California water regulators strengthened the state’s drought
rules this week, ordering local suppliers to take steps to
reduce water usage to stretch limited supplies this summer.
Gov. Gavin Newsom warned that more stringent statewide water
restrictions could come if the state doesn’t make more progress
on conservation soon. … As part of the new rules, the state
also banned the use of drinking water for irrigating grass that
is purely decorative at businesses and in common areas of
subdivisions and homeowners associations. Here is a
breakdown of what is going on:
Jewish law has a lot to say about what’s supposed to happen
when you die: your lifeless body must be washed and
buried quickly, with a simple headstone to mark your grave. But
nowhere, in 4,000 years of Jewish law, custom or tradition does
it say you need to rest eternally under bright, green grass. As
California struggles with the West’s
longest megadrought in 1,200 years,
emergency water conservation rules are set to take
effect on June 1. Yet cemeteries in L.A., including the three
largest Jewish ones, remain as grassy and green as a Scottish
golf course. -Written by Rob Eshman, national editor of the the
Forward.
Despite being surrounded by water, Bay Area residents are
routinely told during dry years to take shorter showers, let
lawns brown and slow the rush of water from their taps. But as
climate change prolongs drought and challenges local water
supply, regional water managers are warning that none of those
actions will be enough. Many say the time has come to invest in
technically feasible, though politically and environmentally
complicated alternatives like purifying wastewater and sucking
salt out of seawater to bolster stores.
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 responded to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s request for
voluntary water conservation earlier this year by using more,
not less. … Already, residents face sharp new outdoor water
restrictions June 1, and serious doubts over whether those
limits will be enough to cope with a historic water shortage.
It’s a good time to imagine the ideal California of the future,
in which information technology and rational pricing make water
conservation simple, understandable and a common way of life.
Here’s how it should work, as a resident pulls out his or her
phone and at the touch of a button checks the household’s water
use for that day in real time:
Residents in Santa Clara County could face fines of up to $500
— and in extreme cases, $10,000 — for wasting water, under new
drought rules approved Tuesday afternoon that are among the
toughest of any urban area in California. … The new
rules take effect June 1, but depend largely on citizen
complaints and very few “water cops” to investigate
them. Under the rules, residents who see water being
wasted can notify the district of the address and date of
incident by calling 408-630-2000, or emailing
WaterWise@valleywater.org, or reporting online….
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.
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.
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.
California needs more water and renewable energy, and Solar
AquaGrid CEO Jordan Harris is trying to help. … A big
idea is starting with a small stretch of canals in
the Turlock Irrigation District, located just south of
Modesto. This fall, groundbreaking will begin on a pilot
project to build solar panel canopies over existing canals.
… A study from UC Merced concluded that shading all
of the roughly 4,000 miles of California canals with solar
panels could save 63 billion gallons of water every year by
reducing evaporation, while potentially creating about one
sixth of the state’s current power capacity.
California cities are enforcing water-saving measures, summer
heat has crept in early and your lush green grass is probably
starting to wither. As reported by the California’s drought
information system, 40% of the state is experiencing extreme
drought. … In response to the record dryness, the city of
Sacramento is under a “Water Alert,” asking residents to cut
back on water use by 15% and to follow a seasonal watering
schedule. Fines for water waste have doubled. … As you
cut back on watering your home’s lawn, there are ways to still
keep it green.
Local and state water leaders were practically upbeat two years
ago at the last in-person Water Summit put on by the Water
Association of Kern County. At least as upbeat as California
water folks typically get. They advocated for new ideas,
radical partnerships and solutions that could benefit both ag
and environmental interests. That was then. Facing a third year
of punishing drought and the bleak realities of new groundwater
restrictions, the vibe at this year’s summit was more “in the
bunker” than “in it together.”
For Executive Pastor Mark Spurlock, expanding classroom space
at the Twin Lakes Christian School in Aptos has been addition
by subtraction. At least when it comes to saving water.
Following development offset rules outlined by the Soquel Creek
Water District, the school engineered water-saving solutions to
offset the new space they were building including replacing
lawn areas with a drought-friendly plaza that catches and
diverts water routed from nearby rooftops. … To
better understand seawater intrusion, Duncan says the layman
can think of the Santa Cruz area’s aquifer as a giant bathtub
with mountain watershed on one side, and ocean on the other.
Steve Bray lives in Monrovia and is already doing what he can
to save water. He has installed Wi-Fi-connected sprinklers.
… The Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District
worries state’s historic drought will get worse. … The
district actually captures 100% of rainwater and is able to
store it in spreading basins. They use that water during dry
years to deliver it into the drinking water system, but it’s
quickly disappearing.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is urging Californians to find ways to reduce
their water use in an effort to combat the historic drought and
said upcoming conservation mandates are a priority. The
governor visited a water recycling facility Tuesday afternoon
in Carson. It was originally built as a demonstration project
to recycle household wastewater and replenish groundwater
supplies…. Statewide, water consumption is up just 3.7% since
July compared to 2020, woefully short of Newsom’s 15% goal.
