Infrastructure

Overview April 24, 2014

Infrastructure

Aquafornia news November 16, 2018 The Union, Serving Western Nevada County

Commentary: NID, Centennial Dam and our water future

It has been four years since Nevada Irrigation District (NID) passed closed-session Resolution 2014-43, authorizing a water rights application for a “water storage project on the Bear River” without any public comment or board discussion. This was the beginning of Centennial Dam. Since then, SYRCL and others have tried to bring Centennial Dam into public purview to promote transparency and open dialogue.

Aquafornia news November 16, 2018 Los Angeles Times

Commentary: With disasters rocking the state, California needs to remember the St. Francis Dam failure

There is a quiet campaign underway in northern L.A. County that deserves the support of people across California. The Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society is pushing for the site of the St. Francis Dam to be declared a national memorial. The designation would commemorate both the dam and the more than 400 lives that were lost when it collapsed, the worst man-made disaster in California history.

Aquafornia news November 15, 2018 Bloomberg Environment

Thursday’s Top of the Scroll: California tunnels project circling the drain after elections

This month’s elections may have mortally wounded California’s chances for a long-delayed $23 billion water tunnel project. … The project’s biggest cheerleader, Gov. Jerry Brown (D), is leaving office because of term limits and his successor, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), lacks’ Brown’s enthusiasm for the tunnels.

Aquafornia news November 14, 2018 Monterey Herald

Caltrans to close parts of Highway 1 in Big Sur before major storms

When the next major storm hits Monterey County, Caltrans will take a proactive safety approach by shutting down Highway 1 along the Big Sur Coast at two trouble spots. Gates have been installed at Mud Creek, where more than 5 million cubic yards of dirt and rocks slid down the hillside and covered a quarter mile of the roadway with as much as 40 feet of debris in May 2017, and at Paul’s Slide.

Aquafornia news November 14, 2018 Los Angeles Times

Wednesday’s Top of the Scroll: Woolsey fire has cut a massive swath of destruction

The fire has burned about 150 square miles, including about 83% of national park land in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, a stunning loss of a cherished open space for Southern California. … Several of the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District’s facilities were damaged, including a composting facility and a filtration plant in Westlake.

Aquafornia news November 13, 2018 News Deeply

For first time in decades, Liberia’s taps are no longer running dry

Until 2014, handwashing facilities were scarce across much of Liberia. The 14-year conflict that ended in 2003 wiped out the country’s water pipe infrastructure, even in the capital, Monrovia. Most of LIberia’s 4.7 million people were left without access to running water, and the taps of hospitals and health facilities ran dry.

Aquafornia news November 13, 2018 San Francisco Chronicle

Tuesday’s Top of the Scroll: Camp Fire: Oroville Dam officials keep close watch on approaching blaze

Employees of the state Department of Water Resources, with the help of firefighting crews, were cutting brush and watering down landscapes around Lake Oroville to prevent the 117,000-acre blaze from damaging the reservoir’s infrastructure, including the 770-foot-tall Oroville Dam.

Aquafornia news November 9, 2018 Bureau of Reclamation

News Release: Bureau of Reclamation selects 58 projects to receive $3.7 million for WaterSMART small-scale water efficiency projects in 16 western states

Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman announced today [Nov. 8] that Reclamation has selected 58 projects to receive $3.7 million for small-scale water efficiency projects in 16 western states. The funding from Reclamation is being leveraged to support more than $8.2 million in improvements throughout the West. The projects funded with these grants include installation of flow measurement devices and automation technology, canal lining or piping to address seepage, municipal meter upgrades, and other projects to conserve water.

Aquafornia news November 9, 2018 The Sacramento Bee

Friday’s Top of the Scroll: Did gas, homeless people and sick kids kill California’s water bond?

California voters on Tuesday rejected a water bond for the first time in almost 30 years, disregarding pleas from its backers that the money would fix crumbling infrastructure, bring clean drinking water to disadvantaged communities and kick-start badly needed environmental restoration projects.

Aquafornia news November 8, 2018 Circle of Blue

2018 Election: Voters reject stricter rules for oil, gas, and mining

Losses by green groups in Alaska, Colorado, and Montana contributed to a 2018 election in which water-related policies and funding were on the ballot in at least a dozen local and state initiatives. In two other high-profile decisions, voters in Baltimore backed a first-ever municipal ban on privatization of a city water utility while Californians uncharacteristically rejected an $8.9 billion bond for water projects.

