An already grim situation just got worse for California in this
week’s U.S. Drought Monitor report. ‘Exceptional drought’
expanded in parts of California’s agricultural Central Valley
in this week’s report. That is the most severe of the weekly
update’s four drought categories. The area includes portions of
Kern, Tulare, Fresno, Madera, Mariposa and Tuolumne counties.
The flat region that dominates the central part of the state
has some of the most productive farmland in the country,
including miles of crop fields with fruits, grains, nuts and
vegetables.
Dry conditions and warming temperatures have forced San
Bernardino National Forest officials to institute campfire and
hunting restrictions a month earlier than usual. The rules go
into effect Wednesday. Visitors will not be allowed to
build or maintain any type of fire, including campfires or
charcoal fires, except in a National Forest-provided campfire
ring or barbecue grills in approved areas. The restrictions are
in effect throughout the 820,000-acre national forest with few
exceptions, the forest announced.
California has experienced many drought periods, but in January
2014 the drought situation became sufficiently severe that
then-Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of drought emergency.
Soon thereafter, several laws were added to the Davis-Stirling
Act, Civil Code Sections 4735 and 4736. Civil Code Section 4735
does not allow governing documents to directly or indirectly
prohibit low water-using plants or artificial turf. During a
time of declared drought emergency, under subpart “c” of that
statute, the HOA cannot penalize homeowners for letting their
yards “go brown.” -Written by Kelly Richardson, contributing
columnist.
A group of senators has introduced the Support to Rehydrate the
Environment, Agriculture and Municipalities, or STREAM, Act.
The bill would increase water supply and modernize water
infrastructure throughout the West. The three senators, all
from states affected by the current drought, include Sens.
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Kyrsten
Sinema (D-Ariz.). … Infrastructure improvements and
additions work toward a long-term solution. And it’s important
to think urgently, said the release.
It is mid-May, and a couple of days ago, the Hermits Peak Fire
in northern New Mexico reached 299,565 acres in size,
surpassing the 2012 Whitewater-Baldy Fire as the state’s
largest wildfire on record. … It is mid-May, and a dozen
other fires have already charred tens of thousands of acres
across the West … It is mid-May, and the spring winds have
been relentless … It is mid-May, and the temperature in
Phoenix has reached 105 degrees Fahrenheit two days in a row.
Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer, is Monday. What’s
in store for the upcoming season of beach days and barbecues in
Southern California? To start with, it will be dry. That’s not
just because California’s Mediterranean climate means rain
mostly falls during a few wet winter months, but because the
state is in its third year of drought…. Major reservoirs
statewide were at 76% of average levels this week, with the
long, hot summer months still ahead….This month, 59.64% of
the state is categorized as being in extreme drought, the
second-worst category, with just 0.18% in exceptional drought —
but then this is May, not July.
California’s vast network of surface water reservoirs is
designed to hold carryover storage from year to year to ensure
water is available for urban, agricultural and environmental
purposes during dry months and years. But climate change has
begun to affect our reliance on historical weather patterns to
predict California’s water supply, making it even more
difficult for water managers to manage drought conditions and
placing a greater emphasis on better precipitation forecasting
at longer lead times. Learn about efforts being made to
‘get ahead of the storms’ through new science, models and
technology at our special one-day workshop June 9 in
Irvine, Making
Progress on Drought Management: Improvements in Seasonal
Precipitation Forecasting.
The Orange County Water District and the City of Garden Grove
began operating one of four treatment plants being constructed
in Garden Grove to remove per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances
(PFAS) from local well water. PFAS are a group of thousands of
manmade, heat-resistant chemicals that are prevalent in the
environment and are commonly used in consumer products to repel
water, grease and oil. Due to their prolonged use, PFAS are
being detected in water sources throughout the United States,
including the Orange County Groundwater Basin, which supplies
77% of the water supply to 2.5 million people in north and
central Orange County.
For two winters in a row, La Niña has steered desperately
needed rain and snow storms away from the U.S. Southwest,
exacerbating a decades-long drought that has shriveled
reservoirs and spurred horrific wildfires. Now, hopes that the
climate pattern would relent and allow moisture to rebound next
winter have suffered a serious blow. La Niña — Spanish for “the
girl” — persisted through April, and there’s a 61 percent
chance she’ll stick around for a third winter, according to the
latest monthly update from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.
As drought and climate change tighten their grip on the
American West, the sight of fountains, swimming pools, gardens
and golf courses in cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los
Angeles, Salt Lake City, Boise, and Albuquerque can be jarring
at first glance. Western water experts, however, say they
aren’t necessarily cause for concern. Over the past three
decades, major Western cities — particularly in California and
Nevada — have diversified their water sources, boosted local
supplies through infrastructure investments and conservation,
and use water more efficiently.
