People
From: Press Release, Delta
Protection Commission
Larry Ruhstaller, a Member of the
San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors, has been chosen to serve as Chair of
the Delta Protection Commission effective Tuesday, October 1st, 2013. Mary N.
Piepho, Supervisor for Contra Costa County, was elected to serve as Vice Chair.
Reservoirs
From: Report, DWR
For selected reservoirs in
Northern and Southern California ending at midnight 09/29/2013.
From: Alex Breitler, Stockton
Record
This might be a good time for
nature to turn over a new leaf.
California's new water year
starts Tuesday, and the state desperately needs rain and snow this winter.
Water Bond
From: Bettina Boxall, LA Times
Californians say the state's
water supply system has serious problems that require improvement, but they are
unwilling to spend billions of dollars in ratepayer and taxpayer funds on the
task, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.
The results suggest an uphill
fight for proponents of a state water bond and for a proposal to replumb the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the transfer point for Northern California
supplies delivered to the San Joaquin Valley and urban Southern California.
From: Editorial Staff, SF
Chronicle
Clean, drinkable water for
disadvantaged communities is the feel-good component of both of the water bond
bills proposed to replace the pork-laden $11 billion measure now on the
November 2014 ballot.
The real elephant in the room,
however, is the governor's proposed twin tunnel project to improve the quality
and reliability of water exported from the delta. Should state taxpayers fund
the delta restoration improvements the plan requires, thus eliminating funding
for other kinds of regional water efficiency and improvement projects?
From: Dan Walters, Sacramento
Bee
There is simply nothing more
important to California's future than an adequate and dependable supply of
clean water.
Groundwater
From: Ken Carlson, Modesto Bee
Stanislaus County supervisors
won't take up a groundwater ordinance on Tuesday as previously intended. The
long-awaited ordinance dealing with groundwater exports has been pushed back to
Oct. 29.
The county's legal experts have
fine-tuned the language, and a committee including local water district
officials will take a final look, said Keith Boggs, an assistant executive
officer for the county.
Bay Delta
Conservation Plan
From: Gerald Meral, Contra
Costa Times
An opinion piece that ran
recently on this page contained misstatements regarding the Bay Delta
Conservation Plan.
While this article did correctly
characterize the Bay Delta Conservation Plan as a Habitat Conservation Plan, it
incorrectly identified the plan's goals and requirements.
From: Larry Wilson, LA Times
While it may not be the
Mississippi, California has a delta, too, and some of its residents are singing
the blues.
On Monday, the Metropolitan Water
District and the California Department of Water Resources hosted a tour in
support of the massive proposed Bay Delta Conservation Plan, a 50-year project
to send Delta water south in big tunnels and protect the habitat of native fish
and plants. Opponents don't see it as conservation. They see more efforts to
transfer water from their north to our south.
Delta
From: Maven, Maven's
Notebook
In April of 2013, the Public
Policy Institute of California released the report, Stress Relief:
Prescriptions for Healthier Delta Ecosystem, which noted that the state
is at a critical juncture with adoption and forthcoming implementation of the
first "Delta Plan" and a decision on the BDCP possible by early next
year. "But California still faces an uphill battle to incorporate
science effectively in decision making and make judicious management choices
with a highly fragmented and adversarial institutional structure involving
dozens of federal, state, and local entities," states the report's
summary.
From: Maven, Maven's Notebook
Public comment period now open
for Delta drinking water policy: The State Water Resources Control Board is now
taking public comment on the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control
Board's amendment to the Water Quality Control Plan for the Sacramento
and San Joaquin River Basins that would establish a Drinking Water Policy for
surface waters of the Delta and its upstream tributaries. The amendment was
adopted by the regional board in July of this year.
Transfers
From: Dan Walters, Sacramento
Bee
A Sacramento judge has given what
appears to be final approval to a long-pending plan by the San Diego Water
Authority to buy several hundred thousand acre-feet of water each year from the
Imperial Irrigation District, 100 miles to the east.
From: Seth Nidever, Hanford
Sentinel
In sign of just how nervous Kings
County farmers are about water, controversy has flared over a seemingly routine
bill authored by Assemblyman Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield.
AB 426, dealing with water rights
transfers, was part of a package of Salas-authored water bills that cleared the
Legislature earlier this month and are sitting on Gov. Jerry Brown's desk
waiting for a signature.
Drought
From: John Lindsey, SLO
Tribune
December 2010 produced more than
12 inches of rain at Cal Poly (home of climatology for San Luis Obispo). That
was the most rain in the month of December since 1931. However, since January
2011, almost every month has experienced below-normal precipitation. In fact,
so far 2013 is the third driest year on record at Cal Poly.
Courts
From: June Williams,
Courthouse News Service
Government lawyers told the 9th
Circuit it would cause "chaos" to renegotiate dozens of water
projects that environmentalists say relied on faulty science.
The fight against the Department
of Interior and Fish and Wildlife Service dates back to 2005 when the Natural
Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other environmental groups first demanded
a new biological assessment and halt of proposed changes to the irrigation
project that would pump more water out of the San Francisco and San Joaquin
River Delta.
Districts
From: Dennis Wyatt, Manteca
Bulletin
A move by South San Joaquin
Irrigation District to possibly become the first irrigation district in
California to go to a 100 percent pressurized delivery system may pay
unexpected dividends in reduced ongoing maintenance costs.
From: Marina Gaytan, Merced
Sun-Star
The San Luis Canal Co.,
encompassing approximately 45,000 acres of fertile farm land between the cities
of Dos Palos and Los Banos, recently celebrated their 100 year anniversary.
