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.
October storms drenched Northern California with several inches
of rain and dusted Sierra Nevada mountains with snow. After
enjoying November’s sunshine, you may be wondering when storm
clouds will return to drought-plagued California. NOAA recently
released its “2021-22 Winter Outlook,” revealing what climate
experts are forecasting with La Nina in effect this December.
This winter’s rainy season is shaping up to be very similar to
last winter, with below-average rainfall predicted for most of
California.
The Central Arizona Project’s governing board took the first
steps Thursday toward approving Arizona’s share of a plan to
save a half-million acre-feet a year of Colorado River water in
order to prop up ailing Lake Mead. The plan, adopted
unanimously by the board, calls for Arizona users of the river
water — mostly those on CAP supplies — to shoulder more than
40% of that total, or 223,000 acre-feet in
2022…. Another 215,000 acre-feet would come from
California water users.
With Fresnans in arrears more than $4 million for utility bills
racked up during the coronavirus pandemic, lawmakers are set to
take action Thursday to recoup that money while instituting a
new water shutoff policy for delinquent residents. Thanks
to Senate Bill 998, which became effective in February 2020,
water shutoffs in California are prohibited for people who have
not paid their bills for fewer than 60 days.
A new study led by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory found that dwindling snowpack across
California and the western United States could shrink
dramatically more — or in some cases disappear — before the end
of the century. The study, published recently in the journal
Nature Reviews Earth and Environment, paints a worrisome
picture of the “potentially catastrophic consequences” of a
future with less snow, including the massive implications it
holds for California’s water supply, as well as rippling
effects on soil, plants, wildlife and even the increased
frequency of wildfire.
There are now two districts in the Bay Area with tough drought
restrictions in place. San Jose Water and Marin Municipal Water
District customers have a choice: cut back on their water
usage, or pay up. KPIX 5 checked in with several of the
water providers throughout the Bay Area to see if they plan on
imposing tougher water restrictions as the drought
continues. The Contra Costa Water District supplies around
500,000 customers in Contra Costa County. The CCWD is not
proposing additional restrictions at this time, according to a
spokesperson.
Despite widespread, intense drought conditions, hydroelectric
power plants in the California Independent System Operator
(CAISO), the grid operator for most of the state, provided a
significant amount of generation from April to September 2021.
Although drought conditions reduced the water supply in
California, hydroelectric generation during this period still
increased in response to the higher average hourly electricity
prices in the late afternoon.
California water regulators will be delivering the bare minimum
of water supplies to the state’s municipalities via the State
Water Project, the Department of Water Resources announced to
water users on Wednesday. For Valley farmers, who hoped for an
ounce of good news related to water supplies heading into 2022,
they will see a zero-percent water allocation from state water
agencies to start the year. It’s the first time in the history
of the State Water Project for officials to kick off a water
year with a zero initial allocation.
Much of Brazil’s vast northeast is, in effect, turning into a
desert — a process called desertification that is worsening
across the planet…. Climate change is one culprit. But local
residents, faced with harsh economic realities, have also made
short-term decisions to get by … that have carried long-term
consequences. Desertification is a natural disaster playing out
in slow motion in areas that are home to half a billion people,
from northern China and North Africa to remote Russia and the
American Southwest.
California needs water and one local water agency wants to take
a big step toward helping counties in danger of going dry. The
Yuba Water Agency could sell and ship billions of gallons of
water to Marin County through a pipeline across a bridge. READ
MORE: Rio Linda Sandwich Shop Owner Recovering From Stabbing
This pipeline would be built across the Richmond-San Rafael
Bridge. There’s no official price tag for this project just
yet, but the Marin Independent Journal estimates it could be
more than $10 million.
Most Americans are aware that much of the West is suffering
unrelenting drought, but they may not recognize how
dramatically broader climatic shifts are affecting farmers’ and
ranchers’ options for the future. … Economists question
whether dairies and feedlots for beef production are now
reaching their breaking points because of the cost of
irrigated hay. The price of water from Central Valley
wells for forage production has now topped $2,000 an acre
foot, compared to $250 an acre foot in the most recent years
when drought and heat waves were not as challenging. -Written by Gary Paul Nabhan, the W.K. Kellogg chair in
food and water security for the borderlands at the University
of Arizona Southwest Center.
