The sun was shining again recently when Fidencio Velasquez
visited what used to be 90 acres of prime Ventura County
strawberry fields. He pointed to a 40-foot storage container
that Santa Clara River floodwaters had swept off a neighboring
farm and deposited before him. Overturned tractors and
fertilizer bins were strewn about like toys, while the deep
channels between crop rows were filled with mud. A harvesting
machine was damaged beyond repair. Metal pipes, hoses and trash
littered the farm’s outskirts. … Velasquez, a supervisor
at Santa Clara Farms in Ventura, estimates that the expense of
cleaning up and replacing damaged crops, machinery and
equipment could run upward of $900,000.
U.S. Rep. Josh Harder didn’t have to convince an overflowing
crowd in French Camp this week that the Delta Tunnel is a bad
idea. Instead, the town hall served as a sort of call to arms
for those who do not want to support what many called a “water
grab” by Southern California in the longtime-going war of words
and policies in the fight for ownership of the state’s water
resources. A crowd of more than 150 Wednesday night gathered in
the community room at Health Plan of San Joaquin on Manthey
Road to listen to harder speak about one of the state’s most
studied, talked about and debated issues — water. The hour-long
meeting saw discussions on flooding, water storage and, of
course, the divisive Delta Tunnel, a $16 billion project from
that would divert water from the Delta down to our SoCal
neighbors that is supported by both Gov. Gavin Newsom and the
Department of Water Resources.
Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday joined state and local
leaders at a Los Angeles County site recently upgraded to
increase groundwater retention, where they touted ongoing
efforts to improve drought resiliency across California and
neighboring states. Harris’ visit came on the heels of a series
of storms that battered the state for weeks, causing
fatalities, flooding and extensive damage — but also provided
record-setting precipitation needed in the water-starved West.
Harris said the climate whiplash — from years of severe drought
to pummeling rain — was indicative of the climate crisis,
requiring better preparation for such weather extremes. And
with much of that recent stormwater already flowing into the
Pacific, the situation has renewed calls to change how the
state collects and stores rainwater.
The recent onslaught of storms and the backdrop of relentless
drought might make Los Angeles residents wish we had an
old-school water czar to tap distant rivers. But the days of
having William Mulholland single-mindedly create a system to
quench Los Angeles’ perpetual thirst are long gone. … Still,
as Los Angeles residents watched the winter storms drench the
region with billions of gallons of water — most of which
rushed, unused, to the Pacific — it’s natural to wonder why our
water systems don’t capture that water to use when we need it.
… Adopted by voters in 2018 as Los Angeles
County Measure W, the program is building a network
of small, local rainwater- and runoff-retention projects,
anchored by several larger catch basins that together will
increase by at least a third the amount of water that seeps
into groundwater basins.
There’s a problem with Tijuana’s lifeline to its single water
source – the Colorado River– which forced it make more, costly
emergency water purchases from California. The San Diego County
Water Authority recently learned that problems emerged with
Tijuana’s aqueduct in December, according to a press release
this week. Tijuana requested emergency water from San Diego on
Jan. 2, which the Water Authority expedited through a typical
months-long approval process involving water agencies that also
have to sign-off on emergency orders from Mexico.
Much has been made of two drinking water pollutants recently:
PFAS and microplastics. We spoke with Jason Dadakis, executive
director of water quality and technical resources with the
Orange County Water District, to find out how worried we should
be. What are PFAS and microplastics, why are they in our water
supply, and why should we care? “PFAS” is an acronym for a
large family of manmade chemicals that all feature the
carbon-fluorine bond, one of the strongest bonds in nature.
They resist degradation in the environment, which is where they
get their nickname “forever chemicals.”
