Legislation Restoring Fairness to California Water Management One Step Closer to Becoming Law From the Office of Assemblyman Adam Gray: Assembly Bill 313, introduced by Assemblyman Adam C. Gray (D-Merced) to provide solutions for California’s broken water management structure, cleared an important hurdle Tuesday. AB 313 was approved by the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife at its regular hearing. Committee members voted 13-0 to send the bill onto the next step. “It’s time to bring some fairness back to the equation for California’s water rights holders,” said Gray. “Time and again, we’ve seen state agencies act with unchecked power, with little accountability to the communities they’re supposed to serve. The current system isn’t just inadequate – it’s imbalanced. This bill begins a critically necessary reform of the state’s water management, removing inherent biases and conflicts of interest.” AB 313 proposes to restructure water rights hearings, creating a new Water Rights Division in the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH). Currently, the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) exercises quasi-judicial authority to hold water rights hearings. The SWRCB writes regulations, initiates enforcement actions, and conducts hearings in which Board staff act as prosecutors and the SWRCB itself acts as the judge and jury. “The end result of the current system is like the State Water Board asking the State Water Board if it agrees with itself,” Gray said. “There’s a reason there are umpires in baseball: we need a neutral party to enforce water rights so everybody gets a fair shot.” Under the legislation’s newly-created Water Rights Division, administrative law judges would preside over water rights matters. The new Division would conduct hearings and make a recommendation to the Executive Director of the SWRCB that the Executive Director can accept, reject or modify. The change ensures objectivity, while still allowing state water agency experts to give input. At Tuesday’s Committee hearing, Assemblyman Gray was joined by Rick Gilmore, general manager of Byron-Bethany Irrigation District (BBID). BBID provided technical support in crafting AB 313, which was amended after its original introduction in February. After hearing testimony, the Committee voted in favor of sending the bill to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations, which will consider the bill in the coming weeks. “These changes won’t fix all that ails California water management, but we have to start somewhere – and the time is now,” Gray said. More information is available at www.asmdc.org/gray. Ocean Protection Council Adopts Resolution Incorporating Latest Sea-Level Rise Projections From the Natural Resources Agency: Today, the Ocean Protection Council (OPC) adopted a resolution acknowledging a recent science report as a foundational piece for updating the State’s Sea-Level Rise Guidance and directing staff at the Ocean Protection Council to begin the policy update, which will help state and local agencies incorporate sea-level rise into their decision-making. The report was written by a Working Group of the OPC’s Science Advisory Team, in coordination with Ocean Science Trust and summarizes the latest in sea-level rise science and projections, including the potential impacts on California from rapid ice loss from the Antarctic ice sheet. The report includes new information on the expected sea-level changes that will occur based on different greenhouse gas emission scenarios. For example, with very successful mitigation efforts, the report states that there is a 67 percent probability that the Bay Area will experience sea-level rise between 1.0 foot and 2.4 feet by 2100. However, if no significant mitigation efforts are taken, that range increases to 1.6 to 3.4 feet….

Drought conditions improve again in NH; drought over in some spots.
Drought conditions have improved drastically over the last several months.
According to the latest report Thursday morning from the U.S. Drought Monitor for New Hampshire, the problem spot in the state is relegated to Sullivan County, where most of that area is now in a moderate drought, an improvement from the previous report.
Areas from the Lakes Region south to the Massachusetts border are considered abnormally dry, the lowest rating on the monitor’s drought scale.
This indicates there may be some lingering water deficits, while pastures or crops may not have fully recovered.
Areas in the White Mountains north through the Great North Woods and extreme southwestern and extreme southeastern spots in the state are no longer in a drought at all.
At its peak, most of the state was gripped in an extreme drought from the end of 2016 through the beginning of 2017.
In the map above, areas shaded in light orange indicate moderate drought conditions, while areas shaded in yellow are considered abnormally dry.

After years in which California appeared to be a candidate for a century or more of drought, and areas in Texas, Oklahoma and northern Georgia had droughts bad enough to affect the local economies, America is finally free of the worst measure of drought, based on the official definition. Among the five levels of drought designated by the U.S. Drought Monitor, “exceptional drought” is the worst. It is defined by two measures: Exceptional and widespread crop/pasture losses Shortages of water in reservoirs, streams and wells creating water emergencies No single part of America has this…

Denise England, the county’s water resources program director, said the project is 99 percent complete.
On Tuesday, County Supervisors approved an amendment to the original agreement, an initial administrative step in the process to wrap up the project.
The amendment was to a $1.2 million grant from the Department of Water Resources.
The well is designed to produce water for 500 new connections in the East Porterville area.
The administrative paperwork is needed because of the three sources for the project.
The water well project was approved when East Porterville became the prime example of the drought effects in California.
England said the project came to fruition within two years of initial approval.
It did take a while, but it was faster than I would have imagined.” The $2.2 million spent for the well is typical cost for municipal well, England said.
In the same report, the OES also said there’s an increase in the number of resolved failures.
The current number of reported domestic well failures is 1,608.