The Los Angeles Waterkeeper filed a complaint in the Central
District of California against Senior Operations LLC for
violating the Clean Water Act and California’s Storm Water
Permit. Senior Operations LLC is a Delaware corporation doing
business as Senior Aerospace SSP in Burbank, California,
reported Law Street Media.
$30 billion is coming to California from a bipartisan bill that
Democrats pushed through Congress last month. Most of the
funding will go toward improving highways and roads, which
engineers rank among the worst in the
country. … Senator [Alex] Padilla says the money
will help fund improvement projects along Highway 99 as well as
the 41. The Democrat is calling it an important piece of
legislation that includes priorities to modernize the state’s
utilities, improve internet connectivity in rural areas, and
revamp water infrastructure.
The spread of sudden oak death in Marin and 15 other Northern
California counties has slowed significantly during the state’s
drought, according to researchers. … [Matteo Garbelotto, an
adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley]
said that during this year’s survey, more than 14,000 trees
were surveyed in 16 counties. In Marin, 3.4% of the 777 trees
surveyed were determined to be infected with sudden oak death,
compared with 9.5% in 2020. That is the lowest percentage since
2018, when 2.5% of the trees surveyed tested positive.
California water agencies that serve 27 million residents and
750,000 acres of farmland won’t get any of the water they’ve
requested from the state heading into 2022 other than what’s
needed for critical health and safety, state officials
announced Wednesday. It’s the earliest date the Department of
Water Resources has issued a 0% water allocation, a milestone
that reflects the dire conditions in California as drought
continues to grip the nation’s most populous state and
reservoirs sit at historically low levels.
Despite the wet start to this year’s rain season, Shasta Dam
remains at only 25% capacity. “So three-quarters of the lake is
empty; we need some really significant winter storms
back-to-back-to-back to help fill this lake,” said Don Bader,
the area manager at Shasta Dam. Bader says they would like to
have the dam typically around 60% full during this time of
year. He says the dam depends mostly on rainfall.
The Yuba County Water Agency might sell billions of gallons of
water to Marin County through a proposed pipeline across the
Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Under the proposed agreement, the
agency would be able to sell Marin and the East Bay Municipal
Utility District at least 10,000 acre-feet of water from its
New Bullards Bar Reservoir at an estimated cost of more than
$10 million. Both the Marin and East Bay water districts want
the water to alleviate supply shortages that could continue
into next year in the event of another dry winter.
The City of San José has declared a 15 percent water shortage
and limited the use of sprinkler systems using potable water to
two days per week. The restriction applies to all residents and
businesses regardless of which water retailer serves them. The
City Council approved the drought rules on Tuesday in response
to extreme drought conditions in Santa Clara County. The rules
take effect immediately.
The worsening drought is cause for concern for all. But for
agricultural loan lenders, it’s all about risk management.
Keith Hesterberg, CEO of Fresno Madera Farm Credit, said that
although the experience in dealing with drought hasn’t changed,
the surrounding issues have grown more complicated. … Lenders
need to understand the water basin that growers are operating
in and the underlying diversity of their operations. Water
operations can change year to year depending on the challenges
for the given season.
Homeowners in the Rio Verde Foothills, located north of
Scottsdale, are losing their water access. Soon, residents
there will no longer be able to tap into Scottsdale’s water, as
a result of the city’s new drought management plan. Many
residents have no plan on how they can get water, and some say
they will be forced to move if they cannot get access to water.
Two Southern California ski areas will open this week despite
dry fall weather. Big Bear Mountain Resorts announced that
Friday will be opening day for the general public at Bear
Mountain and Snow Summit. … In the Sierra Nevada, ski
resorts have largely seen postponements of opening days due to
lack of snowfall and warm conditions that have thwarted
snowmaking.
At the November meeting of Metropolitan’s Bay-Delta Committee,
Bay-Delta Initiatives Manager Steven Arakawa briefed the
committee members on recent communications from elected
officials and others regarding the operations of the federal
and state water projects and the voluntary agreements.
