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Opinion: Erratic Weather Requires New Water Policy Approach

/in , , /by /Cal Mattersby Dan Walters

What happened — or didn’t — weatherwise during the last two months starkly reminds us of the erratic nature of California’s vital water supply.

After months of severe drought, the state saw record-shattering storms in December, creating a hefty mountain snowpack while replenishing seriously depleted reservoirs. But January, historically a month of heavy precipitation, was bone-dry.

With climate change, California’s wet periods have become briefer, albeit sometimes more intense, and the dry periods have become longer, making the state’s elaborate water storage and conveyance systems less able to cope with precipitation patterns.

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Poseidon Water Announces Application for Coastal Development Permit Completed

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Lilly Nguyen

Officials at Poseidon Water reported Monday the company has received notification from the California Coastal Commission that the application for a coastal development permit for its controversial $1.4-billion water desalination plant will be up for consideration in March.

If it receives approval, Poseidon Water will be able to then negotiate a contract to sell desalinated water to the Orange County Water District and begin construction of the facility.

It is expected to be located adjacent to the AES Huntington Beach Generating Station on Newland Avenue and is proposed to provide 50 million gallons of desalted drinking water a day.

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Environmentalists Sound Alarm Over Proposed Water Initiative

/in , , , /by /The Sunby Martin Wisckol

A proposed ballot measure that would dedicate $100 billion to bolster California’s water supply is drawing a sharp rebuke, not only for the amount of spending but also for the dramatic sidesteps it would allow in the environmental review process.

For example, the proposal would make the controversial plan for a Huntington Beach desalination plant eligible for a huge taxpayer subsidy — even though the private, for-profit Poseidon Water company currently intends to pay for the $1.4 billion in construction costs.

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Lake Mendocino Level Now At About 75% of What Water Managers Had Hoped

/in , , /by /The Press Democratby Mary Callahan

The storage level in Lake Mendocino was on pace to drop below 15,000 acre feet on Saturday, meaning a quarter of the supply water managers had hoped to keep in store by Oct. 1 already has been released. The rapid shrinkage of the reservoir after two years of historic drought raises unsettling questions about the future for a range of consumers along the upper Russian River, whose supplies already are heavily restricted.

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Opinion: Secure California’s Future Water Supply and Invest in Recycled Water

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Jennifer West

Climate change is forcing our state to reimagine our water supply future. How do we do that? Easy — we reuse water.

Just like recycling a plastic bottle, we can safely use recycled water to drink, irrigate parks, support environmental uses, grow crops, produce energy, and much more. More than just a new source of water, water recycling projects provide a degree of local water independence.

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Federal Government Slashes Water Deliveries to Farms, Cities as California Drought Worsens

/in , , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

California’s water supply got cut again Wednesday, with the federal government reducing allocations to cities and farms as the drought intensified.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced that municipal water agencies that rely on the Central Valley Project will have this year’s allocations slashed from 55% down to 25% — a level not seen since the drought of 2015.

That could put additional pressure on the municipalities around greater Sacramento that depend on supplies from Folsom Lake, whose water levels have sunk dramatically this spring. The reservoir is at 46% of its usual capacity for late May.

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Running Dry: Explaining Reservoirs’ Importance in California

/in , /by /KCRA3by Dirk Verdoorn

California’s water supply can vary greatly from year to year to the need to manage what we get is a high priority in the Golden State. The Central Valley Project was devised in 1933 as a way to manage water and transport it areas considered more water-rich to the more water-scarce areas in the Central Valley by a series of canals, aqueducts and pump plants. Reservoirs play an important role in the project, feeding the canals that transport water from the far southern end of the valley.

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Colorado’s Water Plan has Made Progress Toward Ensuring Supply, but the Work’s Far From Done

/in , /by /The Colorado Sunby Sarah Kuta

In the five years since Colorado’s Water Plan took effect, the state has awarded nearly $500 million in loans and grants for water projects, cities have enacted strict drought plans, communities have written nearly two dozen locally based stream-restoration plans and crews have been hard at work on improving irrigation systems and wastewater treatment plants. But there are big challenges ahead — drought, population growth, accelerating climate change, budget cuts, wildfires and competing demands for water, among others.

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Investors Can Now Trade On and Profit From California Water — How Might That Work Out?

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

It’s not just Californians paying attention to the state’s water supply anymore. It’s Wall Street.

In a sign of the growing value of water in a warming world, investors began trading futures of the coveted commodity, tied to California water prices, for the first time last week.

The novel marketplace allows speculators to make money betting on future prices of California water while allowing farmers, businesses and municipal suppliers to hedge against price swings and stabilize their costs.

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California Slammed Over ‘Blank Check’ for Delta Tunnel Project

/in , /by /Courthouse News Serviceby Nick Cahill

Lobbing another hurdle at California’s $16 billion plan to tunnel underneath the West Coast’s largest estuary, environmentalists on Thursday sued to freeze public funding for the megaproject championed by Governor Gavin Newsom.

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