California’s climate, characterized by warm, dry summers and mild
winters, makes the state’s water supply unpredictable. For
instance, runoff and precipitation in California can be quite
variable. The northwestern part of the state can receive more
than 140 inches per year while the inland deserts bordering
Mexico can receive less than 4 inches.
By the Numbers:
Precipitation averages about 193 million acre-feet per year.
In a normal precipitation year, about half of the state’s
available surface water – 35 million acre-feet – is collected in
local, state and federal reservoirs.
California is home to more than 1,300 reservoirs.
About two-thirds of annual runoff evaporates, percolates into
the ground or is absorbed by plants, leaving about 71 million
acre-feet in average annual runoff.
As farms and communities along the Russian River feel the brunt
of the worsening drought, state regulators suspect that some
people have been siphoning off water illegally. … It
seems that some of the water released is not getting all the
way down to Healdsburg, and state regulators think some people
up river might be cheating.
A two-decade-long megadrought along the Colorado River is
pushing seven Western states and parts of Mexico into a formal
shortage declaration, forcing water delivery cuts to the
Southwest that are just the beginning of the pain climate
change promises to bring to the region. Climate scientists and
water managers have long seen this declaration coming, but
what’s alarming them is the speed with which the hot and dry
conditions over the past four years have shrunk the river’s two
main reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, to levels not seen
since they were first filled.
The State Water Resources Control Board (“State Water Board”)
issued emergency regulations on August 3, 2021, authorizing
Board staff to curtail diversions and require informational
reporting from water users in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
watershed (“Delta Emergency Regulations”). The regulations,
which are expected to be finalized by the Office of
Administrative Law in the coming days, set parameters for
information gathering and determination of supply and demand in
the watershed as well as the issuance of curtailment orders
upon determination of water unavailability.
When Stuart Woolf was growing up on his dad’s ranch in Huron,
California, he never liked working the tomato harvest. “I
thought, ‘I am never going to do this.’ Everything was kind of
wet, hot and stinky,” Woolf said. These days, though, now
as president of the 20,000-acre ranch, Woolf is prioritizing
tomatoes over some of his other crops, like cotton and almonds,
since they’re relatively less water-intensive. With the drought
desiccating California’s Central Valley, farmers like Woolf are
having to reevaluate their business models based on how much
water they can afford.
Western water scarcity is prompting big law firms in the
Colorado River Basin to advise their clients to pursue
conservation measures — but also to buy more water. A projected
shortage and first-ever water cuts announced Monday by the
Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation means that cities,
industry, and commercial businesses need to prepare for the
likelihood the current 21-year megadrought in the region
represents a “new normal.”
Southern California’s powerful water agency on Tuesday issued a
supply alert, calling on the region to conserve vital resources
and prepare for continued drought — a move that brings the
state’s largest population center closer to the tough water
restrictions imposed on communities elsewhere. The move comes
one day after U.S. officials declared the first-ever water
shortage on the Colorado River, which is a key source of
water for the region.
Only one water storage project remains a possibility in
California seven years after voters approved a bond to build
more dams. Sites Reservoir is the last proposed project
standing. State Senator Jim Nielsen of Red Bluff has spent
years fighting to build Sites Reservoir in Northern California.
It’s a $5-billiion project creating 1-point-8 million acres
feet of water storage.
In response to worsening drought conditions, the board of
Southern California’s regional water wholesaler will consider
declaring a Water Supply Alert that calls upon residents to
voluntarily conserve the precious resource. According
to officials with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern
California (MWD), Southern California’s water supply has been
severely impacted by extreme drought in both the Northern
Sierra and the Colorado River, saying crucial storage
reservoirs have never been lower.
It’s looking increasingly likely the U.S. will see La Niña
conditions this winter, something that could spell bad news for
an already parched Southern California. As of Thursday, NOAA’s
Climate Prediction Center says there’s a 70% chance that La
Niña returns for a second straight winter, this time between
the period of November 2021 and January 2022. As such, a La
Niña Watch has been issued by the agency. So what does that
mean for winter weather?
