Water News - Page 40 of 76 in California's San Joaquin Valley

SGMA

Desert groundwater agency to pay $8,500 per acre foot for valley water rights

August 2, 2022

• by Lois Henry

The Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority in eastern Kern County has signed a “letter of intent” to buy the rights to 750 acre feet of state water for $6,396,000 from a State Water Project contractor in Kings County. The purchase is part of the authority’s plan to bring that overdrafted groundwater basin into balance. The…

Rivers • Uncategorized

Utility stops flows to closed hatchery but keeps some North Fork Kern water for itself

July 28, 2022

• by Lois Henry

Southern California Edison has stopped taking water out of the North Fork of the Kern River for a state fish hatchery that has been closed for nearly two years but added a new diversion that river advocates are calling a “dangerous precedent.” The move comes several weeks after river advocates complained the utility was using…

dams

Central Valley’s two major dam projects moving forward

July 27, 2022

• by Jesse Vad, SJV Water

It’s no simple feat to raise a dam. In fact, it’s taken the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 34 years to get from the first feasibility study to expand the dam at Lake Success in Tulare County to finally getting construction underway. The improvements to Lake Success’ Schafer Dam, named after longtime Tule River watermaster…

State System • Uncategorized

Costs vs. benefits still unknown for the latest delta tunnel alignment, released Wednesday

July 27, 2022

• by Lois Henry

Kern County water managers are, for the most part, sticking with the proposed Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta tunnel but are keeping an eye on details still to come – how it will actually operate and how much the water will cost. The Department of Water Resources released a draft environmental impact report on the latest iteration…

Personalities • SGMA

Latest blow in Boswell-Vidovich water war could bring state control over region’s groundwater

July 25, 2022

• by Lois Henry

The latest blow in an ongoing water war between two Kings County agricultural titans may put control of the entire region’s groundwater into state hands. The J.G. Boswell Farming Company and Sandridge Partners, controlled by John Vidovich, have been scuffling over water in court, on ditch banks and even in the air with accusations on…

Conservation

SJV water districts get $800,000 in federal grants to save water

July 25, 2022

• by Jesse Vad, SJV Water

Two agencies in the San Joaquin Valley are closer to funding water conservation projects thanks to an $800,000 grant from the Bureau of Reclamation. The money comes from the Bureau’s Agricultural Water and Conservation Efficiency grants. About $362,000 will go to the Corcoran Irrigation District in Kings County and $430,000 will go to the Lost…

Uncategorized

South valley groundwater managers to use $10 million to protect community water and look for ways to retire up to 100,000 acres of farmland

July 25, 2022

• by Jesse Vad, SJV Water

Three San Joaquin Valley water agencies are gearing up to spend $10 million each in grant funding from the state Department of Conservation to retire or repurpose farmland. Valley agencies that have received grants so far include the Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District, Pixley Irrigation District Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) and Madera County. SJV Water…

Drought • Rivers

Kern River advocates accuse utility of “lawless” water diversions on behalf of a long closed fish hatchery

July 20, 2022

• by Lois Henry

As water in the North Fork of the Kern River dwindles, controversy over its diminished flows is ramping up. At least some river watchers are accusing Southern California Edison of misusing a portion of the flows by continuing to divert water, ostensibly, for a state-owned fish hatchery that has been closed since 2020. The state…

Drought

Going, going….water at some of Bakersfield’s most popular parks is almost gone

July 19, 2022

• by Lois Henry

The lake at the Park at River Walk is fast disappearing, as are the Truxtun Lakes and some other city-owned water features. Blame the drought. The City of Bakersfield Water Resources Department has cut off flows to city-owned recreation and water recharge facilities to hold on to what little surface water it’s receiving from the…

Drinking Water • Drought

Even emergency water suppliers are close to tapped out as more valley towns go dry

July 19, 2022

• by Jesse Vad, SJV Water

Groundwater levels are dropping and domestic wells throughout the San Joaquin Valley are going dry as California’s third year of drought grinds on. That includes entire towns, such as East Orosi and Tooleville in Tulare County, which both went dry last week. It’s bad. But it may get worse. Area water suppliers are “locking down”…

NEWS

Desert groundwater agency to pay $8,500 per acre foot for valley water rights

Utility stops flows to closed hatchery but keeps some North Fork Kern water for itself

Central Valley’s two major dam projects moving forward

Costs vs. benefits still unknown for the latest delta tunnel alignment, released Wednesday

Latest blow in Boswell-Vidovich water war could bring state control over region’s groundwater

SJV water districts get $800,000 in federal grants to save water

South valley groundwater managers to use $10 million to protect community water and look for ways to retire up to 100,000 acres of farmland

Kern River advocates accuse utility of “lawless” water diversions on behalf of a long closed fish hatchery

Going, going….water at some of Bakersfield’s most popular parks is almost gone

Even emergency water suppliers are close to tapped out as more valley towns go dry

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