Drought— an extended period of limited or no precipitation— is a
fact of life in California and the West, with water resources
following boom-and-bust patterns.
No portion of the West has been immune to drought during the last
century and drought occurs with much greater frequency in the
West than in other regions of the country.
Most of the West experiences what is classified as severe to
extreme drought more than 10 percent of the time, and a
significant portion of the region experiences severe to extreme
drought more than 15 percent of the time, according to the
National Drought Mitigation Center.
Experts who have studied recent droughts say a drought occurs
about once every 10 years somewhere in the United States.
Droughts are believed to be the most costly of all natural
disasters because of their widespread effects on agriculture and
related industries, as well as on urbanized areas. One of those
decennial droughts could cost as much as $38 billion, according
to one estimate.
Because droughts cannot be prevented, experts are looking for
better ways to forecast them and new approaches to managing
droughts when they occur.
Anticipating where a fire is likely to ignite and how it might
spread requires information about how much burnable plant
material exists on the landscape and its dryness. Yet this
information is surprisingly difficult to gather at the scale
and speed necessary to aid wildfire management. Now, a team of
experts in hydrology, remote sensing and environmental
engineering have developed a deep-learning model that maps fuel
moisture levels in fine detail across 12 western states
Northstate lawmakers and local leaders gathered in Paradise,
Tuesday, urging Governor Gavin Newsom to reconsider proposed
state budget cuts that would impact the Paradise Irrigation
District. … Earlier this month, Newsom proposed cutting the
second year of backfill funding to the district meant to help
them stay afloat after the Camp Fire decimated the ridge’s
water infrastructure.
Drive through new developments across the Capital Region like
East Sacramento’s McKinley Village or Folsom’s Folsom Ranch …
and one will see a distinctly different landscape than ones
installed just 10 years ago. Low- to medium-water-use plants
are surrounded by bark mulch with little or no grass, irrigated
primarily with a drip system.
This winter’s decent snowfall has turned into an abysmal runoff
on the Colorado River, thanks to the dry soils heading into the
winter, along with a warm spring. … Our bigger concern is
what happens next year. Are we headed for a multi-year drought?
The availability of water from Gibraltar Reservoir, upstream on
the Santa Ynez River, in the past few years as well as Santa
Barbara’s desalination plant operation and water conservation
have enabled the city to accumulate a significant amount of
stored water in Lake Cachuma… The water-supply planning
positioned Santa Barbara to continue resting its groundwater
basins through fall 2022.
The Klamath Project, a U.S. government-operated waterworks that
steers runoff from the towering Cascades to more than 200,000
acres of potatoes, alfalfa, wheat, onions and other produce on
both sides of the state line, is running low on supplies. The
local water agencies served by the project say they may not
have water to send to farms beyond next month.
The State Water Project now expects to deliver 20 percent of
requested supplies in 2020 thanks to above-average
precipitation in May, the California Department of Water
Resources announced. An initial allocation of 10 percent was
announced in December and increased to 15 percent in January.
Today’s announcement will likely be the final allocation update
of 2020.
Though the last couple of weekends have seen wet weather, it
hasn’t been enough to keep up with the yearly average in time
for summer in California. The Sierra Nevada snowpack, which is
tested regularly by employees of the California Department of
Water Resources, has yielded some grim results so far in 2020
in terms of snow-water equivalent.
Farmers and ranchers in the Klamath Basin are reportedly
planning a rally to protest the water use limits enforced by
the federal government to protect fish populations.
With droughts inevitable, more farmers are switching from
almonds to pistachios, but not everyone is happy about
it. Around the Central Valley, as far north as Colusa but
mostly south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, pistachio
production is rapidly accelerating.
Following spring storms, the Bureau of Reclamation today issued
updated allocations for Central Valley Project contractors for
the 2020 contract year. … The allocation for south-of-Delta
agricultural water service contractors is increased from 15% to
20% of their contract total. Municipal and Industrial water
service contractors south-of-Delta are now allocated 70% of
their historic use, up from 65%, or health and safety needs,
whichever is greater.
Cornell engineers have used advanced modeling to simulate more
than 1 million potential futures – a technique known as
scenario discovery – to assess how stakeholders who rely on the
Colorado River might be uniquely affected by changes in climate
and demand as a result of management practices and other
factors.
The Agribusiness and Water Council of Arizona likes to say it
represents Arizona agriculture “from ditch bank to dinner
plate” indicative of the fact that its members range from
farmers and ranchers to irrigation groups and trade
associations — all of them concerned about water flow along
the 1,450-mile-long Colorado River.
On this edition of Your Call’s One Planet Series, we’re
discussing a new study from Columbia University about an
emerging climate-driven megadrought in the Western US.
Researchers used hydrological modeling and tree-ring
reconstructions of summer soil moisture to show that the period
from 2000 to 2018 was the driest 19-year span since the late
1500s.
Increased frequency and severity of droughts threatens
California’s endangered salmon population — but pools that
serve as drought refuges could make the difference between life
and death for these vulnerable fish, according to a study by
researchers from UC Berkeley and California Sea Grant…
South Feather Water & Power Agency proposes to transfer the
water from July through November 2020 to participating agencies
of the State Water Contractors and the Central Valley Project
(CVP). The transfer would involve up to 5,000 AF of water
previously stored in Little Grass Valley Reservoir under Permit
1267, and up to 5,001 AF of water previously stored in Sly
Creek Reservoir under Permit 2492.
The Poseidon desalination plant proposed for Huntington Beach
could be facing rough waters ahead, as several regulatory
officials on Friday expressed concerns over the controversial
plan.. During a Regional Water Quality Control Board workshop
held online, three of the agency’s six board members
persistently pressed local officials about the need, consumer
cost and environmental harm of the $1 billion project.
Northern California will have its most soaking rain from this
storm into Monday. Through Tuesday, with the cold upper-level
air in the jet stream trough overhead, showers and
thunderstorms, some possibly with small hail, can be expected
in Northern California.
Sprawled across a desert expanse along the Utah-Arizona border,
Lake Powell’s nearly 100-foot high bathtub ring etched on its
sandstone walls belie the challenges of a major Colorado River
reservoir at less than half-full. How those challenges play out
as demand grows for the river’s water amid a changing climate
is fueling simmering questions about Powell’s future.
