How Much Water Do You Get For a Penny?  Let’s take a look!

FACT

FICTION

From the WRD Facebook page: It’s all fiction (or bad math)

We wondered how the math was done on the suggested – “gallons on the penny”.  Here’s the real deal, to clarify these perpetuated misconceptions, we took this analysis to the chalkboard, grabbed the eraser and calculated – using real math.   Read the rest of this entry »

By Art Aguilar

San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Clean, safe water should be affordable and accessible to all citizens, not just the wealthy.

Central Basin Municipal Water District is proud of the fact we provide the most affordable water in the region. However, in these challenging economic times, our Board of Directors recognized we needed to do more to support the people of our community.

To help alleviate the burden of the rising cost of water on the people of southeast Los Angeles County, the Central Basin Board is announcing a Pledge to Freeze Water Rates for at least one year.

Moreover, we are challenging all other water agencies in the region to do the same.

In the words of one Bell resident from who came to us seeking help with her $700 water bill from the Golden State Water Company: “Enough is enough!”

We are tired of so-called political “water wars” that historically pit communities and agencies against each other in a fight for control over a vital public resource.

Central Basin will continue to protect and preserve our limited and precious water supplies for the public use. We will not stand aside and have this public resource monopolized, politicized or privatized in any way. Water must be accessible and affordable to all people. Read the rest of this entry »

Wondering what’s up with our reservoirs lately? Well, the Sacramento Bee last week ran this update. We loved it so much that our Water Resources & Planning Manager Dave Hill used one of the graphics included in the story in his  water supply update at our monthly Central MWD Caucus (check out future Caucus meeting dates here). We think it’s one of the best visual graphics we’ve seen in a while on the California water supply and couldn’t wait to share (Source: Sacramento Bee):

The City of Bell Gardens  secured their goal in becoming the First California Friendly City through a grant

provided by Central Basin and Metropolitan Water Districts to include installation of nearly 25,000 square feet of California Friendly Landscaping in public garden areas and installation of water saving devices at public facilities.

Last summer, the city was proud to celebrate a ribbon cutting ceremony for Phase I of the new synthetic turf soccer field located at John Anson Ford Park.  But the city hit a major bump in the road when they discovered that they needed to raise an overwhelming amount of additional funding in order to complete the project.

Read the rest of this entry »

This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act, the nation’s principal law to protect our waters. To commemorate the passage of this landmark legislation, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created a new page on their website called “Water Is Worth It“.

At Central Basin  we work hard to protect and preserve water water as a vital public resource. Check out the various projects and programs we implement to achieve this goal and bring quality, affordable water to the people of southeast L.A.

We commend the EPA for their leadership in administering the Clean Water Act since 1972. Here’s to many more years to protecting our nation’s water!

Recently, a group of scientists gathered together to share findings on the importance of groundwater supplies and how it is key to coping with climate change.  We couldn’t agree more and it’s all been heard it before – groundwater is vital to our water supply, now more so than ever.  Managing groundwater basins is an important component towards adapting to climate change.

Not only is our region facing climate change, we’re also experiencing population increase, reductions in water supply and regulatory requirements, which have made water from the northern California Delta less reliable.

Since February 2011, Central Basin has been working closely with stakeholders on a draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) of the Central Groundwater Basin to preserve and protect a vast amount of water supply for the region and knowing true conditions of the Basin will help to understand issues that may threaten its health.  Working together towards development of a groundwater storage plan is one of the most cost effective ways to preserve and ensure safe and reliable water supply for years to come.

We were excited to recently discover the winner of this year’s 2011 Water Is Life Poster contest , Anna Resnick, established a non-profit organization called “Arts2Cure“, which promotes interest in art while raising money and awareness to help the world around us. We couldn’t be prouder of Anna!  

The “2012 Water Is Life Calendar” will prominently feature Anna’s winning artwork from the “Water Is Life Poster Contest” during the month of January.  The calendar highlights artwork from selected poster contest winners throughout Southern California.   Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this week, Congress passed the Hoover Power Allocation Act of 2011. Once signed by President Obama, the Hoover Power Allocation Act will ensure fifty years of reliable, low-cost, renewable energy to move over 550,000 acre-feet of water annually on the Colorado River Aqueduct. That’s important for those of us in Southern California who depend on imported water because the cheaper it is to move the water from the Colorado River to us, the less expensive the water is.   Read the rest of this entry »

This week, the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) held a public hearing in Carson for Golden State Water Company ratepayers to voice their concerns regarding the retailer’s current and future water rates. Many of the residents in attendance Monday were the same ratepayers who came to our board meeting several months ago asking for our help with this issue.  While Central Basin is not responsible for setting the retail water rates, and while it is not our role to handle the rate case ourselves, we have worked hard to help the residents get the representation they need. The non-profit organization TURN (The Utility Reform Network) is now working with the Bell residents (and other Golden State customers from across California) on this case, pro-bono.  You can read Central Basin’s official statement on Monday’s hearing by clicking here.

You might not think that a meeting of California water officials means much to you, but last week in Anaheim some very important topics were discussed.

The Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) held its fall conference and one of the big topics is paying for new water infrastructure in the state.

As we blogged last week, the water infrastructure in much of California is starting to get a bit old and needs to be replaced.  We were hoping that Congress would pass some infrastructure spending as part of a stimulus bill, but so far it hasn’t. The ACWA meeting attracted about 1,700 water officials from around the state. We learned how California voters are feeling right now about public works spending in today’s tough economy when Mark DiCamillo of the Field Research Corporation shared the results of an opinion poll done on the California economy. Read the rest of this entry »