In California water news today, Feinstein urges voluntary settlements ahead of vote by State Water Board; California’s largest new reservoir likely to face water access limits; Wasting wastewater: New report identifies recycling opportunities; Gaps discovered in state law that requires lead testing in schools; Google’s New Tool to Fight Climate Change; and more …
On the calendar today …
- The Delta Conservancy Board meets from 9:00 to 1:00pm. Agenda items include a Proposition 1 Grant Program Update, Delta Stewardship Council Update, California Water Fix and Eco Restore Updates, and a Delta Protection Commission Update. Click here for the agenda.
In the news today …
Also on Maven’s Notebook today …
Feinstein urges voluntary settlements ahead of vote by State Water Board: “Sen. Dianne Feinstein and some state representatives in the Bay Area are calling for voluntary settlement agreements, rather than a State Water Board proposal, to bolster the salmon population in tributaries of the San Joaquin River. In a letter Friday to water board chairwoman Felicia Marcus, Feinstein said a voluntary settlement will achieve more in restoring fish in the Tuolumne, Stanislaus and Merced rivers. … ” Read more from the Modesto Bee here: Feinstein urges voluntary settlements ahead of vote by State Water Board
California’s largest new reservoir likely to face water access limits: “Sites Reservoir, the largest new water storage proposal in California, recently won a commitment of $816 million in state funds to help with construction. It promises to deliver enough water every year, on average, to serve 1 million homes. But regulatory realities looming in the background may mean the project has substantially less water at its disposal. The project would inundate an oak-studded valley 8 miles west of Maxwell, a town on Interstate-5 about a 90-minute drive north of Sacramento. For a total construction cost of $5.1 billion, the shallow Sites Reservoir could store 1.8 million acre-feet of water. … ” Read more from Water Deeply here: California’s largest new reservoir likely to face water access limits
Wasting wastewater: New report identifies recycling opportunities: “In California, it is a persistent challenge making water supply and water demand match up. A report being released Wednesday outlines how much water California’s coastal wastewater treatment plants dump into the ocean, and how much of that could be saved through better water management. James Hawkins is a water policy researcher at the Santa Barbara-based Heal the Ocean. The nonprofit is focused on reducing ocean pollution, and undertook a multi-year study of the state’s recycling potential. They did so by compiling an inventory of wastewater discharges into coastal waters, wastewater coming from urban cities along the coast. ... ” Read more from KCBX here: Wasting wastewater: New report identifies recycling opportunities
Gaps discovered in state law that requires lead testing in schools: “Gaps in a new California law requiring schools to test their drinking water for lead could leave children vulnerable to the toxic metal. The law, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last October, puts California among only seven states and the District of Columbia nationwide that require schools to test their drinking water for lead. Thousands of schools across the state have already tested the water flowing from their drinking fountains, sinks and other sources. … ” Read more from the Daily Democrat here: Gaps discovered in state law that requires lead testing in schools
Google’s New Tool to Fight Climate Change: “In the next decade or so, more than 6,000 cities, states, and provinces around the world will try to do something that has eluded humanity for 25 years: reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases, which warm the atmosphere and cause climate change. The city-level leaders overseeing this task won’t have the same tools available to their national peers. Most of them won’t have an Environmental Protection Agency (or its equivalent), a meteorological bureau, a team of military engineers, or NASA. So where will they start? Never mind how to reduce their city’s greenhouse-gas emissions; how will they know what’s spewing carbon dioxide in the first place? … ” Read more from The Atlantic here: Google’s New Tool to Fight Climate Change
In commentary today …
Michael Fitzgerald: A fight over a unique Delta island: “A Delta farming island crucial to sandhill cranes is so mismanaged that the levees may break, a lawsuit alleges. Ironically, the allegedly bad manager is The Nature Conservancy. A suit by the Wetlands Preservation Foundation seeks to stop TNC’s allegedly bad, even dangerous, farming practices to avert a potential catastrophe on Staten Island in San Joaquin County. “TNC has failed to live up to its proud environmental tradition,” says the suit, filed in San Joaquin County Superior Court. The Nature Conservancy counters that the suit is baseless. The nonprofit is proud of its work on Staten, which is helping cranes rebound, a spokesman said. ... ” Read more from the Stockton Record here: Michael Fitzgerald: A fight over a unique Delta island
In regional news and commentary today …