Newsom pledged to spend $100 million on a statewide advertising
campaign to encourage water conservation.
A legislative commission is floating the idea of a pipeline to
bring water from the Pacific Ocean into the Great Salt Lake.
“There’s a lot of water in the ocean and we have very little in
the Great Salt Lake,” said Sen. David Hinkins, R-Orangeville,
who co-chairs the Legislative Water Development Commission.
… The study would look at the cost to actually create a
pipeline from the Pacific Ocean, across California and the
Sierra-Nevada mountains, across the deserts of Nevada and
ultimately into the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
San Anselmo has approved a plan to renovate the playing fields
at Memorial Park with phased-in water conservation upgrades.
After being presented with three project options Tuesday, the
Town Council voted 4-1 to combine elements of two alternatives,
but to do the work in stages. The project calls for new grass
and an upgraded irrigation and drainage system to be installed
as soon as possible. A stormwater and grey water harvesting
system and a 100,000-gallon underground water storage tank will
be added later.
John Gamlin’s recent defense of his Coral Mountain wave
basin resort in The Desert Sun (guest column, May 8) fails
to address the main issue. Planning development according to
historic water levels is extremely naive in the desert, and we
have seen this story pan out before. In 1959, the North Shore
Beach and Yacht Club opened on the shore of the Salton
Sea — a massive lake created in the early 1900s when
engineers accidentally flooded the ancient basin with
diverted Colorado River water intended to irrigate the dry,
fertile Imperial Valley. -Written by Sydney Hayes, a student majoring in
environmental studies and economics at Bowdoin
College.
As a young person growing up in Ventura County for the past 19
years, I am no stranger to droughts. Not watering the lawn and
taking shorter showers is simply a part of life in Southern
California. Although water is scarce in Ventura County, there
is currently a direct threat to our drinking water.
Unfortunately, the oil industry wants to profit at the expense
of our precious groundwater that supplies drinking water to
over 400,000 Ventura County residents and irrigation water to
our $2 billion agriculture economy. -Written by Alex Masci, an undergraduate in
environmental studies at UC Berkeley, a coordinator with CA
Youth Vs Big Oil, and a supporter of VC-SAFE.
Everything everyone — by which I mean the wrong ones, the
NIMBYs — says about housing in Southern California is always
wrong. … Fact: Take your average Southland single-family
homestead, raze it and replace it with an eight-unit apartment
building, and you’d be … saving water. That’s because,
even in our xeriscaped age, unless you have Astroturfed your
entire yard, your landscaping uses a lot more water than your
sinks, shower and dishwasher do. -Written by Larry Wilson, a member of the Southern
California News Group editorial board.
There is no end in sight for California’s drought. … I
spoke to [professor of civil and environmental engineering at
UC Davis Jay Lund] via email this month and last. A
lightly edited transcript follows. Francis Wilkinson: When
we spoke last summer, you were optimistic about California’s
capacity to manage drought and still prosper. Since then, the
drought has not gotten better … Are you more worried now or
are you still confident that California has enough water for
its economy and its people? Jay Lund: Most of California’s
economy and people will be fine, despite being affected by this
drought.
Don Bransford has been growing rice in the fertile Sacramento
Valley for 42 years. Not this summer. California’s
worsening drought has cut so deeply into water supplies on the
west side of the Valley that Bransford and thousands of other
farmers aren’t planting a single acre of rice. … It’s
spring in the Sacramento Valley, normally the season for
planting rice. It’s the region’s most important crop, a $900
million-a-year business that employs thousands of workers and
puts Valley agriculture on a global stage.
[R]esidents and businesses across the state are also using more
water now than they have in seven years, despite Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s efforts to encourage just the opposite. … Part
of the problem is that the urgency of the
crisis isn’t breaking through to Californians. The
messaging around water conservation varies across different
authorities and jurisdictions, so people don’t have a clear
idea of what applies to whom. And they certainly don’t have a
tangible grasp on how much a 15% reduction is with respect to
their own usage.
Mandatory water conservation orders in Benicia lifted Thursday
afternoon after a leak inside the city’s water treatment plant
was finally located and repaired. Residents were asked to cut
back on usage by 30% on Sunday, when the leak was detected. A
total of 4.5 million gallons of fresh water was saved over the
four days.
The Woodland City Council received an update on the city’s
planned water supply for 2022 and adopted a resolution
implementing stage two of Woodland’s water shortage contingency
plan. “The state of California is in the third year of a
drought and issued a governor’s executive order in March 2022
requiring urban water suppliers to implement at least stage two
of their water shortage contingency plans,” the city staff
report stated. “Stage two of the WSCP implements a goal of
reducing water use by 20%.”
