California voters approved a ballyhooed $7.5-billion bond issue eight-plus years ago thinking the state would build dams and other vital water facilities. But it hasn’t built zilch. True or false?
That’s the rap: The voters were taken. The state can’t get its act together.
The Ramona Municipal Water District board on July 12 adopted the San Diego Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) Plan as an avenue to $4.8 million in grants.
The water district has already applied for the funds available through IRWM grants. The source of the funds is Proposition 1 — the Water Quality, Supply and Infrastructure Improvement Act — which was approved by California voters in 2014 and authorizes $510 million in IRWM funding.
Recently, historic record-low water volume in Lake Mead and Lake Powell has been headline news. While the trend of dropping water levels at two of the nation’s largest water reservoirs has been widely recognized for years (perhaps decades), a discussion about what it truly means for those who rely on its source for water and electricity downstream is rarely heard.
Lake Mead’s water level continues to fall to historic lows, bringing the reservoir less than 150 feet away from “dead pool” — so low that water cannot flow downstream from the dam.
California is taking steps toward a 2024 start of construction on the 1.5-million-acre-feet Sites Reservoir thanks to new funding.
The California Water Commission in December determined the Sites Reservoir, located on the west side of the Sacramento Valley, is eligible for funding through the state’s 2014 voter-approved Proposition 1 Water Storage Investment Program, thereby opening access to $800 million, about 20% of the project’s $3.93 billion price tag.
A plan to build a new $2.3 billion reservoir in southern Santa Clara Couty passed a significant milestone on Wednesday when a key state agency ruled that it continues to qualify for nearly half a billion dollars in state funding.
Several regional water supply projects in San Diego County are on track to receive a total of more than $15 million from the California Department of Water Resources, pending a final decision on the grants this summer.
Money for the projects has been recommended by DWR, which will make the awards after a public comment period.
In San Diego County, the grant funds would support local agencies to advance conservation, environmental enhancements, water purification and other initiatives.
The San Diego County Water Authority submitted the funding request on behalf of the San Diego Integrated Regional Water Management Region, or IRWM. The San Diego IRWM Program began in 2005 as an effort by water retailers, wastewater agencies, stormwater and flood managers, watershed groups, the business community, tribes, agriculture, and nonprofit stakeholders to improve water resources planning in the region.
“The IRWM funding will provide much-needed funding over the next several years to implement a variety of local water supply projects, water use efficiency measures, along with a disadvantaged community project in the City of National City,” said Water Authority General Manager Sandra L. Kerl.
Kerl cited the “extraordinary effort” by the San Diego IRWM Regional Water Management Group and the Regional Advisory Committee for their work over the past year to make the $15,336,000 grant possible.
The statewide IRWM Program is supported by bond funding provided by the DWR to fund competitive grants for projects that improve water resources management.
On November 4, 2014, California voters approved Proposition 1, the Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014.
Proposition 1 authorized $510 million in IRWM funding. Funds are allocated to 12 hydrologic region-based funding areas, including the San Diego Region.
The Proposition 1 IRWM Grant Program, administered by DWR, provides funding for projects that help meet the long-term water needs of the state, including:
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) today announced the selection of 40 multi-benefit ecosystem restoration and protection projects to receive funding under its Proposition 1 and Proposition 68 grant programs.
A study on a pipe to carry water from Paradise to Chico will be back before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
The $144,000 study to see if the project was feasible was first approved on a 4-1 vote by the supervisors on Sept. 10.
Half the cost would be paid out of a $1.1 million Proposition 1 grant the county received to study ways to reduce reliance on groundwater, as required by a recent state law.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
