Today marks the 40^th anniversary of the Safe Drinking Water Act which was passed on Dec. 16, 1974. To celebrate the occasion, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest Jared Blumenfeld joined  state, local and community representatives in touring the water filtration system at the San Jose Community Center and the point-of-use filtration system at the Gamez Mobile Home Park in Coachella Valley.

The State Water Resources Control Board announced yesterday that it has appointed Michael George to serve as the new Delta Watermaster. George, who is only the second Watermaster to be appointed since the position’s inception in 2009, will replace outgoing Delta Watermaster Craig Wilson and serve a four-year term.

The Delta Watermaster is responsible for the day-to-day administration of water rights within the legal boundaries of the Delta as well as working with the State Board on strategic initiatives to improve the operation of the water rights system within the Delta.

In a move aimed at reducing risk to Delta smelt and potentially avoiding more severe water supply impacts later, operators of the State Water Project and Central Valley Project will proactively reduce pumping in the Delta over the next several days.

ACWA has submitted a comment letter to the State Water Resources Control Board regarding its Draft Safe Drinking Water Plan for California. The State Board accepted comments through 12 p.m. today as part of its process to refine the Draft Plan before its June 2015 deadline to submit the final plan to the Legislature.

The five federal and state agencies primarily involved in the operation and regulation of the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project have jointly released a draft Interagency 2015 Drought Strategy. The draft outlines anticipated drought response actions that have been planned by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, the California Department of Water Resources, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife should the drought stretch into its fourth year.

After ping ponging back and forth from the House to the Senate and then back, the Chemical Facility Antiterrorism Standards Authorization Act of 2014 finally cleared both chambers on Tuesday, Dec. 11.