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In a First, California Abolishes Compton’s Water District Board After Years of Dirty-Water Allegations

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Angel Jennings

State officials on Wednesday removed the elected board and general manager of a water district that for years has been accused of serving brown, smelly water to its customers in Compton. With a 22-page decree, the State Water Resources Control Board abolished Sativa Los Angeles County Water District’s five-member board of directors and ousted its manager. In their place, the state appointed the county’s Department of Public Works to temporarily run the district while officials seek to merge the small district, which delivers water to about 1,600 homes, with a larger provider.

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Can L.A. County stormwater Tax Clear The Two-Thirds Bar For Passage?

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Nina Agrawal

It was a week after L.A.’s first major rain of the season, and hundreds of volunteers had gathered to pick up trash along the beach at a monthly cleanup organized by Heal the Bay. Ying, a volunteer herself, was giving them instructions — and helping make the case for a countywide measure on the Nov. 6 ballot that would raise money from property taxes to fund stormwater capture and cleanup.

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Water Bond Would Spread Money Across The State — But Pour It On The Central Valley

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall

Excessive groundwater pumping by San Joaquin Valley farmers has caused a stretch of the Friant-Kern Canal to sink so much that it has interfered with irrigation deliveries to more than 300,000 acres of cropland. A fix could come from Proposition 3, the water bond on the November ballot, which earmarks $750 million in state taxpayer funds to repair the aqueduct and other infrastructure damaged by land subsidence.

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OPINION: Yes On Measure W For Clean Beaches And Oceans — And, Possibly, ‘New’ Drinking Water

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby The Times Editorial Board

Los Angeles County Measure W is a parcel tax to pay for cleaning up stormwater — the dirty runoff created when rain hits the streets and other paved surfaces, picks up toxic urban gunk and carries it downstream to foul the beaches and pollute the ocean. Depending on how you look at it, the measure is either a hard but necessary pill to swallow or an exciting step into the future. In either case, it’s the right move, and The Times urges voters to say yes.

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Gavin Newsom Says He Would Scale Back The Bullet Train And Twin Tunnels If Elected

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby George Skelton

If Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is elected governor as expected, he’ll keep building the state’s two contentious public works projects: the bullet train and twin water tunnels. But he’ll scale back both. He’ll be more cautious, realistic and practical about the super-expensive projects than termed-out Gov. Jerry Brown.Newsom will concentrate on completing a high-speed rail line from the San Joaquin Valley to the San Francisco Bay Area.

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As States Near Deal On Colorado River Shortage, California Looks At Water Cuts Of As Much As 8%

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall

After years of stop-and-go talks, California and two other states that take water from the lower Colorado River are nearing an agreement on how to share delivery cuts if a formal shortage is declared on the drought-plagued waterway. Under the proposed pact, California — the river’s largest user — would reduce diversions earlier in a shortage than it would if the lower-basin states strictly adhered to a water-rights pecking order. California’s huge river take would drop 4.5% to 8% as the shortage progressed.

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Parts Of Southern California Could Get Up To An Inch Of Rain This Week

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Dakota Smith

Light showers could hit parts of Los Angeles County beginning late Monday as a low pressure system moves onshore, with some areas across the region expected to get up to an inch of rain on Tuesday, forecasters say. The eastern end of Los Angeles County, including Azusa, could get less than a 10th of an inch of rain starting Monday after 6 p.m., said Kathy Hoxsie, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. A slight chance of isolated thunderstorms is also forecast.

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OPINION: L.A. Is Reopening Deep Wounds From The California Water Wars In The Eastern Sierra

/in , /by /Los Angeles Times

Before the 20th century, much of the Owens Valley on the eastern edge of California was uninhabitable swampland, which shows how much water the Sierra Nevada are capable of producing. Starting in 1913, the city of Los Angeles began draining the Owens Valley, resulting in the high, dry desert we have become.

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OPINION: Huntington Beach Desalination Project Would Help Meet Region’s Water Needs

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Dr. Allan Bernstein

As the price of imported water continues to rise, and technological advances for seawater desalination improve efficiencies, California’s time to turn ocean water into drinking water has come. Orange County is poised to integrate purified ocean water into its drinking water portfolio, just as San Diego has successfully done by producing 35 billion gallons of drinking water from the Pacific Ocean in just three short years. The ocean is the world’s largest reservoir; it’s always full and sits on our front doorstep. At the cost of a half-penny per gallon, seawater desalination is cost-competitive with the development of other new water supplies.

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Los Angeles Reduces Eastern Sierra Water Deliveries Because Of Climate Change. At Risk, Ranchers Say, Is A Way Of Life

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Louis Sahagun

The lush plains east of Yosemite National Park offer a window into a bygone California — a place where sage grouse welcome the arrival of spring with theatrical mating rituals and cattle graze on verdant pastures. For nearly a century, these lands have been made green thanks to annual flooding by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, helping maintain cattle forage and keeping alive a culture of ranching in southern Mono County. But those days may have come to an end in August.

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