In California’s water world, long dominated almost exclusively
by men, women are blazing a path — sometimes straight to the
top. … Karla Nemeth [director of California’s Department
of Water Resources] … said law and engineering
backgrounds used to be strictly prioritized in water, but the
field is opening up to other disciplines and collaborative
skills. Nemeth, arguably one of the state’s most powerful water
leaders, helms DWR, which manages California’s water resources,
infrastructure and systems.
Pistachios have recently become perhaps the top choice for
institutional investors in Kern County agriculture, apparently
surpassing almonds. Farmland brokers say prices and demand for
local pistachio orchards — the few properties listed for sale,
anyway — have increased since about 2019 because of the
trees’ longevity, crop price stability and higher tolerance for
limited and lower-quality water supplies.
The federal government on Monday declared a first-ever water
shortage on the Colorado River, announcing
mandatory cutbacks next year that will bring major
challenges for Arizona farmers and reduce the water
allotments of Nevada and Mexico. The declaration of a shortage
by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has been anticipated for
months and was triggered by the spiraling decline of Lake Mead,
which stores water used by Arizona, Nevada, California and
Mexico.
Included in the sweeping $1 trillion infrastructure bill
approved by the Senate is funding for Western water projects
that farmers, water providers and environmentalists say are
badly needed across the parched region. … The plan would
provide $1.15 billion for improving water storage and transport
infrastructure such as dams and canals. Groundwater storage
projects, which replenish underground aquifers that aren’t
vulnerable to evaporation, would also get funding.
U.S. officials on Monday are expected to declare the first-ever
water shortage from a river that serves 40 million people in
the West, triggering cuts to some Arizona farmers next year
amid a gripping drought. Water levels at the largest
reservoir on the Colorado River — Lake Mead — have fallen to
record lows … underscoring the acute water challenges
for a region facing a growing population and a drought that is
being worsened by hotter, drier weather brought on by climate
change.
Contra Costa County was hit by two lawsuits Thursday, a month
after the Board of Supervisors approved a boundary change to
allow construction of 125 homes in protected open space near
Danville. In a controversial decision on July 13, the
supervisors voted 4-1 to stretch the urban limit line east of
Blackhawk so developers could build the homes on 30 acres in
the Tassajara Valley. … [East Bay MUD] has
maintained for years that it doesn’t have enough water to
supply the homes…
Napa Valley Country Club golf course is lush and green, thanks
to the purple pipe. A two-year drought is helping to
boost Napa County’s recycled water use to record levels. The
Napa Sanitation District wastewater treatment plant provides
enough non-potable irrigation water annually to fill St.
Helena’s Bell Canyon reservoir and more. Napa Valley Country
Club in rural Coombsville started piping water from the plant
six miles away in late 2015. That allows it to depend less on a
well in an area where groundwater levels have long been a
concern.
Anti-government activists seemed primed for a violent clash
with federal authorities this summer in the Klamath Basin along
the California-Oregon border. The federal Bureau of Reclamation
had shut off water for most of the region’s 1,400 farms,
denying access to the same irrigation canal in Klamath Falls,
Ore., where during a drought two decades earlier, activists
tried to pry open its headgates and clashed with U.S.
marshals.
It’s hard to know how much to panic over California’s dwindling
water supplies. The state has never really had enough water,
after all, yet lawns in Beverly Hills somehow remain
perpetually green. Earlier this month, however, came a sign
that life might soon be getting more uncomfortable for more
Californians. -Written by Francis Wilkinson, Bloomberg opinion
editor.
Like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — arid nations
with limited water supplies — California should consider
banning or limiting the cultivation of water-intensive crops.
At a time of severe water shortages, it makes sense to end the
cultivation for export of crops like almonds and alfalfa, a
plant mostly used to feed cows. Where does the world get 80
percent of its almonds? The Golden State. Where does Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (and Japan and China) get
much of their alfalfa? You guessed it. California. -Written by San Diego U-T columnist Chris Reed.
As a measure of both the nation’s creaking infrastructure and
the severity of the drought gripping California there is the $5
shower. That’s how much Ian Roth, the owner of the Seagull Inn,
a bed-and-breakfast in this tourist town three hours north of
San Francisco, spends on water every time a guest washes for
five minutes under the shower nozzle. Water is so scarce in
Mendocino, an Instagram-ready collection of pastel Victorian
homes on the edge of the Pacific, that restaurants have closed
their restrooms to guests, pointing them instead to portable
toilets on the sidewalk.
