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.
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is urging nearly
3 million water customers throughout the Bay Area to cut water
usage by 10%, as it declares a water shortage emergency due to
the ongoing drought. … By declaring the emergency, the agency
would be able to access water reserves and resources only
available during emergencies, officials said. Under the
measure, customers are urged to reduce water usage by 10%
compared to 2019-2020 levels…. Along with providing
water to San Francisco, the agency also has customers in
portions of Alameda, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.
On the parched west side of the San Joaquin Valley, the drought
has created a windfall for companies like Big River Drilling. A
water-well contractor based in the Fresno County community of
Riverdale, Big River can hardly keep up with demand for new
wells as farmers and rural residents seek to extract more water
from underground. … But talk about poor timing:
California farmers are supposed to start throttling back their
groundwater pumping to comply with a state law called the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA.
Drought has tightened its grip on the Western U.S., as dry
conditions tick on into their second decade and strain a river
that supplies 40 million people. Experts agree that things are
bad and getting worse. But how exactly do you measure a
drought, and how can you tell where it’s going? Brad Udall is
an expert on the subject, studying water and climate at
Colorado State University’s Colorado Water Center. Lately, his
forecasts for the basin haven’t been particularly uplifting.
As the application window for a near billion-dollar state
program designed to help cash-strapped Californians with
pandemic-related drinking water debt nears its close date,
almost 50% of eligible water systems have fully completed the
application, but nearly one quarter haven’t yet started the
process — a scenario that could see many struggling households
lose the chance to have their financial burdens
alleviated.
Consumers should prepare to pay more than usual for live and
fake Christmas trees this year because of climate change and
supply chain issues, according to the American Christmas Tree
Association. The real Christmas tree harvest was impacted by
wildfires, floods and extreme weather in Oregon, which is the
number one producer of Christmas trees in the nation and where
many West Coast sellers buy their trees.
After a year of extreme drought, massive wildfires, and even a
brief spate of record-breaking rainfall, Californians no longer
question whether the climate is changing—climate change is
here. The escalating crises add urgency to the issue of how
Californians manage their water. From November 15–17, the PPIC
Water Policy Center convened three expert panels (as part of
our annual water priorities conference) to discuss how we can
“seize the drought” to meet the challenges we’re already
facing.
High fire danger is forecast for Southern California over the
Thanksgiving holiday, as Santa Ana winds bring dry, gusty
conditions from Ventura to San Diego on Wednesday through
Friday. … [Officials] described the event as the
strongest of the season so far, with gusts of up to 70 mph,
along with humidity percentages into the single digits. Given
the threat, Southern California utilities are considering
cutting power to nearly 200,000 customers to prevent their
equipment from sparking a wildfire.
CalEnviroScreen — short for California Communities
Environmental Health Screening — was developed by the state
Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to help
identify communities that are most burdened by environmental
issues. … The methodology behind some measures is
straightforward, like air quality. For air quality, the tool
pulls the annual mean concentration of particulate matter (PM)
2.5 of each census tract from California Air Resources Board
data. Others, such as drinking water contaminants, are more
complicated and involve combining data points from a variety of
sources.
A profound reduction in the Colorado River water earmarked for
Arizona’s crops has at last triggered the rationing that
irrigation farmers have dreaded. The Tier 1 shortage will
prompt a 512,000-acre-foot reduction in Arizona’s Colorado
River deliveries. That amounts to about 30% of Central Arizona
Project’s normal supply. … Farmers will need to expand
their horizons and tighten down their faucets, even more than
they have done over the last three decades, as they
successfully cut average per-acre water use by a fifth. -Written by Gary Paul Nabhan, the W.K., Kellogg
endowed chair for food and water security at the University of
Arizona.
The Mokelumne River was seeing an outstanding run of fall
chinook salmon at the fish hatchery when the atmospheric river
hit on Oct. 24-25. “We lost a lot of our fish,” said
William Smith, manager of the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery.
“The Cosumnes River went up to 14,000 cfs (cubic feet per
second) and every creek in the region came up with the storm.
As a result, the salmon scattered throughout the Valley.
Meanwhile, the releases from Camanche Dam were still 250 cfs.”
Signature-gathering has begun to place an initiative on the
2022 ballot that would force the legislature to fund more water
storage in California. But even supporters admit, the success
of the measure may depend on the weather. With many reservoirs
in the state drying up and no guarantee of a wet winter, some
Central Valley farmers and Southern California water districts
are pushing an initiative called the ‘Water Infrastructure
Funding Act of 2022.’
Don’t hold your breath for California’s drought ending with
this winter’s rains. Instead, you’d do well to hold your shower
time to a minimum. There’s less than a 40% chance of water
supplies getting back to normal after this winter, with a
slightly better than 50% chance that the state’s drought will
worsen, according to forecasters at a Monday, Nov. 22, drought
webinar hosted by the National Integrated Drought Information
Center.
While record amounts of rain have greatly reduced the risk of
wildfire in some Northern California regions, the southern
reaches of the state are not so lucky. Southern California
anticipates the return of dangerous fire weather for the
Thanksgiving holiday. Residents of Los Angeles and Ventura
counties have been on alert since early Sunday when strong
Santa Ana winds began battering the region with warm, dry
gusts.
Farmers in the heart of California’s agricultural belt – Kings
County – sense something is awry with their water supplies. In
this intensively farmed, perennially dry county, water is
leaving at a concerning rate. … As far as [walnut farmer
Steve Walker] knows, no agency, city or county board is
trying to figure out what’s really happening. … But this
much he knows — certain groundwater wells in the county are
running practically year round, even in wet years.
The simple way to think about this crisis: There’s no longer
enough water to go around to meet the needs of farmers and
Native American populations as well as fish and birds. For more
than a century, the federal government has overseen an
intricate and imperfect system of water distribution intended
to sustain an ecosystem and an economy. The whole precarious
balance was based on the assumption that enough snow would
always fall…
Denver officially broke its all-time record for the latest
first measurable snow when the Mile High City reported no
snowfall on Sunday, surpassing a record that had stood since
Nov. 21, 1934. AccuWeather meteorologists say that it
could be weeks before the next chance for significant
accumulation in the city. April 21 was the last time that snow
accumulated in Denver, and for a brief moment last week, it
looked like the snowless streak was about to come to an end.
When you see a constant stream of water heading into the sewer
drain stemming from a pipe leak, do you ever wonder how much of
it is wasted water? Chances are, the amount of water going down
the drain isn’t being tracked. At the same time, Californians
are being asked to conserve water during a severe
drought.
The recent rainfall has offered Mendocino County some respite
from the drought, bringing many communities out of a crisis
situation. But it’s still not clear for how long. Now
communities throughout the county are using this breathing room
to make their water systems more resilient to drought before
next summer. That includes re-establishing a standalone county
water agency.
Water is the key to distilling—and distilling traditionally
uses a lot of water for fermentation, proofing, and especially
cooling. … Blinking Owl is in a rare position in
California. Orange County, where the distillery is located, has
one of the largest groundwater reclamation systems in
the world. This allows Blinking Owl to rely on its local
municipal system to provide a sustainable option. Friesen notes
that water conservation is a problem that’ll require both
municipal and industry solutions.
San Francisco’s robust water supply, long unruffled by the
severe dry spell now in its second year, has finally begun to
feel the pinch of drought, and city water managers are
recognizing it may be time to cut back. Officials at the San
Francisco Public Utilities Commission plan to ask city
residents and businesses to reduce water use by 5%, compared to
two years ago, and ask the more than two dozen communities that
buy water from the city to reduce water use nearly 14%….The
planned cutbacks are part of a water shortage emergency that
the SFPUC’s governing board is looking to declare at its
meeting Tuesday.
Land and waterway managers labored hard over the course of a
century to control California’s unruly rivers by building dams
and levees to slow and contain their water. Now, farmers,
environmentalists and agencies are undoing some of that work as
part of an accelerating campaign to restore the state’s major
floodplains. … The hope, shared by stakeholders who have
traditionally fought over water and land, is to rebuild habitat
for fish, birds and other wildlife while simultaneously
providing benefits, like improved flood protection and
groundwater recharge, for towns and farms.
Droughts come and go routinely in the Golden State, including
the last which stretched from 2012 to 2016, but long-term
solutions rarely seem to follow. Once the atmospheric rivers
finally return to mercifully fill up Shasta Lake and Lake
Oroville, the thirst for change evaporates. … But one thing
is glaringly different this time around: California’s coffers
are overflowing, creating an opportunity for the nation’s most
populous state to renovate and prep its outdated water systems
for climate change.
You may have seen it on social media or heard it while talking
to a friend: This is a La Niña year, so California won’t get
any rain this winter and the severe drought is only going to
get worse. Right? Maybe not. Although that’s a common
belief, it’s not supported by past history. The reality is that
a lot depends on where you live.
The West could be facing a water shortage in the Colorado River
that threatens a century-old agreement between states that
share the dwindling resource. That possibility once felt far
off, but could come earlier than expected. One prominent water
and climate scientist is sounding the alarm that the Colorado
River system could reach that crossroads in the next five
years, possibly triggering an unpredictable chain-reaction of
legal wrangling that could lead to some water users being cut
off from the river.
