As California enters what is expected to be a fourth year of
drought, the State Water Resources Control Board is reviewing a
request from environmentalists to suspend Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power diversions from Mono Lake in the
Eastern Sierra Nevada. In its request, the nonprofit Mono
Lake Committee argues that the combination of drought and
diversions from streams that feed the lake are exposing the
lake bottom near islands that host one of the world’s largest
nesting gull populations. Unless this is addressed, they
say coyotes will be able to access the islands and
feast on the eggs of 50,000 California gulls.
The city of San Diego and East County leaders have resolved a
months-long dispute over a planned water recycling project,
heading off a potentially expensive court fight over what to do
with the plant’s waste. The two sides are set to sign a series
of agreements early next year concerning the Advanced Water
Purification Project, which is projected to help make the
region less dependent on outside water sources. … The
agreements were approved by the Joint Powers
Authority, the water project’s governing body, on Nov. 17 and
by the San Diego City Council on Dec. 6. … Leaders
of the $950 million water project said the dispute threatened
to delay construction and drive up costs, and they filed a
motion in California Superior Court to seize the
station from San Diego.
This is a re-post from 2019 with updated links for pictures and
further readings. … Collapse of Los Angeles aqueduct pipeline
through Antelope Valley from a major flood in February, 1914
(3-months after the aqueduct’s official opening) “In February,
1914, the rainfall in the Mojave Desert region exceeded by
nearly fifty per cent in three days the average annual
precipitation. Where the steel siphon crosses Antelope valley
at the point of greatest depression, an arroyo or run-off wash
indicated that fifteen feet was the extreme width of the flood
stream, and the pipe was carried over the wash on concrete
piers set just outside the high water lines. The February rain,
however, was of the sort known as a cloud-burst, and the flood
widened the wash to fifty feet, carried away the concrete
piers, and the pipe sagged and broke at a circular seam.
Just days after rain left the city with flooding waters and
streets covered in debris, runoff is also leading to unsafe
swimming conditions along our coast. Right now, there are
currently four beach closures in our region: Imperial Beach
Shoreline, Tijuana Slough Shoreline, Silver Strand Shoreline,
and Coronado Shoreline. The San Diego Department of
Environmental Health and Quality warning beachgoers to stay
away until further testing. Along the Coronado shoreline
water contact warning signs line the sand, alerting beachgoers
to steer clear. … Ringing in the new year with moderate rain
and gusty winds has led to these south swell conditions and
urban runoff across the U.S. Mexico border raising bacteria
levels in ocean and bay water here at home.
Ramona Municipal Water District directors next month will
discuss a proposal to waive water and sewer service fees for
accessory dwelling units built at the same time as a
single-family home. Directors reviewed fees for small accessory
dwelling units, also known as ADUs or granny flats, at their
Dec. 13 meeting. But instead of approving the proposal, they
asked staff to research how other water districts manage the
fees for those types of buildings. The state’s government code
already exempts ADUs from water and sewer fees if they are
added to a property with a single-family home. Going forward,
the water district will consider exempting ADUs from the fees
if they are built simultaneously with a single-family home.
On December 14, NOAA announced recommendations for funding
through the Restoring Fish Passage through Barrier Removal
grant program. In California, NOAA recommended over $21 million
to fund transformational projects across the state that reopen
migratory pathways and restore access to healthy habitat for
fish. Of that total, NOAA recommended more than $13 million
(approximately 60%) for projects led by California Trout, the
largest freshwater conservation organization in California. The
award recommendation would fund two of CalTrout’s fish passage
projects in the Mt. Shasta/Klamath ($9.9 million) and the South
Coast ($3.2 million) regions.
The Water Education Foundation’s seventh edition of
the Layperson’s
Guide to Water Conservation is hot off the
press and available for purchase. With California and the West
in the grip of persistent drought, the guide provides an
excellent overview of the forces driving conservation and the
measures water users are taking to more efficiently use our
most vital natural resource. The 20-page guide covers such
topics as how drought and climate change are affecting
California and the Colorado River Basin, how some Southwestern
cities are stretching supplies, the impact of landscape choices
on water use, how farms are changing to more efficient
irrigation practices, and what homeowners can to do save water.
Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) announced that he
secured over $54 million in federal funding for 24 projects
across the Inland Empire in the bipartisan FY 2023
appropriations package. The bill now heads to both chambers of
Congress for final passage and then on to the President to be
signed into law. “I am proud to have secured funding for
projects in the Inland Empire to provide clean drinking water,
upgrade roads, and make the region more resilient to flooding
and drought,” Senator Padilla said. “This funding will support
local governments and community organizations that work to
directly benefit our neighborhoods. Federal dollars will create
jobs and invest in upgraded infrastructure, community safety,
and the removal of harmful chemicals from water supplies to
improve the quality of life throughout the Inland Empire.”
Managers of California’s most
overdrawn aquifers were given a monumental task under the state’s
landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: Craft viable,
detailed plans on a 20-year timeline to bring their beleaguered
basins into balance. It was a task that required more than 250
newly formed local groundwater agencies – many of them in the
drought-stressed San Joaquin Valley – to set up shop, gather
data, hear from the public and collaborate with neighbors on
multiple complex plans, often covering just portions of a
groundwater basin.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful
days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative
secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a
recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks
were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a
troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible
time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As
administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across
California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay
for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually
spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely
greatest opportunity.”
Explore the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
The lower Colorado River has virtually every drop allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
When you oversee the largest
supplier of treated water in the United States, you tend to think
big.
Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water
District of Southern California for the last 15 years, has
focused on diversifying his agency’s water supply and building
security through investment. That means looking beyond MWD’s
borders to ensure the reliable delivery of water to two-thirds of
California’s population.
A government agency that controls much of California’s water
supply released its initial allocation for 2021, and the
numbers reinforced fears that the state is falling into another
drought. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said Tuesday that most
of the water agencies that rely on the Central Valley Project
will get just 5% of their contract supply, a dismally low
number. Although the figure could grow if California gets more
rain and snow, the allocation comes amid fresh weather
forecasts suggesting the dry winter is continuing. The National
Weather Service says the Sacramento Valley will be warm and
windy the next few days, with no rain in the forecast.
This event explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
Many of California’s watersheds are
notoriously flashy – swerving from below-average flows to jarring
flood conditions in quick order. The state needs all the water it
can get from storms, but current flood management guidelines are
strict and unyielding, requiring reservoirs to dump water each
winter to make space for flood flows that may not come.
However, new tools and operating methods are emerging that could
lead the way to a redefined system that improves both water
supply and flood protection capabilities.
It’s been a year since two devastating wildfires on opposite ends
of California underscored the harsh new realities facing water
districts and cities serving communities in or adjacent to the
state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t just level homes, it
can contaminate water, scorch watersheds, damage delivery systems
and upend an agency’s finances.
To survive the next drought and meet
the looming demands of the state’s groundwater sustainability
law, California is going to have to put more water back in the
ground. But as other Western states have found, recharging
overpumped aquifers is no easy task.
Successfully recharging aquifers could bring multiple benefits
for farms and wildlife and help restore the vital interconnection
between groundwater and rivers or streams. As local areas around
California draft their groundwater sustainability plans, though,
landowners in the hardest hit regions of the state know they will
have to reduce pumping to address the chronic overdraft in which
millions of acre-feet more are withdrawn than are naturally
recharged.
The southern part of California’s Central Coast from San Luis Obispo County to Ventura County, home to about 1.5 million people, is blessed with a pleasing Mediterranean climate and a picturesque terrain. Yet while its unique geography abounds in beauty, the area perpetually struggles with drought.
Indeed, while the rest of California breathed a sigh of relief with the return of wet weather after the severe drought of 2012–2016, places such as Santa Barbara still grappled with dry conditions.