Why are Utah water restrictions so confusing and seemingly
unfair to residents in one city yet generous to citizens of
another? For example, different cities in the Weber Water Basin
District have different restrictions: In West Haven, a
homeowner is allowed — beginning in mid-May — to water outside
once a week. But in Roy, homeowners can water their lawns and
plants twice a week. Do the state’s and the West’s
ongoing, historic drought play a major part in today’s water
restrictions?
Nearly 4 million Angelenos will be reduced to two-day-a-week
watering restrictions on June 1 under drought rules released by
the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power on
Tuesday. … Under the rules, residents will be
assigned two watering days a week based on their addresses —
Monday and Friday for odd addresses and Thursday and Sunday for
even ones — with watering capped at only eight minutes, or 15
minutes for sprinklers with water-conserving nozzles. No
watering will be allowed between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. regardless
of the watering days.
Despite official calls to increase conservation amid worsening
drought, urban water use across California increased by nearly
19% in March, according to the State Water Resources Control
Board. The startling conservation figure was among a number of
grim assessments water officials offered reporters Tuesday in a
California drought outlook. Others included critically low
reservoir levels and major shifts in the water cycle due to
climate change. … The increase was even greater in the South
Coast Hydrologic Region, which is home to more than half the
state’s population. In this region, which includes Los Angeles,
urban water use increased 26.9%.
Throughout the state, water agencies are telling Californians
that they must seriously curtail lawn watering and other water
uses. We can probably scrape through another dry year, but were
drought to persist, its impacts would likely be widespread and
permanent. … It didn’t have to be this way. We could
have built more storage to capture water during wet years, we
could have encouraged more conservation, we could have more
efficiently captured and treated wastewater for re-use and we
could have embraced desalination. -Written by Dan Walters, CalMatters
columnist.
If you waste water in Santa Clara County, water cops could soon
be on the way. Since last summer, Santa Clara County residents
have been asked to cut water use by 15% from 2019 levels to
conserve as the state’s drought worsens. But they continue to
miss that target — and by a growing amount. In March, the
county’s 2 million residents not only failed to conserve any
water, but they increased use by 30% compared to March 2019,
according to newly released data…. Santa Clara Valley
Water District … is proposing to hire water enforcement
officials to issue fines of up to $500 for residents …
wasting water ….
Amid the historic drought now entering its third painful
summer … the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, has
demanded [millions of homes] cut irrigation by 35 percent
as of June 1. If things don’t improve by September, authorities
say, outdoor water use could be banned entirely. … Since the
restriction warnings began, customers have bombarded the Las
Virgenes water office — one of 26 public water agencies which
operate under the Metropolitan Water District — with angry
phone calls.
Water reuse is a national solution that can be tailored to
address many local challenges. Faced with the worsening
impacts of drought and climate change, the City of Los
Angeles has committed to recycling 100 percent of its
water by 2035. Local recycling will protect the city’s
residents from water shortages caused by diminished rainfall,
natural disasters and competing demands on the Colorado
River. -Written by Craig Lichty, client director
and vice president for Black & Veatch and president of the
WateReuse Association; and Patricia Sinicropi, the
executive director of the WateReuse Association
The Marin Water Board of Directors rescinded the county’s water
shortage emergency declaration and updated its water use rules
this week, adopting new requirements for outdoor irrigation and
swimming pools. …Now that the water emergency has been
canceled, residents are permitted to wash their cars at home,
irrigate golf courses in areas outside of the green or tees,
fill swimming pools but cover them when not in use, and install
new landscaping and irrigation systems. Outdoor irrigation
using overhead spray systems is permitted up to two days per
week; drip irrigation is permitted up to three days per week.
Rolf Schmidt-Petersen knows what can happen when a water
shortage hits: Reservoirs shrink and tempers flare. “We
had people literally throwing rocks, tomatoes when Elephant
Butte went down,” recalled Schmidt-Petersen, director of the
New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission. He was talking about a
2003 deal to release water from a reservoir in southern New
Mexico and drop the lake by about 33 feet to assist farmers in
the state and neighboring Texas. … Decades later, the
2.2-million-acre-foot reservoir, part of the Rio Grande Basin,
contains only about 260,000 acre-feet of water, according to
the Bureau of Reclamation.
Some water use restrictions that were imposed on most Marin
County residents during the drought last year are now set to
become permanent. The Marin Municipal Water District Board of
Directors voted unanimously on Tuesday to continue limiting
sprinkler use to two days per week, which is down from three
days it allowed before it adopted its drought restrictions in
2021. Drip irrigation will be allowed three days a week. All
pool owners in the district must also have a pool cover. These
rules will be part of the district’s list of permanent
conservation rules …
Kudos to Gov. Gavin Newsom for increasing his support for the
$1.4 billion Poseidon Water desalination in Huntington Beach.
… California is thirsty. And another drought is making us
thirstier. … Water authorities already are asking
Californians to cut down on shower times, watering lawns and
washing cars. Gov. Newsom’s “more tools in the tool kit”
approach is the right one.