Many water management and regulation decisions require an
understanding of current and future hydrology. These
include regulatory decisions on new water rights, plans and
design for habitat restoration projects, long-lived water
infrastructure (conveyance, storage, and levees, etc.), water
demands (orchards and vines), groundwater sustainability plans
and policies, negotiating long-term agreements and contracts
among water agencies and water users, etc.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has begun
releasing juvenile fall-run Chinook salmon into the Klamath
River now that river conditions have improved with cooler
temperatures and increased flows that give the young salmon
their best chance at survival and reaching the Pacific Ocean.
More than 2 million baby Chinook salmon that were hatched in
early 2021 at CDFW’s Iron Gate Fish Hatchery in Siskiyou County
were held over the summer at three different CDFW facilities,
including 1 million fish trucked to the Trinity River Hatchery
through Redding in triple-digit heat.
Today’s Great Salt Lake bears little resemblance to how it’s
depicted on maps, which show a familiar blue footprint
spreading across northwest Utah. The maps conceal the urgency
of our water woes by drowning out how climate change and
allocation issues have impacted one of the West’s iconic bodies
of water. The Salt Lake Tribune and AccuWeather will update
their Utah maps to show the lake as it really is, a puddle of
its former self, rimmed by vast reaches of exposed lake bed.
The megafire era gripping the West isn’t just a threat to human
development. Fires now burn so intensely that they literally
reshape forests, shift tree species, and turn calm waterways
into devastating mudflows. A 2017 University of Colorado study
analyzing 15 burn scars left from fires in Colorado and New
Mexico found that as many as 80% of the plots did not contain
new seedlings.
As the first winter storms rolled through this month, a King
Air C90 turboprop aircraft contracted by the hydropower company
Idaho Power took to the skies over southern Idaho to make it
snow. Flying across the cloud tops, the aircraft dropped flares
that burned as they descended, releasing plumes of silver
iodide that caused ice crystals to form and snow to fall over
the mountains. In the spring, that snow will melt and run
downstream, replenishing reservoirs, irrigating fields and
potentially generating hundreds of thousands of additional
megawatt hours of carbon-free hydropower for the state.
I’m your host Michela Tindera, and this is Priceless. In this
episode, we’re headed West to the epicenter of one of the most
productive farming regions in the world—California’s Central
Valley—where the area is in the throes of a megadrought that
has been drying up wells and damaging crops across the western
United States. It’s there in the Central Valley, where a
billionaire couple own a majority stake in one of California’s
largest water storage facilities.
It’s getting hard to find the lake at Lake Mendocino. A bed of
cracked, dry dirt grows steadily as the shoreline recedes,
exposing abandoned homesteads that had been submerged for
decades. State officials warn that the lake could go dry — a
first for a major California reservoir. Lake Mendocino is a
crucial link in the North Coast’s water supply chain, and even
a drought-busting winter won’t ensure its recovery.
In many places, including Southern California, climate change
has increased the threat of drought and the need for new and
continuous water resources. Higher salinity water streams, and
sometimes seawater, come into consideration to alleviate such
scarcity, but require higher energy investment due to the need
to desalinate these streams. The proximity of some desalination
facilities to wastewater reclamation facilities provides an
opportunity to coordinate the two different water
resources.
California is likely to emerge from the winter with little
relief from drought, federal climate experts said Thursday,
setting the stage for a third year of dry weather and
continuing water shortages. The monthly climate report from the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects that
drought conditions will persist in almost all of California
through February. With the next three months historically the
state’s wettest, the opportunity for drought recovery is
essentially lost.
Despite recent rain, California is still in the depths of a
drought. Conditions have improved, but barely. Most of the
state is still in exceptional or extreme drought. In the
South Bay, a million residents will soon be hit with the
toughest water restrictions of any major urban area in
California. Late Wednesday, the state PUC gave final
approval to San Jose Water Company’s plan. Approval
by state regulators means the call to cut water use is no
longer voluntary for South Bay residents.
At the top of Donner Summit, an old cabin rests in a thicket of
tall trees. … The cabin is the home of an obscure laboratory,
called the Central Sierra Snow Lab, that holds records of
snowfall on Donner Summit dating back to 1878. That makes the
laboratory’s measurements one of the longest sets of data on
snowfall in the world — and many of those records were written
by hand, in long-form cursive penned on dated entries in small
red notebooks.
The amount of fire activity in the Sierra Nevada region may be
on track to considerably increase, according to new research on
the effects of the hottest summer days on fire risk. In an
article published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances,
researchers predicted the ramifications associated with hotter
summer days increasing in frequency. They estimate the number
of fires in the Sierra Nevada could increase by at least 19%
and as much as 83% by the 2040s.
Colusa County will receive $718,750 in funding from the
Department of Water Resources for a bottled and hauled water
project through a fourth round of funding from DWR’s Small
Community Drought Relief program as part of its continuing
effort to address drought impacts across the state.
Late Wednesday afternoon, the California Public Utilities
Commission gave final approval for San Jose Water Company to
put in place the first drought restrictions in its service area
since 2016, during California’s last major drought, and the
most stringent rules in any major city in California.
Californians are still lagging behind Gov. Gavin Newsom’s
drought-emergency plea to use less water. Urban residents
reduced water consumption by just 3.9% in September, compared
with a year earlier, according to data released Tuesday by the
State Water Resources Control Board. The August figure was a
slightly better 5.1%. … The Sacramento area conservation
figures were worse than the statewide average: Residents used
2% less water in September compared with the year before,
according to the Sacramento Regional Water Authority.
Almond production in California is expected to drop 10% to 1.3
million tons this year because of high temperatures and
drought. Apart from this, the return of La Niña conditions
could bring another weak crop next year. The crop shortfall
threatens to drive almond prices sharply higher, with some
growers expecting a price jump of 50% or more from last year’s
$1.83 per pound.
Farmers, ranchers, and community resource managers know all too
well that climate change can contribute to increased drought in
the western United States. A new web-based platform called
OpenET puts NASA data on water in 17 western states into the
hands of users, helping them better calculate crop water
requirements, use water more efficiently, and better plan
irrigation. The “ET” in OpenET stands for evapotranspiration,
which is the process through which water leaves plants, soils,
and other surfaces and returns to the atmosphere.
Keeping salmon in her children’s diet is “an entire job,” says
Georgiana Gensaw, a Yurok Tribe member and mother of four in
Klamath Glen, a community whose only easily accessible food
store is a fried chicken shop attached to a gas station a few
miles away. … The salmon [the Yurok people
have] long depended on as both dietary staple and cultural
cornerstone have become scarce. Combined with the lack of food
sovereignty, it has prompted the need to fight for their main
sources of nutrition and for their very way of life, they say.
Wildfires spread by strong winds tore across Wyoming, Montana
and Colorado, rocking the mountain states even as they prepare
for winter. … In decades past, fire season in the
mountainous west wrapped up in the months before the winter
storms, typically concluding its siege by August or September.
But the climate crisis has delivered hotter days and drier
landscapes, with the risks extending deeper into spring and
autumn.
The global water desalination equipment market size is
expected to reach USD 22.79 billion by 2028, according to a new
report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is expected to expand at
a CAGR of 7.1% from 2020 to 2028. Increasing water scarcity,
depletion in freshwater reserves, and fast-paced advancements
in desalination technologies are anticipated to have a positive
impact on the market growth.
Hoori Ajami, groundwater hydrologist Q: What will happen
to the Central Valley, in terms of groundwater and sinkholes,
if farmers continue to grow highly water intensive crops?
A: If farmers continue to pump groundwater at the current rate
and do not implement any conservation measures such as managed
aquifer recharge, the land subsidence issues become worse. The
groundwater levels will drop so far it will not be economically
feasible to pump groundwater anymore. The Central Valley
aquifer system is already amongst the top three highly depleted
aquifer systems in the country.
Water systems in many small communities across Central
California are due for improvements to meet new standards and
deal with the drought, including Pixley in Tulare County.
… The agency announced its 4th round of funding support
through the Small Community Drought Relief Program. It’s
an opportunity leaders in Pixley took advantage of immediately.
Two and a half years after signing a deal aimed at averting a
damaging crisis along the Colorado River, water officials from
California, Arizona and Nevada are discussing plans to take
even less water from the shrinking river and leave it in Lake
Mead in an effort to prevent the reservoir from falling to
dangerously low levels. … For California, the deal would mean
participating in water reductions prior to Lake Mead reaching
levels that would otherwise trigger mandatory cuts.
A severe drought prompted California Gov. Gavin Newsom last
summer to ask the state’s nearly 40 million residents to
voluntarily reduce water use by 15% this year. New data
released Tuesday shows few people are doing that. Californians
reduced their water use by a measly 3.9% in September, down
from 5.1% in August. Overall, California has reduced its water
consumption by just 3.6% since July, when Newsom made the
request.
California has not built enough new reservoirs, desalination
plants and other water projects because there are too many
delays, too many lawsuits and too much red tape. That’s the
message from a growing coalition of Central Valley farmers and
Southern California desalination supporters who have begun
collecting signatures for a statewide ballot measure that would
fast-track big water projects and provide billions of dollars
to fund them — potentially setting up a major political
showdown with environmentalists next year shaped by the state’s
ongoing drought.