We are looking at back-to-back La Niña winters, and while
forecasters tried to keep us optimistic about the chances of
average rainfall last winter, we all know how that turned out.
So we should brace ourselves for another year of this drought.
Forecasters at the Climate Prediction Center issued an update
Thursday giving a 60% chance that another La Niña pattern will
form — and this same forecast was given last year, only to be
updated the second week of September to say, “Yep, La Niña is
here.”
Officials in Lower Colorado River Basin states want to slow the
decline of Lake Mead’s water levels over the next few years by
paying Southern California farmers not to plant crops. It’s not
a plan that Bill Hasencamp, manager of Colorado River resources
for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California,
considers a “drought buster,” but it will reduce lake level
decline by up to 3 feet over the next three years, he said.
We are carefully assessing long-term options like desalination,
and weighing a myriad of factors including cost, timing,
environmental issues and how much additional water supply each
project may provide. During all of this careful consideration,
the Board of Directors has not lost the sense of urgency.
Reliably providing high-quality water to our customers is our
charge, and it is a charge not taken lightly. As we
continue to evaluate projects to secure additional water
supply, constructing a pipeline across the Richmond-San Rafael
Bridge has emerged as a strong option to increase Marin Water’s
supply long-term. -Written by Larry L. Russell, vice president of the
Marin Municipal Water District Board of Directors.
Due to technical difficulties the Bureau of Reclamation
re-announced today ongoing congressionally mandated contract
conversions pursuant to the Water Infrastructure Improvements
for the Nation Act. Today’s release includes draft repayment
contracts from the Central Valley Project Delta and Friant
contractors for a 60-day public comment period. These represent
seven of over 80 repayment contract conversions requested by
federal CVP contractors.
The Santa Claus of water rolls through this foggy coastal
hamlet in a silver and white truck, bringing joy and relief.
Wayne Jones refills water tanks for residents and businesses
whose wells have gone dry. A bespectacled bald man with a
majestic white goatee, he moves quickly and speaks sparingly.
Amid Mendocino’s worst drought on record, people are
increasingly desperate for the private water hauler’s help.
Mendocino has no municipal water system. All businesses and
homes rely upon wells — some hand-dug in the 1800s. But rain
has been scant. Underwater aquifers are depleting. Wells are
running dry.
As drought conditions worsen, public officials in Southern
California are beginning to take steps to conserve dwindling
resources. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern
California — one of the largest water distributors in the
nation — is weighing whether to declare a supply alert for the
first time in seven years, officials said. And one of its
customers, the city of Glendale, this week implemented new
mandatory conservation requirements for its residents.
As Stanislaus creates a framework to spend millions of dollars
on improving county islands and urban pockets, there’s
disagreement among residents on how and where the money should
be invested. Some community leaders want housing to be the
priority, others are desperate for water. … People living in
unincorporated county islands in Stanislaus have long gone
without basic needs. Dark streets, unpaved sidewalks, lack of
sewer and potable water systems are everyday realities for many
residents.
California’s salmon are suffering massive
die-offs this summer because of the excessive,
reservoir-draining water deliveries authorized by these
biological opinions. And Secretary Haaland has now had 90 days
times two for her review. It is time for her to act. Join us
in telling the Secretary that she must no longer
delay reversing the damage done by these Trump biological
opinions by reinitiating consultation now and putting strong
protections in place while new permits are being drafted.
If you’ve eaten sushi anywhere in the U.S., chances are the
rice came from California’s Sacramento Valley. Fritz
Durst, a sixth-generation farmer, has grown the grain and other
crops there for more than four decades. But this year, amid a
historic drought, Durst is planting only half as many acres of
rice as usual. … Farmers like Durst would be having an
even worse year if it weren’t for water siphoned from the
Sacramento River to irrigate fields. Those diversions, though,
have dire consequences for another part of the sushi supply
chain: The salmon industry.
