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.
Social media users are playing the blame game when it comes to
California’s drought. Read enough comments online and you’ll
see many similar responses blaming the state government for its
management of water: California should have more water storage.
California dumps water into the ocean. Northern California
sends too much water to Southern California. UC Davis experts
said those assertions are incorrect.
Water transfers, trades and sales doubled this year as drought
left San Joaquin Valley farmers scrambling for supplies. …
[Sam Boland-Brien, program manager at the State Water Resources
Control Board’s Division of Water Rights] said he’s seen
about twice the amount of transfers this year compared to an
average water year.
Ocean desalination has been named as one of the South Coast
Water District’s top priorities—even more so as California
undergoes an unprecedented water shortage. In 2008, a Pilot
Ocean Desalination Project was first initiated at Doheny State
Beach, and the facility operated successfully for 21 months
between 2010 and 2012. Subsequent to this effort, the District
has proceeded with planning for an Ocean Desalination
Facility.
To expedite the delivery of much-needed drinking water to
coastal Mendocino County residents whose wells have gone dry,
the California State Water Resources Control Board has amended
its previous curtailment orders to allow the city of Ukiah to
draw water from the Russian River for emergency supplies.
More than 94 percent of the West is in drought this week,
according to the US Drought Monitor, with six states entirely
in drought status: California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and
Montana. Parts of the West saw record-setting rainfall that
brought some slight relief to the region, but most areas remain
dry. Against the backdrop of climate change-fueled drought,
wildfires have charred nearly 6 million acres of vegetation
across the region. Fire experts say that dry and windy
conditions create a prime environment for wildfires to spark
and spread.
The Valley’s best hope to renovate its water infrastructure has
been put on the shelf for now. Senate Bill (SB) 559, the State
Water Resiliency Act of 2021, was moved to the state Assembly’s
“inactive file” on Sept. 8. … As written SB 559 offered
a holisitic, statewide approach to help restore the conveyance
capacity by created a fund to provide up to $785 million to
repair key parts of the state’s water infrastructure.
Almonds in California are no longer sustainable at current
levels. That’s the consensus of recent headlines describing the
prolonged historic drought — and increasing restrictions on
water use — currently impacting the state’s $6 billion industry
and its efforts to produce 80 percent of the world’s
almonds. The U.S. Drought Monitor is showing California
to be slowly approaching 90% of the state categorized as being
in ‘extreme’ drought —especially in the Central Valley.
Utah’s drought-induced water crisis has softened somewhat after
a string of monsoons, but the state’s water supplies are far
from safe, with reservoirs across the state falling below 40%
full, state officials told lawmakers Tuesday. Only a massive
snowpack this winter can assure adequate supplies going into
next year, and even then, Utah’s water future remains uncertain
in the face of long-term drought and climate change. In
July the entire state was in extreme or exceptional drought and
Utah’s two largest lakes hit their lowest levels ever.
Water resources managers and the leaders in Northern California
continue to advance Ridgetop to River Mouth water management
… There are unique opportunities in the Sacramento River
Basin to advance ridgetop to river mouth water management,
which can best be envisioned by looking holistically at: 1)
headwaters and forest health, 2) floodplain reactivation for
public safety and fish and wildlife, 3) sustainable groundwater
management (including groundwater recharge and banking), 4)
healthy soils and farms; 5) safe drinking water; and 6) vital
rivers and streams.
The Foundation’s virtual journeys will whisk you away to
explore California’s key rivers and water regions this
fall from the Sacramento River to the headwaters in the
Sierras. Plus, our annual Water
Summit will feature water managers and other
water experts who are dealing with the “new normal” as
unprecedented drought and wildfires challenge the status
quo.
A pair of environmental groups are developing a path for Los
Angeles residents to conserve water with a goal of using just
13 gallons per day, down from the current California average of
86 gallons, officials said Tuesday. … the U.S.
Green Building Council-Los Angeles is partnering with the 50
Liter Home Coalition to develop a plan.
This year’s wine harvest is well underway throughout
California, and vintners in some parts of the state say they’re
feeling the effects of climate change more acutely than ever.
The drought has left grapevines parched. Fruit yields
are dramatically low. Vines look visibly stressed. In some
vineyards, all of the grapes seem to be ripening all at once,
presenting winemakers with a logistical impossibility. And the
threat of wildfire — which, by this time last year, had ruined
grapes up and down the state with pernicious smoke — remains on
everyone’s mind.
The scientific consensus is that human-caused climate change
has in recent decades raised average temperatures in the West
about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, and nearly two full degrees
on maximum temperature days, according to Matthew Lachniet, a
geoscience professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
The days of Coloradans putting off climate change as a worry
for hurricane-ravaged Louisiana or a water-challenged Middle
East now seem to be over. Following are just a few of the
ways “climate change now” made its full force known in the
Rocky Mountains this year and showed its impact on everyday
life.
A month after the Visalia City Council threw out a policy
designed to prevent urban sprawl, the Sierra Club is
threatening to sue the city over the change … requesting
an injunction against implementation of the new policy, which
does not include an ag mitigation policy (AMP). … The
city attorney advised the General Plan could be “modified” due
to changes in case law since 2014, such as the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act which could affect the availability
of water to some farmland within the city’s growth boundaries.
A complex of lightning-sparked wildfires burning in
California’s Sierra Nevada has exploded in size, prompting
evacuations and the shutdown of Sequoia national park, where
the fire is burning close to the park’s namesake trees. The KNP
Complex fire, composed of the Paradise and Colony fires, took
hold in the dense, mountainous vegetation on 9 September. By
Wednesday morning, the blaze had scorched more than 7,000
acres….Fueled by higher temperatures and extreme drought
conditions, more than 7,400 wildfires have burned in California
this year, scorching more than 2.2m acres.
Las Vegas visitors can still snap selfies with the mermaids
swimming among tropical fish in the Silverton Casino’s massive
aquarium and gaze at the colorful dancing water displays of the
iconic Bellagio fountains — for now. But southern Nevada and
much of the American West are struggling to cope with a
worsening drought that has strained municipal water supplies,
agricultural operations and wildlife populations.
Various climate models differ on whether our area will get
slightly wetter or drier with rising temperatures. But they
have one prediction in common: greater extremes. Dry
years will be drier. Rainfall could come all at once in a few
large storms rather than spread across a season. … With
this in mind, water managers are designing and implementing
projects to capture, store and access clean water. Some
irrigation for crops in the Pajaro Valley might soon come from
lake water rather than groundwater. A project in Soquel will
use recycled water to replenish a groundwater basin. Another
project in Santa Cruz will inject excess runoff from winter
storms into wells.
San Diego County Water Authority this week issued a formal
Request for Proposals seeking a full-service private partner
capable of developing a large-scale pumped energy storage
project planned jointly by the Water Authority and the City of
San Diego. Proposals are due by 2 p.m. Nov. 3, and details such
as how to file are included in the RFP document
at www.sdcwa.org/contracting-opportunities. The
partner agencies aim to maximize the value of the existing San
Vicente Reservoir for on-demand energy generation to support
the state’s clean energy goals.
Deep in the northern California wilderness, nestled among
rolling hills and magnificent pines, the Mount Shasta volcano
towers above the landscape as a lone sentinel beckoning to
those around it. Rising to 14,179 feet, Shasta is one of the
tallest mountains in the Lower 48. Given its height, snow cover
is common year-round, especially after a snowy season or two.
It is home to some of the largest glaciers in California and
includes at least seven glaciers, some named after Native
Americans in the 1800s. This year is testing the theory that
snow and ice will always be found on Shasta.
On Aug. 3, the State Water Resources Control Board completely
eliminated 2021’s surface water supplies for farms in much of
the state. It has impacted farmers like John Moore III, who
grows pistachios at Moore Farms in Arvin. … While
California is prone to drought, the last reservoir in the state
was completed in the 1980s. The state’s population has grown
tremendously since then. Moore says the state wouldn’t be
in this situation if more infrastructure was built.
As an ongoing water shortage that’s hurting ranchers and
dairies in the North Bay, the Marin County Board of Supervisors
will consider extending a local emergency declaration of
drought conditions at its meeting Tuesday. Much of the state is
facing parched conditions after two consecutive dry years and
Marin County is no exception. The county’s two largest water
suppliers, the Marin Municipal Water District and the North
Marin Water District, have declared water shortage emergencies
and put mandatory conservation measures in place.
Water has begun trickling from Ukiah to Fort Bragg, and the
county’s main task going forward is to scale up hauling to meet
demand. The city of Fort Bragg announced Sept. 9 that it had
received its first 5,000-gallon delivery of water from Ukiah
and is expected to receive 10,000 gallons per day that will
allow Fort Bragg to resume outside water sales after halting
them in mid-July. The two certified water haulers on the coast
can resume their water sales, too…
It’s always alfalfa season in Arizona. In most other parts of
the country, the perennial crop grows tall enough to harvest
just a few times a year. But in the sun-drenched Southwest, the
irrigated fields allow the crop to grow year-round, to the tune
of 8.5 tons harvested for every acre and $397 million a year.