Aquafornia news November 8, 2018 Associated Press

California rejects $9 billion bond for water infrastructure

California voters rejected borrowing nearly $9 billion for water infrastructure improvement projects despite the state suffering from chronic water scarcity. Proposition 3 lost Tuesday by a narrow margin of less than 3 percentage points. The initiative called for devoting the money to storage and dam repairs, watershed and fisheries improvements, and habitat protection and restoration.

Related Article:

San Francisco Chronicle: Prop. 3: California water projects bond measure goes down to defeat

Aquafornia news November 7, 2018 CALmatters

The 2018 election is over, let the governing begin
Also awaiting Newsom? Delta tunnel politics

Nine Democratic legislators representing the the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta are calling on the Trump administration to deny California’s request for a $1.6 billion loan to help pay for the twin tunnel project championed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Aquafornia news November 7, 2018 San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco’s Embarcadero seawall measure wins easily

A ballot measure that would give San Francisco the money to start rebuilding the Embarcadero seawall was approved by voters Tuesday by a comfortable margin. Proposition A, which needed a two-thirds vote to pass, had nearly 82 percent support, with 206,446 ballots tabulated.

Aquafornia news November 6, 2018 The San Diego Union-Tribune

Environmentalists want more marshland in Mission Bay to fight sea level rise

San Diego’s proposed redevelopment of Mission Bay Park’s northeast corner could include significantly more marshland if city officials embrace new proposals from local environmentalists concerned about sea level rise.

Aquafornia news November 6, 2018 Bureau of Reclamation

News Release: Delta Cross Channel gates to close weekdays starting November 5

Until further notice, the Bureau of Reclamation plans a cycle of closing the Delta Cross Channel gates during weekdays beginning 10 a.m. Monday, in order to meet the Sacramento River at Rio Vista flow standard. The gates are expected to reopen Fridays around 10 a.m. to facilitate weekend recreation.

Aquafornia news November 6, 2018 Monterey Herald

The river is running through it

In the process of removing the San Clemente Dam in 2015, workers created a pristine route for the Carmel River, complete with step pools and nicely arranged boulders. Winter floods have since transformed the river route into anything but pristine, but the “messy” course has been good for the native steelhead.

Aquafornia news November 6, 2018 Chico Enterprise-Record

Trial date set for Oroville Dam lawsuits against DWR

A trial date has been set to hear several lawsuits against the state Department of Water Resources over the Oroville Dam crisis. The court scheduled the trial for June 1, 2020 during the second case management conference Friday in the Sacramento County Superior Court.

Aquafornia news November 6, 2018 The Sacramento Bee

See four months of Oroville Dam spillway construction in one minute

The California Department of Water Resources has released a time-lapse video showing four months of daily construction progress from June 26 through October 31.

Aquafornia news November 5, 2018 San Francisco Chronicle

Funds flow in for Prop. A to repair San Francisco seawall despite lack of opposition

Proposition A on the San Francisco ballot, which would allow a $425 million bond to strengthen the Embarcadero seawall, has no organized opposition. So why is the Yes on A campaign budget approaching $1.5 million? One answer: Plenty of big developers and corporations are writing big checks.

Western Water August 10, 2018 Gary Pitzer Colorado River Basin Map Layperson's Guide to the Colorado River Gary Pitzer

New Leader Takes Over as the Upper Colorado River Commission Grapples With Less Water and a Drier Climate
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Amy Haas, executive director, Upper Colorado River Commission

Amy Haas recently became the first non-engineer and the first woman to serve as executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission in its 70-year history, putting her smack in the center of a host of daunting challenges facing the Upper Colorado River Basin.

Yet those challenges will be quite familiar to Haas, an attorney who for the past year has served as deputy director and general counsel of the commission. (She replaced longtime Executive Director Don Ostler). She has a long history of working within interstate Colorado River governance, including representing New Mexico as its Upper Colorado River commissioner and playing a central role in the negotiation of the recently signed U.S.-Mexico agreement known as Minute 323.

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