The Water Commission met today. Despite the huge list of members, only 9 were in attendance, as well as Directors Wilson and Sanchez. The District web site as late as last night listed the meeting date as 23 March 2008, with no posted agenda, but that’s all fixed now, so the agenda is here. This [...]
In today’s Chronicle are a couple germane articles. First, if it doesn’t rain soon (and I don’t think last night really counts) the East Bay Municipal Utilities District may be requiring some form of water rationing. Ninety percent of EBMUD’s water comes from the Mokelumne watershed, via the Pardee reservoir. Thank our lucky stars for [...]
Today’s Board meeting had quite a few interesting items. First was the continuation of the groundwater charge hearing, in which District staff related communications received from the community and specifically addressed some of them. The handout with the responses is not included in the supporting documents online, ironic, considering that the next agenda item deals [...]
The NY Times Magazine this week celebrates Earth Day with many little articles about things that one can do, and that are being done by others, to fight global warming. And addressing the seeming hopelessness of any one person’s actions having an appreciable effect on such a huge problem, Michael Pollan argues that it’s the [...]
Today I took the very wonderful tour that San José offers of the San Jose / Santa Clara Water Pollution Control Plant. Now, it’s true that you need to be interested in water and water treatment to enjoy it; I didn’t take my kids. But about 30 people were interested enough to join in the [...]
The new District Act is getting more press. The Mercury editorializes this morning that elected directors should be limited to 12 years. Somewhat bizarrely, the editorial says: Under the bill carried by Assemblyman Ira Ruskin, D-Los Altos, on behalf of the district, the board, with part-time members, would remain at seven by breaking the county [...]
Today’s Mercury has an article and a sidebar about the proposed amendments to the District Act, the state law that empowers the SCVWD. While it spells out pretty clearly how the Board would go from five to seven elected members, Paul Rogers left out the fact that the two current at-large members would retain their [...]
Today was the meeting of the Landscape Advisory Committee. The biggest event at the meeting, I thought, was Ron Kanemoto’s motion to recommend that the Board adopt even higher groundwater charges than the 9.5% proposed (for M&I in the North County.) This was in response to the same presentation that the Board saw on Tuesday, [...]
The LA Times has come out with an editorial series on water, including a debate between California Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow and Mindy McIntyre of the Planning and Conservation League. Check it out.
It stands for “Other Post-Employment Benefits,” and it means retiree healthcare for life. The Government Accounting Standards Board now requires public agencies to account for the cost of these benefits when they are earned, rather than when they are used. I blogged about this last month, but yesterday I was forcibly struck with how little [...]