All farmers need to do is add water. At least that’s been the
case for the many decades that alfalfa has boomed and bloomed
in the Arizona desert, providing feed to the region’s
megalithic dairy industry. Now, accelerating climate change and
depleting water availability could change this.
This year, natural disasters across the country — including
epochal drought conditions and devastating wildfires in
California — have thrown into sharp relief the urgent need for
action on climate. Despite the urgency of the issue, proposed
legislation in the state to address climate change has either
been thwarted or diluted by the powerful fossil-fuel industry’s
allies and lobbyists. Overall, ten proposed bills that included
environmental justice measures, industry accountability and
emissions reduction programs never made it to a final chamber
in the state Senate or Assembly in the face of opposition from
the oil and gas industry.
The California Legislature released the final budget language
late on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. CalTrout remains
critical of the unnecessary delay in releasing critical budget
items like emergency drought funding, wildfire relief, and
climate resilience packages. As water curtailment orders go
live throughout the state, the legislature is still waiting to
officially approve these critical funding packages to combat
the effects of climate during this year’s especially dry
drought conditions.
About 2,700 wells across the state are projected to go dry this
year. If the drought continues, 1,000 more will go dry next
year. In 2014, the California Legislature enacted a package of
new laws that aimed to stop groundwater over-pumping, but as
CalMatters’ Rachel Becker reports seven years later, little has
changed for Californians relying on drinking water wells.
Depletion of their groundwater continues. Pumping is largely
unrestricted, and there are few, if any, protections in place.
To fill the post of chief agricultural negotiator at the United
States Trade Representative’s office, the Biden administration
dipped into California’s hot, dusty, drought-plagued San
Joaquin Valley and plucked out an almond-industry lobbyist.
… Biden is favoring the $6 billion almond industry at a
particularly fraught time in its history. The ever-expanding
groves of California’s Central Valley churn out nearly 80
percent of the globe’s almonds. -Written by Mother Jones reporter Tom
Philpott.
President Biden visited California on Monday to tout his
efforts to better protect the state against the raging
wildfires that have burned more than two million acres,
displaced thousands and pushed responders to the brink of
exhaustion. “These fires are blinking code red for our
nation,” said Mr. Biden, who used the occasion to promote two
bills pending in Congress that would fund forest management and
more resilient infrastructure as well as combat global warming.
The Petaluma City Council on Monday night declared a drought
emergency, ratcheting up restrictions on residents’ water use
in the city’s latest effort to conserve the region’s dwindling
water resources. In a 6-1 vote late Monday night, the council
approved a resolution for the Stage 4 emergency. The move calls
for a 30% mandatory water reduction goal for city water
customers, up from the previous goal of 25%.
Unless you have a personal connection to the Central Valley or
work in agriculture, chances are you haven’t been able to speak
directly to a farmer about how they’re experiencing this year’s
historic drought. Recently on KQED Forum, three
farmers from the Central Valley, where roughly 40% of the
nation’s fruits, vegetables and nuts are grown, shared just how
little water they have to work with, how they’re adapting, and
what the drought means for their industry long term.
California has been experiencing drought for centuries. In
fact, the megadrought in the Golden State and across the West
right now rivals that in Medieval times but climate scientist,
Ben Cook, at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space
Studies says there is one big difference, climate change.
He says our warming world is intensifying what would be a
moderate natural drought. This makes it not only easier to get
into drought but harder to get out.
From the lake to the ocean, the waters of the Klamath are once
again teeming with toxic blue-green algae at the end of a hot,
dry summer. Microcystis aeruginosa, a species of
photosynthetic cyanobacteria that produces the neurotoxin
microcystin, has been detected in nearly all reaches of the
Klamath Basin at or below Upper Klamath Lake. The harmful algal
blooms have plagued the basin and its residents for decades,
fueled by nutrient runoff, stagnant water and summer sunshine.
[G]lobal warming is not going away. Last month, the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its most
alarming report yet: Earth is on the edge of ecological
bankruptcy. That’s what California is facing this summer
with record heat, severe drought, record fires, snow
sublimation, record low reservoir levels, dry wells,
communities without safe drinking water, deaths of salmon and
whales, poisonous algae growth in lakes and streams, and record
glacier melt. -Written by Martha Davis, the former assistant
general manager for policy at the Inland Empire Utilities
Agency and former executive director of the Mono Lake
Committee.
Water management in the western United States is rooted in an
adversarial system that is highly sensitive to climate change.
Reforms are needed to ensure water management is efficient,
resilient and equitable moving forward.
-Written by Dylan R. Hedden-Nicely, Associate Professor of
Law and Director, Native American Law Program, University of
Idaho College of Law.
Thermal’s farmworkers earn, on average, between $15,000 and
$17,499 a year, and they struggle to access clean drinking
water and cool their homes adequately in the 110+ degree summer
heat. Every year the housing authority is on high alert for
heat-related deaths. Pedro Nicolas, a community leader and
undocumented immigrant living in Thermal, told reporters his
family slept in the hallway in the center of their trailer
during the summer; because of the trailer’s lack of insulation,
that was the coolest place in the house.
Historically speaking, corporate action on water-related
environmental issues has been less publicly visible than
strategies for reducing energy usage and related greenhouse gas
emissions. Consider this data point. As of its 2020 water
update, corporate data gatherer CDP reports about two-thirds of
reporting businesses are reducing their water withdrawals;
slightly more than half are monitoring the quality of their
wastewater discharges and just 4 percent are making progress
against water pollution targets. But the tide may be
turning… -Written by Heather Clancy, Greenbiz editorial
director.
The Department of Energy (DOE) has approved a request by
California’s electric grid operator to dispatch more than 200
MW of natural gas-fired generation capacity beyond currently
permitted levels to compensate for projected shortfalls in
power supply. … Due to the drought and abnormally high
temperatures, CAISO “expects the wildfire season, which began
early this year, to continue into November.” Wildfire
threats “can cause sudden de-rates of transmission capability”
and of generating facilities on the CAISO system …
Drought. Wildfires. And, for the country as a whole,
temperatures worse than the Dust Bowl. In a further bit of
evidence of the reality of climate change, California has just
experienced its hottest summer on record, according to data
released this week by the federal government. The National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the average
temperature in California reached 77.3 degrees from June to
August. That topped the previous record of 76.5 degrees in
summer 2017.
A $1 trillion infrastructure bill that received bipartisan
support in the Senate last month includes billions of dollars
for Western water projects and programs. The Biden
administration has called the infrastructure bill, which
includes $8.3 billion for Western water infrastructure,
“the largest investment in the resilience of physical and
natural systems in American history.” Of the $8.3 billion
dedicated to Western water, $450 million is set aside for a
competitive grant program to fund large-scale projects that
advance water recycling….That program could help pay for
a massive recycling project in California that would
leave Nevada with access to more water in Lake Mead.
The razorback sucker fish could be downlisted from an
endangered species to threatened in the next year or so,
according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This week,
environmental groups sent the agency a letter in opposition to
the move. The letter argues the razorback sucker is still in
trouble, despite recoveries it’s made in the last 30 years,
which is when it was first listed as federally endangered. The
fish is native to the Colorado River, which is facing historic
shortages due to the west’s megadrought.
There’s a hive of PhDs at the University of California at Davis
who are working to reinvent food production in the Golden
State. Researchers have fanned out across the globe collecting
rare plant samples; others are grafting Frankenstein trees and
stitching together root systems of plums and peaches to create
better almond and walnut trees. …. Whether in a sterile lab
or in a dusty farm row, these projects are focused on one
objective: saving water. In the midst of California’s extreme
drought and scant water available for growers, the name of the
game is how to produce more crop per drop.
Officials say the City of San Luis Obispo is water-secure for
now, despite several years of drought conditions. The City of
San Luis Obispo relies on water from Santa Margarita Lake,
Whale Rock Reservoir and Nacimiento Reservoir. Mychal Boerman
is Deputy Director of Water for the city. He said Nacimiento’s
water capacity is at 13 percent, due to low rainfall years and
continuous use of the reservoir for Salinas Valley farming.
For centuries, spring-run Chinook salmon, among California’s
most iconic fish, would rest for weeks in these historically
cold waters after their brutal upstream journey. Then they
would lay eggs and, finally, perish to complete one of nature’s
most improbable life cycles. No longer. What once was a place
where life began is now one of untimely death. The creek is
simply too warm, an astounding 10 degrees warmer than average
in some parts of these spawning grounds.
The longer it takes for two new wells to be dug in Cantua Creek
and El Porvenir in western Fresno County, the deeper in debt
the towns are mired. Now, with the drought, those well projects
are in a race against dropping groundwater levels as farmers,
cut off from surface water supplies, are leaning more heavily
on the aquifer. The well projects started in 2018 and
aren’t scheduled to be completed until sometime next year.
For years, trucks have hauled thousands of gallons of water
nearly every day to 3,000 water catchments throughout Arizona
to help keep wildlife hydrated during the drought. That work
still continues, but Mother Nature has been a huge help in
recent weeks. … The constant monsoon rains have filled
nearly every Arizona water catchment to its brim.
Corporate America is making a new kind of climate pledge. In
recent months, multiple tech giants have pledged to use their
reach and resources to join the fight for water conservation.
