Tag Archive for: california water infrastructure

Senate Passes California Water Infrastructure and Ecosystem Restoration Priorities

/in , /by /PublicCEO

Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Chair of the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water and Wildlife, announced that he secured several top water infrastructure priorities for California through the unanimous Senate passage of the Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2024. The legislation includes provisions Padilla fought for to address the Tijuana River transboundary sewage crisis, to invest in salmon recovery and habitat restoration around the Sacramento River Basin, and to provide the Army Corps of Civil Engineers with enhanced drought and flood control authorities.

The Senate and House of Representatives have each passed their respective versions of WRDA, which will now be conferenced to produce final legislation.

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California to Receive Half a Billion Federal Dollars for Water Infrastructure Improvement Projects

/in , /by /Spectrum News 1by Vania Patino

“There have not been enough investments into the water infrastructure since it was constructed. In 1977, 63% of the capital budget went to fund infrastructure repairs and by 2017 9% was going toward water, infrastructure and repairs. That is the biggest reason why we’re seeing issues on our existing infrastructure and more investment needs to be made now before the results become catastrophic,” said Burke, director of engineering at Inland Empire Utilities Agency.

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Rainbow MWD Approves $10M Financing Agreement for Capital Projects

/in , , /by /Fallbrook Village Newsby Joe Naiman Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The Rainbow Municipal Water District will be paying for $10 million of capital projects and equipment with a loan.

A 5-0 Rainbow board vote April 23 approved a resolution authorizing an installment purchase agreement with U.S. Bank to finance the infrastructure and equipment. The loan will begin as a line of credit with a variable interest rate before converting to a 4.7% fixed rate for the remainder of the ten-year period.

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Opinion: Ringside: Water Czars Ignore Solutions to Scarcity

/in , , /by /California Globeby Edward Ring

The Delta Tunnel proposal exemplifies California’s political dysfunction. It will probably never get built, but it promises to dominate all discussions of major state and federal spending on water infrastructure for the next decade, preventing any other big ideas from getting the attention they merit.

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TreePeople and Water in Southern California– A Decades-Long Push for a Resilient Future

/in , , /by /The San Fernando Valley Sunby Adam Thomas

“The story of Los Angeles is the story of water,” remarks Peter Massey, TreePeople’s project manager of Water Equity Programs, noting how California’s modern history is so deeply intertwined with water issues.

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‘A Foundation of Racism’: California’s Antiquated Water Rights System Faces New Scrutiny

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ian James

It’s an arcane system of water law that dates back to the birth of California — an era when 49ers used sluice boxes and water cannons to scour gold from Sierra Nevada foothills and when the state government promoted the extermination of Native people to make way for white settlers.

Today, this antiquated system of water rights still governs the use of the state’s supplies, but it is now drawing scrutiny like never before.

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EPA Boosts Calif. State Revolving Fund by $609M

/in , , /by /WaterWorld

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced more than $609 million in capitalization grants, through State Revolving Funds (SRFs), to California for water infrastructure improvements. The grants will supplement the state’s annual base SRF of $144 million. The capitalization grants mark the first significant distribution of water infrastructure investments to California following passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The law allocates more than $50 billion toward water infrastructure.

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As Baby Boomers Retire, The Water Workforce Faces Its Own Drought

/in , , /by /LAistby Erin Stone

This week marks the 50th Anniversary of the 1972 Clean Water Act, which, among other things, made it a legal requirement to clean up sewage to certain standards before dumping it into rivers or the ocean.

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Who Governs California’s Drinking Water Systems?

/in , , , /by /California WaterBlogby Kristin Dobbin and Amanda Fencl

A key feature of California’s drinking water system is the large number of individual water systems. There are approximately 3,000 Community Water Systems (CWSs) in the state, meaning systems that serve a residential population year-round (the remaining 5,000 of the state’s 8,000 Public Water Systems are non-community systems serve places like schools, daycare, hospitals, campgrounds, or businesses that serve at least 25 people but have transient or non-residential populations).

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Opinion: Initiative to Fund and Fast Track Water Projects is Badly Needed

/in , , /by /Mercury Newsby Edward King

California is in the grip of its fourth drought since 2000. To cope with worsening droughts, over the past few decades Californians have made impressive gains in water efficiency. Total water diversions in California for agriculture and cities – roughly 30 million acre feet per year for agriculture and 8 million acre feet per year for cities – have not increased even while California’s population has grown and irrigated farm acreage has increased. But conservation alone cannot guarantee Californians have an adequate supply of water.

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