Take Action! Caltrans crews are driving through the Delta confiscating “Save the Delta! Stop the Tunnels!” signs displayed by Delta land and business owners, even though these signs are posted on private property. According to Jeff Bennett, Supervisor at the Cal Trans Rio Vista office, display of such signs is in violation of Streets and...Read More

Also, while driving down the I-5, closer to the Semitropic water users area and extending into Kern County, new signs have been placed for tourists speeding through the state from up north to Los Angeles and San Diego. These signs, meant to falsely decry the reality that we are in a second dry year and,...Read More

If your summer travels take you down Interstate 5, take a look at all those newly-planted almond trees on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, in some cases right across the highway from conspicuously dead almond trees.  We continue to be puzzled by cropping decisions in this region.  One almond grower and agricultural...Read More

The Water Education Foundation has been enthusiastically publicizing its new Aquapedia.com,  “an online, vetted reference tool for all things water.” An initial examination of this ambitious new resource leaves us less than impressed, although admittedly, we didn’t get beyond “A.”  There’s an entry on the List of Topics for “Alex Hildebrand,” a highly respected engineer...Read More

We rarely agree with the Association of California Water Agencies about anything, but we’re with them in their opposition to AB 145, a piece of legislation that was approved by the Senate Health Committee last week. This legislation would move the state’s drinking water program from the Department of Public Health to the State Water...Read More

Another matter worth mentioning at the July 17 BDCP meeting is the current violation of West Delta salinity standards by the state and federal governments. We’re in the second year of a dry period, not even a drought, and DWR and the Bureau of Reclamation have already asked the State Water Resources Control Board to...Read More

Westlands Water District and other Central Valley Project (CVP) contractors have a sweet deal with the Bureau of Reclamation (USBR).  Contractors pay only for the water they receive, so in years when water deliveries are less than projected, revenues don’t recover the federal investment in the project.  But in years when actual water deliveries exceed...Read More

A BDCP Finance Working Group meeting scheduled for July 10 to review the Statewide Economic Impact Study has been rescheduled for August 8. We hope they realized that this study will not take the place of the cost/benefit analysis that BDCP promised at the beginning of the year and that we still haven’t seen. We...Read More