Jeffrey Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water
District of Southern California, offered The Sacramento Bee’s
editorial board his view of California’s plumbing system last
week.
When the San Vicente Dam opened in 1943, engineers were already
thinking about how to make it higher — a vision celebrated
Wednesday by many who came to dedicate a new version of the
venerable structure that’s 117 feet taller than the original.
From the Los Angeles Times, in a commentary by Jon Healey:
As much as Republicans might yearn for deep-blue California to
fall into the deep blue ocean, the GOP-led House Appropriations
Committee agreed this week to provide $5 million to support the
development of an earthquake early warning system that could help
reduce the injuries and damage caused by a big quake.
From the Los Angeles Times, in a column by Patt Morrison:
Lucy Jones is the U.S. Geological Survey seismologist seconded by
Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office to spend a year creating the city’s
first seismic resilience plan. Her grandfather worked for William
Mulholland’s DWP, and her great-great and great grandparents are
buried in a cemetery on the San Andreas fault
The ever-changing thermal geology of Yellowstone National Park
has created a hot spot that melted an asphalt road and closed
access to popular geysers and other attractions at the height of
tourist season, officials said Thursday.
A bill to help streamline a project to connect Lake San Antonio
and Lake Nacimiento with an underground pipeline has passed out
of a key state Senate committee. Assembly Bill 155, authored
by Salinas Assemblyman Luis Alejo, cleared the Local Government
and Finance Committee with bipartisan support, Alejo’s office
said Wednesday in a news release.
A bold, $25-billion plan to ship more water to Southern
California could create tens of thousands of new jobs a year for
decades, a Brown administration study says. And even though the
plan is at least two years from possible final approval, it is
generating plenty of controversy.
“Timothy Quinn is with the Association of California Water
Agencies, or ACWA. He says planned Central Valley water recycling
projects and a water desalination project in San Diego are
welcome, but he says conservation is equally important.”
“A major roadblock to completion of critical levee repairs in
Sacramento’s Natomas basin was cleared Tuesday when President
Barack Obama signed the Water Resources Reform and Development
Act into law.”
“Chile’s government rejected an $8 billion proposal to dam
Patagonian rivers to meet the country’s growing energy demands,
handing a victory to environmentalists who praised Tuesday’s
ruling as a landmark moment.”
From the California WaterBlog by UC Davis Center for
Watershed Sciences, in a post by Jay Lund:
“Removing sediment from reservoirs is often suggested as a
potentially better way to expand storage capacity than raising
dam heights or building new reservoirs. This is a natural notion
to explore given the cost and likely environmental impacts of
traditional expansions.”
“A member of The Bee’s editorial board briefly met Jo-Ellen
Darcy, the assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, last
week after she was dropped off atop Folsom Dam by a Black Hawk
helicopter with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials.”
“Two months ago, community leaders in Hamilton City received news
the J Levee that protects the town from the Sacramento River was
on the federal list for repairs.”
“Last month, after years of delay, Congress approved a bill to
finish $1 billion in levee improvements that federal regulators
say are needed to make Natomas safe.”
“Ten years ago this morning, a levee on Jones Tract west of
Stockton abruptly crumbled, unleashing a flood of water and
worry. The water went away, eventually. The worry never
did.”
“As California struggles through a third year of drought, elected
officials from both parties are proposing to spend billions of
dollars in public money on new dams and reservoirs.”
“The
Sacramento Bee’s article on visual simulations of certain
aspects of the BDCP did not fully or accurately depict DWR’s
review of the Delta Protection Commission’s (DPC) visual
simulations of the BDCP proposed CM 1 construction.
“Gov. Jerry Brown presented a robust defense of his record over
the last three-and-a-half years during a speech to California
business leaders Wednesday, promoting his efforts with education,
pension reform, workers’ compensation, criminal justice and the
economy. … Brown did not touch on two massive public works
projects he is pushing …”
“The water diversion tunnels that Gov. Jerry Brown proposes to
build in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are so large that many
policymakers and citizens have had difficulty grasping the
project. The Delta Protection Commission set out to change that.”