Facebook made an announcement at the end of August declaring
their efforts to “be water positive by 2030.” And just this
week, Google made a similar announcement to make its data
centers more efficient and support water security in the
communities it operates in.
Many rely on the Klamath River Basin on the California border,
especially with the historic drought in the West. Things got
heated this summer between the area’s tribes and ranchers.
… Over the past week, our colleagues over at The
Indicator have been reporting on the historic drought in the
West. They spent some time with ranchers on the front lines,
including the Klamath River Basin. Sally Herships and Ashley
Ahearn report.
The Colorado River Basin is enduring two decades of drought,
and water shortages are on the horizon. But scientists say this
isn’t the worst-case scenario. The region has undergone longer,
deeper droughts in the past. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny spoke with
paleoclimatologist Matt Lachniet of the University of
Nevada-Las Vegas about how knowing the past can help us plan
for a warmer, drier future.
Murders of environment and land defenders hit a record high
last year as the violent resource grab in the global south
continued unabated despite the pandemic. New figures released
by Global Witness show that 227 people were killed in 2020
while trying to protect forests, rivers and other ecosystems
that their livelihoods depended on.
With climate change-induced drought causing critical low flows
in the Scott and Shasta Rivers and threatening the survival of
multiple fish species, the State Water Resources Control Board
today approved an emergency curtailment regulation that
includes measures to help maintain minimum flows to protect
fish, ensure supplies for human health and livestock needs, and
encourage voluntary efforts that may be used in lieu of
curtailments.
Central Valley water-quality regulators released a final report
Friday concluding oil field wastewater from central Kern
County, when blended with other water sources, can
safely be used to irrigate a variety of locally grown
crops. The report, based on five years’ work and
incomplete in some respects, found no evidence of risks to
human health from watering tree nuts, citrus, berries, tubers
and other ag products with the saline water that comes up from
the ground along with oil and which contains small
concentrations of toxic chemicals.
The Bureau of Reclamation is launching a new prize competition
to improve the model currently used to calculate the sediment
transport rate in a river system. It is specifically
looking for solutions to improve the execution speed
of models that simulate river hydraulics, sediment
erosion, transport, and deposition. Up to $300,000 is available
to win during this two-stage prize competition. Up to four
awards totaling $150,000 will be available in Phase 1, with the
winner receiving $65,000.
The major arteries of California’s water-delivery system are
crumbling, but a proposal in the state Legislature to spend
$785 million fixing them is dead for the year. The legislation,
SB 559 was pulled off the table this week by its chief author,
state Sen. Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger), after an Assembly
committee stripped the funding and made other changes to the
legislation. Hurtado’s decision turns SB 559 into a two-year
bill that could be revived next year.
Millions of waterfowl and other birds are going to have a tough
year due to the ongoing drought in the West. Not only is there
less water for ducks and geese, but the agriculture fields
these migrating birds depend on for food will be significantly
smaller, which means less waste grain. … That
potentially can negatively impact Pacific Flyway waterfowl
flights and hunting this year. Farmers report only 25
percent of the fields usually flooded in autumn will have
water. With reduced water, ducks and geese are impacted. They
concentrate more and diseases and bacteria can spread more
readily, including bird botulism.
California lawmakers on Thursday voted to spend more than $2
billion to prevent wildfires and address a severe drought,
closing the book — for now — on a $262.5 billion operating
budget that began the year with a record deficit because of the
pandemic and ended with a record surplus in spite of it.
Wildfire spending in California has more than tripled since
2005, surpassing $3 billion last year. But most of that money
is spent on putting out fires, not preventing them.
Emergency water shipments have begun making their way to
desperate consumers on the Mendocino Coast, a result of
collaborative efforts by county and city officials from Ukiah
and Fort Bragg. But the rollout is starting slowly, and
Mendocino County officials are still working to recruit haulers
with the right kind of tankers to meet the demand. Only one
truck hauling 5,000 gallons a trip is working at the moment,
with enough time in a day to make two deliveries from the water
source in Ukiah to Fort Bragg, according to county
Transportation Director Howard Dashiell.
California and several other Western states endured the hottest
summer on record, according to federal data released Thursday,
underscoring the ways rapid climate change is unleashing
unprecedented wildfires, deadly heat waves and drought
conditions. In addition to California, officials said Idaho,
Nevada, Oregon and Utah also set all-time heat records for the
meteorological summer, spanning June through August. Sixteen
other states also saw a top-five warmest summer on record,
according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, which issued its findings Thursday.
This whole reservoir system along the Colorado River Basin was
designed to get us through the drought years. Why isn’t it
working? A glimpse into the history of the system, how it was
designed and the impacts of climate change sheds light on why
it was destined to fail — and why it may never recover.
The bustle of birds and insect pollinators is the first thing
you notice at Full Belly Farm in Guinda, about 100 miles
northeast of San Francisco in the Capay Valley, where Judith
Redmond and her partners started farming four decades ago.
… Farmers have always labored at the mercy of the
elements, but climate change has brought overlapping calamities
of wildfires, drought, prolonged heat waves and power
outages.
The rebate for Livermore Municipal Water customers who install
drought-resistant landscaping has increased. Owners of
single-family homes are eligible to receive up to $2,000 for
the conversion, according to the city. Owners of multi-family
and commercial properties are eligible to get up to $6,000
back. The rebate will cover up to 50 percent of the cost.
The Oakdale and South San Joaquin Irrigation Districts have
joined in a lawsuit challenging the State Water Resources
Control Board’s authority to prevent the two water agencies
from diverting and storing Stanislaus River runoff in Donnells,
Beardsley, New Melones and Tulloch Reservoirs. The state water
board, in an emergency drought order issued Aug. 20, declared
that OID, SSJID and 4,500 other water rights holders in
California must immediately stop diverting water due to
unprecedented drought conditions.
The Marin Municipal Water District is considering whether to
charge new penalties for high water users during the
drought. The proposal discussed by the district’s board
this week would set varying caps on water use during the
“summer” and “winter” billing periods. Ratepayers would be
charged a fee for every 748 gallons used above that cap.
With drought sucking the Western US dry, Google announced new
plans to protect vital water resources. Google guzzles up water
to cool its data centers, three of which are in the
drought-stricken West. To offset its thirst, the company said
that by 2030, it wants to replenish 120 percent of the water it
consumes. … The company has
faced pushback from communities near its data center
in South Carolina and a new one to be built
in Arizona.
The California recall election is fast approaching, and
candidates are not wasting time. GOP frontrunner Larry Elder
made a second stop in the Central Valley this week, focusing on
crime and water shortages during a one-on-one with farmers. …
Jacobsen said farmers are hurting across the Valley and want
state leaders to take action and help solve the water crisis.
With the gubernatorial recall election looming, the Republican
contender Elder said he wants them to know he’s listening.
For the past two decades, the southwestern United States has
been desiccated by one of the most severe long-term droughts—or
‘megadroughts’—of the last 1,200 years. And now, scientists say
the risk of similar extreme megadroughts and severe single-year
droughts will increase in the future as Earth’s temperature
continues to rise, according to a new study in Earth’s Future
sponsored by CPO’s Modeling, Analysis, Predictions, and
Projections (MAPP) program and led by NASA’s Goddard
Institute for Space Studies (GISS).
The Bureau of Reclamation began releasing water from the
Klamath River to Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge on
Sept. 3. Advocates hope it will improve wetland habitat on the
refuge for migrating birds this fall. Last week, California
Waterfowl Association officially purchased approximately 3,750
acre-feet of water from Agency Ranch in the Wood River Valley,
above Upper Klamath Lake, having announced the purchase and
fundraising effort this spring.
Drought in California, coupled with population growth, is
accelerating the need for energy-intensive water projects —
driving up greenhouse gas emissions and thwarting the pace of
statewide decarbonization efforts, a new study has found.
Water use, collection, treatment and management is linked to
about 20 percent of California’s statewide electricity use,
one-third of non-power plant natural gas consumption and 88
billion gallons of diesel use, according to the study,
published by the Oakland-based Pacific Institute and
commissioned by the non-profit think tank Next 10.
California is again the center of the nation’s biggest and most
destructive wildfires. Over 2 million acres have burned, with
the enormous Dixie and Caldor fires (more than 917,000 and more
than 216,000 acres, respectively) accounting for more than half
of this acreage. More than 3,050 structures have been damaged
or destroyed, and over 14,000 firefighters are battling blazes
in the state. …The entirety of the state remains in drought,
with 88 percent in extreme to exceptional drought, the two
highest categories.
This year’s unprecedented shortage declaration for the Colorado
River should galvanize all Colorado Basin states to redouble
their efforts to curtail wasteful and unnecessary uses of water
and build more resilient communities. The issue gains urgency
with the realization that next year is unlikely to bring
significant relief. Action now is needed to maintain the supply
drinking water in 2022, 2023, and beyond.
Sacramento’s American River Parkway gets more than five million
visits a year—that’s even more than Yosemite—but this year, the
nature area has suffered more destructive brush fires than ever
before. Parkway advocates came face to face with politicians,
firefighters and those who manage the area to demand more
protection.