State officials have a “grim” outlook for California’s
winter-run Chinook salmon along the Sacramento River. The
deepening drought and rising temperatures are exhausting agency
resources for managing the species to prevent extinction, and
with long-term forecasts predicting little precipitation for
Northern California in the months ahead, the state is making
plans for worst-case scenarios and an emergency overhaul of
water management in California.
An ultraporous compound can extract water molecules from dry
desert air, store them as tiny “icicles” and then release them
as clean drinking water. A new study has shown this novel
humidity sponge’s developers how it works in detail, taking it
a step closer to practical applications. Along with government,
industry and university partners, the researchers are working
to turn their project into portable hydration systems capable
of conjuring fresh water almost anywhere in an increasingly
thirsty world.
After two dry winters in a row, the Bay Area could see some
much-needed rain on Thursday night, though there may not be
much of it. A cold front is moving into the region from the
Northwest and Alaskan Basin on Thursday night and carry into
Friday morning but it won’t be a “particularly strong system,”
according to National Weather Service meteorologist Brayden
Murdock. Most locations could receive less than one tenth of an
inch of rain while coastal areas could see “heavier amounts,”
Murdock said.
Local grower Fritz Durst is a sixth generation farmer out of
Capay Valley. Over the last 30 years, Durst says he and his
family have taken a no-till approach to farming. … Tilling
the land rids it of weeds, pests, and prepares the soil for
planting seeds. In the process, it also emits carbon dioxide,
and causes soil to erode. Erosion of top soil happens much
faster through tillage because the natural elements of rain and
wind remove nutrients from the earth.
Man-made water sources critical to the survival of Siskiyou
County wildlife are being repaired by volunteers and state
agencies. … The guzzlers are needed to help wildlife affected
by drought and wildfires over the last two years … With
severe drought occurring in the state and lakes dying up, these
water guzzlers provide a needed water source and gathering
place for a wide variety of wildlife, from deer to
bears and eagles. Drought is becoming a life and death
situation for animals and maintaining these water sources is of
the utmost importance.
President Biden on Monday signed a historic $1-trillion
bipartisan bill that he said will overhaul the nation’s
infrastructure and boost the nation’s economy, which has been
battered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Touting the legislation as a
job creator, the president said it was also an example of him
fulfilling a campaign promise to reach across the aisle to get
things done. … California is set to receive about $3.5
billion to eliminate lead water pipes and take other steps to
improve drinking water. It should also receive more than $80
million to help mitigate wildfires and other natural disasters.
For California, the arrival of winter means the beginning of
our rainy season, at least relatively speaking. However much
precipitation California is going to receive in a year, the
bulk of it typically falls between December and March. And
given the severity of our state’s ongoing drought, the amount
of rain we get this winter couldn’t be of more importance. A
recent outlook from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration suggests that the northern and southern halves
of the state may experience diverging water fortunes this
winter because of something you may already be familiar with:
La Niña.
The Sierra Nevada mountains are the source of more than 60% of
California’s water, with much of that originating in small
headwater streams. Unfortunately, the water supply and water
quality coming from these streams is at risk from record
setting wildfires, climate change, loss of riparian habitats,
and the extensive network of forest roads.
An estimated 40 million people rely on water that originates in
the Colorado River Basin, but the river can no longer keep up
with demand, and it’s raising serious questions about the
future of water in the west. Surrounded by bright orange
pumpkins and empty shanks of corn outside his store east of
Pueblo, Shane Milberger surveys his field.
Despite pleas to conserve water during a historic drought,
Californians have not saved much at all this year. But there
are exceptions. We look at how Healdsburg dramatically cut its
water use.
For the past decade, water officials in San Diego have been
testing technology that would provide the city with a new
source of drinking water. In a pilot facility loaded with tubes
and tanks, a five-step process filters and disinfects
wastewater, turning it into potable water cleaner than what
comes out of most people’s faucets.
For years, policy wonks who wanted to get the lowdown on New
Mexico water went to the “Stansbury Hour.” The informal chats —
usually at bars — were named for Melanie Stansbury, the driving
force behind the gatherings, which were a breeding ground for
legislative and regulatory ideas. Stansbury is now in a
position to try to put those ideas and others into action. In
June, she won a special election to fill former Rep. Deb
Haaland’s seat after President Biden tapped Haaland for
secretary of the Interior Department.
Naturalists have long noted isolated examples of tree roots
boring far down through loose soil and into the unforgiving
bedrock below—rare incursions that were deemed a mere
curiosity. But in 2013 hydrologist Daniella Rempe probed deep
into a northern California hillside and found tree roots
extracting substantial amounts of moisture from pores and
crannies in the rock, where groundwater had seeped in and
become trapped.
A 22-foot-high floodwall was supposed to protect Aqua
Pennsylvania’s water-treatment facility near the Schuylkill
River from a 100-year storm. But when the remains of Hurricane
Ida barreled through the area near Philadelphia in September,
the 18-inch-thick wall proved no match for the record
rains. Waters breached the barrier and inundated the
plant. Mud and debris coated offices. Employees rushed to shut
down the facility. They barely got out in time, some rolling
down car windows in case they got caught in the rising waters
and had to leap out…
Six years ago, I traded a house with a big grassy yard for one
landscaped with gravel and cactuses. I’ve held on to the
memories of tea time on the lawn with my daughter and our
barefoot games of chase on the prickly turf, cool even on the
hottest days in Phoenix. Opinions to start the day, in your
inbox. Sign up. But whenever I feel nostalgic, I think about a
monthly water bill that could push $400. I also think about the
waste. Growing grass in the parched Southwest is an act of
defiance — against nature and common sense. -Written by Fernanda Santos, a Washington Post
contributing columnist and a journalism professor at
Arizona State University.
The rolling hills and ranchlands of eastern Contra Costa County
are known for wineries, cattle ranches, wind turbines and
growing subdivisions. But soon they may be known for something
else: The biggest new water storage project in the Bay Area in
years. And now, amid the current drought, nearly every major
water agency in the region wants a piece of it.
Hurricanes, tornadoes and even atmospheric river storms are
ranked, based on their intensity, to help people prepare. Now,
legislation that’s expected to be proposed in Sacramento would
add heat waves to that list of dangerous-weather
rankings. State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said
Friday that he will sponsor a proposal by two Southern
California legislators to develop a scale for heat waves with
categories based on heat intensity and health impacts.
As I write this on an October weekend, rain is falling steadily
in Davis and has been for most of the day. This is the first
real rain we have had in over seven months. But it is not the
end of the drought. Multiple storms are needed. The landscape
is a dry sponge, reservoirs are empty, water rationing is in
place or expected to be, and aquatic species are in decline.
After a spell of wet weather, the San Francisco Bay Area has
been bathed in sunshine over the past several days and
forecasters say the dry conditions could continue through
Thanksgiving with no rain in sight, the National Weather
Service said. This is discouraging news in a region struggling
with drought conditions, but weather service forecaster Ryan
Walbrun said the dry conditions are more typical for this time
of year than the moisture-rich storms that swept Northern
California in recent weeks.
Chinook salmon are back, baby! After a rush of cold-running
water brought by the atmospheric river in late October, Sonoma
Creek, along with other streams across the Bay Area, saw a
surge in flow giving Chinook, or king salmon, the perfect
conditions to make their way upstream from the Pacific.
Crenshaw is one of at least 47 communities where the worsening
impacts of climate change will be felt most acutely, according
to a groundbreaking new L.A. County report, which outlines in
stark detail how some of the Southland’s most vulnerable
residents could bear the brunt of extreme heat, wildfires,
drought and floods. … Many of those communities are home
to low-income people and people of color.
The Solano Irrigation District is anticipating having less
water – about 1 acre-foot per acre – to deliver to its
agriculture customers in 2022. The SID directors on Tuesday
will receive a presentation on the preliminary agriculture
water allocation for the new season. … Part of the issue, the
report states, is the district’s carryover supply is down, as
well as delivery needs to Maine Prairie during this past
season.
California and much of the Western United States is in the
midst of an unprecedented drought intensified by climate
change. The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is taking
immediate action to support California’s small and rural
communities now, while also preparing for the potential of a
third dry year.
Andy Mattern knew exactly what he was looking for as he scanned
the receding edges of Lake Mendocino. Finally, he spotted the
tops of a handful of wooden stakes protruding from the mud and
bird droppings along the shoreline. Cut from virgin redwood
almost a century earlier, those stakes had been driven into the
ground by his grandfather, Lorenzo Fracchia, to support his
grapevines. That was early in the 20th century, when there was
no lake. Coyote Valley was home to a vibrant young settlement
of immigrants from northern Italy…
The San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District Board of
Directors, staff, and community supporters gathered today to
celebrate the many contributions of Board President Melody
Henriques-McDonald, now in her 30th year of leadership on the
Board. In 1991, the year she was first appointed to serve,
California was in its fifth year of drought: the worst since
the Dust Bowl.