More than a week after the Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California announced its harshest-ever water
restrictions for millions of residents across the region,
several of the affected water agencies are offering a preview
of how life will change throughout Southland when the rules
kick in June 1. … MWD’s largest member agency, the Los
Angeles Department of Water and Power, has so far offered few
details about how the restrictions will be applied to their
customers, but said more information will be provided in the
coming days.
State water leaders begin the second day of a three-day
conference to address the drought and lack of water in
California. NBC Bay Area’s Laura Garcia spoke with the
executive director of the Association of California Water
Agencies about the issue.
With little hope of reprieve ahead of the warming summer
months, demand for water in parts of drought-stricken
California is outpacing supply. The Metropolitan Water District
of Southern California declared a water shortage emergency last
week for areas that rely on the State Water Project…. The
move is a marked shift in a drought disaster that’s only
expected to deepen with warmer and drier days ahead. Now in the
third year of the drought, supplies across the region are
becoming increasingly strained. Experts say more restrictions
across the state are likely as the effects of climate crisis
unfold faster than expected.
Southern California officials have imposed unusually strict
limits on outdoor water use in response to a water shortage
emergency, effective June 1. So you may need to find an
alternative way to keep your plants from desiccating in the
summer sun. How about irrigating them with grey water instead
of sprinkling them with clean water? Grey water is the water
from faucets, showers, bathtubs, washing machines — anything
that’s not laden with human waste, food or toxic chemicals.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced two measures [Tuesday]
to boost water levels in Lake Powell, keeping them high enough
to continue generating hydropower at the Glen Canyon Dam. Both
moves are being framed as painful but necessary band-aids,
cutting into reserves elsewhere in the region to stave off the
worst effects of a decades-long drought that has sapped the
nation’s second-largest reservoir. One measure will send water
from upstream to help refill Lake Powell. About 500,000
acre-feet of water will be released from Flaming Gorge
Reservoir, which straddles the border between Wyoming and Utah.
Under a state law passed last year that is the first of its
kind in the nation, patches of grass like this, found along
streets and at housing developments and commercial sites in and
around Las Vegas, must be removed in favor of more
desert-friendly landscaping. The offense? They are
“nonfunctional,” serving only an aesthetic purpose. Seldom, if
ever, walked on and kept alive by sprinklers, they are wasting
a resource, water, that has become increasingly precious.
Marin County’s two largest water utilities are working to
narrow down what new sources of supply would provide the most
benefit in droughts. The North Marin Water District presented
findings of a study looking at how to bolster supplies for the
more than 60,000 residents it serves in its greater Novato
service area. The top scorers were projects to enhance the
storage at the district’s Stafford Lake reservoir. Other
options such as desalination, creating new reservoirs, dredging
the lake and a major recycled water expansion were deemed too
expensive or infeasible given the district’s size.
In less than a month, residents in large portions of Southern
California will be under unprecedented water restrictions due
to a worsening drought that has severely limited water
supplies. The biggest change is the requirement from the
Metropolitan Water District that local water suppliers in those
areas, from Ventura County to northwestern L.A. County to parts
of the Inland Empire, limit outdoor watering to once a week.
But behind that is a big cut in water use needed to avoid even
more serious measures. Can we do it? Here’s what we know:
It’s far better to stop a water problem before it starts than
to try to fix it after it appears. We’re seeing that all over
the state, from the rapidly developing Rio Verde Foothills near
Scottsdale to the farming community of Willcox. Those who
thought they could build without water – or who had a well and
surrounding uses sucked it dry – are now in a world of hurt.
Some are hoping that if they create a water improvement
district, it can save the day. This is not a dig on those
efforts, but rather a cautionary tale about what happens when
our development decisions fail to reflect our water
realities. -Written by Arizona Republic columnist Joanna
Allhands.
When the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
this week unveiled its strictest-ever water restrictions for
about 6 million residents, it did so with an urgent goal in
mind: a 35% reduction in water consumption, equating to an
allocation of about 80 gallons per person per day. …But what
does 80 gallons per person look like, and what would it mean
for the daily life of average Californians? For
starters, more brown lawns are a given.
The California Coastal Commission wants San Luis Obispo County
to immediately halt all new water-using development, including
housing, in Los Osos and Cambria. … The Coastal Commission
also sent a letter on the same day to the Cambria Community
Services District (CCSD) notifying that it had violated the
California Coastal Act over more than three decades due to its
water extractions from wells in the San Simeon and Santa Rosa
creek aquifers …
Water officials believe the past three years could end up as
the driest in California’s history. State reservoir levels are
alarmingly low, and measurements of the Sierra Nevada snowpack
are “grim,” the state’s natural resources secretary tells
Lester Holt. The drought is impacting the water supply for
residents and farms, which supply critical crops for the
nation.
