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Blue-Green Algae Treated At Lake Skinner Near Temecula, As Other Lakes Recover From Blooms

/in , /by /The Press-Enterprise (Riverside)by Ryan Hagen

The season of toxic algae blooms is here. A helicopter crew spread copper sulfate over Lake Skinner near Temecula on Thursday, June 6, to combat a cyanobacteria bloom — also known as blue-green algae — that had been producing some cyanotoxins and unpleasant tastes and odors. The bloom doesn’t endanger water that will be delivered to customers, and swimming at the lake was already prohibited, but signs now warn visitors not to let pets drink the water or swim in the lake, to throw away fish guts and clean fillets with tap or bottled water before cooking, and not to use lake water for cooking, Metropolitan Water District spokeswoman Rebecca Kimitch said.

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Prado Dam Rated A ‘High Urgency’ Risk After Spillway Problems Discovered

/in , /by /The Press-Enterprise (Riverside)by David Downey

Federal officials are working urgently to strengthen the spillway at Prado Dam near Corona to prevent it from failing in a major flood, which could imperil hundreds of thousands of people living downstream in Orange County. After a May inspection determined the dam’s spillway could perform poorly in a major flood, the dam’s risk rating was changed from “moderate urgency” to “high urgency.” Dena O’Dell, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokeswoman, said Thursday, May 16, that the agency is taking immediate measures to reduce the risk that the spillway will fail. And she said the agency was preparing to launch a project in 2021 to bolster the spillway and raise it 20 feet.

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OPINION: SB307 Goes Against California’s Water Needs

/in , /by /The Press-Enterprise (Riverside)

California is finishing one of its rainiest winters in decades, which leaves most of us pining for less water rather than more of it. But it wasn’t long ago the state was facing a devastating and persistent drought. Rain comes and goes, but this mostly arid state still has a growing population. There’s continual need for new water resources. That’s why we’re disappointed that Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, and Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, have reintroduced legislation designed to cripple a long-planned water project in the Mojave Desert. Senate Bill 307 prohibits water transfers unless two agencies agree that the transfers do not harm state and federal desert lands.

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OPINION: It’s Time To Push The Pause Button On The Cadiz Water Project

/in , /by /The Press Enterprise (Riverside)by Richard Roth

“Whiskey’s for drinking and water’s for fighting,” a quote frequently if probably erroneously attributed to Mark Twain, is as true a statement today as it was during Twain’s time in the 19th and early 20th centuries. And, for the past 20 years, there certainly has been plenty of fighting going on over the amount of water that can be sustainably withdrawn from a water basin underneath the Mojave Desert. Cadiz, a Mojave land owner, has proposed, and continues to propose, to pump water and lots of it  from the Mojave aquifer and sell it to water districts hundreds of miles away, at a profit, potentially destroying the Mojave Desert in the process.

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Don’t Believe Your Windshield Wipers: Despite Storms, Southern California Water Conservation Is Still Needed

/in , /by /The Press-Enterprise (Riverside)by Brian Rokos

As rain continues to pelt Southern California, signs of an abundance of or even too much water are everywhere: Roads are flooded, reservoirs are filling and the wait time for Radiator Springs Racers at the damp Disneyland Resort has been less than a half hour. But as residents of burn areas evacuate and even heavier rain is forecast for Thursday, those who watch the state and local water supplies note that while the drought is technically over, the need to conserve water is not.

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Hemet Sues Dow Chemical And Shell Oil Over Contaminated Drinking Water

/in , , /by /The Press-Enterprise (Riverside)by Johnny Bender

Hemet has filed a federal lawsuit against Dow Chemical and Shell Oil seeking reimbursement for the cost of removing a cancer-causing chemical from the city’s water wells. According to its Sept. 21 suit, the contaminated wells have been tainted by TCP, a “highly toxic substance” used until the 1980s to fumigate soil where crops were grown. The solvent’s chemical name is “1,2,3-trichloropropane.” Hemet Mayor Michael Perciful said low levels of the chemical were discovered in two wells during routine tests at least six months ago.

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Improvements Could Bring More Activities To Diamond Valley Lake Near Hemet

/in , /by /The Press-Enterprise (Riverside)by Craig Shultz

Road improvements and other efforts could lead to longer hours at Diamond Valley Lake near Hemet. “We’re making steps forward all the time. It’s another step,” said Linda Krupa, a Hemet City Councilwoman and chair of a committee looking to increase recreational activities around the drinking-water reservoir. Upgrades have been made to the main access road to protect local wildlife — which is more active at night. Metropolitan Water District, which operates the lake, installed 10 steel plates over concrete culverts on either side of the road to ensure animals can safely cross. It also added rumble strips and signs to slow traffic.

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‘Toilet To Tap’ Water Nearly Matches Bottled H20 In Taste Test, University Researchers Discover

/in , /by /The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, Calif.)by David Downey

Saddled with the “toilet to tap” label, recycled water still has a bit of an image problem. But in a blind taste test, UC Riverside researchers found that people prefer its flavor over tap water and that they like it as much as bottled water. Intuitively, that may sound crazy. But it makes sense, suggests UCR’s Daniel Harmon, lead author on a recent study analyzing the taste test published recently in the journal Appetite. “Bottled water and recycled water go through more or less identical purification processes,” Harmon said. Both, experts said, are subjected to reverse osmosis, which removes most contaminants.

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Diamond Valley Lake Near Hemet To Reopen After Month-Long Closure For Blue-Green Algae

/in , /by /The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, Calif.)by Ryan Hagen

Boating, fishing and hiking will be allowed again at Diamond Valley Lake near Hemet starting Friday, July 27 — more than a month after it closed because of an algal bloom outbreak. Water quality tests confirmed the potential health effects of a large bloom of blue-green algae had diminished, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California said in a Wednesday, July 25, news release.

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OPINION: The Blithering Idiocy Of California’s Water Crisis

/in , /by /The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, Calif.)by Susan Shelly

It’s not new that most of the rainfall in California is in the north and most of the people and farms using water are further south. It’s not new that California has wet years and dry years, or that the state is at risk of both flooding and drought, sometimes simultaneously. What’s new is that earlier generations of California politicians solved water problems, while the current generation intentionally creates them. We are the beneficiaries of monumental achievements in water infrastructure that made modern California possible.

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