A historic drought is spreading across California and much of
the American West. How bad is it? Which places are most
affected? What does it mean for our water supply and wildfire
risk? These 10 maps and charts tell the story.
MWD’s most recent assessment concluded that there will be
enough supply to meet projected demand through 2045, even if
that period includes five consecutive drought years. This is
the result of more than a century of planning, investment,
engineering and policy. However, it has become increasingly
apparent that climate change is a wild card looming over both
imported supply and the water that Southern California agencies
can draw from local sources.
San Diego is just one city among many in the country’s most
arid regions facing the ongoing threat of long-term drought.
Western water agencies continue working to not only conserve
water, but to also reuse as much wastewater as possible,
including from the stable supply [Direct Potable Reuse]
promises. As San Diego discovered decades ago, making DPR a
reality entails — along with regulatory and permitting changes
— trying to overcome the “yuck factor.” Today, despite its
“toilet-to-tap” hurdle, San Diego is now intent on becoming the
first city in California to convey treated effluent directly
from factory to faucet.
Across the U.S. West, shifting climate patterns are wreaking
havoc. An early start to fire season is scorching rural Oregon
and parts of Northern California. Record temperatures have led
to deaths of hundreds of residents of Seattle and Portland,
Ore. Lake Mead, the massive Colorado River reservoir outside
Las Vegas, is at its lowest point since its 1935 federal
construction, threatening water supplies to Arizona, Southern
California, Nevada and Mexico. In Arizona, 99% of the land
is undergoing years-long drought that has accelerated. Large
swaths of the region are now in extreme distress and the
picture may well get worse…
At least 162 oil refineries and other petroleum-holding
facilities in California have likely stored or used materials
containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a class
of synthetic chemicals that persist indefinitely in the
environment and are linked to severe illnesses, according to
state water regulators. The California State Water Resources
Control Board sent a letter to facility operators in March
ordering them to submit work plans evaluating the presence of
the toxic compounds at their facilities, including areas where
PFAS are stored or disposed of and the potential ways the
chemicals could have contaminated soil, surface water, storm
water and groundwater …
Well-known local radio DJs Geena the Latina from Channel 93.3,
Beto Perez from Jam’n 95.7 and Tati from Star 94.1, are teaming
up with the San Diego County Water Authority this summer to
thank San Diegans for using water wisely and are encouraging
residents to keep our region drought-safe. While drought
conditions persist across the western U.S., San Diego County
has reliable water supplies thanks to investments made by the
region’s ratepayers, the Water Authority and its member
agencies.
The state government’s decision to provide $18 million to fund
preliminary work on state and federal approvals for the
long-anticipated San Vicente Energy Storage Facility —
advocated by the San Diego County Water Authority and the city
of San Diego — makes the $1.5 billion project significantly
more likely to come to pass. The great news is that the “pumped
hydro” facility at the San Vicente Reservoir near Lakeside will
strongly shore up available energy supplies at night after
solar power is no longer directly available.
Desalination projects in the San Diego area could get millions
in federal funding under a bill Rep. Mike Levin introduced
Tuesday. The Desalination Development Act would provide $260
million over five years for desalination projects across the
country, including Oceanside’s Mission Basin Groundwater
Purification Facility, which converts brackish flows into
potable water, said Levin (D-San Juan Capistrano). It also sets
environmental standards for projects that get federal funding,
with requirements for energy efficiency, wildlife protection
and water conservation.
Environmentalists are pressing forward with a fight to
protect a small fish that inhabits desert
springs and streams in California’s Death Valley region. The
Center for Biological Diversity on Friday announced it
has filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service to seek Endangered Species Act protection
for three populations of speckled dace, a minnow-like
species that evolved to live in dry areas. The fish is
threatened by excessive groundwater pumping for farms and
residential development and geothermal energy
development, they say.
Now, with the looming threat of sea level rise and a
state desperate for solutions, conservationists and a
growing movement of researchers say restoring these dunes could
provide a much-needed buffer from the water. These overlooked
features of the coast could help buy communities a bit more
time — before the ocean pushes inland and reclaims
the land. Most of these ideas remain untested in
California. Pilot projects like the one in Malibu are starting
with a concept so simple it seems radical: If these degraded
ecosystems were just given the space to regrow, could they come
back to life?