California agricultural operations have been significantly
impacted by the wildfires and ongoing, severe drought. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) has technical and financial
assistance available to help farmers and livestock producers
recover. Impacted producers should contact their local USDA
Service Center to report losses and learn more about program
options available to assist in their recovery from crop, land,
infrastructure and livestock losses and damages.
The rural communities surrounding Orland are in a water crisis
in dealing with the drought and drying wells. Over the course
of the past year, the California Department of Water Resources,
the North Valley Community Foundation and Glenn County have
been working together with $8 million in funding to come up
with solutions for the residents facing the crisis. Meetings
were held in October and November for residents in the problem
area who were dealing with water insecurity and dry
wells.
The Sierra Nevada snowpack, a major source of water for
California, could largely disappear in 25 years if global
warming continues unchecked, according to a recent study. The
worrisome findings, published Oct. 26 in the journal Nature
Reviews Earth & Environment, have serious implications for
California’s water supply and add to a growing list of water
woes in the western United States, which remains in the grips
of a decades long megadrought.
In a stark indicator of California’s worsening drought, the
Newsom administration announced Wednesday that cities and farms
should expect to receive no water next year from the State
Water Project, a key system of 21 dams and 700 miles of pipes
canals that provides water to 27 million people from the
Silicon Valley to San Diego.
Daniel Rothberg published a very helpful Q and A with John
Entsminger of the Southern Nevada Water Authority that gets to
the heart of one of the really important discussions now
underway in the Colorado River Basin: Rothberg: You mentioned
not that long ago, testifying in Congress, that “the river
community is far from a consensus about how dry of a future to
plan for.” What are some of the differing opinions right now?
And where are people on establishing that baseline of what the
future looks like for the river?
Though the state’s first informal assessment of four San
Joaquin Valley groundwater plans noted several — sometimes
significant — deficiencies in those plans, groundwater managers
were confident they could bring the plans up to snuff.
… The Department of Water Resources issued letters
on Nov. 18 to the Eastern San Joaquin and Merced subbasins
as well as the Chowchilla and Westlands water districts calling
out problems with those plans. DWR also approved four plans
outside of the valley.
Arizona’s water authorities are close to entering into a new
pact with officials from Nevada and California they hope will
restore water levels at Lake Mead and stave off future
rationing requirements. A Tier 1 Colorado River water
shortage begins in 2022, triggering a mandatory 512,000
acre-foot reduction to Arizona. The emergency stems from the
Lake Mead reservoir reaching water levels not seen since its
construction….Central Arizona Project’s board is scheduled
to consider the proposal Thursday.
With just hours left to go in this month — and no precipitation
in the forecast for Tuesday — downtown Los Angeles is set to
experience its first rainless November in almost 30 years,
according to the National Weather Service. The 11th month of
the year is typically not a wet one for the area, with
downtown’s average just a hair above three-quarters of an inch
on average, NWS said. However, it’s still unusual for there to
be no precipitation at all. In fact, that hasn’t happened since
1992, weather service data showed.
Could climate change destroy the Sierra Nevada snowpack? A team
led by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory says the
snowpack — a critical piece of California’s delicate water
delivery system, not to mention a source of winter recreation
for Northern Californians — could essentially vanish for years
at a time as the warming climate erodes snowfall. The
scientists’ newly-published study doesn’t say snow would
disappear forever. Instead, it predicts that much of the Sierra
would experience five straight years of “low-to-no snow”
starting in the late 2040s.
Though climate continued to polarize Washington, D.C. … there
were at least some encouraging signs west of the 100th
meridian. Take the Colorado River and its tributaries… In
August, federal officials declared the first-ever water
shortage on the Colorado, triggering cutbacks in Arizona,
Nevada and Mexico. The shortage declaration, while
scary-sounding, was the result of a landmark pact in which
Southwestern states agreed to forgo some of the water to which
they’d otherwise be entitled, in an effort to keep Lake Mead
from falling even farther and prompting a true emergency.
Whites Valley is the prime candidate for a 30-year-old dam and
reservoir proposal to tap and store, in the words of the Utah
Legislature, “one of the last major sources of developable
water in the state.” … Whether the Bear River project makes
sense, though, is a focus of intensifying discussion in a
growing state contending with worsening water scarcity. State
authorities want to develop new sources of water. But public
interest advocates assert that spending billions of dollars to
build pipelines to transport water from distant sources is
foolish. Utah, they insist, can do much more to conserve its
existing freshwater reserves.
