Regional Recycled Water Advanced Purification Center Grand Opening 10, Oct 2019In this episode John Howard and Tim Foster welcomed the longtime but soon-to-be-retired Metropolitan Water District of Southern California head honcho Jeff Kightlinger for a wide-ranging discussion that covered the status of the Delta Tunnel Project, climate change and the snow survey, the drought, working from home, jukeboxes and his punk rock roots.
A helicopter sprays a field in the Salinas Valley. (Photo: Dwight Smith, via Shutterstock)Angela Mancuso had just dropped off her kids at Glenwood Elementary School when she started to smell something “funky.” She was driving back to her home just a mile away in Stockton and decided to roll down her window for some fresh air. She noticed too late that a helicopter applying pesticide to a nearby walnut grove that Tuesday morning in September 2016 kept flying back and forth across the road, spraying continuously.
Sunrise over the Sacramento River in the delta. (Photo: Chris Briggs, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Access to reliable, clean drinking water should be a fundamental human right for all Californians. Unfortunately, many disadvantaged communities throughout the state lack access to clean drinking water, and our aging water delivery infrastructure threatens water reliability for millions of California residents.
The Delta-Mendota Canal near Santa Nella, Calif. (Photo: Hank Shiffman)Gov. Gavin Newsom’s veto of a major environmental protection bill angered and surprised environmentalists – and left some wondering what happens next. The measure, SB 1 authored by Senate Leader Toni Atkins and backed by an array of environmental groups, was aimed at safeguarding California’s environmental policies against the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back water, air quality and other standards in California.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California's vital water hub and a source of ongoing conflict over water use and the environment. (Image: California Department of Water Resources)One of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing. That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach” on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
Gov. Brown delivers his 16th state of the state address. (Photo: Screen capture, ABC 7 Los Angeles).Jerry Brown professes to not be interested in legacies. Yet his 16th and final state-of-the-state speech last week was all about a legacy – his own. The governor talked about how dire the state’s fiscal situation was before he became governor. Then he talked about how good things are now that he’s been in charge for the last seven years.
Illustration of online activity at a snail's pace. (mattsabe, Shutterstock)OPINION: In California — and all across the country — there are “digital deserts,” places where it’s impossible to get high-speed Internet access at home and thus impossible to do homework, apply for jobs and be a full-fledged member of the digital economy. These digital deserts also prevent farmers from using Internet technology to improve efficiencies in growing crops and getting them to markets.
An aerial view of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. (Photo: Jeffrey T. Kreulen)Gov. Jerry Brown’s massive Delta tunnels project is moving forward through a series of state and federal environmental reviews. But it still faces an array of major hurdles including public opposition, financing and approvals by state water contractors. The $15 billion project, known as California Water Fix, is on track to finish the environmental reviews by the end of the year.
An aerial view of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.State water officials today ordered cuts in water to dozens of growers and ranchers, limiting supplies to farmers who have had rights to the water for more than a century. The cutbacks mark the first time since 1977 — also a severe drought year — that such reductions have been ordered.
An aerial view of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.Gov. Jerry Brown went back to the future Wednesday, saying water problems have confronted him, his father’s governorship and their predecessors as they sought ways to get northern water to the south. Brown said delta-linked proposals had been studied for decades, with perhaps a million personnel-hours spent looking at the plan. “Until you put a million hours into it, shut up!” Brown, defending the proposal, told a gathering of hundreds of people at a statewide at a conference of the Association of California Water Agencies. Brown’s comment drew applause.