In the American West, water has always been a challenge. Prior
to the arrival of European explorers and settlers, there’s
broad evidence that droughts and water cycles heavily affected
Native Americans. For example, the people who built the Gila
Cliff Dwellings may have left the area when water supplies
dwindled. Later settlements by the descendants of Europeans
also followed water, with settlements placed near rivers so
there would be something to drink and grow food with.
Organic farmer Al Courchesne of Frog Hollow Farm in Brentwood
walks through rows of his aromatic stone fruit orchard, showing
off sweet nectarines that thrive in the microclimate and rich
soils in his corner of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
Weighing on his mind is the drought … Courchesne
is among several thousand water rights holders in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta watershed who could have
supplies shut off in response to drought emergency curtailment
regulations adopted last week by the State Water Resources
Control Board.
Join us for a Sept. 9 virtual journey into
California’s most critical and controversial water
region in the state, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and
learn how the drought is impacting water quality and supply.
The Delta, a 720,000-acre network of islands and canals,
supports the state’s two large water systems – the State Water
Project and the federal Central Valley Project – and, together
with the San Francisco Bay, forms an important ecological
resource.
In part one of this article, I covered the American West’s
water problems, as well as some of the ways they have been
solved with big engineering projects so far. Now, with climate
change and growth both pushing the limits of water supplies,
people are asking for even bigger projects, like a pipeline
from the Mississippi River to somewhere in the Colorado River’s
basin. Let’s talk about those ideas, even bigger ones, and why
none of them might be a good idea. -Written by Jennifer Sensiba, a long time efficient
vehicle enthusiast, writer, and photographer.
A harvester rumbles through the fields in the early morning
light, mowing down rows of corn and chopping up ears, husks and
stalks into mulch for feed at a local dairy. The cows won’t get
their salad next year, at least not from this farm. There won’t
be enough water to plant the corn crop. Climate change, drought
and high demand are expected to force the first-ever mandatory
cuts to a water supply that 40 million people across the
American West depend on — the Colorado River.
In recent decades, wildfire conflagrations have increased in
number, size, and intensity in many parts of the world, from
the Amazon to Siberia and Australia to the western United
States. The aftereffects of these fires provide windows into a
future where wildfires have unprecedented deleterious effects
on ecosystems and the organisms, including humans, that depend
upon them—not the least of which is the potential for serious
damage to municipal water supplies.
Just as the National Weather Service predicts no relief in
sight, neither do population analysts foresee a reduction of
the numbers of new arrivals that will drink, cook with, bathe
in, irrigate or flush with the increasingly scarce water
normally available for everyday activities. … Whether
California residents heed Newsom or whether visitors pay
attention to their lodgings’ pleas to consume less water is
beyond anyone’s control. But controlling the millions of future
water consumers pouring across the Southwest border is well
within the federal government’s power. -Written by Joe Guzzardi, an analyst with
Progressives for Immigration Reform.
In a year already plagued by the pandemic and wildfires,
Californians are also entangled with the crippling effects of a
drought. For example, the drought has lowered Lake Oroville’s
level to its lowest level in nearly 44 years, impacting
recreation and wildlife. A shuttle boat ferries people back and
forth across Lake Oroville. Now, it’s the only way to get to
the houseboats on the water.
In a strong bipartisan vote Tuesday of 69-30, the Senate
advanced the bipartisan infrastructure bill and sent it back to
the House. The INVEST in America Act spends roughly $1 trillion
including $110 billion for roads and bridges, $65 billion to
expand broadband access, and $17 billion for ports and inland
waterways. In the days leading up to the vote the American Farm
Bureau Federation as well as members of the Agricultural
Transportation Working Group urged lawmakers to support the
bipartisan infrastructure bill, which would increase
infrastructure spending by $550 billion over five years.
The City of Roseville is going underground to tap into drinking
water as its primary source dries up during the drought. They
have a plan to supply water to more than 50,000 homes. For
years, Roseville relied almost exclusively on surface water
from Folsom Lake for drinking water. But that can be tricky and
near impossible, considering previous and current droughts —
plus studies showing the impacts of climate change.
