ACWA e-News for July 11, 2012

A stellar lineup of programs exploring agricultural and urban water conservation will educate and inform participants at ACWA’s second annual Regulatory Summit in Sonoma Aug. 15.

The Delta Stewardship Council will review the final staff draft of the Delta Plan at its meeting Thursday in West Sacramento.

A new blog featuring water conservation tips and facts is now available on the Save Our Water homepage.

“Words to Save By” features short, informative posts helping Californians find new and exciting ways to work water conservation into their everyday lives.

Two United States senators, a member of Congress and two organizations representing the state’s urban communities submitted separate letters this week calling for action on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.

The letters, sent as state and federal agencies enter a key decision-making stage for the BDCP, urge leaders to move forward with identifying critical elements of the project and producing environmental documents for public review.

The House unanimously approved a bipartisan bill, HR 5892, to streamline the permitting process for small-scale hydropower projects on July 9. The ACWA-supported bill would exempt in-conduit hydropower projects less than 5 MW from FERC jurisdiction. The bill would allow the installation of hydropower projects in canals, irrigation channels, and pipelines to proceed more smoothly.

Gov. Jerry Brown yesterday signed AB 1422, legislation moving the 2012 water bond to the November 2014 ballot.

The bill by Assembly Member Henry Perea (D-Fresno), which cleared both houses on a bipartisan, two-thirds vote, moves the $11.14 billion water bond to 2014 without making any changes to the content of the bond.

The move was supported by a broad coalition including ACWA and its member agencies, conservation groups, business, labor and agriculture.

The July 6, 2012, issue of issue of ACWA News is now available online, with stories on the water bond delay, changes to ACWA's organizational structure and the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.

Other highlights in this issue:

The Senate and Assembly today approved legislation that would move the $11.14 billion water bond to the November 2014 ballot.

AB 1422 by Assembly Member Henry Perea (D-Fresno) cleared both houses on bipartisan, two-thirds votes on the floor. The bill, which would move the bond measure from this November’s ballot to the 2014 ballot without making any changes to the content of the bond, now goes to the governor.

Before reaching for bottled water, consumers should take a moment to consider the incredible resource available to the tap, ACWA Vice President John Coleman writes in a July 4 opinion piece in the Oakland Tribune.

Read the complete piece here.