Hector Gastelum has been censured by the Otay Water District
Board of Directors for posting controversial comments on social
media. Again. In 2017, the water district censured Gastelum and
removed him from all committees because of a tweet that
described Muslim people as “subhuman scum.” This time,
Gastelum’s censure is the consequence of a racist post
criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement.
The city of Imperial Beach, environmental advocacy group
Surfrider Foundation and the San Diego Regional Water Quality
Control Board agreed to put down their proverbial legal swords
for a period of 12 months while the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency puts a stack of cash to work on the
decades-long sewage issue plaguing the Tijuana River watershed.
Pasadena conservationist groups secured a major victory on
Tuesday when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
approved a settlement agreement, ending a protracted legal
battle centered on the removal of 1.7 million cubic yards of
sediment from the Devil’s Gate Dam and its potential
environmental impacts.
The California Department of Water Resources has awarded more
than $15 million in grant funds to advance several regional
water projects in San Diego County, ranging from water
recycling and reuse to water conservation.
Researchers in the Grand Canyon now spend weeks at a time,
several times a year, monitoring humpback chub, which has
become central to an ecosystem science program with
implications for millions of westerners who rely on Colorado
River water.
As coronavirus infections and deaths continue to rise
throughout the United States, state officials are fighting a
battle against a separate outbreak that has killed up to 60,000
fish at the Mojave River Hatchery. The culprit, a bacteria
known as Lactococcus garvieae, has never before been
seen in the state…
Four elected officials representing area water districts
expressed frustration with state laws aimed at water
conservation during an American Liberty Forum of Ramona
informational meeting.
Several California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) fish
hatchery facilities in the Eastern Sierra and Southern
California are battling a bacterial outbreak that has the
potential to cause significant losses to both hatchery and wild
fish populations.
The Orange County Water District has been awarded a $3.6
million grant from the California Department of Water Resources
Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) grant program for
use toward the construction of its Groundwater Replenishment
System (GWRS) Final Expansion project. Operational since 2008,
the GWRS is undergoing its second and final expansion.
After years of crunching the numbers and looking at options for
reliable water supplies, the Montectio Water District is
connecting to nearby Santa Barbara as part of its
“drought-proof” plan. It involves a multi-phased agreement to
insure an adequate supply of water for Montecito which, like
other South Coast communities, saw its storage and delivery
options dry up a few years ago after a prolonged period of
little or now rain.
The San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency approved Lance Eckhart,
currently the director of Basin Management and Resource
Planning for the Mojave Water Agency, as its new general
manager during its June 15 board meeting.
The state of California, city of Imperial Beach, and the
Surfrider Foundation have agreed to a 12-month stay in
litigation over cross-border sewage flowing in from Mexico
while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency focuses work on
the Tijuana River Valley.
Russell Barabe is a coldwater fisheries biologist based out of
CDFW’s South Coast Region office in San Diego. … A Master’s
degree in fisheries biology at Mississippi State University put
him on the path to becoming a CDFW biologist, where he’s been
employed since 2009.
Monte Vista Water District was awarded a $3.4 million grant
from the Department of Water Resources that will partially fund
a treatment project necessary to meet stricter water quality
regulations. The water district provides retail and wholesale
water supply services to a population of about 140,000 in the
communities of Montclair, Chino Hills and portions of Chino.
The June 17 meeting of the Eastern Municipal Water District
included approving the purchase of groundwater monitoring
equipment for the West San Jacinto Basin, approving a
consultant contract for the final design of the Hemet Water
Filtration Plant sodium hypochlorite tank replacement, and
awarding Pacific Hydrotech Corporation a contract to replace
the booster engines at the Pat Road facility.
Mostly, the people didn’t know their groundwater was polluted..
And they didn’t know the contaminated portions shut down by
federal authorities in many instances were finally being
restored. Kenneth “Ken” Manning, 69, a fixture in ground-water
restoration in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, a
pioneer in water recycling and a master at public-private
partnerships, knew. And on June 30, Manning will retire from
his most recent job, as executive director of the San Gabriel
Basin Water Quality Authority.
As states, municipalities and agencies continue grappling with
the economic impacts of the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic,
the West Valley Water District Board of Directors has taken
what most consider a prudent and responsible approach to the
agency’s 2020-2021 budget by approving $416,000 in cost savings
and no water rate increases.
The Water Replenishment District has received a $844,240 grant
from the California State Water Resources Control Board to
remove inactive water wells from production. This grant was
made possible by California’s Proposition 1 which authorized
$7.545 billion in funds for water supply infrastructure
projects and was approved by voters in 2014.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
Many of California’s watersheds are
notoriously flashy – swerving from below-average flows to jarring
flood conditions in quick order. The state needs all the water it
can get from storms, but current flood management guidelines are
strict and unyielding, requiring reservoirs to dump water each
winter to make space for flood flows that may not come.
However, new tools and operating methods are emerging that could
lead the way to a redefined system that improves both water
supply and flood protection capabilities.