Klamath: Bids for dam removal out to contractors: “The Klamath River Renewal Corp. last week put out its request for proposals for removal of the four hydro-electric dams on the Klamath River: Iron Gate, Copco No. 1 and 2 in California; and J.C. Boyle in Oregon. The request for proposal — formally known as the Dam Removal Design-Build Contract — will decide who will be the general contractor for the project, slated to be one of the largest dam removal and restoration projects in the Pacific Northwest and perhaps in U.S. history. The general contractor is expected to be named in March 2019 and removal may start in early 2021. … ” Read more from the Herald & News here: Klamath: Bids for dam removal out to contractors
Sacramento land owners fight bike path proposal – and eminent domain threat: “The city of Sacramento wants to put a bike path on the Sacramento River levee along Pocket Road. But the city doesn’t own all of the land. It’s offered to buy it, but some residents are fighting the idea. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been offered to the owners of seven parcels for easements on the land they own along the Sacramento River. But the owners have turned the city down. Adam Randolph is a senior engineer with the Public Works Department. He says the city doesn’t own the land because people used to be able to buy everything up to the water’s edge when buying land near the river. … ” Read more from Capital Public Radio here: Sacramento land owners fight bike path proposal – and eminent domain threat
San Rafael Airport to maintain levees after land swap: “Marin County is entering into a land swap with San Rafael Airport with the objective of relieving itself of responsibility for maintenance of levees surrounding the airport. The Board of Supervisors last week approved a memorandum of understanding laying out the specifics of the deal, including the allocation of $290,000 to cover associated costs. “What this MOU would do is transfer responsibility for levee maintenance to the airport for all levees on the airport side of Gallinas Creek,” said Supervisor Damon Connolly, who spearheaded the agreement approved Sept. 18. “Currently, some of those levees are controlled by the county by virtue of a state lands grant many years back. ... ” Read more from the Marin Independent Journal here: San Rafael Airport to maintain levees after land swap
Cambria’s Sustainable Water Facility is not what the CSD paid for, lawsuit says: “The Cambria Community Services District is suing the contractor that designed and built the town’s Emergency Water Supply project, which was later renamed the Sustainable Water Facility. The district alleges that CDM Smith didn’t provide what it agreed to design and build — an emergency water project that could be converted to provide supplemental water to the community in non-emergency situations, according to the lawsuit filed Sept. 21 in Superior Court on behalf of the district by the law firms of Rutan & Tucker of Costa Mesa and Carmel & Naccasha of San Luis Obispo. … ” Read more from the San Luis Obispo Tribune here: Cambria’s Sustainable Water Facility is not what the CSD paid for, lawsuit says
Water agency in Ventura County ordered to do more to help migrating steelhead: “A new court ruling means a water agency in Ventura County will have to do more to help endangered steelhead. A coalition of environmental groups had sued the United Water Conservation District, charging that the Vern Freeman Dam on the Santa Clara River restricts steelhead movement between the ocean, and their habitat. … ” Read more from KCLU here: Water agency in Ventura County ordered to do more to help migrating steelhead
Huntington Beach desal plant would help meet the region’s water needs, says Dr. Allan Bernstein: He writes, “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. … ” Read more from the LA Times here: Huntington Beach desal plant would help meet the region’s water needs
Farm group voices support for IID in water flap: “Holtville resident and former county supervisor Wally Leimgruber is encouraging Imperial County residents to back the Imperial Irrigation District’s appeal to litigation he argues may jeopardize the district’s authority over precious Colorado River water. “As a property owner with over 28 years in the farming industry and now involved in land-use consulting, I am respectfully requesting you join with me and other business and civic leaders in filing an amicus brief in support of IID’s position in the appeal,” Leimgruber wrote in a letter he is sharing with county residents. ... ” Read more from the Holtville Tribune here: Farm group voices support for IID in water flap
Along the Colorado River …
Water Thieves Of The West Take Notice: This Sheriff’s Deputy Is Watching: “One Sunday morning several years ago Dave Huhn got a call. He’s usually off work that day, but it was the height of irrigation season and decided to answer. The woman on the other end was frantic, screaming as she watched her 82-year-old husband from the window. Their 86-year-old neighbor was beating him with a shovel. “It was a situation where you had two old timers that were very stubborn and very hard-headed,” Huhn says, “and they were bound and determined to do it their way. And the other party was saying, ‘No you won’t.’” This was a fight over water. ... ” Read more from KUNC here: Water Thieves Of The West Take Notice: This Sheriff’s Deputy Is Watching
Also on Maven’s Notebook today …
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About the Daily Digest: The Daily Digest is a collection of selected news articles, commentaries and editorials appearing in the mainstream press. Items are generally selected to follow the focus of the Notebook blog. The Daily Digest is published every weekday with a weekend edition posting on Sundays.