Michael George is not a spy — but he does use some of the same
equipment. George, a gregarious talker, is a lawyer by trade,
and in his current role as Delta watermaster he oversees the
use of water in one of the country’s most contested waterways.
The Delta in this case is the Sacramento-San Joaquin, a jumble
of fertile land, diked islands, tidal flows, and meandering
sloughs that is the heart of California’s engineered water
system.
State Sen. John Laird, the former Secretary of the California
Natural Resources Agency, has been appointed to a state agency
charged with protecting and improving natural coastal lands.
Laird will serve as one of six non-voting representatives of
the state legislature to the Coastal Conservancy, after his
appointment Wednesday by Senate Pro Tempore Toni Atkins. …
Looming threats to the environment such as climate
change-driven sea-level rise, an increasingly threatening
drought cycle and other coastal access issues mean “it is time
to get to work,” Laird is quoted in a release from his office.
One of the largest water districts in the San Francisco Bay
Area is falling dramatically short of water conservation goals
amid extreme drought conditions across California. Santa
Clara Valley Water declared a water shortage emergency in June
with its reservoirs reaching historically low levels, requiring
customers to reduce water use by 15% compared with 2019 levels.
In July, the district fell short of the goal with residents
only reducing water use levels by 6% compared to 2019 levels,
according to newly available data first shared by the San
Jose Mercury News.
The North Bay could see thunderstorms this week — a
double-edged forecast for a region beset by drought but wary of
the possibility of vegetation fires sparked by dry lightning.
….Long periods without rain have dried out fields and forests
across the state and created an abundance of dry fuel for
vegetation fires to spark and spread. California is in the
middle of its fire season and on pace to match last year’s
record wildfire destruction.
The visible signs of America’s lingering drought are obvious at
reservoirs across the American West. Drive from Las Vegas and
step out of your car at Hoover Dam and Lake Mead in Nevada or
peek out at Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border, and you’ll
see the stone-stained “bathtub rings” indicating the high-water
marks of better times. … [A]s water levels drop, the unseen
effect of these drastic reservoir declines is
that hydroelectric power is decreasing.
Both the Rio Grande and Colorado rivers shrunk in 2021, another
bad water year in a two-decade megadrought brought on by a
warming Western United States. Demands on the rivers —
from growing cities, agriculture, wildlife and international
treaties — are hitting the reality of a reduced supply of water
in both rivers. In August, federal officials declared the
first-ever shortage on the Colorado River lower basin,
triggering a plan to reduce water usage in several states and
Mexico.
After a wildfire, soils in burned areas often become water
repellent, leading to increased erosion and flooding after
rainfall events – a phenomenon that many scientists have
attributed to smoke and heat-induced changes in soil chemistry.
But this post-fire water repellency may also be caused by
wildfire smoke in the absence of heat, according to a new paper
from the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Nevada.
Sacramento-area residents were urged Thursday to cut water
usage by 10% as much of the state has been plunged into another
severe drought. Just three days after Gov. Gavin Newsom
declared the area officially in a drought, the Sacramento
Regional Water Authority asked for voluntary conservation
measures as its member agencies scramble to cope with drought
conditions that seemingly worsen by the day.
Santa Maria Rec and Parks crews are digging up the grass near
Seward Drive. … They’re renovating city landscapes in light
of the state-wide drought. … The project on Seward Drive of
26 other locations where crews will be renovating the
landscapes throughout the year. By replacing some of the grass
with more drought tolerant landscaping, the expectation is to
use less water.
California farmers and ranchers have no shortages of stress
this year. They face drought and water supply cuts, devastating
wildfires and pandemic impacts. There are also labor shortages
and financial pressures from fluctuating commodity prices or
trade disruptions. These impacts inspire serious discussions in
agricultural communities about looking after farmers’ mental
health.
The Department of Water Resources and the State Water Resources
Control Board have developed draft groundwater management
principles and strategies to better anticipate and minimize the
impacts of drought on drinking water wells. Developed in
response to Governor Gavin Newsom’s April Executive Drought
Proclamation, the principles and strategies provide a framework
for State actions to proactively address impacts on
groundwater-dependent communities as droughts become more
frequent and intense as a result of climate change.
San Francisco, along with a handful of Central Valley
irrigation districts, is suing the state for enacting drought
restrictions that are keeping thousands of landowners and
suppliers from drawing water from rivers and creeks. The
lawsuit, filed late last week in Fresno County Superior Court,
claims that the State Water Resources Control Board — drought
or no drought — does not have the authority to suspend the
draws of those with the most senior claims to California’s
water.
On June 9, as California’s historic drought deepened, the
largest water agency in Santa Clara County declared a drought
emergency and asked the county’s 2 million residents to cut
water use by 15% from 2019 levels to preserve dwindling
supplies. … But three months later, the public isn’t heeding
the call. New water use numbers show that overall, Santa Clara
County residents reduced water use by just 6% in July, compared
with July 2019 — well short of the 15% target.
Dangerously low water levels at Shasta Lake were captured on
drone video by ABC10 reporter John Bartell and photojournalist
Tyler Horst on Tuesday. Shasta Lake is California’s
largest reservoir, capable of holding 4,552,000 acre feet of
water. Right now, it has 1,186,057 acre feet of water stored.
Breaking that down into percentages, the reservoir is at 26%
capacity and 42% of average for this date.
A brutal summer of record heat and punishing drought has
claimed yet another California victim: the majestic,
snow-covered slopes of Mt. Shasta. Just as the impacts of
global warming have revealed themselves in extreme wildfire
behavior and plunging reservoir levels, climate change is now
altering the skyline of far Northern California and wreaking
havoc on communities surrounding the dormant volcano.
A federal judge has blocked a Northern California county’s ban
on trucks delivering water to Hmong cannabis farmers, saying it
raises “serious questions” about racial discrimination and
leaves the growers without a source of water for basic
sanitation, vegetable gardens and livestock. On Friday, Chief
U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller issued a temporary
injunction against Siskiyou County’s prohibition on trucked-in
water deliveries to Hmong farmers growing marijuana in the
Mount Shasta Vista subdivision in the Big Springs area north of
Weed.
The city of Ukiah has been relying primarily on groundwater,
recycled water and conservation to get through the drought and
hasn’t been exercising its right to water from the Russian
River, which is experiencing historic low flows. That’s about
to change now that the city has agreed to help the coast
through the drought.
Some San Joaquin Valley farmers could someday have a new “crop”
to sell — their groundwater. In the face of looming
groundwater pumping restrictions, some groundwater agencies are
looking at internal markets to give growers a way to save water
and still earn a profit.
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.
With much of California and other western U.S. states
experiencing significant drought, the need to pursue further
advancements in desalination has never been greater. This was a
central theme of an Aug. 11 webinar, titled “Discussion on
Desalination — Treatments, Research, and the Future,” conducted
by the WateReuse Association. Historically, desalination
has been viewed as a separate component within the water
sector, but that perception is changing, said Peter Fiske,
Ph.D., the executive director for the National Alliance for
Water Innovation and one of three presenters featured during
the webinar.
While residents of the Southeast clean up from floods and a
hurricane, meteorologists are warning that Northern California
should be prepared for a third year of drought. … The
biggest immediate concern is the upper Russian River, which is
fed by Lake Mendocino and provides water for Cloverdale,
Healdsburg and some prime Wine Country agricultural areas.
Storage in the lake dipped below 20,000 acre-feet last week
… Lake Sonoma, the region’s other major reservoir, is in
a little better shape with 116,500 acre-feet of
water.
The Bureau of Land Management is rounding up more than 700
horses living on public land in northwest Colorado, a sharp
reduction of a herd that officials say is too large and roaming
in dangerously dry conditions. Over the last week, contractors
have used helicopters to corral mustangs living in the Sand
Wash Basin, which includes 155,000 acres of public land managed
by the federal agency in the northwest corner of the state.
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.
The Bureau of Reclamation recently declared a water shortage on
the Colorado River, but that hasn’t stopped states from
proposing new water projects. Just about every drop on the
Colorado River is accounted for. But climate change has reduced
the amount of water in the system. Gary Wockner is with
Save the Colorado, a conservation group that is tracking new
projects.
If you could save gallons of water, improve your health, and
leave our Earth a little healthier, would you do it? If your
diet is mainly meat-focused, you can effect big changes by
beginning to transition to a diet that is plant-based. This is
because pound for pound, meat has a much higher water footprint
than vegetables and legumes. -Written by Georgi LaBerge, board member of
Sustainable San Mateo County and CityTrees and the former mayor
of Redwood City.
The Central Valley’s rice fields and wetlands are widely
heralded as key rest and refuel stops for millions of migratory
birds traveling along the Pacific Flyway. The rice fields
provide more than 50% of the diet for the ducks and geese
during their fall and winter migration. To view rafts of
waterfowl feeding on public wildlife areas or seeing thousands
of geese taking flight from a rice field are indicators of a
healthy environment and visual examples of how vital the
Central Valley is to the Flyway. -Written by Jeff McCreary, director of operations for the
Western Region, Ducks Unlimited, and Tim Johnson, president and
CEO of the California Rice Commission.