Californians can expect to see more yellow grass around
hospitals, hotels, office parks and industrial centers after
water regulators voted Tuesday to ban watering of
“nonfunctional” turf in commercial areas. The State Water
Resources Control Board also moved to order all the state’s
major urban water providers to step up their conservation
efforts. The moves are the strongest regulatory actions state
officials have taken in the third year of the latest drought.
Environmentalists advocating new state restrictions on oil and
gas drilling have seized upon confirmation last week that two
idle wells were leaking methane near a residential area in
northeast Bakersfield decades after they were improperly
abandoned. Details remained sketchy Monday, including how much
gas the wells were emitting and for how long. … Late
last month, California officials outlined plans for doing more
to cap the state’s orphan oil and gas wells using $25 million
in federal money they said will help them prioritize work in
populated areas most vulnerable to methane leaks and
groundwater contamination.
The lowly sidewalk tree often stands invisible. We rest in its
shade, bask in the scent of springtime flowers, and we don’t
notice it until it’s gone. But the tree works hard. It captures
and filters stormwater runoff and helps replenish groundwater.
It cleans our air and cools our neighborhoods. It improves our
mental health. It saves lives. With Southern California
officials clamping down on outdoor water use amid worsening
drought, the message is clear: It’s fine for lawns to go brown,
but we need to keep trees alive and healthy.
Maria Herrera had about a quarter left in her last five-gallon
water jug. On that April afternoon, though, spotty water
service returned to the 67-year-old woman’s apartment, before
the jug emptied. If it hadn’t, that was all she had left to
bathe, do housework or drink. Herrera lives in Villas de Santa
Fe, a neighborhood of cookie-cutter apartment blocks on the
rapidly growing outskirts of Tijuana. Baja’s state water
agency, called CESPT, shuts off her water at least once a week,
she said. Last summer, Herrera said she went six days with dry
taps.
Engineers at UC Riverside are the first to report selective
breakdown of a particularly stubborn class of PFAS called
fluorinated carboxylic acids (FCAs) by common
microorganisms. Under anaerobic conditions, a
carbon-carbon double bond is crucial for the shattering the
ultra-strong carbon-fluorine bond by microbial communities.
While breaking the carbon-carbon bond does not completely
degrade the molecule, the resulting products could be relayed
to other microorganisms for defluorination under in aerobic
conditions.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday warned major water agencies to show
better conservation results or face mandatory statewide water
restrictions as California heads into its third summer of
severe drought. The threat is a sign of Newsom’s growing
impatience with the state’s failure to reduce urban water use,
as he has requested since last year. In fact, people have been
using more. … Newsom also said the state will closely monitor
the situation over the next 60 days, and he told the agencies
to submit water use data more frequently to the state and to
step up outreach and education efforts to communicate the
urgency of the crisis to the public.
Outdoor watering restrictions area set to take effect in Los
Angeles at the end of the month, and the prospect of an
improvement in drought conditions appears dim. Just how bad is
the drought? According to state figures, the first three months
of the year were the driest in the state’s recorded history.
California is currently in the third year of a
drought. Wade Crowfoot is the state secretary for natural
resources. The one resource he oversees that we all use is
water. According to his agency, the drought is getting worse,
not better.
More than half a dozen wildfires broke out across California in
a 48-hour span late last week, an unsettling picture of what’s
to come as temperatures warm and drought conditions worsen this
summer….Today and tomorrow, gusty winds, low humidity and
unseasonably hot temperatures are creating high fire risk
across an inland swath of California between Redding and
Sacramento.
San Diego County lagoons and wetlands may get more funding for
protection and restoration under the Resilient Coasts and
Estuaries Act, introduced Tuesday by Reps. Mike Levin, D-San
Juan Capistrano, and Brian Mast, R-Fla. The bill would
authorize $60 million per year through 2026 for the Coastal and
Estuarine Land Conservation Program, which distributes money to
preserve the “conservation, recreation, ecological, historical,
and aesthetic values of estuaries,” Levin stated. That funding
could support conservation of local wetlands, including the San
Mateo Creek, San Luis Rey River, San Elijo Lagoon and others…
The central and upper Midwest, Texas and Southern California
face an increased risk of power outages this summer from
extreme heat, wildfires and extended drought, the nation’s grid
monitor warned yesterday. In a dire new assessment, the North
American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) described regions of
the country pushed closer than ever toward energy emergencies
by a combination of climate change impacts and a transition
from traditional fossil fuel generators to carbon-free
renewable power.