As it works to encourage water conservation during California’s
drought, the Palmdale Water District is extending its
water-saving rebate program from residential to commercial
customers, as well. This is the first time the water provider
has offered the rebate program to its commercial and industrial
customers, according to a statement from the District. Seven
types of rebates are available for businesses within the
District.
Lake Mendocino, once a plentiful reservoir nourishing the vines
and villas of Sonoma and Mendocino counties, today is little
more than a large pond, cowering beneath the coastal hills.
… State officials warn that Lake Mendocino could be the
first major reservoir in modern times to go dry. While rain
over the past few weeks has lifted the lake above its October
low, the reservoir, a few miles northeast of Ukiah, remains at
less than 20% capacity. Officials worry that the looming wet
winter season won’t bring enough inflow to meet next year’s
water demands.
States in the lower Colorado River basin are developing a $100
million plan that will leave more water in Lake Mead over the
next couple of years. The goal is to keep the lake from hitting
a critical level that would leave the reservoir more vulnerable
to rapid decline. … The negotiations between Nevada,
Arizona, California and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for
additional reductions in water use come just months
after the federal government declared Lake Mead’s
first water shortage.
A La Niña winter may turn into a La Niña spring, the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction
Center said Thursday. La Niña conditions, which emerged in
October, have a 90% chance of persisting through the winter
months, and a 50% chance of continuing through spring.
… California is split into two by a La Niña pattern,
bringing more rain to Northern California and below-normal
precipitation to Southern California …
Don’t be surprised if the citrus you find at the grocery store
this season is smaller than in years past. Growers say early
navel varieties generally are running smaller this year,
putting a premium on larger offerings. Matt Fisher, a
Central California farmer who has citrus groves from Orange
Cove to Bakersfield, said multiple factors come into play,
including the state’s ongoing drought and triple-digit heat
waves.
Like so many places in Northern California, the recent rains
have really transformed things here along Alameda Creek. It is
putting on quite a show for the locals, and it’s a great
reminder of the importance of a project underway here just
below Niles Canyon. … Stop and watch the creek, and
it does not take long to spot them.
As the Sacramento River Basin pursues ridgetop to river mouth
water management, the Public Policy Institute of California
(PPIC) Water Policy Center has recently published its
Priorities for California’s Water: Responding to the Changing
Climate. The authors of the new brief have stated that: “the
current drought and a changing climate are affecting
California’s ability to manage water, offering a stark reminder
that we must accelerate our response to the disruptive changes
underway.
All over Pinal County, you see the signs of the drought: empty
fields, abandoned cotton gins and it may get worse. The water
allocation for Pinal County farmers from the Central Arizona
Project is set to drop in January. It could disappear
altogether in 2023. But north of Pinal County’s dusty
fields, an industry that also relies on large amounts of water
is thriving and expanding. Two giant semiconductor projects are
getting underway.
As California’s drought continues and temperatures creep up
into the 90s in Northridge and Chatsworth, the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power is sponsoring two free workshops
in Northridge to help residents learn how to reduce their water
usage when landscaping. Two “Lawn Be Gone” workshops on
Saturday, Nov. 13, and Saturday, Nov. 20 will teach residents
how to remove turf without chemicals and install sustainable
landscaping, incorporate low water-use native California
plants, capture and recycle rainwater, install efficient drip
irrigation, mulch to make healthy soil, and more.
Countries across the world are coming together in Glasgow for
COP26 to discuss how the world will address our climate crisis.
…The time for action is now, and as the largest historical
contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, the United States has
a moral and practical responsibility to reach net zero
emissions by or before 2050. … In California, we are
facing a nearly year-round threat of wildfires that has been
exacerbated by the effects of climate change. This year, we are
entering a new drought, which will only increase the threat of
these fires. -Written by Assemblymember Richard Bloom, a
Democrat from Santa Monica representing the 50th Assembly
District.
Homes of all sizes across Marin reflect investments incurred
over years to create and maintain yards that not only bring
homeowners great pleasure but, importantly, add property
value whether the property is small or large. If the Marin
Municipal Water District Board of Directors has its way, we are
alarmingly close to losing yards and greenery that are a core
part of the beauty of Marin. -Written by Rosy Rogers, of Larkspur, a writer and
editor who worked as a corporate marketing chief in the biotech
space.
Southern California’s largest urban water district declared a
drought emergency on Tuesday and called for local water
suppliers to immediately cut the use of water from the State
Water Project. The resolution passed by the board of the
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California calls on
people across the region to step up conservation efforts, but
also focuses especially on six water agencies that rely heavily
or entirely on the water-starved State Water Project.
Migratory birds — protected by state and national laws and an
international treaty — are suffering mightily during this
drought, even more quickly than they did during the last major
dry spell, which lasted five years and ended in early 2017.
… California is the most critical link in the
4,000-mile-long Pacific Flyway, a route along the West
Coast where millions of birds shuttle between their summer and
winter homes.
On November 5, 2021, the U.S. Congress
passed President Biden’s major infrastructure bill, HR
3684, the $1.2 trillion ‘‘Infrastructure Investment
and Jobs Act.” The President is expected to sign
the bill into law. The bill is the largest
single federal investment in infrastructure in a
generation, with the funds to be expended over five
years. It aims to rebuild and
replace failing, aging, and outdated water,
energy, transportation, and communications
systems.
A weak atmospheric river rolled through the San Francisco Bay
Area early Tuesday, dumping more than 2 inches of rain in the
Marin County community Kentfield, nestled in the shadow of Mt.
Tamalpais, but giving little relief to the drought stricken
South Bay. Rainfall totals over the last 24 hours depended
entirely on what zip code you lived in.
Around the U.S., cities are increasingly warming to an idea
that once induced gags: Sterilize wastewater from toilets,
sinks and factories, and eventually pipe it back into homes and
businesses as tap water. In the Los Angeles area, plans to
recycle wastewater for drinking are moving along with little
fanfare just two decades after similar efforts in the city
sparked such a backlash they had to be abandoned.
Calif.’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) today announced
its fourth round of funding through the Small Community Drought
Relief program. This fourth round will provide $25 million to
14 projects. DWR and the State Water Resources Control Board
identified the 14 projects for funding in 10 counties: Tulare,
Lake, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sonoma, Humboldt, Santa Barbara, San
Mateo, Yolo and Colusa.
Despite a much improved water supply situation in the North
Bay, the Marin Municipal Water District moved a bit closer to a
new emergency pipeline across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge
from the East Bay. Key question: will this proposed pipeline
across this bridge be enough? Thanks to recent rains, the
Phoenix Reservoir spillway is spilling, but there are no
guarantees for the future for the Marin Municipal Water
District’s 191,000 customers.
California Water Service (Cal Water) will hold a public meeting
at the Robert Livermore Community Center, Tuesday, Nov.
16, 6 p.m. to explain Stage 2 Water Shortage
restrictions, which includes limits on outdoor watering
and increased penalties for wasting water. If approved by
the California Public Utilities Commission, Cal Water’s Stage 2
restrictions would become effective Dec. 14. Under a Stage
2 water-shortage declaration, outdoor landscape irrigation is
limited to three days per week, and only between 6 p.m. and 9
a.m.
The Diablo Canyon nuclear plant in California, the only one
still operating in the state, is set to close in 2025. A team
of researchers … found that this nuclear
plant could simultaneously help to stabilize the state’s
electric grid, provide desalinated water to supplement the
state’s chronic water shortages, and provide carbon-free
hydrogen fuel for transportation.
Amid the unpredictable impacts of climate change, UC Davis has
been recently awarded $10 million in grant funding by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and
Agriculture. Researchers from a wide range of fields — from
socioeconomics to agricultural groundwater and soil health —
will collaborate to optimize groundwater and agricultural
irrigation sustainability in the Southwest for farmers to
improve crop yield and cost efficiency.
…California needs 140% of precipitation to reach average
runoff conditions….The average amount of precipitation in
California is 23 inches per year, said Michelle Stern, a
hydrologist at USGS. The state would need 140% of that — around
32 inches — to recover. The average across California in
October was 4 inches. This year, the state would “need an
additional 28 inches of precipitation … to recover to average
runoff conditions,” Stern said.
Last month’s atmospheric river brought much-needed
precipitation to California, which has been in the grip of the
second-driest and third-warmest two-year period on record. It
was a balm to the drought-stricken state, and more than 600,000
acre-feet have arrived in the state’s major reservoirs, but are
our worries over? In a word, no. California remains in a
historic drought.
Area canals in the Fresno Irrigation District have run dry but
at some point during a wet year, a new recharge basin south of
Fresno will be full of water. … Because of ongoing
drought challenges, FID is drawing a line in the sand and
developing four new basins. Stretch said that one located
at Malaga and East avenues will deliver water to both growers
and families.
When an excessive amount of groundwater is pumped from wells,
it can cause the land above the wells to sink, causing
buildings to crumble and pipes to burst. A new report prepared
for Pajaro Valley water managers, however, shows that from 2015
to 2018 the land above the valley’s aquifer subsided only 2
inches — hopeful news as coastal communities battle a severe
drought. Just over the coastal mountain range in the Central
Valley, the “land subsidence” in over-pumped water basins is a
lot more dire. Some areas of the fertile valley have reached a
subsidence rate of nearly a foot a year …
You probably know that California’s recent torrential storms
were not enough to end the drought. The state has been so
parched for so long that the rains, while welcome, did not
provide much more than a few drops in the metaphorical bucket.
