In California water news today, Plans advance to enlarge major Bay Area reservoir; California’s lakes are full but fishing remains in a drought; Human toll mounts in California’s rivers after boy drowns, man disappears, and two bodies are found; Marin officially puts drenching year in the record books; Owens Valley: LA DWP won’t drill new wells in Bishop; New Mexico water agency finds innovative way to protect headwaters
Happy 4th of July!
May you have a peaceful and enjoyable holiday …
In the news today …
Plans advance to enlarge major Bay Area reservoir: “Working to expand water supplies for California’s next drought, a coalition of 12 Bay Area water agencies took a significant step Monday toward an $800 million expansion of one of the largest reservoirs in the Bay Area — Los Vaqueros Reservoir in the rolling hills near the Alameda-Contra Costa county line. The plan would raise the reservoir’s earthen dam by 55 feet, to 273 feet high. That would make it the second tallest dam in the Bay Area, eclipsed only by Warm Springs Dam, at 319 feet tall, on Lake Sonoma near Healdsburg. … ” Read more from the San Jose Mercury News here: Plans advance to enlarge major Bay Area reservoir
California’s lakes are full but fishing remains in a drought: “As he prepared to launch his fishing boat from the dock at Castaic Lake, longtime angler Dan Curtis recalled conditions two years earlier when the state’s worst drought shriveled the reservoir to nearly a third of its total capacity. “It was like fishing on the surface of the moon,” he said, describing how Castaic’s bare, rocky shores stretched nearly a quarter of a mile from the launch ramp. The lake is now near capacity, but below the surface of the water, not everything has returned to normal. ... ” Read more from the LA Times here: California’s lakes are full but fishing remains in a drought
Human toll mounts in California’s rivers after boy drowns, man disappears, and two bodies are found: “The human toll from California’s dangerous river conditions climbed again last weekend after authorities reported a boy drowned and another person missing and the bodies of two others pulled from swift, cold waters in the Sacramento and Central valleys. First responders and law enforcement agencies in the state’s low-lying communities have been sounding the alarm for months that as the state transitioned into spring and now summer, the historic snowpack in the Sierra Nevada was going to melt and create deadly conditions downstream. … ” Read more from the LA Times here: Human toll mounts in California’s rivers after boy drowns, man disappears, and two bodies are found
Marin officially puts drenching year in the record books: “The end of the official rainfall season is now in the books, and it was a whopper for Marin. Rainfall is tallied between July 1 and June 30. As of midnight Friday, the Marin Municipal Water District counted 95.95 inches of rain in the Mount Tamalpais watershed for 2016-17. Marin hadn’t seen that much precipitation in 121 years. ... ” Read more from the Marin Independent Journal here: Marin officially puts drenching year in the record books
Owens Valley: LA DWP won’t drill new wells in Bishop: “The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) today announced its decision to cancel plans to drill two new wells located in the West Bishop area. The decision was made by Department leadership because Inyo County did not intend to follow the new well procedures and impact assessment process as outlined in the Inyo/Los Angeles Long Term Water Agreement (LTWA), the governing document for many LADWP operations within Inyo County. “We believe the new well procedure process has gone afield of what is outlined within the Long Term Water Agreement,” LADWP Senior Assistant General Manager of Water Richard Harasick said. “Because of this, we have decided to cancel drilling plans for the time being and reassess with the Technical Group on future project development.” … ” Read more from LA DWP here: Owens Valley: LA DWP won’t drill new wells in Bishop
New Mexico water agency finds innovative way to protect headwaters: “In June, New Mexico’s largest water authority pledged $1 million over five years to the Rio Grande Water Fund to protect the headwaters that provide drinking water for about half the state’s population. “This is a huge deal,” said John Fleck, director of the University of New Mexico Water Resources Program. The contribution is remarkable for its size, and for the fact that it is a public utility – the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority – investing in lands it doesn’t own. ... ” Read more from Water Deeply here: New Mexico water agency finds innovative way to protect headwaters
And lastly …
Also on Maven’s Notebook today …
- NEWS WORTH NOTING: Metropolitan posts first white paper on California Water Fix; Draft enviro docs for Los Vaqueros reservoir expansion; San Joaquin River Restoration Program releases draft fisheries framework for fish restoration
- BLOG ROUND-UP: Bloggers comment on the Water Fix; Reform before the next drought; Groundwater extraction oversight; Improving hatchery survival; Climate change; Public drinking fountains; and more …
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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.