First came the asparagus field. Then came the melons. And now
Joe Del Bosque is considering the unthinkable: tearing out a
sprawling almond orchard bursting with healthy, nut-producing
trees. … Two decades of almost unrelenting growth
vaulted almonds into the upper ranks of California agriculture.
Now, though, the state’s $6 billion-a-year industry is
being humbled by a devastating drought. Farmers have
slowed the pace of new orchard plantings and, in a few cases,
have plowed up trees still capable of bearing almonds.
The city of Antioch’s water supply has been challenged in
recent years by a variety of factors. But the Brackish Water
Desalination Project, the first desalination project of its
kind in the five-county Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region, is
intended to improve the reliability of the city’s water. The
city filed its notice of preparation for the project just over
four years ago and then broke ground on the plant in February
of this year.
A 20-year, climate change-fueled megadrought has dealt a double
blow to Blue Mesa this summer. The dry conditions have led to
lower levels directly, but the lake is also hurting from
drought problems in other states. For the first time, the
federal government is taking emergency action by taking water
from Blue Mesa to help out another reservoir — Lake Powell on
the Utah-Arizona border….The water taken from Blue Mesa is
being used to make sure hydroelectric power turbines at Lake
Powell can keep spinning and generating electricity for
millions of people in the West…
Water year 2021-22 begins on Oct. 1 and the stakes are whether
Napa County escapes having one the deepest droughts in its
recorded history. The county has been hit by a devastating
one-two drought punch. Rainfall at Napa State Hospital for
2020-21 is about 10 inches, following a season of 12.19 inches.
The average annual rainfall there is about 26 inches. A third
consecutive rainfall year with a total barely denting double
digits would be unprecedented in weather records dating back to
1877-78.
The cleanliness of Tokyo, the diversity of New York and the
social services of Stockholm: Billionaire Marc Lore has
outlined his vision for a 5-million-person “new city in
America” and appointed a world-famous architect to design it.
Now, he just needs somewhere to build it — and $400 billion in
funding. The former Walmart executive last week unveiled plans
for Telosa, a sustainable metropolis that he hopes to create,
from scratch, in the American desert. The ambitious
150,000-acre proposal promises eco-friendly architecture,
sustainable energy production and a purportedly
drought-resistant water system.
For decades, farm labor has kept unincorporated communities
alive throughout the Central Valley. But the drought is making
it hard to stay. The dearth of essential resources — clean
water, adequate housing and fair employment wages — has
crippled towns that are easily overlooked and triggered a slow
exodus to bigger places.
A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked a Northern
California county from enforcing water permit laws aimed at
cracking down on illegal marijuana farms, finding the
restrictions might be intended to drive a minority Asian
community out of their homes. … Siskiyou County passed two
ordinances in May 2021 requiring permits to extract and move
groundwater off site and to transport water by truck.
For much of California, the arrival of September has brought
extreme, scalding temperatures. Sunday was the hottest day in
Los Angeles in nearly 11 months, according to AccuWeather.
Temperatures in the Inland Empire and the Sacramento region
soared into the triple-digits over the long weekend. And in the
next few days, dangerous heat waves are projected for large
swaths of the state, weather officials warn.
The Bureau of Reclamation began releasing water from the
Klamath River to Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge on
Friday afternoon. Advocates hope it will improve wetland
habitat on the refuge for migrating birds this fall. Last
week, California Waterfowl Association officially purchased
approximately 3,750 acre-feet of water from Agency Ranch in the
Wood River Valley, above Upper Klamath Lake, having announced
the purchase and fundraising effort this spring.
Almost everything about a sequoia tree is giant: It can
grow to more than 200 feet tall and live longer than 3,000
years. Yet the sequoia’s footprint is shrinking, as
human-induced climate change threatens this ancient tree’s
survival. … There are only around 48,000 acres of sequoia
groves left in the world, and the trees are now facing threats
from human-made climate change in several ways.
For months, the city of Needles has endured not just scorching
hot weather but the possibility that its single water well
could fail, a potentially life-threatening risk for this Mojave
desert community of 5,000 residents. Yet over recent
weeks, word arrived that state officials — flush with billions
of dollars in surplus tax revenue — intend to hand over $2
million to pay for a new well that could be operational later
this year. City officials are now breathing easier…
As reservoirs across California meet historic lows, we are
again faced with the reality of not enough water for the
environment, farms and people. … As our climate
continues to change, we can expect more of the same, and
possibly worse if we don’t make some meaningful changes to how
we manage water in California. We need to advance water
recycling projects, increase conservation and develop more
capacity to store water. One key part of the solution is the
construction of Sites Reservoir.
California regulators began cracking down on water use in the
sprawling Sacramento River and San Joaquin River watersheds on
Friday, ordering 4,500 farmers, water districts and other
landowners, including the city of San Francisco, to stop
drawing water in the basins — or face penalties of up to
$10,000 a day. The move comes as the state slides deeper
into an extraordinary two-year drought. Lakes, streams and
rivers no longer have enough water for everyone who is taking
it, and dwindling supplies must be rationed, state regulators
say.
When Cupertino residents Sherri Stein and her husband planted a
victory garden, it wasn’t to grow food but to help fight the
California drought. The Steins took advantage of a pilot
project by the City of Cupertino to help residents establish
Climate Victory Gardens in their front yards. These gardens are
drought-tolerant and can be irrigated with laundry-to-landscape
graywater systems.
The Guidebook is designed to assist urban water suppliers with
preparing UWMPs that are due to DWR on July 1. DWR also
released its draft 2020 Agricultural Water Management Plan
Guidebook related to long-term water supply and demand
strategies for agricultural water planning.
On Monday morning, the Caldor fire had been 44% contained, the
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said,
nearly double what the agency reported Thursday. Authorities
said lower temperatures, slowing winds and rises in humidity
allowed firefighters to take advantage of the slowed pace of
the wildfire to focus on mitigation efforts to keep the blaze
from spreading further.
Record dry conditions once again in the West have led the
federal and state governments to declare water supply
shortages. California’s governor has declared that 50 counties,
in which approximately 41% of the state’s population exists,
are now under a drought state of emergency. This prompted the
adoption of emergency regulations ordering water rights holders
to curtail their water diversions on numerous northern
California rivers.
Earlier this summer, the Santa Clara Valley Water District
declared a water shortage emergency and told its 13 retailers,
including their largest retailer the San Jose Water Company, to
cut water use 15% from 2019 levels, the most recent non-drought
year…. The [San Jose Water] company has since
submitted a plan to the California Public Utilities
Commission that would require each of its residential customers
to officially cut monthly water use by 15% from their 2019
levels, or face fines of $7.13 in surcharges for every
additional unit of water used. The move could make San Jose the
first major California city with water allotments and drought
penalties.
As we all know, Los Angeles and the surrounding areas have had
lots and lots and lots of rain this winter. So much rain, in
fact, that this week, Southern California Edison announced
they’re lifting mandatory conservation requirements for
residents and businesses on Catalina Island. … Water
rationing on Catalina Island began in 2014, when residents were
asked to adopt mandatory conservation efforts.
Kelly O’Brien’s drinking water well had been in its death
throes for days before its pump finally gave out over Memorial
Day weekend. … Soon O’Brien learned that other wells
were failing around her. She heard about one neighbor to the
north, another to the east. The list kept growing: She started
a Facebook group for owners of dry wells to share their woes
and resources, and it grew to more than 665 members.
Ural Federal University (UrFU) engineers have developed a new
desalination technology. It will significantly reduce the cost
of desalination and quadruple the volume of production. The
results of the research are published in the journal Case
Studies in Thermal Engineering. Today one of the most popular
and simple ways of desalination is the distillation of water
with the help of solar energy. UrFU scientists, together with
colleagues from Iraq, have developed a hybrid technology to
increase the efficiency of evaporation inside a solar distiller
by means of a rotating hollow cylinder and a solar collector.
Maria Olivera’s house sits on a dirt road that dead-ends at the
Friant Kern Canal, the 152-mile aqueduct quenching the endless
thirst of the San Joaquin Valley crops that feed the country.
She’s called Tooleville home since 1974, where residents have
been fighting to attain the basic human right to clean drinking
water for the better part of two decades.
Founded on a lush plain of the largest estuary on the West
Coast of North America shortly after gold was discovered,
Antioch’s fortunes have always risen and fallen with the delta
tides. One of California’s oldest settlements, what started as
a ranch town morphed decades ago into an industrial city due to
its riverside locale and proximity to San Francisco. Family
farms gave way to coal and copper mines, mills and warehouses
took over downtown and the city steadily grew into one of the
Bay Area’s largest.
A bust of an illegal cannabis grow site within Sonoma Coast
State Park has weeded out an even bigger problem for the North
Bay suffering from a drought year — water theft. “Cannabis
plants require so much water to grow,” California State Parks
Cannabis Watershed Protection Program Assistant Chief Jeremy
Stinson told the Business Journal, following his team
uncovering the illegal grow site in Bodega Bay that netted two
arrests, 1,500 plants, 1,000 pounds of trash, pollutants and
water diversion lines.
The Klamath River flows some 250 miles from southern Oregon to
Northern California. From its headwaters at Upper Klamath Lake,
east of Medford, Oregon, the river rushes through trout
habitat, forested mountains, farmland and salmon nurseries as
it makes its way to the Pacific Ocean. Rather, the river
usually rushes. But now, drought is desiccating almost the
entire Klamath River basin, some 12,000 to 15,000 square miles.