But the downpour did help quash two of the year’s worst fires
and nourish lands that had been tinder-dry for months. So, you
might be wondering, did the showers at least save us from a
severe fall fire season?
If you replaced your grass and switched to a water-resistant
garden, then you can learn Tuesday night about how to take
advantage of savings. Join the West Basin Municipal Water
District at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday for an interactive virtual
discussion with water efficiency experts who will answer your
questions about the district’s grass replacement rebate
application process.
We had a near record-breaking amount of rain in October, with
more in the forecast in early November. So why are Sacramento
River releases still high, and the level of Shasta Lake not
rising? Well, it’s not just our water. Shasta Dam is the
largest dam, and Shasta Lake is the largest reservoir, in the
Central Valley Project that supplies water to half of
California’s 58 counties.
Farmer Erik Herman said he couldn’t help but feel a tinge of
remorse as he looked out over the dirt field where an orchard
of 8,000 fig trees stood until earlier this month, when they
were uprooted by bulldozers in the name of conservation. The
orchard, seven miles outside Madera in the sprawling San
Joaquin Valley, is another casualty of the water shortage that
is forcing farmers in the nation’s top-producing agricultural
region to abandon otherwise fertile ground en masse.
Storing water in reservoirs is important for maintaining
freshwater ecosystem health and protecting native species.
Stored water also is essential for adapting to the changing
climate, especially warming and drought intensification. Yet,
reservoir operators often treat environmental objectives as a
constraint, rather than as a priority akin to water deliveries
for cities and farms.
John Cushman knows that succulents have tricks up their
sleeves. He believes those tricks could shape the future of
farming. Geneticists have long tried to understand the
biochemical marvel of the succulent, and there is still much
they don’t know. But these botanical curiosities have two
important things in common. They’re really good at storing
water. And they work at night. Now, Cushman and his team
want to build off the lines of genetic code that give desert
plants their superpowers. He wants to make soybeans
behave a little more like succulents.
Arizona, California and Nevada are moving forward with a plan
to save another 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mead
annually until 2026. We’re talking 500,000 acre-feet over and
above the mandatory cuts that are spelled out in the 2019
Drought Contingency Plan (DCP). Each year. For five years. Just
to keep the lake from tanking. -Written by columnist Joanna Allhands.
North Bay water suppliers are partnering to create what would
essentially be a water banking system to draw from during times
of drought – and replenish when supplies are ample. The
Sonoma Water agency has already begun the work to bring three
existing wells in the Santa Rosa Plain online to supply another
source of water to Marin and its other customers in response to
the drought. The agency has reactivated these wells for every
drought since 1977, but now plans to upgrade them for the first
time to allow water to be injected back into them.
Traditionally, washing just one pair of denim pants would
require about 22 gallons of water, but the green tech washing
machines at the Saitex USA factory in Vernon use less than
one-fifth of a gallon. General Manager David Chang says that’s
… equivalent to saving over 10 million gallons of water
per year. Saitex does this by using a recycled water filtration
system. While California is experiencing extreme drought with
its driest year in a century, Saitex has invested in a future
with less water.
State officials confirmed dire predictions of catastrophic fish
kills due to sizzling water temperatures in California’s
largest river, announcing Thursday that just 2% of winter-run
Chinook juvenile salmon likely survived the summer. The
alarming percentage of juvenile salmon killed on the Sacramento
River surpasses the scope of die-offs recorded in the state’s
recent drought years and has officials sounding the alarm about
the potential permanent collapse of the endangered species.
Water is central to how California adapts to a changing
climate. To those of us steeped in the complexities of managing
the state’s water resources, the current fast-moving
drought—coming on the heels of the record-breaking 2012–16
drought—is a stark reminder that we must accelerate preparation
for the disruptive changes underway.
Amid this year’s severe drought, Hmong farmer June Moua had to
leave a portion of her 10-acre plot of land in eastern Fresno
County dry and fallow. Large sections of the rows of crops she
did plant, including bunches of water-intensive greens, have
wilted and shriveled into crunchy bits of brown foliage. Her
kale and bok choy are casualties of the central San Joaquin
Valley’s dwindling water supply. Declining groundwater levels
have made it harder for her to pump water from her well into
her fields.
In the arid West, saline lakes and their wetlands form an
irreplaceable network of habitats that support millions of
migrating shorebirds, waterfowl and other waterbirds throughout
their annual travels. These lakes and their wetlands – from
emergent marshes to playas and mudflats – are part of the
habitat mosaic essential to many bird species. Saline lakes are
sometimes referred to as terminal lakes because they are
situated at the bottom of a watershed basin. -Written by Marcelle Shoop, Audubon’s Saline Lakes
Program Director.
The Perris-based Eastern Municipal Water District received a
six-figure federal allotment to bolster conservation efforts
involving farmers and ranchers amid the worsening drought in
California, it was announced Wednesday, Oct. 27. … The
WaterSMART Initiative is part of a collaborative strategy by
the NRCS’ parent agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture…
As world leaders meet in Scotland this week to discuss efforts
to address the climate crisis, experts are urging greater focus
on adapting to fundamental shifts in the planet’s water
supplies — and they’re pointing to the Colorado River as a
prime example. The river, a vital water source for about 40
million people from Denver to Los Angeles, has continued to
shrink and send reservoirs declining toward critically low
levels after years of extremely dry conditions compounded by
hotter temperatures. … [T]he river’s plight stands out as one
of the world’s starkest cases of a major water source that is
being ravaged by the altered climate…
The rain just keeps on coming. The second weak storm of
the week is set to sweep the San Francisco Bay Area Wednesday;
on Thursday night into Friday, another system may bring light
showers to the North Bay. A break from the rain is
expected through the weekend, but the dry conditions won’t last
long. Long-term weather models show a weak atmospheric river
diving into the region, bringing soaking rain Monday into
Tuesday.
After years of restricting the growth of fossil fuel
infrastructure, California is looking to natural gas for power
generation this coming winter after drought and wildfires leave
the state with few other options to keep the lights on.
… Hydropower’s contribution to electricity is set to
fall to just 5% in 2021, from a five-year average of 12%, while
non-hydro renewables, mainly wind and solar, are expected to
rise to 37%, government data shows.
As the rain falls down in the watershed, Lake Oroville’s water
level rises. Lake Oroville recovered some of its water over the
last two weeks from a recent storm ending a long streak of low
lake levels that has lasted since its record low on Aug.
4.
The results are in: Californians aren’t saving enough water.
Amid a historic drought, Gov. Gavin Newsom has asked us to
reduce water consumption by 15 percent. Yet in August, the most
recent month for which data is available, we’d brought usage
down just 5 percent compared with the same time last year. Of
course, not all water-saving is the responsibility of
California households. Eighty percent of California’s water
goes toward agriculture, and other businesses play a big role
too.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the
largest supplier of treated water in the country, is admitting
to FOX 11 that it wasted hundreds of thousands of gallons of
water or more. … At a time when MWD asked residents to
cut back, FOX 11 learned irrigation just at MWD headquarters
jumped by 854,216 gallons. To be clear, those aren’t massive
numbers, but it is enough to supply dozens of families with a
year’s worth of water.
With water scarcity an increasing problem, some marijuana and
hemp cultivators are seeking solutions beyond automation or
growing methods, including using drought-resistant plant
strains that require less water and can withstand higher
temperatures. Ryan Power, CEO of California-based Atlas Seeds,
said the California-based seed company is identifying what it
deems “drought-tolerant” marijuana and hemp varieties.
The Calif. Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced the
release of the program guidelines and proposal solicitation
package to distribute $200 million in funding available through
the Urban and Multibenefit Drought Relief Grant Program.
Designed to help communities facing the loss or contamination
of their water supplies due to drought, the Urban and
Multibenefit Drought Relief Grant Program aims to address
immediate drought impacts on human health and safety, protect
fish and wildlife resources and provide other public benefits,
such as ecosystem improvements.
In an effort to blunt the devastating toll California’s
extended drought has taken on the state’s chinook salmon
population, state and federal fish hatcheries in Northern
California are spawning millions of additional salmon smolts in
order to increase their odds of survival. The state’s prolonged
drought has left many of its dams and rivers unable to supply
the cold water currents wild salmon require for their eggs to
survive. So, hatcheries are trying to make up for nature’s dry
spell with human intervention.
Another series of storms is set to sweep through the Pacific
Northwest and Northern California into next week and not only
bring much-needed rain and mountain snow but also flooding
concerns. A dip in the jet stream across the Bering Sea through
the northern Pacific Ocean will push waves of energy toward the
Canadian Rocky Mountains and Northwest this week, according to
AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Senior Meteorologist Paul Pastelok,
who added that temperatures will be near to below normal.