A new study led by Adam Schreiner-McGraw, a postdoctoral
hydrology researcher at University of California, Riverside,
modeled shrub encroachment on a sloping landscape and reached a
startling conclusion: Shrub encroachment on slopes can increase
the amount of water that goes into groundwater storage. The
effect of shrubs is so powerful that it even counterbalances
the lower annual rainfall amounts expected during climate
change.
A water budget is an accounting of the rates of the inflows,
outflows, and changes in water storage in a specific area;
however, as simple as that might sound, developing an accurate
water budget can be a difficult and challenging endeavor. To
address this problem, the Department of Water Resources has
developed a water budget handbook…
Sprawled across a desert expanse
along the Utah-Arizona border, Lake Powell’s nearly 100-foot high
bathtub ring etched on its sandstone walls belie the challenges
of a major Colorado River reservoir at less than half-full. How
those challenges play out as demand grows for the river’s water
amid a changing climate is fueling simmering questions about
Powell’s future.
Water could soon be shut off to farmers in the Klamath Basin,
triggering major financial losses. Klamath Project farmers
began hiring, and ordering supplies based on Bureau of
Reclamation forecasts of 140,000 acre feet of water. Gene Souza
of the Klamath Irrigation District says that water allocation
has changed.
This interdisciplinary study by plant biologists and physicists
is important because it potentially explains how plants take up
water in very dry soil — such as drought-tolerant plants in
Southern California and in the desert — and survive, said Cal
State Fullerton plant biologist H. Jochen Schenk, a co-author
of the paper.
As of Monday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s forecast for this year’s expected water
supplies in the Colorado River is at 59% of average. That’s not
good news. If that prediction proves true, this will be one of
the driest water years since Lake Powell was constructed nearly
60 years ago.
Like an undulating seesaw, weather in some regions swings from
drought to heavy rain under the weight of climate-induced
changes, a new study finds. The analysis, published in
Geophysical Research Letters, finds a link between droughts
followed by heavy rain events, along with an increased rate of
these successive extreme weather occurrences.
In March, the California Department of Water Resources released
a nearly completed draft report on the risk of water shortage
in rural areas and the drought vulnerability of small systems.
… Across the state, Monterey County is among the most
vulnerable counties, with one of the largest numbers of highly
impacted rural communities, according to the report. Also, the
county’s small water systems are on average the 13th most
vulnerable out of those of 58 counties.
The event was the first weather balloon launch from a Yuba
Water Agency site near Beale Air Force Base. But it will not be
the last. During atmospheric rivers, scientists plan to release
a balloon every three hours from this point to collect data.
And the more data, the better, because understanding the
structure of these storms can help with forecasting and flood
control.
As a result of compliance with conservation measures through
lower indoor water use, the amount of wastewater effluent was
reduced. This reduction means less water for recycling and
reuse — a source of water often thought of as drought-proof —
and less water for stream augmentation, with a consequence of
potentially impacting streamflow and downstream water
quality…
The return of drought to California has been widespread—58% of
the state now experiences some level of dryness, according to
the U.S. Drought Monitor—with extreme drought concentrated in
4% of the state, primarily in the northwestern region of
Siskiyou, Trinity and Humboldt counties.
A new study published in Nature Climate Change indicates that
about 50 percent of current runoff comes directly from Sierra
snowmelt, and the Valley stands to lose between 13 percent and
50 percent of snowmelt runoff as the climate warms.
There is a better, more equitable pathway for reducing the
deficit without forcing arbitrary cuts. It involves 3 million
acres of irrigated agriculture, mostly alfalfa and forage
crops, which consume more than 80% of total water use in the
basin. By retiring less than 10% of this irrigated acreage from
production, we could eliminate the existing million acre-foot
overdraft on the Colorado River..
Nevadans and Utahns won a major economic and environmental
victory in mid-April that will help protect air quality along
the Wasatch Front and the Great Basin’s fragile water supply ––
including Great Salt Lake.
An abnormally dry and warm spring has led to widespread drought
across Northern California and Oregon, but beneficial rain is
expected to help quench the parched area early this week.
The Klamath Project had already been anticipating an extreme
shortfall in available water in 2020 but is now facing a
possible water shutoff by or before July.
What we in Los Angeles should want from the Met is a continuing
flow of clean water from the faucet — but this time with
planning and infrastructure that reduce reliance on diminishing
imports, minimize damage to our fellow Californians in the
delta and elsewhere, and sustain iconic species like migrating
salmon.
Southern Nevada has been in a drought for about 20 years. But
now, we’re learning this isn’t just drought – it’s a
megadrought. That’s a one in 500 years drought.
After an extremely dry winter in Northern California, the
window is closing for additional rain that could delay large
summer fires. In fact, this week, the state is baking under a
spring heat wave, while snow is vanishing from mountain slopes.
It is shaping up to be a busy summer fire season not only in
California, but in many parts of the West.
Following passage of SGMA, The Nature Conservancy received a
$1.8 million Conservation Innovation Grant from USDA’s Natural
Resources Conservation Service to develop the Fox Canyon Water
Market. TNC, supported by project partners Fox Canyon
Groundwater Management Agency and California Lutheran
University, sought to establish a market-driven approach to
reduce groundwater pumping.
During the May 5, 2020 State Water Resources Control Board
Meeting, Staff and Board members provided an update on
prospective water rights curtailments for 2020.
At a virtual event last week, PPIC researcher Henry McCann
described how improved management can make Sierra forests more
resilient and avoid major wildfire-related disasters, and
summarized the findings of a new report that identifies the
benefits and beneficiaries of such management practices.
Since 2000, the West has been stricken by a dry spell so severe
that it ranks among the biggest “megadroughts” of the past
1,200 years. But scientists have found that unlike the
decades-long droughts of centuries ago, this one has been
supercharged by humanity’s heating of the planet.
The Bureau of Reclamation has released a funding opportunity
for communities to take a proactive approach to drought through
building projects that increase water supply reliability,
improve water management, or provide benefits for fish,
wildlife and the environment.
Expanding and intensifying drought in Northern California
portends an early start to the wildfire season, and the
National Interagency Fire Center is predicting above-normal
potential for large wildfires by midsummer. Mountain snowpack
has been below average across the High Sierra, southern
Cascades and the Great Basin, and the agency warns that these
areas need to be monitored closely as fuels continue to dry
out.