Whenever politicians are asked about the California water wars
that threaten our well-being in Modesto and Stanislaus County,
eventually the talk gets around to something like, “Well, you
know what we really need is more water storage.” As in dams,
mostly, and also off-stream reservoirs holding water captured
in wet years for use in dry ones. They say something
similar when reporters ask about drought, and sometimes about
wildfires and climate change. -Written by Garth Stapley, Modesto Bee columnist.
Moving to provide immediate support to communities facing water
supply challenges, the Department of Water Resources (DWR)
Wednesday announced the first round of funding commitments
for $200 million available through the Small Community Drought
Relief Program. DWR, in coordination with the State Water
Resources Control Board, is directing $25 million to 10 small
water systems in Tulare, Siskiyou, Shasta, Lake and Kern
Counties.
The Senate on Tuesday approved an expansive bill to rebuild the
nation’s aging roads and bridges, with $8.3 billion
specifically targeted to water infrastructure projects in the
West and billions more to fund national projects to mitigate
the impact of wildfires. … That includes $1 billion for
water recycling systems and more than $1 billion for water
storage and groundwater storage projects to take advantage of
wet years.
If the Colorado River were a bank account, it would be running
toward the red. The river, the lifeblood for several Western
states, is being squeezed by overuse and plunging supply — as
temperatures stay on the upswing year after year, and thirsty
soils rapidly absorb the bulk of moisture from a dwindling
annual snowpack. The conclusion is “inescapable,” Colorado
River District Manager Andy Mueller said Monday.
A new player has entered the legal fray over the Kern River —
the public. Actually, it’s a consortium of Bakersfield and
other nonprofit, public interest groups that hope to sway the
state Water Resources Control Board to, ultimately, re-water
the mostly dry Kern River through town. The Flowing Kern
Coalition made its debut Tuesday when it filed a notice of
intent to appear at an upcoming proceeding on the Kern River.
The welcome arch across Modesto’s main street proclaims,
“Water, wealth, contentment, health.” In essence, water, the
first word, directly leads to the following benefits. The same
formula applies to Marin. Now it’s the scarcity of water that
endangers our county’s ability to enjoy the benefits of wealth,
contentment and health. The entire American West is enduring a
drought of epic proportions. The globe’s climate will only get
warmer in the next 50 years. Marin is late preparing for that
eventuality. Doing so isn’t impossible but it comes with a
hefty price tag and can’t happen overnight. -Written by Dick Spotswood, Marin IJ columnist.
In a year already plagued by pandemic and wildfires,
Californians are also entangled with the crippling effect of
drought. … In 2017, hundreds of thousands of lives were
threatened when massive flooding damaged the Oroville Dam.
Today, changing weather conditions have created a stark
contrast from years ago: Hot temperatures and low rainfall have
left miles of dusty, cracked shorelines exposed.
In a multi-agency meeting on the state of
California’s drought conditions, state officials painted a
broader picture on water allocation, lack of available water
and what the Golden State is facing in the months and years to
come. Officials expect record low water levels across the
state, especially for Oroville and San Luis Reservoir. …
[T]he state is at 58% of average reservoir storage as a whole
for this time of year. … Climatologists say it’s too
early to tell if it’s going to be a wet or dry year during
winter time circulations. A lot of what happens is affected by
the jet stream.
The circumstance we find ourselves in today is a prime example
of why we need to build Sites Reservoir now. Just a few years
ago, in 2017 and 2019, we experienced a series of atmospheric
river events that produced so much runoff that it overtopped
our flood control system … If Sites Reservoir had been in
place during that time, not only could we have avoided many of
those flooding impacts, but we also would have captured and
stored much of this excess runoff for use in a dry year like we
are currently experiencing. -Written by Robert Cheng, assistant general
manager of the Coachella Valley Water District, and Charley
Wilson, executive director of the Southern California
Water Coalition.
Today, Ducks Unlimited (DU) announced an agreement to deliver
10,000 acre-feet of water to mitigate severe drought conditions
at the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Tulelake, Calif.
The agreement comes after the hydraulic analysis by the Bureau
of Reclamation (BOR) led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(USFWS) to recommend the diversion of water to save the only
standing unit of wetland habitat in either Lower Klamath or
Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuges this year.