Colorado water managers are making more people track and report
how much water they’re using, as decades of drought have
diminished supplies on the Western Slope. For the first time,
the state is also pushing for new rules that spell out how some
rights-holders should measure their water use as each drop of
Colorado River water becomes more valuable. Kevin Rein,
director of the Colorado Division of Water Resources, presented
the rules to a full house at Jackson County’s event center in
Walden.
The City of Oceanside continues to be at the forefront of water
management in San Diego county with projects like WaterSmart
meters and Pure Water Oceanside that demonstrate the city’s
commitment to deliver clean, safe and affordable water. A
recent Voice of San Diego report showed Oceanside has among the
lowest water rate increases in the county with an average 13.7%
increase from 2017 to 2022. Compare that to the sizeable 38%
increase in water rates for Del Mar during the same 5 year time
period.
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) is planning
to survey the underground aquifer structures with the use of a
low-flying helicopter starting Nov. 11, according to a press
release issued by Mendocino County this afternoon. The aircraft
will be “towing” an Airborne Electromagnetic (AEM) rig
described as a “large hoop with science equipment” around Ukiah
as well as parts of neighboring counties. Pilots will be making
multiple passes over some areas and may very well be visible to
residents.
In recent years, rising global temperatures and shifting
weather patterns have created water scarcity in many places. In
2020 and 2021, for example, California has experienced
record-breaking droughts and dry spells that have emptied river
beds and forced people to make some hard choices about water
usage. River’s End is a documentary that explores the root
causes of California’s water problems and the influence of the
agricultural industry in relation to them.
When the City of Sonoma required water customers to reduce
their use, residents got off to a slow start, with just a 3.8%
savings in July. But now, the city is catching up, with a 17.4%
savings recorded from July to September, not to mention the
wettest October in the last three years. … Which means
despite the torrential rainfall over the past weeks, water
users should resist the impulse to celebrate with a long hot
shower or an overdue car wash.
If Fifth District residents passively let development interests
lead the way, expanded viticulture and associated sales,
planned communities, depletion of groundwater, traffic, gravel
mining, etc, will overtake our landscape. We will lose the
beauty of open space, natural habitat and the bit of solitude
still left to very early risers. The bridge now being built
over Scotty Creek at Gleason Beach is a glaring example of
things to come, as cement and pavement, rather than natural
methods for shoreline stabilization, is apparently the County’s
preferred solution—economically and politically—to sea level
rise. -Written by local activists Richard Retecki and Laura
Morgan.
California’s water history flows across my farm in the North
State community of Oroville. A canal carved in the early 1990s
passes beneath my olive groves. It was an extension of original
conveyance systems inspired by gold seekers, who fashioned one
of California’s earliest water delivery systems in the 1890s on
the Feather River, near my home. … Now, as president of
the California Farm Bureau, I am fighting to uphold and restore
the promise of sustainable water delivery in my
state. -Written by Jaime Johansson, president of the California
Farm Bureau
By all measures, the storm of October 24th was remarkable. It
broke one-day precipitation records throughout Northern
California. And it did this in October, a month not known for
biblical deluges in California. But did this unusually intense
atmospheric river lead to significant changes in our drought
picture? Yes and, mostly, no. … But the bad is vastly
outweighed by the good from this unusual storm.
Federal forecasters estimate that the atmospheric river storms
that hit parts of northern and central California from October
23-26 dropped 7.6 trillion gallons of rain — which can also be
expressed as 7,600,000,000,000. … Comparatively little of the
rain fell in greater San Diego, where the soil also is
unusually dry. The atmospheric river fell apart as it moved
south.
Seeking to better comprehend the relationship between droughts
and groundwater, researchers at the University of California,
Riverside examined decades worth of groundwater data from
more than 250 wells across the United States. In contrast,
previous research on the effects of drought on groundwater has
mostly relied on modeling studies. By observing the timing and
extent to which the various unconfined aquifers were affected
by multiyear droughts, the researchers found considerable delay
between the start and end of a drought and the point at which
groundwater levels begin to decline and recover.
To date, the discussion around companies and governments moving
to net-zero has mostly centered on greenhouse gas emissions
goals. … But there is another environmental pledge that
several companies are now taking, focused on water. Often
called “water positive,” it centers on making water-intensive
processes more efficient and putting more water back into a
geographic area where a company operates than it takes out …
Just off Stateline Highway, about 100 feet into California from
the Oregon border, Klamath National Wildlife Refuge Manager
Greg Austin stands on the edge of a marsh. There are flocks of
mallards and some geese, but as one of America’s main stopovers
for migratory birds, this wetland is almost completely dry this
year. … [The refuge currently has room for about 5,000
birds.] They should have 700,000 birds this time of year.
Even with the recent storm drenching Northern California, it’s
important that residents conserve water, experts said. The
storm — which included a ‘bomb cyclone’ — dropped more than
five inches of rain on the capital city in 24 hours. But it
won’t end the state’s drought. And next year could be dry, too.
… The California Department of Water Resources
recommends that residents calculate how much water they are
using at home using the U.S. Geological Survey calculator. They
said this serves as a starting point to indicate where you can
save water.
In the first decade of the Cold War, California was in a
drought. The coastline north of Los Angeles retreated inland by
several hundred feet. Less water flowing to the ocean meant
less sediment swept down rivers to replenish the beaches that
the waves, left to their own devices, would eat away over time.
… [R]esearch published last year by earth scientists Julie
Zurbuchen, Alexander Simms, and Sebastien Huot
… revealed that on timescales of decades, the southern
California coastline often grew and shrank with natural cycles
of drier and wetter periods …
Citing the accumulation of nearly two weeks of rain in the
North Bay, the Santa Rosa Fire Department on Monday declared an
end to the city’s wildfire season, which began May 17 and
included blazes as large as 50 acres. In addition, PG&E
said it will hit pause on its controversial fire prevention
plan that zapped power to Sonoma County customers living in
fire-prone areas whenever something touched a power line.
The president of a Marin water agency that serves most of the
North Bay county on Friday responded to harsh criticism from an
East Bay mayor who publicly rebuked the agency for a proposed
pipeline that he asserts would present quality-of-life issues
for his city’s residents. Marin Municipal Water District Board
President Cynthia Koehler in a statement to Patch said she
disputes most of Richmond Mayor Tom Butt’s assertions but
acknowledged that not all his concerns are without merit.
A delegation of 15 state lawmakers is joining a conference of
world leaders in Scotland to discuss climate change solutions.
As leaders of the world’s 5th largest economy, their
participation is important, but it’s more urgent for them to
act once they return. … The climate is already changing.
This summer was California’s hottest on record, after the
2010s were the hottest decade ever. California just
experienced its driest year in a century. Every corner of
the state faces severe drought. -Written by Mike Young, the political and
organizing director for California Environmental
Voters.
In a new report by the University of California Giannini
Foundation of Agricultural Economics, agricultural economists
have found a few surprises with the drought. For one, farm
revenues and prices this year may have only small impacts or
even be higher than in 2020, due to global supply and demand
conditions driving up prices. Feed grain and seed prices are
higher in the Midwest, along with beef and milk prices.
The San Joaquin Valley farm town of Teviston has two wells. One
went dry and the other is contaminated. The one functioning
well failed just at the start of summer, depriving the hot and
dusty hamlet of running water for weeks. … But for
years, probably decades, the water coming from Teviston taps
has been laced with the carcinogen 1,2,3-Trichloropropane, or
1,2,3-TCP, the legacy of pesticides.
Given the quantity and intensity of last week’s rain, an
obvious question is: ‘Is the drought over?’ Alas, the answer is
a resounding no. But, the data are interesting and worth
thinking about in more detail.
Baseflow (groundwater flowing to streams) is estimated to
contribute over 50% of the total streamflow in the Upper
Colorado River Basin and is thus crucial for sustaining
ecological and human water needs in this highly managed area.
Baseflow may be sensitive to changing climate, but the
sensitivity is not well constrained. To estimate baseflow
response to climate change, we tested how warm/wet, median, and
hot/dry future climate scenarios affect baseflow in the basin
using a hydrologic model.
June Moua started growing cherries, tomatoes and grapes in east
Fresno County 10 years ago. Now she grows a few different types
of crops. But her most profitable are the water-intensive Asian
greens like mustard greens and bok choy. … She says she
learned how to farm from her father when she was younger. Since
then, she’s learned even more through trial and error. She
enjoys bringing these Southeast Asian crops to farmers markets
in Los Angeles, but the drought has put her in a tough
position.
San Diego County has been planning ways to increase its
sustainable water supply and one of the planned methods is
through turning wastewater into potable water. There are three
sites planned in the county and the first one, Pure Water
Oceanside, is set to open before the end of 2021.
It seems as though the two things the Bay Area has the least of
are housing and water. The region has a shortfall of 699,000
housing units, which has driven housing costs to astronomical
heights, and pushed 35,000 of our neighbors into temporary
housing or onto the streets. Our colleagues at San Francisco
Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR),a
public policy think tank, have found that the region needs to
build an astonishing 2.2 million homes by 2070 to meet future
demand and make up for the present shortfall. -Written by Laura Feinstein, sustainability and
resilience policy director at SPUR, a Bay Area public policy
think tank; and Anne Thebo, a senior researcher for
Pacific Institute, a global water think tank.