There are 29 federally recognized tribes across the Colorado
River Basin. Together, these tribes have water rights to
roughly 20% of the water that flows through the river annually.
In Arizona, the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) and the
Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) were critical partners in
making the Drought Contingency Plan possible.
The last Sierra Nevada snowpack measurement of the season on
Thursday confirmed what California officials have feared for
months: The state has suffered through a dry winter. … A
broader measurement taken by 130 electronic sensors throughout
the Sierra revealed an average snow water equivalent of 8.4
inches, or 37 percent of average for this time of year.
It’s the early 1990s, and Park Williams stands in the middle of
Folsom Lake, at the base of the Sierra Nevada foothills in
Northern California. He’s not walking on water; severe drought
has exposed the lakebed. “I remember being very impressed by
the incredible variability of water in the West and how it’s
very rare that we actually have just enough water,” said
Williams, who went on to become a climate scientist at Columbia
University.
Fairness – or at least the perception of fairness – could play
a determining role in the future of California’s groundwater,
according to new research. The study, published in Society and
Natural Resources, evaluated 137 surveys of Yolo County farmers
to gauge their perceptions of fairness for groundwater
allocation strategies and dispute resolution options.
To understand how these beloved woodlands will fare in a
rapidly warming climate, UC Santa Cruz researchers are putting
a headwaters stream in the Diablo Range under a hydrological
microscope.
Following poor rainfall this winter and rising water demand in
recent years, the Marin Municipal Water District is considering
a major purchase of Sonoma County water as insurance for a
potential dry period.
As Siskiyou County slips back into severe drought, members of
Siskiyou County’s Groundwater Advisory Committees met last week
to continue drafting groundwater management plans as
conservation groups, farmers and other special interest groups
brace for another dry summer.
Oregon Water Resources Director Thomas Byler sent a letter to
Reclamation’s Klamath Basin Area Office manager Jeff Nettleton
on Thursday, confirming it has taken exclusive charge of Upper
Klamath Lake… The order said it prohibits U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation from diverting stored water in Upper Klamath Lake
through Link River for purposes of a 50,000 acre-feet flushing
flow without a water right.
As expected, irrigators in the Klamath Project are getting less
water than they will likely need this summer thanks to a
combination of dry weather and more water being kept in-stream
to protect threatened coho salmon.
As of March, the East Valley Water District’s Sterling Natural
Resource Center construction project reached the halfway point
to scheduled completion⎯about 18 months in and 18 months left
to work. The water recycling plant will be capable of treating
up to 10 million gallons per day, depositing the clean water
into percolation ponds in order to recharge the Bunker Hill
Basin groundwater.
Recent rains and now rising temperatures will promote fuel
growth throughout California, adding up to an explosive fire
season. But while firefighters focus on the national emergency,
there is another deadly danger ready to spread – wildfire.
Wildfire season is around the corner, and COVID-19 creates even
more challenges for the fire service, requiring our
communities’ help and cooperate more than ever.
It wasn’t exactly a “March Miracle,” but the precipitation
Santa Barbara County received this spring rescued what
otherwise had been a fairly sorry rain season, and gave a
healthy boost to local water supplies. As of Monday, the county
as a whole had received 95 percent of its average rainfall to
date, according to the county Flood Control District.
To develop the rankings, the state took into account numerous
factors, including each water system’s vulnerability to climate
change and projected temperature changes, projected sea level
rise, recent water shortages, whether the system is in an
overdrafted groundwater basin or was located in an area with
underlying fractured rock.
The US Drought Monitor update released Thursday morning lists
far Northern California as the most impacted by a lackluster
rain and snow season. Some areas such as Eureka and Mount
Shasta are down more than 15″ of rain from their averages for
the season so far.
Samantha Ying and Michael Schaefer, both from the Department of
Environmental Sciences at University of California (UC)
Riverside, are part of a team set on untangling the mystery of
a practice upon which farmers have relied for centuries to
reduce water use—cover crops.
In January, water users in 21 critically overdrafted basins
delivered their groundwater sustainability plans to the state
Department of Water Resources. In this series, we examine the
36 plans submitted for 11 critically overdrafted basins in the
San Joaquin Valley—California’s largest farming region, where
excess pumping is a major challenge.
California’s 410 urban water suppliers will be required to
report monthly use and conservation data to state regulators,
under a resolution the State Water Resources Control Board
passed Tuesday. The vote makes permanent a voluntary program
that dates back to California’s devastating 2012-2016 drought.
Under the drought contingency plan hammered out by Colorado
River Basin states last year, Arizona agreed to voluntarily
reduce its water use by 192,000 acre-feet, or about 7%, leaving
that water in Lake Mead to help reduce the likelihood of
greater cutbacks down the road. Tom Buschatzke, director of the
Arizona Department of Water Resources, says data from a new
Bureau of Reclamation report show that plan is working.
Today, the Bureau of Reclamation updated the water supply
allocation for Friant Division Central Valley Project contracts
for the 2020 contract year. The Friant Division provides water
for 15,000 family farms and several cities in the Central
Valley. … Given the current hydrologic conditions,
Reclamation is increasing the Class 1 allocation from 40% to
55%; Class 2 remains at 0%.
Battered by fires, flooding, power outages and a mass
evacuation in recent years, Sonoma County residents now have to
brace for revival of the D-word — for drought. … Sonoma
County experienced a bone-dry February, a first in the area’s
history and the nadir of a rain season, now nearly over, that
has given Santa Rosa just 18 inches of rain — well over a foot
shy of the nearly 34-inch average for this time of year.
The findings pinpointed basins globally most at risk of not
having enough water available at the right times for irrigation
because of changes in snowmelt patterns. Two of those high-risk
areas are the San Joaquin and Colorado river basins in the
western United States.
Two separate letters sent to President Donald Trump and members
of Congress highlight the importance of providing support for
enhancing water management, particularly in light of the
tumultuous conditions created by COVID-19.
The western United States and northern parts of Mexico could
experience a record-breaking megadrought, according to the
Earth Institute at Columbia University. “A new study says the
time has arrived: a megadrought as bad or worse than anything
even from known prehistory is very likely in progress, and
warming climate is playing a key role,” the Earth Institute
said.