Buried in an hours-long State Water Resources Control Board
hearing recently was the admission that California experts
overestimated the spring inflow by 800,000-acre feet. Put
another way, the state banked on water that never came. That
admission, coupled with public policy that favors environmental
uses of water over human needs, led to California’s recent
curtailment of the most senior of water rights – a private
property right that once had value in California and threatens
to ripple far and wide.
The “bathtub ring” at Lake Mead has become a familiar sight.
The water level in the lake is the lowest it has been since the
Hoover Dam, which created the lake, was built in the 1930s.
Those low levels have been decades in the making. … The
record low levels mean that later this month the federal
government is expected to declare an official water shortage on
the Colorado River which feeds Lake Powell. That shortage
declaration will mean a 20% cut in Arizona’s allotment of
Colorado River water.
Nations have delayed curbing their fossil-fuel emissions for so
long that they can no longer stop global warming from
intensifying over the next 30 years, though there is still a
short window to prevent the most harrowing future, a major new
United Nations scientific report has concluded. … At 1.5
degrees of warming, scientists have found, the dangers
grow considerably. Nearly 1 billion people worldwide could
swelter in more frequent life-threatening heat waves. Hundreds
of millions more would struggle for water because of severe
droughts.
Water restrictions in Northern California have prompted
protests from a Hmong community, who say the ordinance has led
to discrimination and a rise in racial tension in the area. The
Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously last
week to hold a third hearing about the ordinances, which were
passed as emergency measures in May. … But many Hmong
residents, many of whom belong to the area’s large farming
population, said the policies disproportionately affect their
community and have led to racial profiling by local
authorities.
Virtually all almonds in the U.S. are produced in a 20,000
square mile area in the middle of California. The hot and dry
Mediterranean climate there helps produce $17 billion worth of
crops every year. … Temperatures rarely dip below
freezing and historic rain levels have created rich soil,
providing an environment suitable for almond growth.
… Some researchers are starting to look north and ask:
Could the Potato State become a hub for
almonds? University of Idaho researchers
are finding commercial production could thrive here.
Tourists flock by the thousands to the coastal town of
Mendocino for its Victorian homes and cliff trails, but
visitors this summer are also finding public portable toilets
and signs on picket fences pleading: “Severe Drought. Please
conserve water.” Hotels have closed their lobby bathrooms and
residents have stopped watering their gardens in the foggy
outpost about 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of San Francisco
after two years of little rain sapped many of the wells
Mendocino depends on for potable water.
In July, Gov. Gavin Newsom asked Californians to reduce
residential water usage by 15% to help combat the drought. Back
in 2015, then-Gov. Jerry Brown asked for a 25% reduction. A
year later, residential water usage was down 24.5%. But now,
some Californians who made those impactful changes half a
decade ago — ripping out lawns, replacing old toilets and
showerheads, letting the Prius develop a tactile layer of dirt
and dust before hitting the car wash — are stumped as to how to
cut back any more without risking a body odor apocalypse on top
of the climate one.
An obscure farm-irrigation agency in the San Joaquin Valley,
the Panoche Water District has been struggling with a
monumental scandal the past three years, with top officials
under criminal indictment for embezzling public funds and
illegally dumping toxic waste. It turns out the district has
also been allegedly taking water from the federal government.
Earlier this year Panoche agreed to pay the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation nearly $7.5 million to compensate for “unauthorized
diversion of water” from two federal canals, according to a
settlement agreement obtained by The Bee.
Senators were laboring Sunday toward eventual passage of
a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package, resigned
to stay as long as it takes to overcome Republican holdouts who
want to drag out final votes on one of President Joe Biden’s
top priorities. The bill has won widespread support from
senators across the aisle and promises to unleash billions of
dollars to upgrade roads, bridges, broadband internet, water
pipes and other public works systems undergirding the
nation.
The Bureau of Reclamation and the California Department of
Water Resources announced a public negotiation session with
seven Cross Valley contractors on a long-term conveyance
contract for delivery of federal Central Valley Project water
through state-owned facilities. Reclamation, DWR, and the
contractors have previously entered into successive, short-term
interim renewal contracts pursuant to the Central Valley
Project Improvement Act, which included both federal water
service and state conveyance terms and conditions.