Momentum is building for a unique
interstate deal that aims to transform wastewater from Southern
California homes and business into relief for the stressed
Colorado River. The collaborative effort to add resiliency to a
river suffering from overuse, drought and climate change is being
shaped across state lines by some of the West’s largest water
agencies.
California’s extreme drought over the last three years has been
intensified by hotter temperatures, putting strains on the
shrinking reserves in the state’s reservoirs. … Yet even
as the northern third of the MWD’s vast service area faces
unprecedented water restrictions, a different sort of struggle
is underway in Orange County, where a company’s plan to build a
large desalination plant is to face a critical vote next month
before the California Coastal Commission.
Some ideas are so satisfying that you wonder how they haven’t
been done before. Solar canals, which will get their first U.S.
pilot later this year in California, fit that mold. Western
states are crisscrossed by thousands of miles of irrigation
canals, some as wide as 150 feet, others just 10 feet across.
By covering those channels with solar panels, researchers say,
we could produce renewable energy without taking up precious
land. At the same time, the added shade could prevent billions
of gallons of water loss through evaporation.
Major water restrictions are about to take effect in areas
ranging from Rancho Cucamonga to Thousand Oaks, and Baldwin
Park to North Hollywood. But many nearby areas will escape the
mandatory one-day-a-week watering limits — among them Santa
Monica, Long Beach, Torrance and Beverly Hills. Why? The
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has targeted
these first-ever water restrictions for areas that
rely heavily or entirely on the State Water Project — a
Northern California water supply that officials say faces
a real risk of running dry.
Despite a glut of recent rain descending on Sonoma County in
late spring and ratcheting rainfall totals to more than double
last winter’s paltry numbers, the region remains locked in
drought, and local water experts say residents should prepare
for ongoing restrictions. Since last September, Petaluma has
sought to curb the city’s overall water usage by 30% compared
to 2020 numbers, implementing restrictions on water use to help
the city meet mandatory cutback targets set by Sonoma Water,
the region’s primary supplier.
What does Slow Water mean? In our attempt to control water
we’re often trying to eradicate the slow phases and move it a
lot more quickly. We’re putting up levees so that it won’t
settle on floodplains. We’re filling in wetlands so that we can
build or farm on top of them. We’re cutting down mountain
forests that act as water towers, generating water and
releasing it slowly. In all of the cases I looked at, the water
detectives were trying to give water access to its slow phases
again, whether that meant restoring or protecting wetlands, or
reclaiming floodplains, or protecting wet meadows, or in a
city, creating something like bioswales.
Right on time, the Monterey Peninsula, along with the rest of
the region, learned on April 21 how many new housing units the
state not only expects, but will require, it to plan to build
between 2023 and 2031. Historically, for the Peninsula, this
has been as awkward as a relationship between local and state
government can get. The local governments here agree they need
to add housing, yet the region, served by water utility
California American Water, remains under a cease and desist
order from the state that has, for years, barred adding new
water connections.
During Tuesday’s Butte County Board of Supervisors Meeting, the
board heard from Luhdorff and Scalmanaini Consulting Engineers,
who they hired in December 2021 to do a drought impact analyst
study. The results found that for agriculture: Areas that
utilize surface water in normal years pump more in drought
years, as is expected. Total cost of water compared to total
cost of production remains low but may increase in the
future…
Mark Puchalski is the director of facilities with the
Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation. The nonprofit
is integrating a wide range of water-saving technologies into
its buildings, which serve low-income residents in San
Francisco. … “This building uses 50% less water, 51% to be
exact, less water than a building of comparable size and
community … ,” says Puchalski. … Their water
conservation model is so successful it’s being highlighted in a
new sustainability report by the nonprofits SPUR and the
Pacific Institute.
The Metropolitan Water District said Wednesday that the
unprecedented decision to reduce outdoor watering to one day a
week for about 6 million Southern Californians could be
followed by even stricter actions in September if conditions
don’t improve, including a total ban in some areas.
… The MWD’s board has never before taken such a step,
but officials said it became an inevitability after
California’s driest ever January, February and March left
snowpacks shrunken and reservoirs drained.
Would it surprise you to know that California could have all
the water anybody could want, but various government officials
refuse to take the actions that would provide it? Consider, for
example, the recent report by the staff of the California
Coastal Commission about the long-suffering proposal for a
desalination plant in Huntington Beach. The staff recommended
that the commissioners vote to kill the project. Poseidon
Water’s project was first proposed in 1998. -Written by Susan Shelley.
Unprecedented water restrictions are in store for about 6
million Southern Californians, a sign of deepening drought in
counties that depend on water piped from the state’s parched
reservoirs. The Metropolitan Water District’s board voted
unanimously today to require six major water providers and the
dozens of cities and local districts they supply to impose one
of two options: limit residents to outdoor watering once a week
or reduce total water use below a certain target.