From the safety of their coronavirus shelters, the water
warriors of the Monterey Peninsula carry on the fight, and so
can you. … The environmental merits of removing the local
water system from private ownership and placing it under the
control of a government agency will be discussed in a virtual
public scoping meeting on April 21 at 5pm, via Zoom video
conference.
Voluntary agreements in California have been touted as an
innovative and flexible way to improve environmental conditions
in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the rivers that feed
it. … Yet, no one said it would be easy getting interest
groups with sometimes sharply different views – and some, such
as farmers, with livelihoods heavily dependent on water — to
reach consensus on how to address the water quality and habitat
needs of the Delta watershed.
On March 13, 2020, water users in the Klamath Reclamation
Project (Project) petitioned the United States Supreme Court to
review the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Baley,
et al. v. United States, et al. (Baley). The decision denied
the water users’ takings claims for the 2001 Project water
shutoff on water law grounds.
As is appropriate for the state that is home to Hollywood, the
“climate monsters” that bedevil California have names that
sound like they came from B-movies — the Blob, Godzilla El
Niño, Megadrought. One monster in particular, Drought, has more
than overstayed its welcome, according to a new study in the
journal Science.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released projections for the
Colorado River’s water supply for the next two years. … Lake
Mead is projected to fall into “Tier Zero” conditions for 2021
and 2022. That’s a new designation under the Drought
Contingency Plan which requires Arizona, Nevada and Mexico take
cuts in their water supply.
Record-breaking April rains eliminated all drought and abnormal
dryness from Southern California and up the Central Coast
through Monterey County, but drought has worsened in
northwestern California, the U.S. Drought Monitor said
Thursday.
Officially, California’s most recent drought lasted five
painful years and ended in 2017. But a new study released
Thursday says California and the rest of the West are enduring
a continuing megadrought that ranks among the worst on record.
Groundwater science is taking on a new urgency as California
and other regions around the world face growing threats from
drought—and are increasingly drilling wells to make up for
missing rain and snow. Globally, aquifers are “highly stressed”
in 17 countries that hold one-quarter of the world’s
population… Water and food supplies for billions of people
are under threat. California is a case study in the challenges
of protecting those resources.
Since this year marked the first since 1862 that not a single
drop of rain fell in Santa Cruz County during the month of
February, efforts to sustainably manage water were at the
forefront of the conversation. The symposium kicked off with an
introduction from County Supervisor Bruce McPherson, who
discussed the ongoing work to develop sustainable groundwater
management plans…
Chris Funk, climate scientist, and geographer Greg Husak at the
UC Santa Barbara Climate Hazards Center, practice what they
call “humanitarian earth system science.” Working with partners
funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, they
have refined their forecasts over 20 years from basic weather
monitoring to a sophisticated fusion of climate science,
agronomy, and economics that can warn of drought and subsequent
famines months before they arise.
The Department of Water Resources has released a draft report
with recommendations and guidance to help small water suppliers
and rural communities plan for the next drought, wildfire, or
other natural disaster that may cause water shortages.
Federal and state officials are scrambling to develop plans to
fight the West’s wildfires during a pandemic, before a fire
season forecast to be worse than normal flares up next month.
One thing is clear: The coronavirus will put a “hard stop” to
the traditional way federal agencies attack wildfires, with
large groups in close quarters, said Kerry Greene, public
information officer for the U.S. Forest Service’s firefighting
efforts.
Spring storms that included five consecutive days of soaking
rain last week knocked out drought conditions in Southern
California, according to this week’s U.S. Drought Monitor
report.
The models show drought is expected to keep its hold over the
mountains along the New Mexico-Colorado border that feed the
Rio Grande, while California, Nevada and other southwestern
states aren’t likely to see a reprieve from dry conditions
through June.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced a water allocation
update Monday and it had disappointing news for some San
Joaquin Valley farmers, as well as wildlife refuges. The San
Joaquin River Exchange Contractors saw their allocation cut
from February’s announced 100% to 75%, which is their contract
minimum. Wildlife refuges likewise were reduced from 100% to
75%.
California has evacuation plans for earthquakes, floods,
mudslides and, of course, wildfires, but what if one of those
disasters occurs as the state is dealing with the coronavirus
outbreak when everyone is being urged to stay home? State and
local officials are trying to figure that out.
More than three dozen atmospheric rivers made landfall on the
West Coast from fall through early spring, but a lack of strong
events in California led to the development of drought
conditions in parts of the state.
When modeling the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
ocean-climate cycle, adding satellite sea surface salinity — or
saltiness — data significantly improves model accuracy,
according to a new NASA study.
Against the terrible news of a national emergency, it’s perhaps
difficult to focus on our water situation. Recall that January
and February were bone-dry; March and April bore us a couple of
storms, but it was too little, too late. It was a very dry
winter, overall. … That puts us in the position of another
“do or die” year for precipitation next winter, an altogether
familiar proposition in California. We all know: It rains a
bunch all at once in some years, and then we go dry for a
number of years after that.
Stormwater is the rain and other water that runs off of streets
and sidewalks into nearby gutters or waterways. Communities
throughout the western U.S. are expanding efforts to collect
this valuable water resource. These projects range from
capturing water from a single rooftop or driveway to developing
large infiltration basins that recharge billions of gallons of
water each year in groundwater basins.
This report, “Scaling Corporate Water Stewardship to Address
Water Challenges in the Colorado River Basin,” examines a set
of key corporate water stewardship actions and activities, with
associated drivers and barriers, to identify how the private
sector could help tackle Colorado River water challenges.
California newts faced the worst drought conditions in 1,200
years, but new research finds that the lack of precipitation
may not have been their biggest threat.
Today, responding to a global pandemic is every governor’s top
priority. When we emerge from this crisis, Gov. Gavin Newsom
will face a challenge to ensure California’s future economic
and environmental health. In this context, his water policies
will represent critical decisions.
What does a Central Valley almond farmer have in common with a
San Diego homeowner? The answer is simple: Water. More
specifically, the amount of water they need to sustain their
respective lifestyles — which is a lot.
The Wildlife Conservation Board has approved approximately
$24.3 million in grants to help enhance flows in streams
throughout California. … The approved projects will lead to a
direct and measurable enhancement of the amount, timing and/or
quality of water in streams for anadromous fish or special
status, threatened, endangered or at-risk species, or to
provide resilience to climate change.