“During the dry years, the people forgot about the rich years,
and when the wet years returned, they lost all memory of the
dry years. It was always that way.” Sadly, nothing much has
changed in California and the Salinas Valley since 1952, when
John Steinbeck wrote those words for the opening chapters of
his novel, “East of Eden.” As a result, the atmospheric rivers
drenching the state have been a decidedly mixed blessing. The
rainfall means for the first time in more than two years, the
majority of California is no longer in a severe drought. The
Sierra snowpack is at 226% of average for this time of year,
the largest we’ve seen in more than two decades. Reservoirs are
filling at a rapid rate. … Then there’s the bad news,
starting of course with the deaths of 17 Californians …
When Kitty Bolte looked at her yard at the start of
California’s powerful winter storms, she saw more than half a
foot of standing water behind her house. At first Bolte, a
horticulturalist by trade, contemplated pumping it out onto the
street. But with the historic rains coming in the midst of a
historic drought, that seemed oddly wasteful. So instead, she
and her boyfriend decided to save it. They found a neighbor
selling IBC totes – large 330-gallon plastic containers
surrounded by wire – on Craigslist, and filled them up using an
inexpensive Home Depot pump. They also dragged some spare
garbage cans outside to sit under the downpour, gathering 800
gallons in all. … One inch of rain on a 1,000 sq ft roof
can result in 600 gallons of water – enough to water
a 4 by 8 ft food garden for 30 weeks. In her cisterns,
Dougherty collects much more – 2,000 gallons at a time that are
stored in large plastic vessels that can be closed off.
Emergency water deliveries started last week after a
coordinated effort between the Water Authority, Otay Water
District, and Metropolitan Water District of Southern
California (MWD). The typical multi-month approval process was
compressed into a few days to avoid additional water supply
shortages in Tijuana. … Cross-border emergency deliveries
started more than 50 years ago and are governed by an agreement
between the United States and Mexico to provide Tijuana with a
portion of Mexico’s Colorado River supply. The Water Authority
provides emergency water deliveries to Mexico through a
cross-border connection in Otay Mesa.
Some might think that the recent rain would be good for
Southern California’s farms. But, water has inundated fields,
destroying crops and putting some farmworkers out of work. Some
workers were out in the muddy fields Monday trying to pick
fruits and vegetables as quickly as possible to get them out to
market. Berta Leon works in a strawberry field and says the
fruit can get damaged when the fields get too much water. It’s
a complete loss for the owner of the field, as well as the
workers because they lose out on work. Some workers said while
the rain is welcome, some can’t be out in the fields because
it’s too dangerous.
Across the sun-cooked flatlands of the Imperial Valley, water
flows with uncanny abundance. The valley, which straddles the
U.S.-Mexico border, is naturally a desert. Yet canals here are
filled with water, lush alfalfa grows from sodden soil and rows
of vegetables stretch for miles. … But now, as a
record-breaking megadrought and endless withdrawals wring the
Colorado River dry, Imperial Valley growers will have to cut
back on the water they import. The federal government has told
seven states to come up with a plan by Jan. 31 to reduce their
water supply by 30%, or 4 million acre feet. The Imperial
Valley is by far the largest user of water in the Colorado
River’s lower basin — consuming more water than all of Arizona
and Nevada combined in 2022 — so growers there will have to
find ways to sacrifice the most.
The current wet spell, made up of a parade of atmospheric
rivers, is a welcome change from the last three years of record
dry and warm conditions. For very good reasons, the focus
during these big, early winter storms is first and foremost on
flood management and public safety. There is of course also
great interest in the potential of these storms to relieve
water shortages for communities and farms. What is not always
appreciated is the role of these early winter storms in
supporting the health of freshwater ecosystems. For millennia,
California’s biodiversity evolved strategies to take advantage
of these infrequent, but critical high flow events. Benefits
from recent storms are now being realized throughout the state,
from temperate rainforests of the North Coast to semi-arid and
arid rivers in the south.
Coming into this winter, California was mired in a three-year
drought, with forecasts offering little hope of relief anytime
soon. Fast forward to today, and the state is waterlogged with
as much as 10 to 20 inches of rain and up to 200 inches of snow
that have fallen in some locations in the past three weeks….
The [Climate Prediction Center's] initial outlook for this
winter, issued on Oct. 20, favored below-normal precipitation
in Southern California and did not lean toward either drier- or
wetter-than-normal conditions in Northern California.