Flagler County to consider burn ban as drought conditions climb.
@DinahVP As drought conditions continue to climb across much of Florida, Flagler County is preparing to impose a burn ban.
When the County Commission meets Monday, they’ll be asked to approve a burn ban and a local state of emergency, county officials said Wednesday.
“We are proposing to initiate the ban as an abundance of caution due to the amount of fires occurring around the state,” Flagler County Fire Rescue Chief Don Petito said.
“Since January, there have been 1,775 fires around the state burning approximately 146,172 acres in the state of Florida.” A burn ban would prohibit the sale, use and discharge of fireworks, all open burning, throwing matches and cigarettes from car windows and the parking of cars and trucks with catalytic converters in areas where the grass is high.
The city of Deltona enacted a burn ban last week.
Our staff continues to work with partnering agencies to combat wildfires across the state, and we need an all-hands-on-deck approach to mitigate the dangers until conditions improve.” The burn ban prohibits open burning, including campfires, bonfires, trash burning and any other incineration on district property and applies to all visitors, including campers currently on property and those with permits for future dates.
Many counties have also enacted similar bans across Florida.
No significant rainfall is forecast over the next 10 days.
Federal officials say the wildfire risk will be elevated across Florida on Thursday, when winds should increase to 10 mph or more and humidity falls below 40 percent.

Mascherano ends incredible scoring drought for Barcelona.
Almost seven seasons and over 300 games have passed since the Argentine arrived at Camp Nou, and he finally broke his duck on Wednesday Javier Mascherano finally ended his amazing goal drought for Barcelona by firing home from the penalty spot during the Catalans’ clash against Osasuna.
Incredibly, the former West Ham and Liverpool star had never previously scored in Blaugrana colours, despite playing for the club for almost seven seasons.
He beat Salvatore Sirigu to end a run of 319 games without hitting the net, to the delight of his team-mates who mobbed him after the successful effort.
70 min: @Mascherano has his 1st official goal for Barça on a PK as things happened so fast we couldn’t type fast enough to explain it all!
pic.twitter.com/qHb9MZaLcX — FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) 26 de abril de 2017 The goal also brought up a milestone for Luis Enrique, who saw Barca score their 500th goal since he took charge back in 2014.
500 – Javier Mascherano has scored the 500th goal for Barcelona under Luis Enrique in all competitions.
Wednesday’s effort was only the fourth goal of his professional club career, while he has scored another three with the senior Argentina team in 136 appearances.
The last goal Mascherano scored came on June 4 2014, when he converted against Trinidad & Tobago for Argentina.
His last club goal came for Liverpool on February 25, 2010 against Unirea Urziceni in the Europa League.

Rain and snow has returned to California, ending the record-setting drought with record-setting precipitation.
The drought led to forest fires, dead orchards, and brown lawns.
It also took a big bite out of ratepayers’ wallets and increased global warming emissions, due to the loss of low-cost, zero-emission hydropower.
In a study released April 26 by Peter Gleick—a noted water expert at the Pacific Institute in Oakland—researchers found that lower hydropower production cost California ratepayers almost $2.5 billion in higher power prices, and may have raised power sector carbon dioxide emissions 10%, due to increased output from gas-fired generators.
Gleick’s team used data through September 2016 to calculate the figures.
California has 14 GW of hydro capacity, with little growth in recent decades due to environmental, economic, and political constraints.
Hydro output dropped by two-thirds between 2011 and 2016, losing a total of 65,600 GWh of low-cost, zero-emission electricity over the five-year drought.
According to Gleick’s report, the drop in hydroelectricity output was replaced by burning more natural gas, more imports from out-of-state sources, and growing levels of other renewable generation, especially wind and solar.
Retail power demand was almost completely flat through the drought, with a 3% dip in 2016.
To calculate the higher cost, Gleick first found the marginal cost of replacement power during the drought, which averaged $35/MWh.

FWC: Drought killing thousands of fish.
The severe drought could mean more fish floating belly up in a neighborhood near you.
Everywhere you look there are fish floating or rotting on the shore of a large pond on the apartment property.
“It’s so sad,” Mary Myers uttered while walking her grandson on the sidewalk along the pond.
Melissa Otero looked out from her apartment balcony at the fish massacre, “Bottoms up and they were dead.
It was terrible.” Several neighbors reported the dead fish to FWC’s Fish Kill hotline.
As the water level drops, so does the amount of oxygen in the pond, which suffocates the fish.
“It’s a little scary because you don’t know what this drought will become.
There’s one pond here, another across the street.
Please!” FWC says they’ve already received 50 calls into their fish kill hotline.

Remember, the drought could come back next year.
The announcement came after months of record rainfall — an onslaught that literally changed the landscape of Southern California.
Hills and mountains that for years were a dry and brittle brown suddenly turned green.
But all of that lush green and wetness made us forget about those water restrictions we had to abide by, those quotas that cities and water districts had to meet to reduce their usage.
It made us forget that regardless of how good things might seem now, we are still living in a desert.
Advertisement The thing is, we don’t know what next year — or the year after — will bring.
We may luck out and get two or three more years of heavy rain.
“This drought emergency is over, but the next drought could be around the corner,” Brown said.
I say this because many people are going to view Brown’s lifting of the drought as a license to waste water.
But the hills have already lost much of the green and our stream beds are drying up again.

Report: Drought increased California’s electricity costs by $2.45 billion.
(KGTV)–California’s latest drought lead to an increase in electricity costs in the billions of dollars and contributed to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions, according to a new report released today by the Pacific Institute.
The report assessed the costs of lost hydro-electricity to California during the severe, five-year drought and found: An increase in electricity costs of $2.45 billion Ten percent boost in carbon dioxide emissions from California power plants "The recent drought was the driest and hottest in 120 years of instrumental records and one of the worst in California history, and it had impacts on all water users including farmers, industries, cities and natural ecosystems," report author Peter Gleick said.
"And, in fact, all California ratepayers were affected by the drought as they paid for electricity that was both dirtier and more expensive than in non-drought years."
The loss of hydroelectricity during the drought led to the additional combustion of fossil fuels for electric generation, the report claims.
Carbon dioxide emissions are the leading cause of climate change.
Sandy Coronilla is a KGTV digital producer.
Follow her @10NewsSandy