Tag Archive for: California State Water Resources Control Board

California Supports Projects to Bolster Drinking Water Systems and Climate Resilience

The California State Water Resources Control Board distributed approximately $880 million to water systems and communities during the past fiscal year for projects that will benefit around 12 million Californians.

395 projects across the state have received funding to capture and recycle more water, recharge and protect groundwater, improve stormwater management, expand access to safe drinking water and improve sanitation.

OPINION: Californians Will Have to Use Less Water Under State Board’s New Rules

It’s been said in different ways by a variety of people, but there’s more than just a grain of truth in it: If the federal bureaucracy or a socialist regime were ever put in charge of the Sahara Desert, there would eventually be a shortage of sand. This helps explain why there is such a scarcity of water in California that permanent use restrictions have been, for the first time in the state’s history, set.

On July 3, the California State Water Resources Control Board approved the rules for “Making Conservation a California Way of Life.” Under this framework, retail water suppliers are going to have to figure out how to meet the imposed “water use objective,” which “is 70% or less of the supplier’s average annual water use” in 2024-26 by July 2040.

Drinking Water of Almost a Million Californians Failed to Meet State Requirements

Almost 400 water systems serving nearly a million Californians don’t meet state requirements for safe and reliable drinking water supplies — and fixing them would cost billions of dollars.

More than two-thirds of these failing water systems serve communities of color, and more than half are in places struggling with poverty and pollution, according to an annual assessment released today by the State Water Resources Control Board.

As Water Rates Climb, Many Are Struggling to Pay For an Essential Service

In California and across the country, household water rates have been rising as utilities invest to upgrade aging infrastructure, secure future supplies and meet treatment standards for clean drinking water. As monthly water bills continue to increase, growing numbers of customers have been struggling to pay.

Experts Urge California To Avoid Pitfalls In Water Deals In The Delta

Some of the thorniest debates over water in California revolve around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where pumps send water flowing to farms and cities, and where populations of native fish have been declining.

OPINION – California Should Rethink Its Water Conservation Plan

In the wake of a megadrought, California is planning for a drier future. Regulators shouldn’t rush to impose conservation efforts that cost more than they’re worth. At the peak of the last drought, efforts to reduce water consumption remained mostly voluntary.

Costly And ‘Unnecessarily Complex’: Report Blasts California Water Conservation Plan

In a scathing review, advisors to the state Legislature have found that California’s proposed regulations for urban water conservation would be costly, overly complicated and difficult to implement.

California’s Proposed Water Conservation Rules Too Stringent And Costly, Analysts Say

California’s legislative advisers on Friday lambasted the state’s ambitious proposal to regulate urban water conservation, calling the measures costly and difficult to achieve, “in many cases without compelling justifications.”

Toilet-to-Tap or the Future of California Water?

If there is one truism in California water, it is that there is not enough of it. In part to try to help address that issue, on December 19, 2023, the California State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) adopted the state’s first direct potable reuse (DPR) regulations. As detailed in the State Water Board’s press release, the new regulations represent the “most advanced standards in the nation,” provide a “climate-resilient water source,” and “add millions of gallons of additional drinking water.” However, is the picture quite that rosy?

Debate Over Options for California’s Ailing Delta Region Reflects Deep Divisions Over Water

California water regulators have released a long-awaited analysis of options for managing flows in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where fish populations have been declining and the ecosystem has been deteriorating.

The delta is the central hub of the state’s water system, drawing together rivers from a vast watershed and supplying pumps that send water flowing to cities and farms.