That’s an area approaching the size of the entirety of
Massachusetts and Connecticut combined.
When Jenny Hess visited her sister in Healdsburg, Calif., in
May of 2020 to get out of New York City during Covid, she was
entranced by the area’s temperate weather, natural beauty and
sophisticated food and wine culture. The attraction
endured—even when she had to flee for 12 days due to a raging
wildfire right behind her sister’s house.
One hundred and eighty-two days. That’s how long I went without
swimming during this never-ending pandemic. My last swim before
the big COVID-19 surge last year winter was October 20, 2020,
in the Salmon Falls River in my hometown in southern Maine. I
swam quickly (frantically) from a little pebbly beach, across
the brackish brown water, to New Hampshire and back.
As Tropical Storm Ida cripples New York City and flooding takes
dozens of lives along the East Coast, California suffers from a
two-year drought that has curtailed water supplies and spawned
wildfires scorching nearly 1,000 square miles. One side of the
nation gets far too much water, the other side far too little,
The common element is climate change and it would be folly for
Californians to yearn — even with flames approaching Lake
Tahoe, the jewel of the Sierra — for a portion of the rain
falling 3,000 miles away.
The drought emergency in the Bay Area is not only affecting
humans, but also wildlife. From turkeys strolling along
streets, to wild pigs appearing on surveillance video digging
up yards, bone dry conditions in the hills has sent thirsty
wildlife into neighborhoods, particularly in the East Bay.
Other creatures spotted in neighborhoods recently include
mountain lions and even the occasional bear. Wildlife experts
say its the season for these visitors. Dry hillsides causing
wildlife to stroll to low lying areas to find food and precious
water.
Researchers have suspected for years that drought conditions
worsen groundwater quality, but a study published this week
provides strong evidence proving the long-held assumption.
While previous studies have focused on the risk of wells being
overdrawn and run dry during drought, the study from the United
States Geological Survey and the California State Water
Resources Control Board is the first to directly link drought
to deteriorating water quality on a regional scale. The study
looked at 30 years of data from California’s Central Valley.
California’s wildfire season started early again this year and
its destruction already for the record books with the Dixie
fire currently the second largest in the state’s history and
growing while the Caldor fire has caused the evacuation of
residents from the iconic South Lake Tahoe communities.
Here, Stanford Law School’s Professor Buzz Thompson, one of the
country’s leading water law experts, discusses California’s
wildfires, drought, water, and climate change with Stanford
Legal on SiriusXM co-hosts Professors Joseph Bankman and
Richard Thompson Ford.
Freshly cut off from their chief water supply, a group of
California water agencies in one of the state’s most fertile
farming areas sued on Wednesday to freeze the latest round of
emergency drought rules. In a lawsuit filed in Sacramento
County Superior Court, the suppliers argue they were denied due
process when state regulators ordered thousands of landowners
last month to cease diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin
River Delta due to drought conditions.
Lawmakers accused almond growers of over-planting and livestock
ranchers of unsustainable practices, while others sought policy
ideas to help small family farmers.
A pipeline stretching all the way across the Richmond-San
Rafael Bridge could partly address the water shortage. It
hasn’t been fully approved, but millions of dollars are being
spent to see if it could be a viable solution. Nearly
200,000 Marin County residents rely on the Mount Tamalpais
watershed for drinking water and other needs. But lack of
rainfall for years, and maybe many more, is drying up its
reservoirs.
Monterey County is the only county is California with a law
that prohibits private companies from operating new
desalination plants. That law, passed in 1989, will be up for a
potential repeal when the county’s supervisors meet on Sept.
21. The law has been thrust into the spotlight as
Algonquin Power and Utilities Corp., a publicly traded, $11
billion Canada-based company, has proposed construction of what
could be a massive regional desalination plant in Moss Landing.
A record hot summer has laid bare a stark new reality for many
states on America’s West Coast: Amid rising temperatures and
worsening droughts, many will need to systematically rethink
the way they manage limited water supplies. … Washington
state’s official climatologist, Nicholas Bond told Zenger
that rising temperatures were impacting year-round water supply
levels by melting the state’s mountain snowpack earlier than in
past years.
Pack a few extra water bottles the next time you head to Mount
Diablo State Park. Due to the drought, faucets, showers and
flushing toilets have been turned off at various parts of the
mountain. The California Department of Parks and Recreation
says water springs on Mount Diablo State Park have been reduced
to a trickle and the water storage tanks are close to empty.
California grape growers in coastal areas can use less water
during times of drought and cut irrigation levels without
affecting crop yields or quality, according to a new study out
of the University of California, Davis. The findings, published
today (Sept. 1) in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science, show
that vineyards can use 50% of the irrigation water normally
used by grape crops without compromising flavor, color and
sugar content.
An ongoing fish kill has been plaguing the Klamath River since
early May. The Klamath flows through Oregon and northern
California, and like many water sources in the West, has seen
water levels drop considerably due to extreme drought. A lower
river means a slower and warmer river, which is what some
parasites need to thrive. The parasite C.Shasta is expected to
kill off nearly all of this year’s juvenile Chinook salmon in
the Klamath.
The federal agency that distributes electricity from hydropower
plants in the Upper Colorado River Basin will ask its
customers, including more than 50 here in Colorado, to help
offset rising costs linked to Lake Powell’s inability to
produce as much power due to drought. The Western Area Power
Administration (WAPA), which distributes Lake Powell’s
electricity, is gathering public comments and asking its
customers how best to cope with long-term drought conditions
that have pushed Powell and other reservoirs to historically
low levels.
After the Ukiah City Council held a special meeting Monday,
City of Ukiah officials announced Tuesday that they are
preparing to deliver water to coastal communities such as the
village of Mendocino. In a press release, Deputy City Manger
said that the city staff are “working out planning, contracts
and logistics to begin delivering water supplies by truck to
coastal areas of Mendocino County.”
Like many farmers across California, Zack Andrade’s business is
being choked by an extraordinary two-year drought. Water cuts
could soon erase about a quarter of the irrigation he depends
on to grow leafy greens, carrots and beets on his family’s farm
in the rolling hills south of Silicon Valley, near Morgan
Hill. Andrade said the crisis has been made worse by
successive governors, including Gavin Newsom, who he says have
punted on damming rivers and building new reservoirs to help
California store more water during wet years.
La Niña, the climate event that causes water to be colder than
normal in the eastern Pacific, has now been shown by new
research released Monday to be responsible for simultaneous
megadroughts in the North and South American Southwest over the
past 1,000 years. Megadroughts are extended periods of
drought that last at least 20 years. In a study published in
the journal Nature, researchers found that these megadroughts
occurred simultaneously in the North American and South
American Southwest “regularly” and often during a La Niña
event.
Life in Tooleville wasn’t easy before the latest
drought. Residents of this tiny, two-road farmworker
community, tucked into the edge of the Sierra Nevada foothills
in eastern Tulare County, have been living on bottled water
since 2014 because its two wells are contaminated with
hexavalent chromium. Then in July, one of those wells
started to dry up, thanks to plummeting groundwater levels.
State Water Resources Control Board officials agree
Tooleville’s other well will likely hit sand in a matter of
months.
For the first time in history, the federal government has
declared a water shortage on the Colorado River, which serves
as a lifeline to more than 40 million people in western states
like Arizona and California. States that are used to
receiving substantial amounts of water from the river are going
to be receiving considerable cuts in water availability. The
river has served as a source of affordable hydraulic power and
provides water for irrigation systems to countless farms in the
region.
There is hope that the unfortunate conditions of California’s
water supply this year will prompt decisive action on water
management and storage. President and CEO of Western Growers,
Dave Puglia noted that his conversations with growers have been
disheartening. There is significant concern that if California
gets another dry year, many farmers will not be able to
recover. The dire circumstances of the current water year
underscore the imperative need for an updated approach to water
management.
The City of Santa Monica’s Department of Public Works, Water
Resources and Engineering Divisions have successfully secured
multiple grants, totaling over $45 million, to fund various
water self-sufficiency projects to diversify and increase Santa
Monica’s local water supplies.
Upper Klamath Lake is once again turning toxic for the summer.
On July 30, the Oregon Health Authority issued a recreational
use advisory for Eagle Ridge County Park and Shoalwater Bay due
to a cyanobacteria bloom present on the lake’s western shore.
OHA expanded the advisory to Howard’s Bay, south of Spence
Mountain, on August 30. The bloom, comprised of Microcystis
aeruginosa, produces the liver toxin microcystin, which can
cause skin rashes, stomach issues, diarrhea and vomiting if
ingested.
The historic drought in Marin County continues to affect a rare
species of elk. Last weekend, nearly a hundred people carried
water to replenish the drinking supply for tule elk at Point
Reyes National Seashore that are dying in the drought
conditions. Volunteers hiked six miles round trip on Saturday,
carrying gallon jugs of water to provide the animals at Tomales
Point with more to drink. The water drop was organized in part
by TreeSpirit Project, Save The Elk, and In Defense of Animals.