For precipitation, it’s a wet forecast for much of the
contiguous United States. April precipitation is favored to be
among the wettest third of Aprils from 1981-2010 across much of
the Plains, Gulf Coast, Tennessee and Ohio Valleys and West
Coast. This would be a relief along the West Coast from
northern California to Washington after a drier-than-average
March.
So much for the March Miracle. Despite a few March storms, the
Sierra Nevada snowpack remains well below average, California
officials reported Wednesday, suggesting that water supplies
will be tight this summer and fall.
NASA researchers have developed new satellite-based, weekly
global maps of soil moisture and groundwater wetness conditions
and one to three-month U.S. forecasts of each product. While
maps of current dry/wet conditions for the United States have
been available since 2012, this is the first time they have
been available globally.
An extended forecast for California shows an above-normal
probability of precipitation during the week of April 6-10,
according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s Climate Prediction Center.
Snow surveyors will head into the Sierra on Wednesday to take
the most important measurements of the season. … Statewide,
the snowpack and the water it holds is just 53% of average,
according to the daily report on the California Data Exchange.
As the climate changes, forests have figured out a way to adapt
to drought, a new study shows. … The results indicate that
tree communities, particularly in more arid regions, have
become more drought tolerant, primarily through the death of
less hardy trees.
On April 1, 2020, DWR will conduct the fourth Phillips Station
snow survey of the season. Due to the novel coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic and California Department of Public Health
guidance to limit gatherings, DWR will be conducting the April
Phillips Station snow survey without media present and will be
providing video of the survey and the results via Facebook
live.
The past week brought much-needed showers to Tulare County —
but not enough to catch up to the amount of rain the area
should have by this time in the water year. … The past week
brought about .78 inches, a decent amount, considering the
average rainfall over the past 30 years for the entire
month of March is 1.9 inches. But the rainfall broke an
all-time record dry period for the season, as not a drop fell
in February.
While snow cover has increased thanks to a series of March
storms, the Northern Sierra 8-Station Index stands at 56% of
normal for the season. As of March 24, another 29.25 inches
would be needed to reach the season normal of 54.52 inches. But
the area normally gets just 9.42 inches from March 24 through
June 30. So a daunting 310% of normal precipitation would be
required to make up the deficit, according to Jan Null of
Golden Gate Weather Services.
After a very wet and snowy early 2019, which pumped up the
state’s reservoirs, California has averaged less than half of
average precipitation and snowpack so far in its rain year
This year marks a significant milestone for the Interagency
Ecological Program (IEP) – now nine state and federal agencies
that first joined forces 50 years ago for cooperative
ecological monitoring and coordination in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay Estuary. As the IEP Lead
Scientist, I have been reflecting on who we are, how we’ve
evolved, and what we need to do to ensure we’re still working
collaboratively for another 50 years.
Just three years after the 2011–2017 drought, one of the
severest in recorded history for the state, the driest February
in 150 years has spurred discussion of whether we’re in another
drought — or if the last one even ended. That’s bad news for
Los Angeles’ only newt, California newt, Taricha torosa, and
other newts in the Taricha genus, particularly in the southern
half of the state south of Big Sur.
While California will not receive a soaking rain similar to
what occurred at the beginning of the week, residents across
the state can expect unsettled weather to stick around through
Wednesday.
March rain has left Salt River Project reservoirs as full as
they’ve been in a decade. The utility is discharging water to
make room for the runoff, providing a boost to the underlying
aquifers. The utility says the Salt and Verde river systems are
at a combined 94% of capacity, almost 20 points higher than
last year.
President Trump has become the first U.S. president to declare
a health epidemic a “major disaster” in his recent decisions to
approve requests for that designation from the governors of
California, New York and Washington in their battles against
COVID-19. … Trump’s determinations could open the door for
FEMA to step into a wide range of future events including
droughts, extreme cold weather and the contamination of
drinking water.
A pair of low-pressure systems will bring rain and mountain
snow to the West, including communities in worsening drought,
in the early part of the week ahead. The first of the
low-pressure systems arrived on the California coast Sunday.
The second system, the larger of the two storms geographically,
will swing southward from the Gulf of Alaska through midweek.
The most recent U.S. Drought Monitor released Thursday shows
that although recent rains have provided some relief for
Southern California, Northern California remains locked in
moderate drought or abnormally dry conditions.
California’s bone-dry February didn’t leave a lot of forage for
Todd Swickard’s cattle—though mid-March rains should provide
some help. … Swickard noted conditions on the hills were what
one would expect in mid-April or later, with land gradually
fading to brown and poppies everywhere.
Researchers with the University of Nevada, Reno, have been
working to evaluate and commercialize crops that use less
water. Professor John Cushman and his team think they’ve found
an alternative. It’s called teff.
While the first draft of the governor’s draft Water Resilience
Portfolio wasn’t the transformational vision many had hoped it
would be, there is still time to deliver on a plan that will
help us rise to the challenges ahead.
Besides reviewing and making final determinations on submitted
plans that show how local agencies will manage their
groundwater basins for long-term sustainability, DWR staff
provide essential resources to local water agencies to help
them better understand and manage their local basins. … Below
are some examples of DWR staff contributions to groundwater
management…
Recharge basins are becoming increasingly popular in
overdrafted regions in California, where water managers are
seeking solutions to balance groundwater supply and demand to
comply with the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
(SGMA).
Much-needed snow will blanket California’s Sierra Nevada high
country this weekend into next week, bringing hope of a
“Miracle March” that could replenish vital, water-providing
snowpack after a record-dry February.
Stanford researchers have developed a machine learning model
that detects unexpected water-use consumption patterns – data
water utilities can use to inform resource planning and water
conservation campaigns.
Drought conditions continue to spread across California, with
nearly half the state now affected, federal scientists reported
Thursday, as recent rains weren’t enough to significantly slow
a drying trend that has been growing more serious all winter.
Overall, 48% of California is classified as being in moderate
drought — up from 34% a week ago, according to the U.S. Drought
Monitor…
The House Natural Resources Committee voted along party lines
Wednesday to approve bills offered by California Democrats to
reauthorize grant programs to provide reliable water supplies
through reuse and desalination projects. Committee Chairman
Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said he supported the water bills
because Western states have been hit hard by drought conditions
worsened by climate change.
