DAILY DIGEST, weekend edition: New state water chief is married to Metropolitan water strategist. Some critics say that’s too close; San Bernardino area water agency wants Nestle to pay them back for extra water diversions; 100 million dead trees prompt fears of giant wildfires; and more …

In California water news this weekend, New state water chief is married to Metropolitan water strategist. Some critics say that’s too close; San Bernardino area water agency wants Nestle to pay them back for extra water diversions; 100 million dead trees prompt fears of giant wildfires; University of Toronto doctoral student sees environmental monitoring future in the internet of things; Chico meeting seeks input on fed’s water delivery plan; Burbank Water and Power to assist U.S. Virgin Islands; and more …

In the news this weekend …

New state water chief is married to Metropolitan water strategist. Some critics say that’s too close: “Critics who say state water policy tilts too far toward Southern California got additional ammunition last week, when Gov. Jerry Brown named a new director to run his Department of Water Resources. New DWR Director Karla Nemeth is married to Tom Philp, an executive strategist with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Nemeth’s duties include overseeing the State Water Project, which delivers water from Northern California to the southern half of the state, and forging ahead with Brown’s controversial Delta tunnels project. … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee here: New state water chief is married to Metropolitan water strategist. Some critics say that’s too close

San Bernardino area water agency wants Nestle to pay them back for extra water diversions: “The San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District wants help from the state to develop a repayment plan to compensate for what may be excessive water diversions from the San Bernardino National Forest. In a letter to the State Water Resources Control Board, the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District, the water wholesaler for nearly 700,000 people from Yucaipa to Bloomington, has asked the state for assistance in crafting a document to have Nestle compensate the San Bernardino district for its over-appropriation of water used for its Arrowhead bottled water brand. ... ” Read more from the San Bernardino Sun here: San Bernardino area water agency wants Nestle to pay them back for extra water diversions

100 million dead trees prompt fears of giant wildfires: “The more than 100 million trees that died in California after being weakened by drought and insect infestations have transformed large swaths of the Sierra Nevada into browned-out tree cemeteries. In some areas more than 90 percent of trees are dead. This week a group of scientists warned in the journal BioScience that the dead trees could produce wildfires on a scale and of an intensity that California has never seen. … ” Read more from the New York Times here: 100 million dead trees prompt fears of giant wildfires

University of Toronto doctoral student sees environmental monitoring future in the internet of things: “Researchers face many difficulties. Assessing the ecological health of large geographic regions, especially those with a low population and few research facilities, is one of the many challenges scientists face. One such region is the Ottawa River in Canada, nearly 800 miles long with an overall drainage area of 55,000 square miles. Not only is it vast, but there are few human inhabitants and few research outposts. While gathering representative water samples in such a region is difficult enough, there is also the challenge of responding in a timely manner when problems arise. How can monitoring be performed, problems be communicated, and researchers respond, if there isn’t a supple system in place that allows a small number of researchers to perform the tasks of many? When faced with the lack of an adaptive, inexpensive environmental monitoring system, University of Toronto doctoral student in computer science Alberto Camacho and his colleague Patricio Córdova did the most reasonable thing they could do in such a situation: they devised their own system. Their technologically advanced system was designed to potentially be a part of the vast network of the Internet of Things (IoT). … ” Read more from Environmental Monitor here: University of Toronto doctoral student sees environmental monitoring future in the internet of things

In commentary this weekend …

Preparing for California’s unpredictable future: Charley Wilson writes, “If we had a crystal ball that showed our water future, it would be cloudy at best. In fact, downright unpredictable. Californians were lulled into a sense of relief as last year’s massive rainfall literally soaked our region. Flooded streets, sinkholes and monster storms dominated news coverage. However, we’re now potentially facing another incredibly dry year with Southern California experiencing just this week the only significant storm since last February. This Fall was a scorcher — the hottest in 122 years of record keeping — and sadly coupled with the largest wildfire in Southern California history in December. Snow surveys completed just this week show our snow pack levels to be at a scant 3 percent of normal. But that could all change. … ” Read more from the Desert Sun here: Preparing for California’s unpredictable future

California’s infrastructure boondoggles continue, says Susan Shelley: She writes, “Every news story about the bullet train seems to be accompanied by a photo of workers building a viaduct in Fresno County. This does nothing to dispel the impression that high-speed rail in California is actually a Marx Brothers movie. … The latest news from the Marx Brothers is that the 119-mile Central Valley section currently under construction is $2.8 billion over budget. … ” Continue reading at the Pasadena Star-News here: California’s infrastructure boondoggles continue

In regional news and commentary this weekend …

Chico meeting seeks input on fed’s water delivery plan: “A meeting in Chico has been scheduled for Thursday to take input on a Trump Administration plan to maximize water deliveries from the federal Central Valley Project. The project, which dates to the 1930s, consists of 18 dams and reservoirs and 500 miles of canals that primarily deliver water to farms and cities in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys. In the north state, its facilities include Shasta, Keswick, Whiskeytown and Trinity dams and reservoirs. These provide water to a number of Sacramento Valley irrigation districts, and also to farmland on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley via the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. … ” Read it here: Chico meeting seeks input on fed’s water delivery plan

Cachuma, Gibraltar reservoirs rise from rain; Twitchell continues to drop: “With all eyes focused on the devastation in Montecito, the impact on local reservoirs from the rain that fell Jan. 7 to 9 has taken something of a backseat, but the heavy precipitation from the storm increased the amount of water stored in three county lakes by several hundred acre-feet, although the level of a fourth has continued to fall. It also wasn’t enough to really put a dent in the steadily falling levels in the county’s two largest reservoirs as rainfall to date is less than half what is considered normal at this point in the “water year” that starts Sept. 1 and continues until Aug. 31. ... ” Read more from the Lompoc Record here: Cachuma, Gibraltar reservoirs rise from rain; Twitchell continues to drop

Ridgecrest: USGS finds Indian Wells Valley groundwater basin’s recharge rate consistent with other studies: “The United States Geological Survey (USGS) presented an update of their ongoing IWV recharge study to the IWV Groundwater Authority at the IWVGA’s board meeting on Thursday morning. The study thus far shows an estimated recharge rate around the ranges of below 10,000 acre-feet of water per year (afy) and above 5,000 afy. These numbers are generally consistent with the numbers presented by previous studies going back almost 50 years. It’s the IWVGA’s job to bring the IWV groundwater basin into sustainability. The group formed to do this job after California passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) of 2014. … ” Read more from the Ridgecrest Independent here: USGS finds Indian Wells Valley groundwater basin’s recharge rate consistent with other studies

Burbank Water and Power to assist U.S. Virgin Islands: “Burbank Water and Power will be sending several of its employees and some equipment to the U.S. Virgin Islands to help the Caribbean islands recover from the devastating hurricanes that battered them in September. The Burbank City Council voted unanimously during a meeting on Jan. 9 to allow City Manager Ron Davis to enter into a mutual-assistance agreement with the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority, which would send seven utility employees and necessary equipment to the islands for about two months to help numerous people who have been without power for several months, said Jorge Somoano, general manager of Burbank Water and Power. … ” Read more from the LA Times here: Burbank Water and Power to assist U.S. Virgin Islands

Precipitation watch …

Also on Maven’s Notebook this weekend …

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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.

Maven’s Notebook
where California water news never goes home for the weekend