California and the U.S.
The latest news and analysis covering water issues in Caliornia and the rest of the United States.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
Now $870 Million, Price of Oroville Dam Crisis Jumps by a Third
/in California and the U.S. /by Mike Lee /The Sacramento BeeOroville Dam’s battered flood-control spillways have been largely rebuilt, but the cost of last February’s near-disaster keeps rising. On Friday, state officials put the total price tag at $870 million. The latest figure from the California Department of Water Resources represents a 32 percent increase from DWR’s estimate in October, when the cost was pegged […]
A Cap-And-Trade System of Water Conservation and Resiliency
/in California and the U.S. /by Mike Lee /Phys.OrgCalifornia has struggled with drought for most of the last decade. From 2011-2015, the state experienced the driest four-year stretch in recorded history, leading to unprecedented water restrictions for residents, including a state mandate to reduce water use by 25 percent. Heavy precipitation last winter relieved much of California, but dry conditions linger. Wildfires raged […]
Los Angeles and the Future of Urban Water in California
/in California and the U.S. /by Mike Lee /Water Deeply (New York)Los Angeles is a grand American urban experiment. It brings emerging ideas into the mainstream, sometimes for better, and sometimes for worse. In the early 20th century, it seemed fanciful to build a metropolis in a region receiving limited seasonal rainfall. But L.A. adopted the ideas of the time at grand scales. It built pipelines […]
Another Leak: Sacramento County Joins Action Alleging Illegal Communications Over Twin Tunnels
/in California and the U.S. /by Mike Lee /Sacramento News & Reviewby Scott Thomas AndersonAlready facing a lawsuit claiming decades of state mismanagement of the Oroville dam and a “culture of corruption” that fostered harassment, the California Department of Water Resources drew a new legal challenge from Sacramento County—one that accuses its employees of improper communications around the twin tunnels project.The latest DWR drama was triggered January 15, when attorneys for Sacramento […]
One Possible Delta Tunnels Deal Would Give Cheap Water to Farmers — and More Expensive Water to Cities
/in California and the U.S. /by Mike Lee /Los Angeles TimesMonths of behind the scenes talks have failed to drum up enough money to pay the full costs of replumbing the center of California’s sprawling waterworks with two giant water tunnels. That has left the state with little choice but to scale down a roughly $17-billion water delivery project to fit a funding pot of […]
Idea of ‘Maximizing’ Water Deliveries Takes a Beating
/in California and the U.S. /by Mike Lee /Chico Enterprise-RecordThe Bureau of Reclamation came to Chico Thursday to take input on a proposal to maximize water deliveries from the Central Valley Project, and for two hours a succession of speakers told them it was a bad idea. The meeting was nominally to get comments just on what the environmental studies for the proposal should […]