There will undoubtedly always be some folks who believe the
myth that building new dams and reservoirs will be a silver
bullet that solves California’s water supply challenges.
The reality, of course, is that California already has
constructed nearly 1,400 dams and reservoirs, and compared to
the excessive and unsustainable demand for water in our state,
new dams and reservoirs provide little water – at high
cost. And of course, most dams and reservoirs have had
devastating impacts on our native fish and wildlife, and the
Tribes, fishing jobs, and communities that depend on their
health.
Lawmakers and water utilities in the West are urging residents
to conserve water as reservoirs hit record lows amid climate
change-driven megadrought. Among the calls to action is a
reminder for residents to make choices that lessen use of
municipal water when it comes to maintaining landscaping in
desert surroundings. About 30% of water usage for the
average American family is used for the outdoors, such as
watering lawns and gardens, according to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency.
A thick, white band of newly exposed rock face stretches high
above boaters’ heads at Lake Powell, creating a sharp contrast
against the famous red desert terrain as their vessels weave
through tight canyons that were once underwater. It’s a stark
reminder of how far the water level has fallen at the massive
reservoir on the Utah-Arizona border. Last year, it was more
than 50 feet (15 meters) higher. The level at the popular
destination for houseboat vacations is at a historic low amid
a megadrought engulfing the U.S. West.
In the hopes of having at least 20,000 acre-feet of water
remaining in Lake Mendocino by Oct. 1, the California State
Water Resources Board this week ordered about 1,500 water
rights holders to stop diverting water from the Russian River.
However, if the current rate of outflow from the reservoir
continues, the lake could reach 20,000 acre-feet by Aug. 23,
said Elizabeth Salomone, general manager of the Russian River
Flood Control & Water Conservation Improvement District.
Seeking to stave off legislation that would force Riverside
County representation on its board of directors, the Imperial
Irrigation District on Thursday convened the first meeting of
its new Coachella Valley Energy Commission. Undera
long-term agreement with the Coachella Valley Water District,
IID provides electrical power to 100,000 Coachella Valley
residents. That pact expires in 2033, and the
new commission’s overarching goal is to hammer out a way
forward for those customers.
When it comes to California’s worsening drought, Santa Clara
County residents are falling far short in conserving water. On
June 9, the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the county’s
main wholesale water provider, declared a drought emergency and
asked all 2 million county residents to cut water use by 15%
from 2019 levels as local reservoirs dropped alarmingly and
state and federal water agencies reduced water deliveries. But
new numbers out Friday show that instead of hitting the 15%
target, residents saved 0% in June — essentially using the
same amount of water as they did in June 2019.
When hit suddenly by wildfire this week, people in Colfax
responded the way many in towns on the verge of being evacuated
from their homes often do. They turned on their sprinklers to
dampen property and broke out their garden hoses to spray down
their homes and rooftops. Then, the Placer County Water Agency
(PCWA) issued an urgent plea during the fire crisis for
residents to conserve water.
Shasta Lake is at about 30 percent of capacity, the lowest it’s
been at this time of year since 1977. KRCR spoke with Bureau of
Reclamation Area Manager Don Bader on a windy morning on top of
Shasta Dam. He says a water schedule is set in February and
adjusted as necessary. The release from Keswick Dam is about
8,000 cubic feet per second (CFS). Normally it would be 12,000
CFS. The reason that much water is flowing downriver is for
freshwater fish in the delta and agricultural diversions.
In July, the number of dry wells registered in Klamath County
was at 84. A month later, that number has climbed to 185 as
wells from the California state line all the way to Crescent
and La Pine are getting low and going dry. There are likely
more unregistered dry wells in Klamath County. The county
watermaster’s office said they receive daily calls from well
owners asking how to register. And the Modoc County Sheriff
shared a PSA on Facebook explaining what to do if someone in
that county is without well water.
We’d like to set the record straight in response to the recent
guest commentary in the Village News titled: “San Diego County
must not suffer if Fallbrook and Rainbow leave Water Authority”
by San Diego County Water Authority board members Mel Katz and
Keith Lewinger. First, it is the ratepayers of Fallbrook and
Rainbow who have been suffering – over the past 10 years, they
have overpaid nearly $50 million to the Water Authority
compared to the benefits they’ve received. -Written by Jennifer DeMeo, board president of
the Fallbrook Public Utility District, and Hayden
Hamilton, board president of the Rainbow Municipal Water
District.