San Joaquin Valley farmers say they hope a newly released
report will capture the attention of Californians about the
potential impact of water shortages in the region. The report,
released last week, said water shortages could cause 1 million
acres of San Joaquin Valley farmland to be fallowed and cost as
many as 85,000 jobs.
The storm— fed by a plume of subtropical water vapor at the
lower and middle levels of the atmosphere — could bring 1 to 3
inches of rain to the area through at least Wednesday. … The
heaviest rain is expected throughout Tuesday, upping the
chances for both an ugly morning and evening commute.
If agriculture in the valley is going to survive, water leaders
need to get cozy with new ideas and new allies. And, yes, that
means environmentalists.
We expect most of Southern California, including the Los
Angeles Basin and San Diego metro area, as well as parts of
Arizona, to pick up at least an inch of rain through Thursday.
Some heavier amounts in higher terrain on southern- and
southwestern-facing slopes are possible. Flash flooding of
flood-prone, low-lying streets, freeways and normally dry
washes and arroyos is possible in some areas.
The scramble for water has intensified as global warming has
battered much of the West during the last 20 years with heat
waves, droughts and wildfires. With projections for declining
snowpack and river flows, cloud seeding is becoming a regional
climate adaptation measure costing several million dollars each
year.
An important new study finds that irrigated crop production
accounts for 86 percent of all water consumed in the western US
— and of all the water used on western farms, by far the
largest portion goes to cattle-feed crops such as alfalfa and
grass hay. To alleviate the severe shortage of water in the
region, study authors suggest rotational fallowing farmland
could be a simple and affordable means of dramatically reducing
water use in the region.
Drought conditions in California continued to expand, according
to the most recent U.S. Drought Monitor data released Thursday.
After what experts are calling California’s driest February on
record, slightly more than 34% of the state was deemed to be in
moderate drought. That’s an increase of about 11% over figures
released a week ago.
The organizers of camp residency programs Space Saloon and
Designers on Holiday have announced the launch of DeSaturated,
an eight-day design-build festival in California’s Cuyama
Valley, a two-hour drive north of Los Angeles. With the rugged
high desert landscape as its backdrop, the
“community-in-residence” program will draw attention to the
state’s water scarcity.
If you followed the news about the Colorado River for the last
year, you’d think that a political avalanche had swept down
from Colorado’s snow-capped peaks and covered the Southwest
with a blanket of “collaboration” and “river protection.” I
won’t call it fake news, but I will point out errors of
omission.
The Cuyama Valley is the driest agricultural region in the
county; the valley floor gets just a little more rain than the
Sahara. Yet for the past 75 years, this high desert region has
been a mecca for water-intensive farming on an industrial scale
— first alfalfa, and now carrots, a $69 million annual crop.
… Now, to the rescue — belatedly — comes the state
Groundwater Sustainability Act of 2014…
Much-needed rain will finally return to California and will
likely end a month-plus dry streak in San Francisco and
Sacramento. … The upper-level ridge of high pressure will
slowly shift away from California this week. This will allow a
cold front to move through Northern California Friday into
Saturday.
The lack of snow and rain in February comes after a January
that was also drier than average, and a record dry autumn for
much of Northern California. A series of storms dumped a
considerable amount of snow in late December, raising hopes
that this winter might proceed normally. But that now seems
less likely.
Forecasters and water managers keeping a close eye on
precipitation are hopeful that a wet month, a phenomenon known
by weather experts as “miracle March,” may help bolster
lackluster winter rain totals.
Fresh water shortages have made desalination a possible
solution for supplementing the overall water supply. To address
this issue, a team of industry professionals and researchers
have formed National Alliance of Water and Innovation to
jointly examine the critical technical barriers and research
needed to lower the energy cost of desalination and other water
processing methods.
While this February could be the driest February on record, one
year ago most farmers didn’t know when it would be dry enough
to work their fields. This sums up the argument for additional
water infrastructure for surface supplies…
Another block of water has been offered for sale in Kern County
at $950 per acre foot. With a dry January and extremely dry
February, California’s water outlook has worsened. And that has
bumped the price of water for those who have it to sell.
A major contributor to the Southern California water supply is
the Colorado River, which pumps in about 26 percent of the
region’s water supply via the Colorado Aqueduct, which was
built in the 1930s. … There’s a problem, and it’s happening
at the source. Years of multiple water allocations and
persistent drought have put the Colorado River under stress.
Northern California has just concluded one of its normally
wettest months without a drop of rainfall. Even with an extra
day on the calendar, February – a month that usually brings 20%
of San Francisco’s annual rainfall – just added to the streak
of dry days dating back to late January.
A warming planet has major ramifications on winter snowpack
across the globe, including a long-term drying trend for many.
That’s a concern for winter sports enthusiasts and communities
that depend on snow throughout the year.
A major contributor to the Southern California water supply is
the Colorado River, which pumps in about 26 percent of the
region’s water supply via the Colorado Aqueduct, which was
built in the 1930s. … There’s a problem, and it’s happening
at the source. Years of multiple water allocations and
persistent drought have put the Colorado River under stress.
The idea was that people living in Mediterranean-type climates
(moist winters and dry summers) should landscape with plants
suited to dry landscapes rather than plants that need lots of
water to survive… Unfortunately, the term “xeriscape” quickly
became synonymous with austere landscapes.
The Central Valley is America’s fruit bowl, and the heart of
California’s $50bn agriculture industry. But the 2011-2017
drought raised serious questions about the future of that
industry and forced the state to grapple with regulating the
one thing fueling much of it: groundwater.
Two bills that would make it easier for state regulators and
county officials to limit well-drilling and groundwater pumping
have died in the Arizona Legislature despite support from
lawmakers and pleas from county officials who are asking for
help to protect their rapidly declining aquifers.
Officials at Phillips Station recorded a snow-water equivalent
of 11.5 inches, only 47 percent of average for the end of
February, according to Sean de Guzman, chief of snow surveys
for the California Department of Water Resources… DeGuzman
called the month’s minuscule rain and snow totals “quite
disappointing,” noting that it will almost certainly go down as
the driest February ever measured by DWR officials in the
Northern Sierra Nevada range over 99 years of recorded history.
Drought has expanded to nearly a quarter of the state, mainly
in central California, the heart of the state’s agricultural
sector, according to a U.S. Drought Monitor map made public
Thursday. The map shows 70 percent of the state is abnormally
dry.
