California and the U.S.

The latest news and analysis covering water issues in Caliornia and the rest of the United States.

Key Vote On Jerry Brown’s $17 Billion Delta Tunnels Project Tuesday In San Jose

In its most far-reaching decision in more than 50 years, Silicon Valley’s largest water provider will vote Tuesday on whether to embrace or reject Gov. Jerry Brown’ s $17 billion plan to build two massive tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The Santa Clara Valley Water District, based in San Jose, is considering contributing […]

California’s new normal may be more intense heat, fires, droughts and floods

As portrayed in novels, the California of the future is barely habitable. Brutal storms alternate with crushing droughts. Mudslides and wildfires create waves of climate change refugees. Fiction? Perhaps less so after last week. The wildfires in northern California obliterated neighbourhoods; killed dozens, made thousands evacuate or homeless; stunned fire authorities with its fast-moving blazes […]

Get ready to see a plan for billions of dollars in parks and water improvements on California’s 2018 ballot

Voters will decide in June 2018 whether to borrow $4 billion to fund improvements to the California’s parks and water systems after Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 5 on Sunday. The bond measure, which must be paid back over time with interest, will finance boosts to water recycling, stormwater capture and conservation infrastructure as […]

Brown should compromise and settle for just one delta tunnel

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein recalls Gov. Jerry Brown pitching her to support his costly twin-tunnels water plan. He showed her the environmental analysis and she was shocked. Shocked not at the contents, but at the documents’ size. “He had the environmental impact reports on his picnic table in his office,” she told me last week. […]

Western Arizona tribes could lease Colorado River water to areas thirsty for development

The clear waters of the Colorado River flow gently through the Headgate Rock diversion dam while boaters and Jet Skiers play upstream in front of the Blue Water Resort and Casino. The dam quietly siphons off almost one fourth of Arizona’s share of Colorado River water and sends it to nearby fields of alfalfa and cotton […]

New obstacle in the Cadiz water project in the Mojave Desert? The company says no

The state of California is asserting landownership rights along a proposed pipeline’s path that would help carry groundwater from a remote part of the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County to Orange County and other communities. The California Lands Commission asked Cadiz Inc. to fill out an application for a lease permit on a 200-foot-wide […]