Hours from the California coast, surfers are hoping one of the
next spots where they can catch a wave is in the desert. At
least four large surf lagoons are proposed for the region
around Palm Springs, which is more commonly known for art
festivals, mountain hikes and golf, and has no natural waves in
sight. But some environmentalists and residents say it isn’t
water-wise to build large resorts in one of the driest spots in
California during one of its driest periods in recent
memory.
Heading into another brutally dry summer, struggling cannabis
growers in California could be excluded from the state’s latest
assistance plan to save water. A proposal by Gov. Gavin Newsom
would pay farmers to not plant crops, known as fallowing, this
year as drought conditions worsen. The plan with some of
the state’s largest water providers earmarks $268 million in
upfront payments for voluntarily leaving fields uncultivated,
or fallowing.
As California faces a third dry year, the Bay Area’s biggest
water agency may push forward with caps on customer water use,
and fines for those who exceed the limit. The move would put
the East Bay Municipal Utility District among a small, and
perhaps soon-to-grow, number of water suppliers in the region
that have taken the unusual step of compelling households to
cut back, instead of simply encouraging conservation.
Mired in an extreme drought, California lawmakers on Thursday
took the first step toward lowering the standard for how much
water people use in their homes — a move that won’t be enforced
on individual customers but could lead to higher rates even as
consumption declines. California’s current standard for
residential indoor water use is 55 gallons per person per
day…. The California Senate voted 28-9 on Thursday to
lower the standard to 47 gallons per person per day starting in
2025; and 42 gallons per person per day beginning in
2030. The bill has not yet passed the Assembly, meaning it
is still likely months away from becoming law.
Facing a giant hole in her year-old yard, Tania Weingart’s
dream of summer fun in Novato runs deep. But one thing to fill
it is in short supply these days — water. Her water company,
North Marin Water, along with Marin Water, has imposed
drought-related water restrictions that prohibit the filling of
new pools and refilling existing ones. The mandate comes as the
state is asking water agencies to impose restrictions for
residents and businesses to cut water use by 10% among
California residents and businesses as of March 28.
In the Southwestern U.S., the massive Lake Mead Reservoir near
Las Vegas is not as massive as it used to be. The water level
has dropped to near-record-low levels. Drought has reduced the
flow of water into the river, which has forced communities to
cut back. … The water authority targeted the lush green
grass that’s not native to the desert, encouraging people to
remove it. … At first, residents and businesses were
slow to pull up their lawns.
Some drought restrictions imposed on most Marin residents last
year could become permanent, while others could be repealed in
the coming weeks. On Friday, the Marin Municipal Water District
proposed keeping a two-day-per-week sprinkler irrigation limit
in place for good but also rescinding some prohibitions to
allow residents to wash their cars at home or refill their
pools.
Under the blistering sun of Southern California’s Imperial
Valley, it’s not surprising that subsurface drip irrigation is
more effective and efficient than furrow (or flood) irrigation,
a practice in which up to 50% of water is lost to evaporation.
But a recent study also concludes that drip irrigation can
dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from soil –
which contribute to climate change and unhealthy air quality in
the region – without sacrificing yields of forage crops alfalfa
and sudangrass.
Over the past few months, the state has ramped up
communications efforts around the Save Our Water campaign
focused on encouraging Californians to reduce water use as
drought conditions worsen. This week, the campaign rolled out
new content across various multimedia platforms including
social, digital and streaming platforms, out-of-home, and
radio. The multilingual ads communicate the urgent need to save
water and provide actionable steps Californians can take.
The Pacific Institute just released a new
assessment of a set of urban water strategies for
California that offers concrete solutions for saving water
through improved water-use efficiency measures, while boosting
local water supplies by expanding water reuse and capturing
more stormwater that falls on our urban areas. …
[E]fforts have led to a 30% drop in total urban water use
statewide – a remarkable improvement in efficiency! The
new study, however, shows that another 30% savings is possible
simply by bringing California homes, businesses and industries
up to current standards. -Written by Peter H. Gleick, Heather Cooley and
Amanda Bielawski, of the Pacific Institute.
Las Vegas, known for its searing summertime heat and glitzy casino fountains, is projected to get even hotter in the coming years as climate change intensifies. As temperatures rise, possibly as much as 10 degrees by end of the century, according to some models, water demand for the desert community is expected to spike. That is not good news in a fast-growing region that depends largely on a limited supply of water from an already drought-stressed Colorado River.
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.
Californians have been doing an
exceptional job
reducing their indoor water use, helping the state survive
the most recent drought when water districts were required to
meet conservation targets. With more droughts inevitable,
Californians are likely to face even greater calls to save water
in the future.
Even as stakeholders in the Colorado River Basin celebrate the recent completion of an unprecedented drought plan intended to stave off a crashing Lake Mead, there is little time to rest. An even larger hurdle lies ahead as they prepare to hammer out the next set of rules that could vastly reshape the river’s future.