Scientists say climate change will bring more unpredictable
weather, warmer winters and less snowpack in the mountains.
These challenges and some ideas for remedies are outlined in a
new plan, called the California Water Resilience Portfolio,
released by Gov. Gavin Newsom in January to a mix of praise and
disappointment. Below, an explanation of the state’s water
development — as well as the challenges, today and tomorrow, of
providing water for California’s people, places and things.
Turns out President Donald Trump is no match for another
California drought. Less than a week after Trump told San
Joaquin Valley farmers in Bakersfield that he was taking bold
steps to increase their water supply, his administration
announced Tuesday farmers on the west side of the San Joaquin
Valley may only receive about 15 percent of their contracted
water supply for the upcoming growing season.
The lack of precipitation in downtown San Francisco this month
is nearing a historic feat. The city has not had a February
with no rainfall since 1864, according to the National Weather
Service. There is a 20% to 30% chance of rain across the region
Sunday… Of course, that would be March 1.
Climate change has dramatically decreased natural flow in the
Colorado River, jeopardizing the water supply for some 40
million people and millions of acres of farmland, according to
new research from the USGS. The decline is expected to continue
unless changes are made to alleviate global warming and the
impacts of drier, hotter temperatures.
Oceanside celebrated the start of construction Wednesday on a
project that could make it the first city in San Diego County
to be drinking recycled water by 2022. At least two other
cities or water districts are close behind on similar projects,
and several more agencies are considering plans to make potable
recycled water a significant portion of their supply.
Do you believe in miracles? At this point, it would take one to
restore water and snowpack totals in a very dry California to
near average levels for the winter.
California is doing more to preserve its groundwater levels
than ever before, but a new, interactive tool by a local water
advocacy group suggests it may not be enough. Last Wednesday,
Visalia-based Community Water Center … argued that California
will experience longer, more severe droughts due to climate
change.
What’s scarier than a malevolent clown under your bed? More
tragic than the story of Romeo and Juliet? More offensive than
a comedian with terrible jokes? Wasting water. That is the
message of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern
California’s new digital and social media campaign “Wasting
Water Is…”
The Colusa Groundwater Authority, the California Department of
Water Resources and The Nature Conservancy have partnered to
conduct an on-farm, multi-benefit demonstration program for
growers in two select project locations around Colusa County.
The season has been looking very good for most areas, with the
exception of the Sierra, where an extended period of recent dry
conditions has brought up the “D” word – drought – again.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, in a pre-emptive strike against President
Donald Trump, said Wednesday he plans to sue Trump’s
administration to block a controversial plan to increase water
deliveries to the San Joaquin Valley. Newsom’s office said he
“will file legal action in the coming days … to protect
highly imperiled fish species close to extinction.”
Water supply concerns, regulations, labor issues, tariffs,
climate change, and other challenges have prompted some rather
dire predictions about the future of California agriculture. We
talked to Dan Sumner—director of the UC Davis Agricultural
Issues Center and a member of the PPIC Water Policy Center
research network—about his research on California agriculture
in 2050.
The National Weather Service tweeted satellite images of the
Sierra on Tuesday, showing the stark difference between this
year and the above-average snowfall from 2019. The mountain
snowpack — a crucial element in the state’s annual water supply
— is 53 percent of normal for this time of year, according to
the Department of Water Resources.
Extracting salt from water seems like an easy fix to a global
problem, but the process of desalination can be expensive, and
it can also have a huge impact on the environment. That’s why
some researchers are looking into how to lower the cost and
improve efficiency.
Marking a historic moment for the city of Oceanside and the
region, city officials and water industry leaders will break
ground on Pure Water Oceanside on Wednesday, Feb. 19 at 10 a.m.
at the San Luis Rey Water Reclamation Facility. Scheduled to be
completed before the end of 2021, Pure Water Oceanside will be
on the map as the first operating recycled water project in San
Diego County.
Access to reliable, clean drinking water should be a
fundamental human right for all Californians. Unfortunately,
many disadvantaged communities throughout the state lack access
to clean drinking water, and our aging water delivery
infrastructure threatens water reliability for millions of
California residents.
A persistent ridge of high pressure has taken up residence in
the eastern Pacific, and it shows no sign of budging. It is
diverting storms into the Pacific Northwest region, which means
more dry weather for California. But did the drought in
California ever really end? Climatologist and weather expert
Bill Patzert thinks Southern California continues to be mired
in a two-decade drought…
A persistent ridge of high pressure has taken up residence in
the eastern Pacific, and it shows no sign of budging. It is
diverting storms into the Pacific Northwest region, which means
more dry weather for California. But did the drought in
California ever really end? Climatologist and weather expert
Bill Patzert thinks Southern California continues to be mired
in a two-decade drought…
While the Arizona Legislature considers how to respond to
problems of falling groundwater levels in rural areas, the
agriculture industry is pushing back against proposals that
would require owners of large wells across the state to measure
and report how much water they’re pumping.
New federal data show that California may be sliding back into
drought, just as the Legislature is starting to pursue ways to
make sure residents are prepared for water shortages. Due to
weeks of dry weather about 10 percent of California and more
than half of Nevada are in drought mode, the federal government
reported Thursday.
As the county reports advances in water protection and
conservation technologies, water use continues to remain lower
that previous years, the Santa Cruz County Water Resources
Management Status Report shows.
This rain-year has brought an alarmingly dry winter in
California so far, according to climate change experts. Now,
there’s a new tool to help Californians navigate your water
supply. It’s an online tool that allows a person to see the
groundwater levels in their area. The tool then gives a
representation of what could be at risk or impacted if a
drought hits.
Warren Turkett, a natural resource analyst for the Colorado
River Commission of Nevada, told commissioners Tuesday that a
warm summer and lack of precipitation in the upper Colorado
River Basin last year left soil drier than normal, which is
expected to cut the amount of water flowing into Lake Powell to
20 percent below average based on current projections.
California’s alarmingly dry winter continues, with no
meaningful snow or rain in sight. Although it’s far too soon to
predict a drought, experts said wildfire risks could worsen
this summer as a result of the shortage of precipitation.
Meteorologists say much of Northern California likely will not
see a drop of rain in February, heightening concerns that
summer will arrive with below-average rainfall and tinder-dry
hillsides susceptible to wildfire.