Smoke and ash from wildfires near Lake Tahoe — one of the
deepest lakes in the world — is already clouding the lake’s
famously clear water, researchers say. While the long-term
effects are unclear, ash and soot are now coating the surface
of the High Sierra lake and veiling the sun, which can disrupt
the lake’s ecosystem and its clarity. More debris and sediment
are likely to wash into the lake from runoff and rain this fall
and winter.
Madera County is running out of time as groundwater levels
plummet to new depths. Wells are going dry everywhere. Drillers
have months-long waitlists. Residents are scrambling for water
tanks. And farmers will soon face a reckoning after
agriculture’s footprint, particularly nut trees, has more than
doubled in the past 50 years — far outpacing irrigation
supplies.
In 2014, in the middle of a severe drought that would test
California’s complex water storage system like never before,
voters told the state to borrow $7.5 billion and use part of it
to build projects to stockpile more water. Seven years later,
that drought has come and gone, replaced by an even hotter and
drier one that is draining the state’s reservoirs at an
alarming rate. But none of the more than half-dozen water
storage projects scheduled to receive that money have been
built.
As unprecedented drought conditions plague much of the West,
reservoirs are running dry. Communities reliant on these
sources for drinking water are tightening restrictions to
preserve adequate supplies. … Located in California’s
Wine Country, the city [of Healdsburg] implemented water
restrictions in June to maintain its drinking water supply
through 2021. The mandate cut water use by 40 percent,
limiting individuals to 74 gallons a day. It also banned the
use of sprinklers and drip irrigation.
During another terrible drought year, it may come as a shock to
hear that rafting prospects are spectacular for the rest of
summer on Northern California’s top rafting rivers, the
Tuolumne and American. In fact, those two rivers have attracted
an unusually high number of rafters with a thirst for cool,
clean water on hot days. … A key reason why outfitters
are able to keep operations running during such a dry year is
that regional water agencies are helping them.
Right now, Congress is debating needed investments in our water
system decades in the making. While the Senate’s compromise
bill passed earlier this month includes billions for lead pipe
replacement and helping communities prepare for future drought
and floods, the bill falls short of ensuring all families can
turn their tap on and access safe, affordable water.
… Some utilities are stepping up to help (both San
Francisco Public Utilities and East Bay Municipal
Utilities District have customer assistance programs)
… -Written by Michael McAfee, president and CEO of
PolicyLink, a national research and action institute focused on
advancing racial and economic equity, and Susana De
Anda, co-founder and executive director of the Community
Water Center, a nonprofit environmental justice organization
based in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
The climate crisis is making wild weather much more common.
Since Sunday evening, we’ve seen all kinds of destruction in
New Orleans as Hurricane Ida hit – winds, flooding, way too
much water. And meanwhile, in America’s West, they’re dealing
with fires and a historic drought – not enough water. And as
the West gets drier and drier, how water is used attracts a lot
of controversy.
Scientists and conservation groups including NRDC have been
warning for years that farms and cities in California need to
plan to divert less water from the Bay-Delta watershed, and the
2009 enactment of the Delta Reform Act established that it is
State policy to reduce reliance on water supplies from the
Bay-Delta through investments in local and regional water
supplies like water recycling (Cal. Water Code § 85021). The
current drought is an unwelcome reminder that we are not
prepared for drought, leading to the State Water Board ordering
curtailments of some water diversions…
Expect legislation next winter in the Colorado General Assembly
that would seek to curb potential speculation in Colorado
water. But whether water speculation actually poses a problem
remains hotly debated. A report released Aug. 13 by a state
work group charged with studying how to strengthen Colorado
anti-water-speculation law identifies eight concepts to thwart
possible water hoarding that should be studied further. One
would eliminate or reduce the agricultural tax benefit for
lands from which water is removed following a water rights
purchase and transfer.
They all remember when the San Luis Valley brimmed with water.
South of San Luis, Ronda Lobato raced the rising floodwaters in
San Francisco Creek every spring to fill sandbags that
protected her grandparents’ farm. North of Center, potato
farmer Sheldon Rockey faced so much spring mud that he had to
learn to extract his stuck tractor. Outside Monte Vista,
Tyler Mitchell needed only a hand shovel on the family farm
near Monte Vista to reach shallow underground flows in the
Valley’s once-abundant water table.
Nicole Horseherder lives in Hard Rock, Ariz., population 53.
Hard Rock sits on the Black Mesa, which takes its name from the
numerous coal seams running through the plateau in western
Arizona. Horseherder’s home has no running water, as it
is prohibitively expensive to drill down to the nearest aquifer
that has potable water. Twice a week, she drives her
20-year-old, three-quarter-ton GMC pickup—towing a 500-gal.
tank mounted on a flatbed trailer—to a community well 25 miles
away. Coal and water have dominated
Horseherder’s life and work for the past decade.
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%.
Volunteers carried out an emergency water drop this weekend,
trying to help the rare tule elk that have been dying in
drought conditions on the Point Reyes National Seashore.
Saturday afternoon, nearly a hundred people carried water three
miles to a pond that is on the verge of drying up. The National
Park Service is embroiled in a lawsuit over the elk, one third
of the herd has died in the past year from lack of water or
sufficient foliage to eat.
California farmers near the Arizona border with the
oldest rights to Colorado River water will reap $38
million over three years to not plant some of their fields
and leave extra water in the rapidly declining Lake Mead
reservoir.
Driving between her northern Central Valley rice fields with
the family dog in tow, fifth-generation farmer Kim Gallagher
points out the window to shorebirds, egrets and avocets
fluttering across a thousand-acre sea of green flooded in six
inches of water. … The nearly 500,000 acres of sushi
rice grown in the Sacramento Valley each year serve as the
wetland habitat for thousands of migrating birds along the
Pacific Coast. Yet the crop also uses more water than most, and
about half of the product is exported to countries including
Japan and South Korea.
Many farmers probably haven’t read the new report from the
United Nations warning of threats to the global food supply
from climate change and land misuse. But we don’t need to read
the science — we’re living it. Here in the San Joaquin Valley,
one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions,
there’s not much debate anymore that the climate is changing.
[A] new analysis by Redfin, a real estate brokerage,
reveals more Americans are moving into areas that face the
highest climate risks than ever before. … Counties with
homes facing the highest heat risk saw populations increase by
an average of 4.7% over the last five years. Counties with
homes facing high drought risk saw population growth of 3.5%,
fire risk counties grew by 3%, flood 1.9%, and storm 0.4% over
the last five years.
Fire officials ordered more evacuations around the Tahoe Basin
Sunday evening as crews dealt with a two-week old blaze they
said was “more aggressive than anticipated,” and continued to
edge toward the pristine waters of Lake Tahoe. … Flames
churned through mountains just a few miles southwest of the
Tahoe Basin, where thick smoke sent tourists packing at a time
when summer vacations would usually be in full swing ahead of
the Labor Day weekend.
Lake Mead, which serves 20 million people, is at a shocking 40%
of capacity, triggering the first ever shortage declaration. As
the Colorado River crisis demonstrates, drought is pervasive.
Even the mightiest reservoirs do not offer a panacea in the
face of climate change. As we grapple with persistent droughts,
the path to a climate resilient water future in Marin County,
as elsewhere, requires a diverse supply portfolio and culture
change.
It’s been almost nine months since Wall Street turned on the
taps — with the launch of the Nasdaq Veles California Water
Index on December 7th, 2020, investors have been able to bet on
the price movement of water. The real-world droughts that
followed have made for an oasis of opportunity. … As droughts
and wildfires hammered the U.S. West Coast, California declared
a state of emergency in April, and last month asked residents
to cut their water use by 15%. As of July 31, California’s
major reservoirs held just 53% of their historical
averages.
The San Joaquin Valley is quickly become home to another
ignominious superlative: greatest number of water outages per
community. The state’s ever-worsening drought conditions are
pushing Valley communities to the brink on the precipice of a
statewide recall election. As the Sept. 14 election nears,
former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer returned to the San
Joaquin Valley on Friday for a briefing with members of the
Latino Water Coalition, Fresno County Supervisors, and an
assemblage of some of the top water experts in the region.
The Santa Cruz Water Department has the responsibility for
providing clean safe water for all of its 96,000 customers
located both inside and outside of the city limits, and also
for planning ahead for future needs. Most readers will recall
that about 15 years ago, in the wake of earlier droughts and
water rationing, the City of Santa Cruz initiated an evaluation
of a joint desalination project with the Soquel Creek Water
District. -Written by Gary Griggs, Santa Cruz Sentinel
columnist.
It’s too early to say if Sonoma County and surrounding areas
will get enough rain this winter to revive the parched
landscape and replenish dwindling water supplies, but it
doesn’t look good. “The tilt is toward a drier than normal
winter,” said Brian Garcia of the National Weather Service. …
Don’t expect the kind of above-normal rainfall that would be
typical of an El Niño weather pattern. The opposite is
more likely: below normal rainfall common to La Niña conditions
…
As Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge’s last remaining
wetland reduces to a mud puddle, California Waterfowl
Association’s efforts to secure a meager supply of water for
the refuge have cleared a regulatory hurdle. On Thursday, the
Oregon Water Resources Department accepted CWA’s application to
transfer several thousand acre-feet of water from a willing
Wood River Valley rancher to the refuge’s Unit 2.
