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water

California family creates drinking water out of thin air. Should more households try this tech?

in technology

The drinking water for a family near Keyes comes from an unusual source: It’s extracted from air.

Such systems could help parts of the Central Valley with polluted wells, and parts of the world where water is always in short supply.

The idea is being tested by the Valley Water Collaborative, which has delivered free bottled supplies since last year in parts of Stanislaus and Merced counties.

The new system yields just 10 gallons a day, but that’s enough for the drinking and cooking needs of a typical household.

The test unit was installed in May outside the Esmar Road home of Martha Lorenzo and her extended family. Their tap water had come from a well tainted by nitrate before the collaborative stepped in.

Continue Reading on The Sacramento Bee

Turlock farmer and inventor using special technique to keep irrigation wells working

in Agriculture

Longtime local farmer Joe Sallaberry has overseen two of the well pumps in the region since 1970. But about three months ago, he got worried when he noticed several stopped supplying water.

Continue Reading on Yahoo! News

Shipment of free water to arrive in California to combat water boil order

in Community/News

CALIFORNIA − The Well CaliMo and New Beginnings Church are partnering with Convoy of Hope to bring in water to California residents amidst the town's boil water order.

Twenty pallets of free water will be available at 2:30 p.m. Thursday and can be picked up in the parking lot of First Christian Church (DOC) at 107 N. Oak. 

Continue Reading on Komu

Huge reservoir near Bay Area could be expanded to store more water

in Around California/Government

Motorists zooming along Highway 152 through Pacheco Pass between Gilroy and Los Banos notice an unusual site amid the parched, oak-studded hills: A vast inland sea.

The shimmering body of water, San Luis Reservoir, is 7 miles long and a key part of California’s modern water supply created when President John F. Kennedy pushed a dynamite plunger there in 1962 to kick off its construction. Today water from the massive lake irrigates farmland across the Central Valley and also provides drinking water for Silicon Valley, including San Jose.

Last Friday, a major new construction project started at San Luis — a $1.1 billion plan by the federal government to strengthen the huge earthen dam and raise it 10 feet to reduce the risk of it collapsing in a major earthquake.

But more than earthquake safety work is afoot.

Water officials in increasingly drought-plagued California have been hoping another project can be attached to the seismic upgrade — an effort to build the 382-foot-high dam even higher to expand the size of the reservoir.

Continue Reading on Red Bluff Daily News

California could shrink water use in cities by 30% or more, study finds

in Around California

LOS ANGELES — Green lawns, old appliances and leaky pipes all consume significant amounts of California's water, and researchers have calculated in a new study that the state could reduce water use by more than 30% in cities and suburbs by investing in measures to use water more efficiently.

The study by the Pacific Institute, a water think tank in Oakland, also found big untapped potential for urban areas to reduce strains on overused rivers and aquifers by investing in local projects to recycle more wastewater and capture more stormwater. While the researchers determined large water-savings could be achieved throughout the state, they said the biggest potential lies in Southern California for reducing water use indoors and outdoors, reusing treated wastewater and collecting more runoff when it rains.

Continue Reading on SFGATE

California unveils long-awaited standard for drinking water contaminant

in Health

California Monday proposed a long-awaited standard for a cancer-causing contaminant in drinking water that would require costly treatment in many cities throughout the state.

Traces of hexavalent chromium are widely found in the drinking water of millions of Californians, with some of the contamination naturally occurring and some from industries that work with the heavy metal.

The proposed standard is a major step in a decades-long effort to curtail the water contaminant made infamous by the movie Erin Brockovich, based on residents of rural Hinkley, California who won more than $300 million from Pacific Gas & Electric for contamination of their drinking water.

Continue Reading on Jefferson Public Radio

Sites Reservoir in Colusa County Clears a Critical Funding Hurdle, California Farm Bureau Reports

in Environment

The atmospheric river storm that brought some rain and snow to the parched state may serve as a reminder that California is still waiting to build planned infrastructure for storing water in wet years for use in dry years.

The California Water Commission last week took a key step forward on funding four water storage projects. They now are eligible to receive funds from $2.7 billion earmarked for public benefits of new projects authorized through the Water Storage Investment Program.

The funds are a portion of the $7.1 billion authorized through Proposition 1, a water bond passed by voters in 2014.

While commission members did not formally award any funds, they voted to advance four projects as feasible for construction and eligible to receive bond money.

Continue Reading on Sierra Sun Times

State halts diversions from the Tuolumne River. What that means for MID, TID water users

in News

The Turlock and Modesto irrigation districts are among water right holders ordered by the state to stop diversions on the Tuolumne River and other streams that flow to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River delta.

“All of the water that flows off the mountains has to remain in the river and can’t be diverted for storage or irrigation purposes,” said Michael Cooke, director of regulatory affairs for TID, who explained the state drought orders Tuesday to Stanislaus County supervisors.

The State Water Resources Control Board issued the emergency “curtailments” Aug. 20 to 4,500 water right holders as the drought has drastically reduced California’s water supplies.

Continue Reading on The Modesto Bee

Interview: Local regulator discusses efforts to eliminate tainted water in Turlock

in People

Families left with tainted Turlock wells will soon have easier access to clean water free from nitrates.

Approximately 103,000 residents in Turlock — as well as in Modesto, Kings, Chowchilla, Tule and Kaweah — have faced the same problem for years. Now, they will benefit from new efforts by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board.

It’s a solution 20 years in the making.

Patrick Pulupa, executive officer of the Board, joined Sonseeahray to explain the situation and what comes next.

Continue Reading on Fox 40

Rural California Communities Struggle To Provide Clean Drinking Water

in Environment

Mo Mohsin has been trying to bring clean drinking water to the residents of the Cobles Corner mobile home park ever since he bought the property back in 2003.

The struggle, however, has been all uphill.

The water system that serves the rural Stanislaus County community of 20 or so homes has violated state drinking water standards 25 times since 2012, mostly for arsenic and 1,2,3 trichloropropane (1,2,3-TCP), a manufactured chemical found in industrial solvents and soil fumigants, according to data from the State Water Resources Control Board.

Long-term exposure to both contaminants has been linked to numerous types of cancer by the state of California and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Continue Reading on SF Gate

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