It’s a Saturday in September and [Yvette] Hudson can expect to
sell all her fish, as she does three times a week. It’s good
money, but it isn’t enough, and by the end of the year she and
her husband, Mike, will be quitting the commercial fishing
business after 25 years. … Water diversion and habitat
loss continue to threaten the population of wild salmon
migrating between freshwater and saltwater. An even more
serious problem is looming. This year’s heat wave and extended
drought imperiled the Chinook population as warm rivers killed
salmon eggs.
Exeter, less than a mile away … has refused to connect
Tooleville to its water system. The engineering is simple:
0.7 miles of pipe. The human risk of not doing it is high.
Tooleville water is contaminated with the carcinogen hexavalent
chromium (chrom-6), and sometimes nitrates linked to
agriculture and bacteria….Among a slew of water bills signed
in September was one inspired largely by Tooleville’s struggle.
Called the “proactive water solutions bill,” SB 403 gives the
state the power to mandate and fund consolidation when there is
an at-risk water system.
As heat and wildfires ravaged the US in the summer of 2020,
Wall Street spotted an opportunity. In December last year,
Nasdaq and the CME Group launched a new futures index that
allowed farmers, hedge funds and municipalities to bet on the
forward cost of water in California — and hedge against any
price rises.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has extended the drought emergency statewide
and called on all Californians to redouble their efforts to
conserve water. His call to action is critical even with the
storms that recently soaked California, because we know that a
lot more rain and snow will be needed to lift the state out of
the drought. The Governor’s approach to statewide conservation
is laudable, as well, because it continues to empower water
managers with matching local water supply conditions with
conservation, rather than relying on statewide mandates. -Written by Steve LaMar, President of the
Association of California Water Agencies; and Sean
Bigley, chair of the Regional Water Authority and
Assistant Environmental Utilities Director for the City of
Roseville.
While Las Vegas residents watch nervously as the water level
falls at Lake Mead, our fellow Nevadans are also seeing the
alarming effects of climate change on Lake Tahoe. In both
cases, it’s a call for action on reducing global warming.
Southern Nevadans are well aware of the situation at Lake Mead,
which has reached historically low levels, but they may not be
as familiar with the problems at Lake Tahoe. In a nutshell,
climate change has disrupted weather patterns there to the
point of causing the lake to drop below its natural rim
…
Omer and Elinor McGee opened El Dorado County’s first Christmas
tree farm in 1952 in Grizzly Flats, a Gold Rush-era mountain
town some 25 miles from the county seat. The business
prospered, and their son Mike eventually took over.
… Then came the drought. Low rainfall and a
declining snowpack, combined with high temperatures, battered
the McGee Christmas trees. Of the seedlings Mike planted
in February, one of the hottest and driest on record, 80% died
by July. In August, thousands of mature Christmas trees became
kindling for a massive wildfire.
Just days after a historic storm soaked the drought-stricken
Bay Area, more good weather news is on the way. Two new storm
systems are expected to bring rain Monday and next Thursday to
much of Northern California. They won’t be nearly as soaking as
last weekend’s atmospheric river, which shattered rainfall
records across the region and opened the Sierra ski season
nearly a month early. But the rain shows that the “storm door”
is still open, meteorologists say, a promising trend building
on the wet start to this year’s winter rainy season after the
last two years of severe drought.
An atmospheric river delivered record-breaking amounts of rain
across Northern California last weekend. The precipitation
helped bring some northern regions out of extreme and
exceptional drought conditions. Before the rains, about 46% of
California’s land was under “exceptional” drought — the most
severe drought category … This week’s data released Thursday
shows that figure has shrunk to about 39%.
California’s top crops have changed as drought strains the
state’s water resources and farmers’ ability to access them.
But that does not necessarily mean farmers are choosing crops
that consume less water. Drought pushes farmers to shift their
scarce water resources to crops with higher payoffs, such as
nuts and vegetables, said Daniel Sumner, an agricultural
economics professor at the UC Agricultural Issues Center — a
trend particularly noticeable this year with its uniquely
severe drought.
On a ridge overlooking [Lake Irwin], a lone, cylindrical
contraption — perched atop a steel tower — periodically belches
out flames. The device is a remotely operated cloud seeding
generator. When the conditions are right, it shoots a vaporized
chemical solution into the atmosphere, catalyzing ice crystal
formation and, subsequently, snowfall. The generator at Lake
Irwin, along with its 15 counterparts around Gunnison County,
together contributed an estimated 19 billion gallons of water
into the Colorado River watershed last season.
The San Diego County Water Authority today activated Level 1 –
Voluntary Conservation of its Water Shortage Contingency Plan
in support of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s efforts to sustain California
after two record-dry years. The agency’s 36-member Board of
Directors voted unanimously to activate the regional drought
response plan for the third time this century.
In drought years and when marine heat waves warm the Pacific
Ocean, late-migrating juvenile spring-run Chinook salmon of
California’s Central Valley are the ultimate survivors. They
are among the few salmon that survive in those difficult years
and return to spawning rivers to keep their populations alive,
according to a study published October 28 in Nature Climate
Change.
It had been completely dry in Sacramento for six months. Then
the heavens opened and a record-breaking amount of rain fell in
one day. Such extreme shifts are becoming more frequent in
California and are a harbinger of what is to come for the rest
of a warming planet, scientists say.
Whenever California is pummeled by drought — as is still very
much the case despite recent rain — a lot of people find
themselves asking, “What if we got water from the ocean?” In
San Diego County, it’s already happening at a $1 billion
facility by the beach. Recently, as I reported on San Diego’s
decades-long quest for water stability, I visited the Carlsbad
Desalination Plant, the largest such facility in the country,
to see how it works.
The Paiute tribes of eastern California have a deeply alarming
insight into the future. We must listen to their story, for
soon it may be our story too. The indigenous people here are
being encircled by three inter-connected threats: drought, dust
storms and wildfires. The history of the Paiute is already one
of heartbreak and betrayal. In the 19th century, their land was
stolen. In the 20th century, their water was stolen. Now in the
21st century, their environment is being stolen – by the
relentless forces of climate change and by political
indifference to their plight.
As scientists have been predicting, climate change is causing
more dramatic extremes in weather — both wet and dry — and that
pendulum swung very dramatically to the wet side over the
weekend. Consequently, it’s critical we prepare now to capture
and store water during these shorter, intense wet periods so
that more water is available during the inevitable increasingly
severe drought years ahead.
The recent storms allowed California to suspend the drought
curtailment orders that had been imposed during the summer.
Cities and irrigation districts now are free to capture river
runoff that had been unavailable because of the orders.
Officials warned that they could fall back into place if the
state gets another stretch of dry weather.
Between historic drought and a lively fire season, California
has experienced a troublesome year. Now, the state may have
received the first sign of major relief: 8 trillion gallons of
rain. Like an epic fire hose, a long, narrow band of water
vapor located in the lower atmosphere — known as an atmospheric
river — doused California with record-setting rains Sunday and
Monday. The event unloaded upward of 12 inches of rain on the
northern Sierras, almost a quarter of the annual average
precipitation for the region.
Farmers in Pinal County, Arizona, knew they were taking a risk
nearly two decades ago when they agreed to be among the first
people to lose water from the Colorado River if there were a
shortage. … But in the Southwest’s arid landscape, it is no
longer certain how much people can rely on the Colorado River.
A 22-year megadrought and growing demands across the Colorado
River Basin have depleted the river, pushing Western reservoirs
to historic lows and triggering the first-ever federally
declared water shortages. For Western states, this means cuts.
Despite the rain that drenched central and northern California
recently, drought still casts a long shadow over the state. The
consequences of a multi-year water shortage are dire:
reservoirs that serve millions of people and massive swaths of
farmland are disappearing, hydroelectric dams are in danger of
losing power and wild salmon are facing mass die
outs….Stanford water experts Newsha Ajami, Rosemary
Knight, Felicia Marcus and Barton “Buzz”
Thompson discuss lessons learned from previous droughts,
imperatives for infrastructure investment and reasons for hope
in this arid era.
A historic moisture-packed atmospheric river that swept
California on Sunday into Monday delivered much-needed rain and
snow to a drought-plagued state that could face severe
challenges if it sees another dry winter. The question on
everyone’s minds now is, could this be the start to a wet
winter? Here’s what three experts had to say:
Despite the historic rainfall totals from the weekend, that
much rain in such a short amount of time caused problems for
some Central Valley farmers. Bruce Blodgett with the
San Joaquin County
Farm Bureau said the record rainfall from last
weekend was encouraging but it’s not enough to move the
needle on the statewide drought. … According to the farm
bureau, growers won’t know the true impact of the rain for
months.
Wouldn’t you know it? Just like washing your car, almost the
moment I finished writing this article, the skies opened
up. I’d write one every day if it meant ending our water
woes. But it tells you everything you need to know about
California’s dire water situation – that the atmospheric river
that recently pummeled Northern California and other parts of
the state doesn’t even begin to make a dent in our drought. And
it highlights the urgency for California to create more water.
Much more. -Written by Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of
the Bay Area Council, a nonprofit public policy
organization.
