Water News - Page 67 of 80 in California's San Joaquin Valley

“Madness and arrogance” blamed for one lawsuit against desert groundwater agency

October 1, 2020

• by Lois Henry

Two lawsuits accusing the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority of ramming through a plan that ignores water rights and, according to one plaintiff, is intended to “destroy agriculture” were filed this week. At issue is a controversial $2,000-per-acre-foot fee approved by the authority last month that would be charged to certain groundwater users over a…

Federal System • Groundwater • Rivers • State System

Happy 50th “Kern Riversary!” 1970 vote brought river into public hands

September 30, 2020

• by Lois Henry

Fifty years ago this week, the Bakersfield City Council committed an audaciously historic act. On Monday evening Sept. 28, 1970, council members decided to sue Tenneco West for a slice of the Kern River. “The shock was great to many, but from that day forward we had their attention and cooperation,” states the “Kern River…

Federal System • Friant-Kern Canal

Dominoes from the massive Creek Fire teetering over San Joaquin Valley farmers

September 29, 2020

• by Lois Henry

When the Creek Fire erupted on Sept. 4 and chewed through the forest toward Southern California Edison’s Big Creek power system, little did anyone know how that might affect grape growers in Delano nearly a month later. But the historic fire has put water managers along the eastern flank of the San Joaquin Valley, who…

Drinking Water

Last minute loan keeps drinking water projects afloat

September 22, 2020

• by Lois Henry

Small, failing drinking water systems got a funding life preserver among a flurry of budget bills at the chaotic end of the California legislative session. Drinking water advocates had fretted the Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience (SAFER) program, intended to help struggling water systems in mostly poor, rural areas, would fall victim…

Federal System • Friant-Kern Canal • Groundwater

20-mile replacement canal is preferred fix for the sagging Friant-Kern Canal

September 19, 2020

• by Lois Henry

A rapid-fire review of potential fixes to the Friant-Kern Canal favors building a replacement canal for 20 miles alongside the existing canal where land subsidence has caused it to sag, severely restricting water flow, according to final environmental documents released Friday. The environmental documents, which looked at the project under both state and federal environmental…

Conservation • Groundwater • Water Markets

Evaporation adds up. How much? Google it – someday

September 17, 2020

• by Lois Henry

There are lots of new water gizmos popping up these days but there’s only one Google. Which makes the massive tech company’s involvement in a proposed water measurement tool both intriguing and slightly suspicious to some agricultural water managers. The same goes for another partner in the effort, the Environmental Defense Fund, a well-known advocacy…

Drinking Water • State System • Water Banking

Proposed $171 million Central Valley groundwater bank faces TCP contamination

September 11, 2020

• by Lois Henry

A Kern County groundwater bank proposal just at the starting blocks has been hit with 1,2,3-TCP contamination. Irvine Ranch Water District and Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District had just begun the environmental review process for their joint banking project this past April when TCP reared its head. “It doesn’t appear TCP is an existential threat…

Drinking Water • Groundwater • Water Banking

Tainted valley groundwater could stymie banking deals

September 3, 2020

• by Lois Henry

The big kahuna of California water — Metropolitan Water District of Southern California — has stopped taking supplies from one Kern County groundwater bank because the water is heavily tainted with a cancer-causing agent that is pervasive in Central Valley’s aquifers. While only one banking program has been affected so far, the emergence of this…

Groundwater

Desert water basin hopes to dive into California water market

August 25, 2020

• by Lois Henry

If you’ve got water for sale, the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority has $50 million to spend. Or, it will once it starts collecting a controversial, five-year, $2,000-per-acre-foot pumping fee that was approved by the authority last week. Specifically, the desert groundwater basin about 100 miles northeast of Bakersfield in the Mojave Desert, is looking…

Federal System • Friant-Kern Canal • Water Banking

California to Friant-Kern Canal: “No $ for you!”

August 24, 2020

• by Lois Henry

Any hope that California might kick in money to fix the sagging Friant-Kern Canal was killed Thursday when a bill that would have provided $400 million toward the effort was stripped of all funding. The bill, SB 559 by State Sen. Melissa Hurtado, D-Sanger, had been stuck in the suspense file (a kind of legislative…

NEWS

“Madness and arrogance” blamed for one lawsuit against desert groundwater agency

Happy 50th “Kern Riversary!” 1970 vote brought river into public hands

Dominoes from the massive Creek Fire teetering over San Joaquin Valley farmers

Last minute loan keeps drinking water projects afloat

20-mile replacement canal is preferred fix for the sagging Friant-Kern Canal

Evaporation adds up. How much? Google it – someday

Proposed $171 million Central Valley groundwater bank faces TCP contamination

Tainted valley groundwater could stymie banking deals

Desert water basin hopes to dive into California water market

California to Friant-Kern Canal: “No $ for you!”

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