… The stark contrast between the staggering amount of
precipitation in recent weeks and the CPC’s seasonal
precipitation outlook issued before the winter, which leaned
toward below-normal precipitation for at least half of
California, has water managers lamenting the unreliability of
seasonal forecasts.
In honor of their contributions to advancing water reliability
in Southern California, the Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California today named two facilities at Lake Mathews
in memory of former board Directors Lois B. Krieger and Donald
Galleano. Family, friends, local elected officials and
community members gathered to dedicate the naming of the Lake
Mathews Multi-Species Reserve in honor of Lois B. Krieger and
the Don Galleano Overlook at Lake Mathews. Both directors
represented Western Municipal Water District during their
service on Metropolitan’s board and also served
as commissioners at the Santa Ana Watershed Project
Authority.
Even in the middle of a cool and wet winter in the Coachella
Valley and California in general, officials of the Coachella
Valley Water District have a blunt message for the desert’s
golf course industry: Take the ongoing drought seriously,
because changes could be coming to water availability sooner
rather than later. … Golf course superintendents and
general managers from throughout the desert listened to
presentations on advances in drought-tolerant grasses and
technological advances that can help save water on the desert’s
120 courses. But Cheng and Pete Nelson, a director of the CVWD,
made the more important presentation on the state of the
Colorado basin and how water from the Colorado River can no
longer be counted on as a long-term solution to irrigation
needs for golf courses or agriculture in the desert.
Up and down the coast, they have endured torrential rain, flood
waters, mudslides, lighting strikes, and downed trees, often
with little more than tents or bridges for shelter. “The water
backed up to my tent, it’s still going,” said Maurice, who
lives in San Francisco and who declined to provide his last
name. “Ninety percent of my stuff is still wet. I’m trying to
salvage the stuff I do need to keep on going.” … The storm
has placed a spotlight on the Golden State’s staggering
inequality, and its decades-long failure to adequately shelter
and support its homeless residents.
A group of Assembly Republican lawmakers gathered on a levee on
the American River in Sacramento to call out the state’s
Democratic leadership for failing to invest in water
infrastructure to aid with flooding and water
storage. Around 22 trillion gallons of rain will fall in
California according to estimates. However, state Assembly
Republicans blame the lack of infrastructure as the root cause
for why most of the water will go uncaptured. … In 2014,
voters supported a water bond that authorized billions of
dollars to go toward state water supply infrastructure and
water storage projects. Since then, no new reservoir or other
water project has been built.
No, California’s drought is not over, not by a long shot. But
weeks of near-constant rainfall have improved the situation
considerably, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor’s weekly
report released Thursday. The map updated Thursday shows most
of the state in moderate or severe drought after about seven
atmospheric river storms swept through the state since
Christmas Day. Only a small portion in the extreme northeastern
portion of the state remains in extreme drought, while the
northwestern corner of the state and much of Imperial County
dropped to the lowest level of drought, termed abnormally dry.
The Sacramento and Central valleys, which were in extreme and
extraordinary drought just three months ago, have seen
conditions improve to severe.
Even as a storms shower California with rain and snow, state
water regulators announced this week that they’re revisiting
their effort to protect Mono Lake from the ravages of drought,
agreeing to review how much water the city of Los Angeles is
taking from the basin and whether it’s too much. The
announcement, which has already begun drawing backlash from
Southern California, comes as the giant salt lake and
ecological curiosity on the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada
has becoming increasingly dry in recent years. The freshly
exposed lakebed has been sending toxic dust into skies and
creating a land bridge to islands where hungry coyotes threaten
to prey on nesting birds.
Vendors at the Ocean Beach farmers market are singing rain’s
praises after a series of storms that have passed through San
Diego. … While farmers say the rain makes their
fruits and vegetables pop, they say it also helps them
save money and the environment. … Pasqual said the
farm he works for could save a couple grand from being able to
turn off the irrigation system. … As California
has suffered through a devastating multi-year drought,
giving irrigation systems a vacation after the rain is a
critical part of much-needed conservation, according to the San
Diego County Water Authority.
