The San Diego County Water Authority won two sweeping legal victories Wednesday in a mammoth rate case against Southern California’s largest water wholesaler. If the tentative rulings in the years-long disputes and, local water users could eventually see significant relief from soaring water bills. The Water Authority is owed $188.3 million plus interest from Metropolitan
The Turlock Irrigation District agreed Tuesday to sell some of its Tuolumne River water to a treatment plant proposed for three cities. The 5-0 decision by the district board was a major milestone in a 28-year effort to reduce reliance on wells in Turlock, Ceres and south Modesto. Their leaders have not yet decided to
Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration took a significant step toward building a pair of water tunnels through the Delta on Thursday, unveiling the fine print on a redesign that state officials say would reduce impacts on the landscape, improve conditions for endangered fish and enhance water supplies for millions of Southern Californians. The state Department of
The chances that California will begin clawing its way out of the drought with a wet winter got a bump Thursday with a federal report showing an El Niño weather pattern continuing to strengthen in the Pacific. The U.S. Climate Prediction Center< reported that telltale signs of El Niño — which include warming sea surface temperatures
California’s water crisis could be on the verge of getting a good deal worse. In a potentially significant setback for a system already stressed by epic drought, California regulators have ordered a temporary curb in the flows being released from Lake Shasta in order to protect an endangered species of salmon. Farmers and others said
We join a vast coalition of citizens, working families, business leaders, family farmers, water experts and community-based groups in supporting the governor’s plan to update the aging system that supplies water to 25 million Californians and 3 million acres of farmland. Our failure to adequately invest in our water infrastructure is contributing significantly to our lack of
There's a classic economic paradox about the price of water and value, and it comes from Adam Smith: Why do diamonds cost more than water? The comparison is meant to demonstrate how pricing works—that even though water is essential for human survival, our economy puts prices on things based on scarcity and value (and marginal
Merced County’s proposed groundwater ordinance is one step closer to becoming law. The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the first reading of the ordinance, setting a second reading and possible adoption for March 17. The ordinance would regulate groundwater transfers out of Merced County basins through a permitting process, allowing county officials to scrutinize each water
State regulators are scrutinizing more than 100 Kern County injection wells that if closed, as federal officials warn may be warranted, could force local oil companies to decide between cutting production and finding a new destination for several billion gallons of wastewater per year. A few of the wells inject steam to aid in oil
California's drought crept in slowly, but it could end with a torrent of winter storms that stream across the Pacific, dumping much of the year's rain and snow in a few fast-moving and potentially catastrophic downpours. Powerful storms known as atmospheric rivers, ribbons of water vapor that extend for thousands of miles, pulling moisture from