Set to expire in 2026, the current guidelines for water deliveries and shortage sharing, launched in 2007 amid a multiyear drought, were designed to prevent disputes that could provoke conflict.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
Groundwater helped make Kern County
the king of California agricultural production, with a $7 billion
annual array of crops that help feed the nation. That success has
come at a price, however. Decades of unchecked groundwater
pumping in the county and elsewhere across the state have left
some aquifers severely depleted. Now, the county’s water managers
have less than a year left to devise a plan that manages and
protects groundwater for the long term, yet ensures that Kern
County’s economy can continue to thrive, even with less water.
Although Santa Monica may be the most aggressive Southern California water provider to wean itself from imported supplies, it is hardly the only one looking to remake its water portfolio.
In Los Angeles, a city of about 4 million people, efforts are underway to dramatically slash purchases of imported water while boosting the amount from recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater cleanup and conservation. Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 announced a plan to reduce the city’s purchase of imported water from Metropolitan Water District by one-half by 2025 and to provide one-half of the city’s supply from local sources by 2035. (The city considers its Eastern Sierra supplies as imported water.)
Imported water from the Sierra
Nevada and the Colorado River built Southern California. Yet as
drought, climate change and environmental concerns render those
supplies increasingly at risk, the Southland’s cities have ramped
up their efforts to rely more on local sources and less on
imported water.
Far and away the most ambitious goal has been set by the city of
Santa Monica, which in 2014 embarked on a course to be virtually
water independent through local sources by 2023. In the 1990s,
Santa Monica was completely dependent on imported water. Now, it
derives more than 70 percent of its water locally.
In the universe of California water, Tim Quinn is a professor emeritus. Quinn has seen — and been a key player in — a lot of major California water issues since he began his water career 40 years ago as a young economist with the Rand Corporation, then later as deputy general manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and finally as executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. In December, the 66-year-old will retire from ACWA.
There’s going to be a new governor
in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and
new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.
So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?
That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants
during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education
Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.
People in California and the
Southwest are getting stingier with water, a story that’s told by
the acre-foot.
For years, water use has generally been described in terms of
acre-foot per a certain number of households, keying off the
image of an acre-foot as a football field a foot deep in water.
The long-time rule of thumb: One acre-foot of water would supply
the indoor and outdoor needs of two typical urban households for
a year.
Amy Haas recently became the first non-engineer and the first woman to serve as executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission in its 70-year history, putting her smack in the center of a host of daunting challenges facing the Upper Colorado River Basin.
Yet those challenges will be quite familiar to Haas, an attorney who for the past year has served as deputy director and general counsel of the commission. (She replaced longtime Executive Director Don Ostler). She has a long history of working within interstate Colorado River governance, including representing New Mexico as its Upper Colorado River commissioner and playing a central role in the negotiation of the recently signed U.S.-Mexico agreement known as Minute 323.
Nowhere is the domino effect in
Western water policy played out more than on the Colorado River,
and specifically when it involves the Lower Basin states of
California, Nevada and Arizona. We are seeing that play out now
as the three states strive to forge a Drought Contingency Plan.
Yet that plan can’t be finalized until Arizona finds a unifying
voice between its major water players, an effort you can read
more about in the latest in-depth article of Western Water.
Even then, there are some issues to resolve just within
California.
It’s high-stakes time in Arizona. The state that depends on the
Colorado River to help supply its cities and farms — and is
first in line to absorb a shortage — is seeking a unified plan
for water supply management to join its Lower Basin neighbors,
California and Nevada, in a coordinated plan to preserve water
levels in Lake Mead before
they run too low.
If the lake’s elevation falls below 1,075 feet above sea level,
the secretary of the Interior would declare a shortage and
Arizona’s deliveries of Colorado River water would be reduced by
320,000 acre-feet. Arizona says that’s enough to serve about 1
million households in one year.
As California embarks on its unprecedented mission to harness groundwater pumping, the Arizona desert may provide one guide that local managers can look to as they seek to arrest years of overdraft.
Groundwater is stressed by a demand that often outpaces natural and artificial recharge. In California, awareness of groundwater’s importance resulted in the landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2014 that aims to have the most severely depleted basins in a state of balance in about 20 years.
California voters may experience a sense of déjà vu this year when they are asked twice in the same year to consider water bonds — one in June, the other headed to the November ballot.
Both tackle a variety of water issues, from helping disadvantaged communities get clean drinking water to making flood management improvements. But they avoid more controversial proposals, such as new surface storage, and they propose to do some very different things to appeal to different constituencies.
For decades, no matter the weather, the message has been preached
to Californians: use water wisely, especially outdoors, which
accounts for most urban water use.
Enforcement of that message filters to the local level, where
water agencies routinely target the notorious “gutter flooder”
with gentle reminders and, if necessary, financial penalties.
The message is oft-repeated that
water must be conserved and used as wisely as possible.
The California Water Code calls water use efficiency “the
efficient management of water resources for beneficial uses,
preventing waste, or accomplishing additional benefits with the
same amount of water.”
