The News Review:

- Aquifer recharge projects catching on in water-strapped cities
- Snowpack still below average
- Drastic water cuts expected for the Bay Area
- New Rise in Rates for Water Is Expected
- California lawmakers look past the fiscal crisis

Aquifer recharge projects catching on in water-strapped cities
New York Times
The new $400 million project to tap the water will eventually supply up to 90 percent of the Albuquerque metropolitan area’s drinking water needs. “It could be very important for us” added John Stomp manager of the water resources program for the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority. The move toward artificial aquifer recharge signifies a shift in thinking about water supplies in the West. Just a few decades ago “people thought they were sitting on a huge lake and that we’d never run out of water” Moore said. Then after hydrologists found that overpumping was depleting aquifers water managers began to look to surface waters like the Rio Grande to supplement dwindling resources. The Bear Canyon water comes from the San Juan-Chama Project which pipes water from the Colorado River Basin across the Continental Divide to the Rio Grande Basin. Moore a hydrologist with the consulting firm Daniel B.
Related from Fildak: afdb undertakes 17 projects in Senegal

Snowpack still below average
Los Angeles Times
"We face severe water supply problems in many parts of our state" Lester Snow state water resources director said in a statement released with the survey results. "Californians must continue to save water at home and in their businesses. "– Bettina BoxallPhoto: Frank Gehrke left chief of snow surveys for the state Department of Water Resources takes a measurement near Lake Tahoe.

Drastic water cuts expected for the Bay Area
San Francisco Chronicle
tmpl –> “Right now we’re looking at the water we’re going to have to work with for the year and it’s all below normal” said Elissa Lynn chief meteorologist with the state Department of Water Resources. “Conservation is going to be critical. The Sierra Nevada snowpack which provides about one-third of the state’s water supply stood at 81 percent of normal Thursday; runoff the amount of meltwater that flows into rivers and reservoirs is projected at just 70 percent. fficials said snowpack would have to be at 120 percent of normal or more to replenish many of the state’s reservoirs some of which hover at just 50 percent of capacity. The measurements are the fourth of the season and the most important benchmark for water managers across California who now will determine how to stretch their supplies through ctober when the first rains usually arrive. Although a snowpack 20 percent below average doesn’t sound catastrophic it follows the driest spring in a century in 2008 and recent predictions that California’s climate will grow more parched this century. Urgency in the numbersFor many water districts Thursday’s numbers lend even more urgency to water-saving efforts.

New Rise in Rates for Water Is Expected
New York Times
Lawitts stressed that the bottom line was still that it pays to conserve because that reduces wastewater and because it makes environmental sense. “The less water we have to supply the better protected we are in the future against the effects of.

California lawmakers look past the fiscal crisis
Los Angeles Times
YSArticleHeader { font:normal 24px Arial Helvetica sans-serif; margin:-2px 2px 5px 2px; }. YSArticleHeader span {font:normal 18px Arial Helvetica sans-serif; }. YSArticleContent { background-color:#FFFFFF;padding:18px;line-height:16px; }–>California lawmakers look past the fiscal crisisLegislators begin thinking about ways to solidify the state’s fragile water supply improve foster care and achieve progress on clean energy as well as addressing prison costs education and jobs. By Michael Rothfeld5:32 PM PDT April 2 2009Reporting from Sacramento — In a Capitol where groundbreaking achievements have been trumped by money woes in recent years state officials are now hoping to broaden their ambitions to more than paying the state’s bills without breaking the bank. At their disposal is an unusual new resource: time. That may be the only upside of the fiscal crisis. After lawmakers and Gov.