California Water Plan Enews – 12/2/15

This week’s Water Plan eNews includes:

  • Applications being accepted for $16 million in irrigation project funding
  • Comment deadline for climate change plans extended to Dec. 10
  • Climate change diagram available to assist California tribes in preparing for impacts
  • Newsletter puts a spotlight on the concern over harmful algal blooms
  • PPIC assembles fact sheet on California’s water quality challenges
  • Water leaders class releases final report on managing drought
  • Webinar offering details on how to grow a watershed investment fund

California Water Plan ENEWS – 11/25/15

This week’s Water Plan eNews includes:

  • Water utilities will be the focus of next month’s International Water and Climate Forum
  • Office of Sustainable Water Solutions releases latest newsletter
  • UC Davis soil index identifies farmland suitable for groundwater recharge
  • Irrigation district offering workshop on well drilling in the Central Valley
  • Water commission posts updated draft regulations for water storage program
  • Report suggests reforms for California’s water allocation system
  • State and federal water collaboration discussed at EPA meeting

California Water Plan ENews – 11/18/15

This week’s Water Plan eNews includes:

  • Rebates still available for Californians who replace lawn, toilets
  • DWR begins implementation of new groundwater basin boundary regulations
  • Summit sets goal of one million more acre-feet of water for California
  • New video explains the benefits of EIFDs in California
  • Water management session to be included at transportation planning conference
  • SWAP companion plans open for public comments through Jan. 15

UC scientists test inexpensive way to capture El Nino rains – 11/12/15

Amy Graff, SFGate – Researchers from UC Davis and UC Cooperative Extension are testing a new method for capturing some of that underutilized water by diverting it from rivers into the network of canals running through Central Valley farmland. This irrigation system sits empty during the rainy months, and the scientists are looking at filling some canals with water and directing it onto suitable farmland where it can seep underground. Click here for full article.

California Water Plan ENews – 11/10/15

This week’s Water Plan eNews includes:

  • Process guide offers a look at the development of California Water Plan Update 2013
  • Draft guidelines posted for $10 million worth of water use efficiency loans
  • Comment period for flood reduction program runs through Dec. 11
  • DWR provides guidelines for local agencies looking to form GSAs
  • Naturally occurring water contaminants to be discussed at two-day symposium
  • California Water Commission changes this month’s meeting date to Nov. 19
  • Delta interagency committee meeting next week in Sacramento

2015-16 State Responsibility Area Fire Prevention Fund Grant Applications Now Available – 11/9/15

CAL FIRE has just announced $5,000,000 available through the State Responsibility Area Fire Prevention Fund for projects that reduce the wildfire threat to habitable structures in a State Responsibility Area (SRA).   The maximum grant is $100,000, of which no more than $40,000 can be for equipment.  No match is required, though it does add to the competitiveness of the proposed project.  Eligible grantees include local government, fire districts, community services districts, water districts, special districts, certified local conservation corps, Fire Safe Councils, and other 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations.

Qualifying projects and activities include those related to hazardous fuel reduction, fire prevention planning, fire prevention education, and training that reduce the risk and potential impact of wildfire on habitable structures in the SRA. Examples include, but are not limited to:

Hazardous Fuel Reduction

  • Vegetation clearance in critical locations to reduce wildfire intensity and rate of spread
  • Creation or maintenance of fuel breaks in strategic locations, as identified in CAL FIRE Unit Fire Plans, a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP), or similar strategic planning document
  • Removing ladder fuels to reduce the risk of crown fires
  • Removing dead and dying trees
  • Community level fire prevention programs, such as community chipping days, roadside chipping, and green waste bin programs
  • Elective tree removal (thinning) to improve forest health to withstand wildfire
  • Modification of vegetation adjacent to roads to provide for safer ingress and egress of evacuating residents and responding emergency personnel
  • Reduction of fuel loading around critical firefighting infrastructure such as fire hydrants, water drafting locations, and staging areas

 Fire Prevention Education and Training

  • Fire prevention public education

 Fire Prevention Planning

  • Wildfire risk or related mapping
  • Creation of strategic wildfire planning documents, such as a CWPP

Applications are due on January 7, 2016.  Please review the web site and the Procedural Guide for more information.

California Water Plan ENews – 11/04/15

This week’s Water Plan eNews includes:

  • $231 million of integrated water management projects recommended for funding
  • All appendices for California’s Groundwater Update 2013 posted online
  • Applications being accepted from counties with stressed basins
  • SWRCB sets new date for groundwater sustainability workshop
  • Webinar on outdoor water use and water-efficient landscape offered tomorrow
  • Drought response training being offered by the Local Government Commission
  • DWR to host 10 UWMP workshops for water suppliers beginning Nov. 13

California Water Plan ENews – 10/28/15

This week’s Water Plan eNews includes:

  • CWC adopts groundwater basin boundary regulations, DWR to accept requests Jan. 1
  • A lesson on how models and data fit into the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
  • New mapping tool will help identify economically distressed areas in California
  • Delta Plan performance measures to be discussed during public workshop
  • Levee program accepting public comments on draft list of approved projects
  • Climate-smart conservation workshop set for next month in San Diego
  • Local Government Commission posts updated version of The Ahwahnee Water Principles

Damning California’s Future – 10/21/15

Hoping to capitalize on the epic drought, the state’s water industry wants to usher in a new era of dam-building in the state. But environmentalists say it would cost billions and do more harm than good.

‘Inside Proposition 1, the $7.5 billion water bond that California voters enthusiastically approved last November, is a provision requiring the expenditure of $2.7 billion on water storage projects. Many environmentalists had hoped that a substantial amount of those funds would be used for groundwater storage, but according to some close observers, it appears increasingly likely that most, if not all, of the money will go to dam-building. In addition, US Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both D-California, introduced a $1.3 billion emergency drought relief bill in July of this year to “support communities affected by drought.”

This senate bill, as presently drafted, would authorize $600 million of spending on “Calfed storage projects,” in reference to four dam-expansion and construction projects that the state and federal governments have studied since 2004: Sites, Temperance Flat, Shasta, and Los Vaqueros. The first three of these projects are in various parts of the vast Central Valley, while Los Vaqueros is located in eastern Contra Costa County.’

Click here for full article by Will Parish, East Bay Express.