House Democrats announced Tuesday that Rep. Jared Huffman (D-2) will serve as the ranking member on the House Natural Resources Committee’s Water, Power, and Oceans Subcommittee. The subcommittee has jurisdiction over the country’s water resources, federal irrigation projects, interstate water issues, and the generation of electricity from federal water projects.

Following the announcement, Huffman issued this statement:

The U.S. Water Alliance (USWA) announced Tuesday that the City of San Diego Public Utilities Department, an ACWA member, is among the winners of its annual U.S. Water Prize. The prize was created by the USWA to honor organizations that promote innovation in the name of water sustainability.

The Sacramento region as a whole answered Gov. Jerry Brown’s call for significant water conservation last year and reduced its water usage by nearly 20% in 2014 compared with its 2013 usage, according to an analysis released by the Regional Water Authority today.

Emergency salinity control barriers may be needed in three channels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta if weather conditions stay exceedingly dry through spring, officials with the Department of Water Resources announced today.

Sacramento and San Joaquin valley agencies seeking to reduce flood risk in local cities and suburbs may be eligible for a portion of $150 million in state funds for flood management efforts, the Department of Water Resources announced today.

The funding is intended to help local Central Valley agencies pay for repairing and improving levees, weirs and bypasses, and also improve or add new infrastructure that would provide a higher level of flood protection for development behind federal and state levees.

The Bureau of Reclamation on Friday provided an update on the current water supply conditions for six key Central Valley Project reservoirs as of Jan. 22. The numbers are discouraging – showing that storage in four of the six CVP reservoirs is currently lower than this time last year. Current overall storage is at 4.337 million acre-feet which is 244,000 acre-feet less than January 2014.

The State Water Resources Control Board advised water rights holders today that water diversions may be curtailed in critically dry watersheds again this year if conditions do not improve over the coming months.

“If hydrologic conditions do not significantly improve in the next several months, the State Water Board will once again begin notifying water right holders in critically dry watersheds of the requirement to limit or stop diversions of water under their water right, based on their priority,” the notice read.

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