Despite widespread, intense drought conditions, hydroelectric
power plants in the California Independent System Operator
(CAISO), the grid operator for most of the state, provided a
significant amount of generation from April to September 2021.
Although drought conditions reduced the water supply in
California, hydroelectric generation during this period still
increased in response to the higher average hourly electricity
prices in the late afternoon.
Camarillo’s long-awaited desalter plant will soon begin
treating previously unusable groundwater to convert into
drinkable water for residents and businesses. The city unveiled
the $66.3 million North Pleasant Valley Groundwater Desalter,
located at 2727 Somis Road, at a ribbon cutting before a crowd
of about 100 people on Tuesday.
Water reclamation is vital to Stan State’s mission of
sustainability. Essentially, the way the campus is heated,
cooled, irrigated and powered depends almost entirely on water.
Situated behind Bizzini Hall and next to Village Lake is the
Central Plant, the heart of the water reclamation system on
campus. Nestled within the plant lies an essential piece of the
university’s water puzzle, a computer panel that tracks every
move the reclamation system makes in real time.
October came out on the dry side in much of Arizona. That’s not
surprising: October’s one of the driest months of the year. But
bad news lurks right around the corner — especially for ski
bums and snow lovers. The surface of the Eastern Pacific
continues to cool more than usual — which usually means a dry
winter in Arizona and much of the Southwest…. The
projected dry winter will likely have a big impact on the
Colorado River …. The result will likely extend and deepen
the rationing of Colorado River water next year.
As California experiences a second year of drought, with no end
in sight, the effects on California’s largest-in-the-nation
agricultural industry are profound and perhaps permanent. State
and federal water agencies have cut deliveries to some farmers
to zero while others, thanks to water rights dating back more
than a century, still have access to water. Farmers are
reacting to shortages in three, often intertwined ways —
suspending cultivation of some fields or ripping up orchards
for lack of water, drilling new wells to tap into diminishing
aquifers, and buying water from those who have it. -Written by Dan Walters, a CalMatters columnist.
Bakersfield’s two largest water providers will soon implement
new restrictions to head off the potentially dire impacts of an
extended drought. On Dec. 14, the city of Bakersfield and
California Water Service plan to limit the days customers can
use water for outdoor landscaping. Other restrictions, like no
longer automatically serving drinking water at restaurants,
will also go into effect as officials attempt to meet or exceed
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s call to reduce water usage by 15 percent.
[I]f there’s plenty of water in reservoirs to the East, why not
just move around resources and share the goods as one big happy
country? A candidate in California’s gubernatorial recall
election recently suggested building a pipeline from
the Mississippi River to the Golden State. We asked two drought
experts. It turns out it would be stupidly complicated.
As world leaders gathered across the globe this month to
discuss a climate crisis that is rapidly heating the Earth,
Billy Barr, 71, paused outside his mountainside cabin to
measure snow. His tools were simple, the same he’d used since
the 1970s. A wooden ruler plunged into white flakes
accumulating on his snow board — an old freezer door affixed to
legs of plastic piping and wood — showed two inches.
As Marin County water managers consider building a permanent
$100 million water pipeline across the Richmond-San Rafael
Bridge, a debate has arisen on how often it should actually be
used. The Marin Municipal Water District is leaning toward only
using the 8-mile pipeline if it faces a water shortage
emergency and only using the water for indoor health and safety
purposes, such as cooking and sanitation.
California’s latest state budget recognizes the importance of
nature-based climate measures and increases our commitment to
working with nature. It elevates making ecosystems more
resilient as a key part of our climate strategy. … The
budget includes $3.7 billion for climate resiliency, $1.5
billion for wildfire prevention and $4.7 billion for water and
drought relief. We are allocating $208 million to state
conservancies, including the San Francisco Bay Conservancy, to
expedite wildfire prevention work… -Written by Bob Wieckowski, representing the 10th
District in the California State Senate. He was part of the
California Senate delegation at the COP 26 U.N. Climate Change
Conference in Scotland.