Several Los Angeles County beaches near Dockweiler State Beach
continue to exceed state standards for bacteria in water,
according to the Department of Public Health. However,
special water sampling conducted Friday determined water
quality levels returned to state standards at the Hyperion
Water Reclamation Plant outfall at Dockweiler State Beach and
the Topsail Street extension at Venice Beach, lifting warnings
there.
The Bureau of Reclamation launched a new web portal today that
provides real-time drought-related information and details of
drought actions taken in collaboration with stakeholders and
partners. The science-based web portal is designed to increase
public and media understanding of drought conditions and the
all-of-government efforts to mitigate these conditions by the
Biden-Harris administration.
A review of 170 years of water-related successes in California
suggests that most successes can be traced directly to past
mistakes. California’s highly variable climate has made
it a crucible for innovations in water technology and
policy. Similar water imperatives have led to advances in
water management in other parts of the world. A close
look at California’s water model suggests that “far-sighted
incrementalism” is a path to progress.
On a recent Monday morning, Nick Araya was standing beneath an
exhausted-looking jacaranda tree in the East Los Angeles
neighborhood of Montecito Heights. It was just after 8 a.m.,
and the sun was already blazing. Araya is a master arborist and
the owner of TreeCare LA, a company that services trees around
the city. As the drought continues to wreak havoc on
California, trees are under stress. Araya and his team were
outside a family house to cut down the dead jacaranda and
perform some damage control on a coast live oak.
High bacteria levels at beaches near the site of a massive
sewage discharge in Playa del Rey have prompted Los Angeles
County health officials to issue a warning about going in the
water. The L.A. County Department of Public Health did not rule
out a link between the 17-million-gallon sewage release from
the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant on July 11 and the rise in
bacteria. But a connection was “unlikely,” given the currents
and the more than two weeks that have elapsed since the
incident, the department said.
In Fort Bragg on the Mendocino Coast, city leaders are rushing
to install an emergency desalination system. In Healdsburg,
lawn watering is banned with fines of up to $1,000. In
Hornbrook, a small town in Siskiyou County, faucets have gone
completely dry, and the chairman of the water district is
driving 15 miles each way to take showers and wash
clothes. So far, California’s worsening drought has been
an inconvenience in big cities. But it’s already imperiling an
alarming number of communities, especially between the Bay Area
and the Oregon border, threatening the water supplies for more
than 130,000 people.
Throughout the nation and around the world, purple pipes pulse
with water that has gone down drains and been treated for reuse
in landscaping, agriculture and commerce. Irvine Ranch Water
District was the mastermind behind that color: leading the
charge in the early 1980s to certify a standard for pipes
carrying recycled water, to distinguish them from drinking
water systems. But how did it happen? It’s a colorful story of
IRWD leadership, creativity and humor — centered around an
engineer who sees much of the world in neutral tones.
As more communities impose water use restrictions because of
the drought, the California Coastal Commission is likely to
vote on a controversial proposal later this year that could
ease water worries for millions of Orange County residents.
After decades of debate, Poseidon Water just needs approval
from the commission to begin the construction of a desalination
facility in Huntington Beach that would produce 50 million
gallons of drinking water per day.
Rain fell on San Diego Monday. It wasn’t a lot of rain – an
Accuweather forecast called for “a brief morning shower or two”
with an anticipated rainfall of 0.01 inches. But it was enough
to prompt a beach closure at the Tijuana Slough, just south of
Imperial Beach. That section of the beach is closed whenever
the Tijuana River is flowing. Cross-border sewage spills have
been an issue in South County for decades.
It sounds like the plot of a post-apocalyptic movie: Water
thieves roaming scorched terrain in search of nature’s most
precious resource. But in California, water theft is a massive
reality with numbers that are hard to comprehend — and as
droughts increasingly afflict the state, so does the extent of
this illegal activity. Over 12 billion gallons of water have
likely been stolen in California since 2013, John Nores — the
former head of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Marijuana Enforcement Team — recently told CNN.
