammy Roth

Efforts to limit air pollution and create wildlife habitat at the Salton Sea are inching forward, but critics say the progress isn’t nearly fast enough.

Earlier this month, Bruce Wilcox — Gov. Jerry Brown’s Salton Sea czar — submitted a report to the state Legislature outlining progress on restoration projects. While a few small-scale projects to reduce hazardous dust emissions and create habitat for fish and birds might be finished before the lake’s decline accelerates in 2018, several larger projects probably won’t start construction until 2018 or 2019, according to the report.

 

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OPINION: Too Much Water to Waste?

/in /by /Voice of Orange County by By Debbie Cook Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Does California have too much water? Seriously. Because our actions are sending peculiar messages. Even the State Water Board has backed off on conservation targets for some water agencies.

It’s true, rains have replenished much of Northern California’s reservoirs and Governor Brown’s mandated 25% water restrictions made a serious dent in our water binge. A whopping 1.1 million acre-feet of water was saved, or rather, not wasted, thanks to these restrictions.

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Corporate Water Users Who Saved the Most — Or Least

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune by By Morgan Cook

The City of San Diego supplied its top 10 corporate water customers with 1.6 billion gallons in the budget year that ended on June 30, 2015.

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Counties Fight SoCal Water Giant’s Delta Grab

/in /by /Courthouse News Service (Pasadena) by By Julie Baker-Dennis

Political agencies and nonprofits in the Central Valley say the Metropolitan District of Southern California’s $175 million purchase of four islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta may cause significant environmental changes and sued to block the sale.

San Joaquin and Contra Costa counties, Central Delta Water Agency, Contra Costa County Water Agency and Food & Water Watch and the Planning and Conservation League sued the district on April 15 in San Joaquin County Superior Court, seeking a court order blocking Metropolitan District of Southern California’s purchase of 20,369 acres of property — including five delta islands and tracts — until an environmental review is satisfied.

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OPINION: Actually, Fellow Headline Writers, Storms Did Dent the Drought

/in /by /Los Angeles Daily News by By Larry Wilson

“Storms won’t make a dent in the drought.” I hate that headline. It is so untrue — not that we haven’t used it ourselves a few times over the five years of California drought.

But the fact is that the Friday and Saturday rains made a big dent in the drought, and not just for those of us who like our little yards. The drought is not a monolith; we all have our own locavore version of it to grapple with.

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Still No Showers at San Diego State Beaches

/in /by /San Diego Reader by By Ken Harrison Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Even though the California Department of Water Resources reports a near normal snow pack after four years of little snow, the governor’s office is not ready to turn on the rinse-off showers at local state beaches yet.

The beach showers at Silver Strand, Torrey Pines, Cardiff, and South Carlsbad, were shut down last July. Later in the year, so were some campground showers and beach restroom sinks.

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Metropolitan Water District Sued

/in /by /KABC (Los Angeles)

The Metropolitan Water District has been sued over the multi million-dollar purchase of five islands in the Sacramento River Delta.

Two Northern California counties, two water districts and two environmental groups filed suit on Thursday.

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Creating New Sources of Water

/in /by /Valley Center Happenings
Since agriculture in our region depends largely on imported water, I have long supported initiatives to increase local supplies, including the use of recycled water. As many of you know, while a member of the Escondido City Council, I was an early supporter of a plan to use treated wastewater to irrigate citrus and avocado groves on the city’s outskirts.

This year I introduced Assembly Bill 2438 to help speed construction of recycled water pipelines along existing rights-of-way by streamlining costly, time consuming regulations that have delayed or prevented these projects statewide.

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Otay Water District to Choose Winner of Eco-Friendly Landscape Contest

/in /by /NBC 7 (San Diego) Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The Otay Water District will soon choose a winner of its 2016 landscape contest, which seeks out yards that prioritize water conservation and eco-friendly features.

The winners, chosen over the next week or so, are selected based primarily on the yard’s environmentally-conscious features and how much water the homeowner saves.

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OPINION: Is the California Drought America’s Water Wake-Up Call?

/in /by /Los Angeles Times by Jay Famiglietti

The California drought is not over. The great hope for major replenishment of California’s surface and groundwater supplies — the “Godzilla” El Niño — has failed thus far to live up to its super-sized hype, delivering only average amounts of rain and snow, primarily to the northern half of the state.

Average, however, is welcome. Average means that snowpack is visible atop the Sierra, water levels are rising in many reservoirs and a drought-fatigued public is getting a little emotional relief after enduring one “hottest-ever, driest ever” winter after another.

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