Category: Blog Round-Up

California Water Fix and the Delta smelt:  Peter Moyle and James Hobbs write, “The delta smelt is on a trajectory towards extinction in the wild. Heading into 2017, the spawning adult population was at an all-time low although this past wet winter has apparently seen a small resurgence. However, increasingly warm summer temperatures in the Delta may dampen any upswing. […]

Bringing order to groundwater management: Alvar Escriva-Bou and Jelena Jezdimirovic write, “California’s water management is a complex stew with many cooks. At the local level, hundreds of irrigation districts and urban water agencies and a few thousand small drinking water suppliers are responsible for a wide variety of water-related issues. And it just got more complex: as of June 30, […]

Litigation trepidation. Alex Breitler has it:  Alex Brietler writes, “With Lawsuit-Palooza Episode II expected in theaters on or before Aug. 21, I can’t help but wonder how impossible it’ll be to keep tabs on all of this.  We’re talking Delta tunnels litigation now, and as former San Joaquin County Supervisor Larry Ruhstaller used to say, this will be like playing three-dimensional […]

Water wasted to sea?  “If we farmed the Central Valley or managed water supplies for San Francisco, San Jose or Los Angeles, we might think that fresh water flowing from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers through the Delta to San Francisco Bay is “wasted” because it ends up in the Pacific Ocean as an unused resource. However, different perspectives […]

How Devin Nunes shortchanges his constituents:  On the Public Record writes, “Representative Devin Nunes is a stalwart change denier, calling global warming “nonsense“.  He jokes about the dangers that climate change poses to Californians in a blog post today.  This poses two problems.  One is that he is asking his fellow ideologues to join him in a joke that denies […]

Restore the Delta critiques shortcomings of Metropolitan’s white paper on Delta tunnels construction:  “Today, environmental nonprofit Restore the Delta released their official response to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s first of three “white papers” regarding the Delta Tunnels proposal.  The first MWD white paper focuses on the physical infrastructure and construction of the tunnels.  Policy Analyst for Restore […]

Water Fix Workshops, Part 1: The project:  Jeffrey Kightlinger writes, “For Metropolitan, this will be a very busy summer. The California WaterFix process is heading to some decisive milestones.  The process to ensure compliance with the federal Endangered Species Act has resulted in two biological opinions that will help guide water operations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The participating water […]

Can the Sacramento Valley reservoirs adapt to flooding with a warmer climate?  Jay Lund and Ann Willis write, “Much has been written on potential effects and adaptations for California’s water supply from climate warming, particularly from changes in snowpack accumulation and melting, sea level rise, and possible overall drying or wetting trends.   But what about floods?  In a paper in […]

More confusion than clarity in tunnels EIR:  Alex Brietler writes, “The final version of Gov. Jerry Brown’s twin tunnels plan is better than earlier drafts but still contains “key flaws,” independent scientists say, including an environmental impact report that is so chock full of facts that it doesn’t tell a clear story.  The latest draft critique marks the Independent Science […]