A drier February is having an impact on the snow pack in the Sierra Nevada.
The State Department of Water Resources said Tuesday the statewide snow pack water content is 7 percent below normal despite the fact that precipitation since October 1st is only about 5 percent above average.
The water industry in the west has an impressive history of building dams, moving water hundreds of miles to where it’s needed, removing contaminants to assure public health and safety, and developing distribution systems that have set the international standard. These accomplishments aside, twentieth century solutions are becoming less and less viable as disruptors to the status quo fundamentally challenge the way we operate. The types of incremental improvements the industry is used to aren’t adequate to address the twenty-first century challenges we are facing.
With California on the verge of “bankrupting” some of its most important aquifers, state officials Tuesday reiterated the responsibility local water agencies have in enforcing the state’s new groundwater-monitoring laws.
During a legislative oversight hearing, state officials updated implementation plans for the newly enacted Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, telling lawmakers it will largely be up to local communities to monitor and prevent further depletion of California’s vital underground water supply.
There is a lawsuit in San Diego County that is as old as “I Love Lucy.” It was filed the same year a disc jockey coined the term “rock ‘n’ roll,” a gallon of gasoline cost 27 cents, and turn signals were still optional in cars.
And it is still being waged in San Diego federal court today.
In 1951, the U.S. government sued thousands of landowners in and around Fallbrook in a move to secure Camp Pendleton’s water rights. It is the oldest, ongoing civil case in the county.
Road safety, government regulations and corruption, high-speed rail, medical marijuana and state-mandated water restrictions were just some of the topics brought up at Sen. Joel Anderson’s community coffee Thursday evening.
The state senator said the money that is being spent on the state’s high-speed rail, which is supposed to run from the Silicon Valley to the Central Valley, would be better spent on new technology for vehicles, road infrastructure or water projects.
The Rainbow Municipal Water District board approved the district’s strategic plan at the Jan. 26 board meeting.
A 3-0 board vote, with Jack Griffiths abstaining and Bob Lucy having resigned prior to the meeting, adopted the strategic plan.
When it comes to finding new sources of drinking water for residents of a coastal state mired in drought, some say desalination gets little respect in Sacramento.
“Desalination should be a priority,” said Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang, R-Diamond Bar, who introduced a bill last week that would write first-time goals into the state water code for a percentage of drinking water originating from the ocean.
The Metropolitan Water District, the primary water supplier for nearly 19 million people in Southern California, announced this month that its popular turf replacement rebate program may not be continued next year, even though the program provides visibility for non-traditional water conservation and improves drought awareness. When asked about why the program might be canceled, MWD Water Resource Management manager Deven Upadhyay said, “It was a one-time thing to try to ramp up attention on having more drought-tolerant landscapes while we’re in the drought.”
The rebate program certainly did just that. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the MWD teamed up to offer a budget of more than half a billion dollars for conservation to span two years. Many of these programs, like the turf removal rebate, were effective. The funding for the MWD turf removal rebate itself was exhausted in late 2015 due to overwhelming demand. However, the MWD should continue offering rebates for water-wise landscaping in Southern California.
There is a lawsuit in San Diego County that is as old as “I Love Lucy.” It was filed the same year a disc jockey coined the term “rock ‘n’ roll,” a gallon of gasoline cost 27 cents, and turn signals were still optional in cars.
And it is still being waged in San Diego federal court today.
In 1951, the U.S. government sued thousands of landowners in and around Fallbrook in a move to secure Camp Pendleton’s water rights. It is the oldest, ongoing civil case in the county.
Road safety, government regulations and corruption, high-speed rail, medical marijuana and state-mandated water restrictions were just some of the topics brought up at Sen. Joel Anderson’s community coffee Thursday evening.
The state senator said the money that is being spent on the state’s high-speed rail, which is supposed to run from the Silicon Valley to the Central Valley, would be better spent on new technology for vehicles, road infrastructure or water projects.