There’s no rain in sight for the San Francisco Bay Area in the
next 10 days, a concerning dry weather spell for a region
plagued by drought. While there are hints of a shift to
wetter and cooler conditions toward mid-December, some
experts say the forecast for rain doesn’t look
convincing.
In fields on the Arizona-California border, farmers draw water
from the nearby Colorado River to grow alfalfa, irrigating
crops as they have for decades. That could change soon. An
investment company has purchased nearly 500 acres of farmland
and wants to strip it of its
water and send it 200 miles across the
desert to a Phoenix suburb, where developers plan to build
thousands of new houses. Similar deals could follow as the
demand for water in the growing Southwest outpaces the
dwindling supply.
This year’s mega-fires may be contained, the fire fronts
extinguished and late flareups tamed by early season rain. But
a secondary disaster has only just begun among the acres and
acres of dead trees left behind. While the giant firestorms of
2017 and 2018 destroyed more homes and killed more people, the
wildfires in 2020 and 2021 killed more trees. And those losses
pose an existential threat to 32 million acres of territory
blanketed by forests and the people who live and work there.
Delegates and activists from nearly 200 countries returned from
the COP26 global environmental forum in Glasgow, Scotland, with
a long list of climate-related promises and targets to discuss
and implement. While many countries made a renewed commitment
to climate-resilient and sustainable agricultural systems, some
groups accused leaders at COP26 of not doing enough to improve
water security globally …. California’s persistent
droughts, for instance, give water conservation methods new
urgency — as the state’s massive agricultural industry accounts
for 80 percent of California’s water usage.
Autumnal rain has sent a surge of Chinook salmon swimming up
Bay Area creeks, a sharp reversal in fortune for an iconic
species that has struggled after years of drought. A living
link between our mountains and coast, the fish responded to
late October’s fierce atmospheric river by rushing up the
region’s once-parched rivers, say biologists, frequenting spots
where they’ve never been seen. … In recent years, populations
of Chinook, also known as king salmon, have collapsed with
astonishing speed — and even this current run is unlikely to
end well if more rain doesn’t come.
Every drop matters, when [Ventura] county is experiencing
‘exceptional drought’ — essentially when you look at the U.S.
Drought Monitor map, it’s the most severe drought The city of
Moorpark is part of the Calleguas Municipal Water District.
Other cities like Oxnard, Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley also
get their water from Calleguas. It adds up to 75 percent of the
county’s residents — that’s over 650,000 people. But that
water supply is challenged.
If you’re truly interested in making a dent in the amount of
water our civilization consumes, sad showers are not really the
way. Flushing the toilet twice doesn’t make much of a
difference in the context of global water consumption, either.
(If there’s an acute drought in your local area, the calculus
is different.) It’s a side dish in a king’s feast when it comes
to confronting our aqua problems. -Written by Jack Holmes, Politics Editor at
Esquire.
One might think a severe drought would be bad news for a
company whose main business is supplying water to residential
and business customers. But — so far, at least — that hasn’t
been the case for San Dimas-based American States Water Co.,
parent company of Golden State Water, a utility that provides
water to customers in the Los Angeles basin and Central
California. In fact, quite the opposite: Investors have sent
American States Water share prices soaring to $96 as of Nov.
19, the highest level in more than five years.
Activity is picking up this week at area ski resorts despite
the lifts remaining idle. Thanksgiving week is traditionally
when many local ski resorts aim to open. Bear Valley Resort up
Highway 4 in Alpine County had initially announced intentions
to open this coming Friday. However, the resort now reports,
“Due to mother nature not cooperating with us and keeping
things warm, our snowmaking has been slowed, and despite giving
our best efforts, we will not be able to open for skiing and
riding this Thanksgiving weekend. At this time, we do not have
a projected opening date.”
The rainy season can be a mixed blessing. If your home garden
landscape is well designed to maximize rainwater storage, then
rain is a blessing. If your landscape is poorly designed, or
has too much impervious surfaces, then rain can be a curse.
Whatever your situation, however, take heart! Small adjustments
can be made to prepare for the next storm, though some projects
will take longer and require work done in the dry season. -Written by Kathy Grant.
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.