Few people visit a public garden bearing their own name, but
that was what Bette Boatmun experienced as she strolled through
the drought-resistant, waterwise and blooming plants in the
Bette Boatmun Conservation Garden last month. The Concord
resident left more than her name when she retired from the
Contra Costa Water District board of directors in December. Her
legacy includes the historic Los Vaqueros Reservoir, guiding a
community through two severe droughts, and nearly a half
century of local and statewide governance.
Mandatory limits on water use are likely to be imposed in the
near future on California residents, businesses and farms. Get
ready. You can’t change the weather, which has deprived the
state of its necessary rain and snowfall. But you can change
your response. After examining the state’s shockingly low
reservoirs, Gov. Gavin Newsom told reporters recently that a
statewide limit on water use may be needed to head off a supply
crisis caused by California’s historic drought, which continues
to worsen.
One fifth of electrical output in California is consumed by
pumping and processing water. By collecting rainwater, we can
reduce our carbon footprint, conserve California’s water
resources, and decrease our water bill. … In Bermuda,
every residence is required by law to have and maintain a
cistern capable of storing enough rainwater to sustain a family
of four for a year. The states of New South Wales and Victoria
in Australia require all new construction to be plumbed for
rainwater catchment and grey water recycling. As of 2017, 26
percent of the homes in Australia capture rainwater.
This summer, tens of millions of salmon have been cooked in
California in their own native habitat. Record-breaking heat
and drought have drawn down the water flows and turned up the
temperatures of the state’s streams and rivers. The heat shock,
along with the impacts of parasites and fungal blights that are
fueled by warmer waters, has decimated the wild salmon
populations. To stem the crisis, scientists have literally
gone above and beyond, hurling salmon over dams via pneumatic
cannons and trucking millions of fish to the Pacific Ocean to
bypass unlivable rivers.
Some activists claim the county is no longer providing them
water to take to homeless encampments—a service offered over
the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gail Osmer, an advocate
for houseless communities, said throughout the pandemic she’s
gotten multiple cases of water from the county Office of
Supportive Housing to distribute. But earlier this month, she
says the county refused to give her water, citing too many
requests. In an email to Osmer, a county worker said water is
only being given out during “inclement weather
activations”—such as certain days with extremely hot
temperatures.
People regularly discuss California when talking about
long-term drought, particularly because the state often
experiences prolonged water shortages. Some experts believe
that rather than going through brief non-drought periods, the
state is actually enduring a so-called emerging megadrought and
has been for the last two decades.
Tucked between two mountain ranges in Northern California’s
Siskiyou County, the Shasta Valley is as complex as it is
impressive. … The dearth of knowledge is perhaps most
pronounced when it comes to what scientists call the
hydrogeology of the groundwater basin –– how exactly water
moves through the volcanic rock below the ground. The movement
of that water is the economic linchpin of the valley, with
cattle ranchers, alfalfa farmers, cannabis growers, and others
all depending on it. And thousands of residents also depend on
the groundwater for their homes.
There was an unusual twist at Wednesday’s gubernatorial recall
debate in Sacramento: A Democrat participated for the first
time. And that Democrat, 29-year-old millionaire Ventura County
real estate investor Kevin Paffrath, jump-started the hour-long
debate with some unusual ideas. Paffrath, who has never held
elective office, proposed to solve California’s water shortages
by building a pipeline to the Mississippi River…. As
California falls deeper into an extraordinary drought, all
three GOP candidates threw shade on Newsom approach of
encouraging conservation. It was one of their most detailed
debate exchanges about water policy to date, yet yielded few
ideas for immediate action.
The award for dumbest idea of the recall election goes to the
rookie Democrat who proposed building a water pipeline from
California to the Mississippi River. It’s nutty economically
and politically. … The wacky proposal seems emblematic of the
nonsensical recall effort itself — the notion of wasting $276
million in tax money on a special election because
opportunistic Republicans want to oust the Democratic governor
one year before his term expires and he must run for reelection
anyway. -Written by George Skelton, LA Times columnist.
As climate-driven drought and wildfires rage in California, the
Biden administration is struggling to navigate the hard
politics that come with deciding who gets access to the state’s
precious — and dwindling — water supplies. … Now the Biden
administration is delaying action on the fundamental question
at the heart of California’s long-running water wars: How much
water should be reserved for species protections, at the
expense of the state’s powerful agricultural industry?
Congressional leaders are calling on President Joe Biden to
declare a drought disaster in the West as record temperatures
and historic wildfires batter multiple states. In letter, Reps.
Joe Neguse of Colorado and Jared Huffman of California,
Democrats whose districts have been ravaged by drought and
wildfires, ask Biden and the Federal Emergency Management
Agency to release additional resources to aid Western
communities faced with water cuts as supplies rapidly dwindle.
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman says
she’d like to see more cooperation from California officials as
talks aim to resolve a legal dispute over competing biological
opinions governing the management of their respective water
projects.
With the state in the grips of a historic drought, reservoirs
in Santa Clara County are at extremely low levels, as seen in a
new video from the county’s water provider. Santa Clara Valley
Water, which provides for and manages the water needs of two
million people in the county, released a new video illustrating
the dire state of the county’s reservoirs. … After 2017, when
the state saw reservoirs in the county were full, Valley Water
said reservoirs are currently at just 12.5% of capacity.
The Sacramento City Council voted on Tuesday to declare a Stage
2 ‘Water Alert’ meant to help reduce the pressure on the Folsom
Reservoir and Lower American River amid the state’s ongoing
drought. During a meeting Tuesday evening, city council also
voted to support the Regional Water Authority’s resolution
calling for a 15% voluntary water conservation from
residents. The decision is in alignment with Gov.
Gavin Newsom’s request in July for residents and businesses to
voluntarily curb water use as the state’s drought
conditions worsen.
It has been a very active monsoon season, especially in
Arizona. However, here in Southern California, we do not expect
much rain during the summer, and the totals we have seen thus
far will not be a drought buster.
After a year of extreme weather, people in the drylands of
northern California and the hurricane-drenched bayous of
southern Louisiana are brooding on the same question: should we
leave? New global research suggests that one of these “water
shock” scenarios is more likely to result in migration. World
Bank researchers found that people are five times as likely to
move following drought conditions as they are after floods or
periods of excess water.
This small town [Mendota] in California’s agriculture-rich
Central Valley advertises itself as the “Cantaloupe Center of
the World.” But as relentless drought punishes California and
the West, the land is drying up and the cantaloupes are
disappearing. Farmers have let large portions of their melon
fields lie fallow as they struggle to get by on dramatically
curtailed water supplies. Some are giving their vines barely
enough water to stay alive in an effort to conserve. In other
cases, fields that have already been planted will never get
harvested because there’s not enough water for the fruit to
survive.
A drought in California has led to a spike in the state’s water
prices, nearly doubling the value of futures contracts for the
essential commodity this year and creating opportunities in
water-related investments. As of Aug. 24, the Nasdaq Veles
California Water Index, which represents the weighted average
price of water-rights transactions across five major markets in
California and is published weekly, has climbed by roughly 87%
year to date to $923.54 per one-acre foot.
Water wells in the Edna Valley used to be shallow: “You could
put a well to 30 or 40 feet. Well that’s just kind of
unrealistic [now],” Edna Valley Growers Mutual Company
President Bob Schiebelhut said. Some of those shallow wells
didn’t make it through the last drought, drying up and forcing
landowners to drill a little deeper. Now in a new drought, Edna
Valley farmers and residents are once again praying for rain,
Schiebelhut said. But they’re also moving forward with SLO
County and the city of SLO on a plan to make their groundwater
more drought resilient.
It’s been a tough year for the Klamath River. The Klamath,
which flows through Oregon and Northern California and into the
Pacific Ocean, is suffering from drought and infrastructure
problems. That’s caused trouble, not just for the fish in the
river, but also for the tribes and farmers who rely on it for
day-to-day living. Drought conditions are so bad this year that
the U.S. Department of Agriculture allocated $15 million to
support farmers who don’t have enough water for their crops.
Klamath Basin tribes are also struggling to feed their people,
but so far they haven’t received such support.
As drought persists in the state of California, the need to
increase water supply reliability is an essential issue facing
water managers. A new report evaluating a pilot program to use
advanced weather and streamflow forecasts to enhance water
storage capabilities at a Riverside County, California, dam
found that enough water could be conserved to supply an
additional 60,000 people per year.
The California State Water Resources Board (SWRCB) has given
the city of Needles $3 million for drinking water
infrastructure, according to a press release. The funding will
support a new drinking well and booster station. The City of
Needles worst fears were realized In July when the only well
that supplies the community with portable drinking water
failed. The city was able to identify the replacement
part and repaired the well within 24 hours.
As discussed in our July 28, 2021, Policy Alert, the State
Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) recently adopted the
Draft Emergency Reporting and Curtailment Regulation
(Regulation), to authorize curtailments of water diversions in
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta). The Regulation
was approved by the Office of Administrative Law and became
effective on August 19, 2021.