From the Greek “xeros” and Middle Dutch “scap,”
xeriscape was coined
in 1978 and literally translates to “dry scene.”
Xeriscaping, by extension, is making an environment which can
tolerate dryness. This involves installing drought-resistant and
slow-growing plants to reduce water use.
Irrigation is the artificial supply
of water to grow crops or plants. Obtained from either surface or groundwater, it optimizes
agricultural production when the amount of rain and where it
falls is insufficient. Different irrigation
systems are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but in
practical use are often combined. Much of the agriculture in
California and the West relies on irrigation.
This card includes information about the Colorado River, who uses
the river, how the river’s water is divided and other pertinent
facts about this vital resource for the Southwest. Beautifully
illustrated with color photographs.
For over a century, the Klamath River Basin along the Oregon and
California border has faced complex water management disputes. As
relayed in this 2012, 60-minute public television documentary
narrated by actress Frances Fisher, the water interests range
from the Tribes near the river, to energy producer PacifiCorp,
farmers, municipalities, commercial fishermen, environmentalists
– all bearing legitimate arguments for how to manage the water.
After years of fighting, a groundbreaking compromise may soon
settle the battles with two epic agreements that hold the promise
of peace and fish for the watershed. View an excerpt from the
documentary here.
This 30-minute documentary-style DVD on the history and current
state of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program includes an
overview of the geography and history of the river, historical
and current water delivery and uses, the genesis and timeline of
the 1988 lawsuit, how the settlement was reached and what was
agreed to.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
Water truly has shaped California into the great state it is
today. And if it is water that made California great, it’s the
fight over – and with – water that also makes it so critically
important. In efforts to remap California’s circulatory system,
there have been some critical events that had a profound impact
on California’s water history. These turning points not only
forced a re-evaluation of water, but continue to impact the lives
of every Californian. This 2005 PBS documentary offers a
historical and current look at the major water issues that shaped
the state we know today. Includes a 12-page viewer’s guide with
background information, historic timeline and a teacher’s lesson.
A companion to the Truckee River Basin Map poster, this 24×36
inch poster, suitable for framing, explores the Carson River, and
its link to the Truckee River. The map includes Lahontan Dam and
Reservoir, the Carson Sink, and the farming areas in the basin.
Map text discusses the region’s hydrology and geography, the
Newlands Project, land and water use within the basin and
wetlands. Development of the map was funded by a grant from the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region, Lahontan Basin
Area Office.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, illustrates the
water resources available for Nevada cities, agriculture and the
environment. It features natural and manmade water resources
throughout the state, including the Truckee and Carson rivers,
Lake Tahoe, Pyramid Lake and the course of the Colorado River
that forms the state’s eastern boundary.
Water as a renewable resource is depicted in this 18×24 inch
poster. Water is renewed again and again by the natural
hydrologic cycle where water evaporates, transpires from plants,
rises to form clouds, and returns to the earth as precipitation.
Excellent for elementary school classroom use.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
Water conservation has become a way of life throughout the West
with a growing recognition that the supply of water is not
unlimited.
Drought is the most common motivator of increased water
conservation but the gradual drying of the West as a result of
climate change means the amount of fresh water available for
drinking, irrigation, industry and other uses must be used as
efficiently as possible.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study and what its
finding might mean for the future of the lifeblood of the
Southwest.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
agricultural water use – its successes, the planned state
regulation to quantify its efficiency and the potential for
greater savings.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
financing of water infrastructure, both at the local level and
from the statewide perspective, and some of the factors that
influence how people receive their water, the price they pay for
it and how much they might have to pay in the future.
This printed copy of Western Water examines California’s drought
– its impact on water users in the urban and agricultural sector
and the steps being taken to prepare for another dry year should
it arrive.
Perhaps no other issue has rocketed to prominence in such a short
time as climate change. A decade ago, discussion about greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions and the connection to warming temperatures
was but a fraction of the attention now given to the issue. From
the United Nations to local communities, people are talking about
climate change – its characteristics and what steps need to be
taken to mitigate and adapt to the anticipated impacts.
This issue of Western Water examines the continuing practice of
smart water use in the urban sector and its many facets, from
improved consumer appliances to improved agency planning to the
improvements in water recycling and desalination. Many in the
water community say conserving water is not merely a response to
drought conditions, but a permanent ethic in an era in which
every drop of water is a valuable commodity not to be wasted.
Drawn from a special stakeholder symposium held in September 1999
in Keystone, Colorado, this issue explores how we got to where we
are today on the Colorado River; an era in which the traditional
water development of the past has given way to a more
collaborative approach that tries to protect the environment
while stretching available water supplies.
This issue updates progress on crafting and implementing
California’s 4.4 plan to reduce its use of Colorado River water
by 800,000 acre-feet. The state has used as much as 5.2 million
acre-feet of Colorado River water annually, but under pressure
from Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and the other six states
that share this resource, California’s Colorado River parties
have been trying to close the gap between demand and supply.