It rained so hard in California in 1862 that a 300-mile-long
lake was created in the Central Valley, stretching from
Bakersfield to Red Bluff. … Yes, climate change is
distressingly real. The melting Arctic ice cap and rising seas
are evidence enough. So are higher average summer temperatures.
The warming is exacerbated by humans burning fossil
fuels. That doesn’t mean global warming is the mother of
every freak of nature. Not all major events are caused by
climate change, regardless of what Gov. Gavin Newsom repeatedly
asserts about the extremes of wetter and windier storms, dryer
droughts and hotter wildfires. -Written by LA Times columnist George Skelton.
In the seven years Simon Hammel has lived in his Burbank home,
he says he’s replaced at least 60% of the grass that used to be
there. It’s now primarily mulch, drought-tolerant plants and
fruit and veggie trees. Hammel is trying his best to do as much
as he can to conserve water and live eco-friendly. … In July,
Gov. Gavin Newsom asked all Californians to reduce their water
use by 15%. The city of Burbank implemented a Sustainable Water
Use Ordinance, limiting residents outdoor watering systems to
three days a week, for 15 minutes — not including hand
watering.
As California weathers another drought, tools that can help
farmers and ranchers maximize the water they do get are being
sharpened. The newest effort to measure such water use was
launched last week by a public-private coalition featuring
three federal agencies – the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S.
Geological Survey – and a number of universities and private
entities.
This weekend’s atmospheric river brought record-breaking
amounts of rain to drought-plagued California. But they didn’t
give the state’s water supply much of a boost, data shows. The
state Department of Water Resources compared the amount of
water in select reservoirs across the state as of midnight Oct.
25 to the capacity of each reservoir and to historic levels for
the same date. The data shows that, even after all of Sunday
and Monday’s rainfall, many of California’s largest reservoirs
are still holding less water than the historic level for this
time of year.
California has always been a state known for its weather
variability. There have been other instances of intense
precipitation, like the heavy rainfall in 2017 that led to the
Oroville dam crisis. But [UCLA climate scientist Daniel]
Swain said that particularly intense precipitation during
periods of dryness are expected to become the norm due to
climate change.
With so many extremes hitting California, the state is now
talking about Climate Insurance. The next disaster – combined
with a lack of insurance that many can’t afford and is getting
even more expensive – has the state considering a new
community-based approach to lower risk, and make sure more
people are protected against catastrophic weather events.
… Ideas to lower risk include building wetlands to store
water in floods, creating statewide hazard maps so residents
are clear on the risks where they live, and naming heatwaves
like hurricanes so people properly prepare.
Far from being rescued from drought by recent storms, the state
needs to prepare for a “new normal” of restricted water
supplies, California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot
said Tuesday, Oct. 26. To do that, Crowfoot said
California must accelerate conservation efforts to deal with
current drought conditions and continue to build on long-term
water-management strategies, such as the $5.2 billion Water and
Drought Resilience Package announced in September by
Gov. Gavin Newsom. Crowfoot made his case to the executive
committee of the Metropolitan Water District …
The Marin Municipal Water District is moving away from plans to
acquire temporary desalination plants and instead is exploring
purchasing more water from Sonoma County during the winter
months. … The district, which serves 191,000 residents in
central and southern Marin, faces the potential of depleting
local reservoir supplies as soon as next summer if this winter
is as dry as the last. The recent storms have put the district
in a better starting position, but district staff said
reservoir levels are still well below average.
The green beans growing on this Clovis farm were ready to be
picked. But now crews will have to wait a few days until the
muddy rows dry up. … [Farmer David] Sarabian says most of the
green beans should be fine as drier conditions settle in but
there will be some crop loss. … The slow, steady rain that
soaked his farm was more manageable than the windy storm he
watched whip through the [San Francisco] Bay Area on Sunday.
Despite a wet week so far all signs are pointing to yet another
year of drought, and the governor is putting more effort behind
his water conservation agenda. … Bolstering conservation
efforts, the proclamation enables the State Water Resources
Control Board to ban wasteful water practices, including the
use of potable water for washing sidewalks and driveways. The
governor issued an executive order in July calling on
Californians to voluntarily reduce water use by 15% compared to
2020 to protect water reserves and complement local
conservation mandates.
Christmas travelers driving Interstate 5 this year may need to
hunt up a different stopping point as Kettleman City could be
shut down for lack of water. The state Department of Water
Resources (DWR) has said it will give the tiny community in
western Kings County a few more acre feet of water — but only
enough for the personal taps of its 1,100 residents. The town’s
gas stations and fast food joints that bring in droves of
motorists on busy holidays could be left high and dry.
The projections for Lake Mead – the reservoir that provides
nearly 40% of Arizona’s water supply – have been revised down
again. According to the federal October 24-month study, the
lake could be in a Tier 3 shortage – the worst for which we
have a plan to handle – a few months earlier and a few
feet deeper than was projected just last month. The minimal
probable forecast (which isn’t the worst-case scenario; a
few modeled outcomes are worse) now predicts that Lake
Mead could hit a low of 1,023 feet in September 2023. -Written by Joanna Allhands, Arizona Republic
columnist.
As California faces what is predicted to be one of its worst
droughts in recorded history, water managers are seeing record
increases in water theft, leaving communities angry and police
chasing water bandits constantly on the move. Byrhonda Lyons of
CalMatters, the nonprofit news site, has the story of how water
meant for residential use is flowing to illegal marijuana
farms.
For farmers in California’s San Joaquin Valley—the Saudi Arabia
of nuts—2021 brought many challenges. Scant snowfall in the
Sierra Nevada mountain range delivered almost no irrigation
water to the region’s vaunted complex of dams and aqueducts.
Record-high temperatures baked farm fields. Before this past
weekend’s furious storms, California endured its driest year in
recorded history. Yet the region’s ever-expanding and
very thirsty almond and pistachio operations are thriving
anyway. -Written by Tom Philpott, food and ag correspondent
for Mother Jones.
Environmental advocates and a pair of Delta-centric water
agencies launched a suit seeking to halt water transfers to San
Joaquin Valley water users occurring in the late fall. It’s the
latest in a half-decade of litigation aimed at stopping all
water transfers – a key drought-era tool for parched Valley
water users – from water users awash with water north of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
For over 30 years, I’ve been a climate scientist who has
focused intensely on the causes and consequences of drought and
climate change. I’ve done my research all over the planet, but
my No. 1 focus has been on interactions of drought and climate
change in the Southwest United States and on how drought and
climate change are impacting the Colorado River. Seven states
in the U.S. and Mexico depend on the Colorado River for water,
yet I worry most about one state: Arizona. -Written by Jonathan Overpeck, Ph.D., is a
climate scientist, professor and dean of the School for
Environment and Sustainability at the University of
Michigan.
Growers in the West have persisted through the ups and downs of
dry years for a long time, but a two-decades-long trend of
drought in the region is now entrenching itself with no clear
end in sight. This year is unlikely to bring any major relief.
Forecasters say this winter will be shaped by “La Niña,”…Its
effects are hardly guaranteed, but typically mean a colder,
wetter winter for the northwestern portion of the country, and
a warmer, drier winter in the Southwest. The dividing line
often falls in the middle of Colorado.
Most Marin County residents will be prohibited from turning on
their sprinklers and drip irrigation systems under new drought
restrictions starting in December. The Marin Municipal Water
District board voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt an ordinance
that bans residents from using outdoor irrigation systems
including overhead sprinklers and drip irrigation from Dec. 1
through May 31. Hand spot watering using a hose and spray
nozzle or a watering can is still allowed.
[T]he extreme water scarcity plaguing [Mount Shasta Vista, in]
… far Northern California was not the result of
dwindling snowpack or plummeting reservoir levels. Instead, it
was due to a concerted government effort to “choke out” a
problem that had vexed Siskiyou County officials for years: the
illicit, large-scale cultivation of marijuana in a single
subdivision that is largely Asian. In the spring of this year,
county supervisors effectively outlawed the transportation of
water into a rural tract that had become known for its prolific
cultivation of pot, squalid living conditions and large
population of Hmong farmers.
Even as California has declared a statewide drought emergency
in response to a federal shortage declaration for the Colorado
River, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, says blaming St. George for
the strain on the water supply in the western U.S. is
misguided. Romney was responding to a 60 Minutes documentary
that aired Sunday night, which featured JB Hamby of the
Imperial Irrigation District in California saying building the
Lake Powell pipeline to support growth in St. George did not
make sense.
Local customers of California Water Service may soon face
enforcement actions against their use of outdoor irrigation if
state regulators give the company permission to advance to the
next phase of its water shortage contingency plan.
… Approval of Cal Water’s request would double fines for
customers watering outdoor landscapes more than two days per
week outside the hours of 6 p.m. to 8 a.m., unless local
ordinances say otherwise.
The rainstorm pelting Sacramento and Northern California will
help remedy the state’s woeful water situation. But it won’t be
nearly enough to end the epic California drought. … The main
problem is that the drought, coupled with climate change, has
dried out the soils of Northern California — meaning that much
of the rain and snow will simply disappear into the ground.