Climate change is spurring a new, deep dive into a complex,
little-studied weather system blamed for creating billions of
dollars in flood damage across the western U.S. Atmospheric
rivers are narrow ribbons of concentrated moisture that
originate in the Pacific and can flow thousands of miles before
dropping rain and snow on land.
A warming climate has been linked to human activity around the
world, and has affected the Colorado River System as well. The
impacts are substantial, from reduced water flows, threats to
indigenous species and the influx of new invasive species along
the river system.
One of the top priorities outlined in the Newsom
Administration’s recently released draft Water Resilience
Portfolio is reducing reliance on any one water source and
diversifying supplies – key strategies for making our water
supply systems more flexible, adaptable, and resilient to the
impacts of climate change.
California is stuck in a dry spell amid what is historically
the wettest time of the year. But while the Sierra snowpack is
dwindling and rainfall totals are below normal, weather
watchers are not concerned about a drought. “One dry year
doesn’t make a drought,” said Chris Orrock, a spokesperson for
the California Department of Water Resources.
Jan. 31 marked a major milestone for building groundwater
sustainability and climate resilience into California’s complex
and increasingly stressed water systems. It was the first major
planning deadline for implementing the state’s historic
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
The Four Corners drought of 2017 and 2018 caused $3 billion in
losses and prompted the Navajo Nation to issue an emergency
drought declaration. Now, new research in the Bulletin of the
American Meteorological Society suggests a sizable portion of
the drought’s impacts stemmed from human-caused climate change.
Vast amounts of valuable energy, agricultural nutrients, and
water could potentially be recovered from the world’s
fast-rising volume of municipal wastewater, according to a new
study by UN University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water,
Environment and Health.
From an ecologist’s perspective, river habitat and species
population sizes and life histories were shaped by unimpaired
flow patterns (including volume and natural variability) across
seasons and years. Science from across the world, other regions
in the US, and right here in California suggests that we can
take some of that flow for other uses, but must preserve
adequate volume and natural patterns of variation if we want
native species to survive.
The Air Force research crew on the WC-130J Super Hercules
airplane was cruising at 28,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean,
preparing to deploy 25 weather-sensing devices over a long band
of water vapor known as an “atmospheric river” when the hazards
of air travel got in the way of science.
Connie Woodhouse and David Meko, professors at the University
of Arizona’s Laboratory of Tree Ring Research, found the most
recent span of 100 years, when five perfect droughts hit
California, was not unusual compared to past centuries.
Kiara Nirghin, ’22, developed a unique polymer that can keep
crops hydrated during dry spells. The innovative research has
garnered her global recognition, including top honors at the
Google Science Fair.
On the heels of a seemingly perpetual drought that has slowed
surface water deliveries to a trickle and made water transfers
complicated and expensive, Joe Del Bosque and other growers
face new pumping restrictions under the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act. … The farm’s water costs have already more
than doubled in the past 10 years…
Placer County, along with the U.S. Forest Service will continue
restoration efforts at the French Meadows reservoir, 30 miles
south of Soda Springs, with plans to treat over 3,800 acres of
forest this year. … This year they expect to remove 9 million
board feet of timber, three times the amount removed last year,
and 15,000 green tons of biomass that will be chipped, hauled
and used for energy production.
The situation in Australia illustrates a growing global
concern: Forests, grasslands and other areas that supply
drinking water to hundreds of millions of people are
increasingly vulnerable to fire due in large part to hotter,
drier weather that has extended fire seasons, and more people
moving into those areas, where they can accidentally set fires.
One of the major questions fish biologists are often asked is
“how much water do fish need?” In 2016, a group of scientists
from California Trout, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, The Nature
Conservancy, Utah State University and the Southern California
Coastal Water Research Project, with funding in partnership
from the State Water Board, began to delve into this question
and others.
In the South Bay, Santa Clara County’s 10 reservoirs combined
are at about two-thirds of their normal levels at this point in
the year. Lexington Reservoir, near Los Gatos is just half
full. Water managers say local groundwater supplies remain
strong so the reduced Sierra snowpack is not yet of critical
concern.
People crowded into an Ojai junior high school auditorium
recently after thousands received legal notices or a court
summons from the city of Ventura. The city notified 14,000-plus
property owners in the Ventura River watershed of a potential
adjudication of water rights. That move came years after the
city faced legal action over its own water use.
Large lawns and backyard pools were once common features of new
homes in the Phoenix area, but not anymore. A recent study of
single-family homes in the Phoenix metropolitan area showed
that nearly two-thirds of homes do not have a swimming pool.
The California Department of Water Resources conducted the
second monthly snow survey of the year Thursday morning at
Phillips Station snow course in the Sierra Nevada, south of
Lake Tahoe. Snowpack across the state is averaging 72 percent
of what’s normal for the start of February.
The Santa Monica City Council approved a water self-sufficiency
plan Tuesday that will double the price of water and wastewater
removal by 2024. The rate increases will finance about $42
million in infrastructure projects that will allow Santa Monica
to stop importing water from the Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California by 2023.
The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron’s mission over the
coming months: C-130s — departing from the U.S. Coast Guard Air
Station Barbers Point in Hawaii; or from Travis Air Force Base
in Fairfield — will each release 25 sensors called dropsondes
into a forming atmospheric river system. As the dropsondes fall
from 25,000 feet along two V-shaped paths covering hundreds of
miles, they send back readings on the gathering storm’s water
vapor content, temperature, wind speed and direction.
Understanding why desalination is so critical to California’s
water future is a lot like building a personal budget. With a
changing climate, growing population and booming economy, we
need to include desalination in the water supply equation to
help make up an imported water deficit.
Wildfires are feasting on overgrown, overcrowded and
undermanaged forests, warmer temperatures have created longer
fire seasons and officials are trying to prevent another
environmental catastrophe. That was all just part of the
discussion Monday during Operation Sierra Storm, a national
weather conference sponsored by the Lake Tahoe Visitors
Authority…
In preparation for the inevitable, Self-Help Enterprises …
has launched a new and innovative Emergency Services Division
that will reach and engage diverse and vulnerable populations
around natural disasters, such as drought, fire, flood and
earthquake. The program will also help families receive urgent
access to clean water, help with water well replacement and
water filtration services as needed.
