Congress presented an early Christmas present that will go a long ways to providing much needed repairs for the Friant-Kern Canal.
Congress signed off on funding for the repair work to be done locally on the 33-mile stretch of the canal. The stretch is from Avenue 208 between Strathmore and Lindsay to north Kern County.
Backers of a $3 billion project to construct the tallest dam in California swear the project isn’t dead, despite the Temperance Flat Reservoir Authority returning money and canceling applications. After it became clear that the reservoir project on the San Joaquin River west of Auberry would not reach upcoming deadlines for studies and funding, Temperance Flat Reservoir Authority declined $171 million designated by the California Water Commission and withdrew its application for additional funding, according to a resolution signed by the Authority on Oct. 30.
The Ramona Municipal Water District Board of Directors hopes to appoint a candidate early next year to fill a vacant Division 3 board seat for the next two years. The board is on a fast track to find a replacement for incumbent Director Thomas N. Ace, one of two candidates who was running for a four-year seat.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday released a draft guidance that interprets a Supreme Court decision in a way that may exempt some facilities from needing permits to pollute groundwater. In April, the court decided that a permit is required for both direct discharges of pollutants into federally-regulated rivers and oceans as well as their “functional equivalent” in groundwater that flows into regulated waters.
On Tuesday, Congressman John Garamendi, a senior member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure whose district includes 200 miles of the Sacramento River and is adjacent to several major ports, secured key provisions in the “Water Resources Development Act of 2020” for the California Delta and Central Valley. The legislation passed the House Tuesday and is expected to pass the Senate with strong bipartisan support and become law this year.
Two Rainbow Municipal Water District board seats will have contested elections this year. Hayden Hamilton was unopposed for a second term in the Division 2 seat. Helene Brazier is retiring as the Division 1 director and Rainbow committee members Julie Johnson and Pam Moss are seeking that seat. Current Division 5 board member Michael Mack is being challenged by current Vallecitos School District board member Kathy McSorley. Division 1 includes Morro Hills, Bonsall, and Vista Valley while Division 5 is in Rainbow and also covers new development projects east of Interstate 15
San Diego County is a leader in water conservation and management strategies that will become even more critical in coming years, state Sen. Ben Hueso (San Diego) said during an Aug. 1 Legislative Roundtable at the San Diego County Water Authority’s headquarters. “San Diego is really a model in the state,” Hueso told an audience of about 90 water agency representatives, business and civic leaders and other stakeholders from around the county who attended the morning event.
The 2014 water bond included a novel funding approach designed to take at least some of the politicking out of deciding which projects get public money. This week’s tortured deliberations by the California Water Commission showed just how tough it is to do that. By applying a complex procedure for grading proposals, the bond restricted state taxpayer spending to the pieces of a project that would provide measurable benefits to the public.