While recent commentary saddled the state with all the blame
for the lack of drinking water in Teviston, local jurisdictions
in the San Joaquin Valley must also accept responsibility.
Small water systems are caught between the historic legacy of
discriminatory policy, dropping groundwater levels caused by
overpumping, and chronically failing water systems. Local
governments have long resisted providing aid to these
communities or initiating processes that could require nearby
systems to provide water, particularly when those solutions may
impact wealthier neighbors.
California doesn’t have enough water to meet all demands even
in wet years, and when drought strikes the competition becomes,
to put it mildly, intense. State and federal officials who must
ration the restricted supply are beset with pleas from farmers,
municipal water systems and advocates for the environment.
However, water managers must also contend with a bewildering
array of water rights, some of which date to the 19th century,
as well as long-standing contractual obligations and laws, both
statutes and judicial decrees, on maintaining flows for
spawning salmon and other wildlife. -Written by Dan Walters, CalMatters columnist.
In the valleys of central California, the search for water has
turned into an all-out obsession as the region suffers
through a drought that could threaten the US’s food
supply. Residents have watched with dismay as verdant
fields turned into brown, dusty plains, leaving shrivelled
trees, dying plants and frustrated farmers. Much of
California, and of the broader US West, has suffered through
years of lighter-than-usual precipitation and a particularly
dry winter.
The Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board has
appointed Jayne Joy as its new executive officer. Joy replaces
Hope Smythe, who devoted 37 years to the regional board and
served as executive officer since 2017. … Joy, an engineer
who was promoted in July, was the regional board’s assistant
executive officer since November 2017. Since earning a
bachelor’s degree from the University of California, San Diego
in chemical engineering, she has managed a broad array of
environmental programs in Southern California in the areas of
water and wastewater treatment, groundwater studies and
remediation, and solid waste management.
Bureau of Reclamation Deputy Commissioner Camille Calimlim
Touton today named Jacklynn (Jaci) L. Gould as regional
director for the Lower Colorado Basin Region. Gould has more
than 29 years of experience with Reclamation. … As regional
director, Gould will lead over 800 employees in the region,
which encompasses the last 700 miles of the Colorado River to
the Mexican border, southern Nevada, southern California, and
most of Arizona. She will oversee hydropower operations and
maintenance for 15 facilities …
As the state copes with yet another severe drought and a
challenging fire season, a new PPIC survey on Californians and
the Environment finds that Californians are increasingly
concerned about drought and water supply. More than ever
before, they also recognize that climate change is worsening
drought and wildfires in the state, and they broadly support
the state taking action on climate change. Drought, wildfire,
and climate change round out the top three environmental issues
that most concern Californians.
They are land rich and resource poor. Most have hundreds of
acres of fertile soil, some thousands, but little money in the
bank and – most importantly – no water. Now the young farmers
of the Klamath Basin, an agricultural community on the border
of Oregon and California, fear they might be the last
generation of their kind. … The area has struggled with
water scarcity for years – but this year has been unlike any
other. Amid a historic drought, in May the federal government
cut off all irrigation to farmers for the first time in more
than a century…
A record hot summer has laid bare a stark new reality for many
states on America’s West Coast: Amid rising temperatures and
worsening droughts, many will need to systematically rethink
the way they manage limited water supplies. … Washington
state’s official climatologist, Nicholas Bond told Zenger
that rising temperatures were impacting year-round water supply
levels by melting the state’s mountain snowpack earlier than in
past years.
Large water agencies like Denver Water and Aurora Water say
they do have ongoing conservation efforts they take seriously,
but that fast population growth on the Front Range overwhelms
potential savings and they need new water storage. It
would be much better for Colorado’s environment, the
conservation groups respond — not to mention cheaper — to
acquire water by using less of it, rather than spending
billions of dollars on dams and diversions of Western Slope
water.
The California Department of Water Resources begins
construction on Castaic Dam’s tower access bridge in Los
Angeles County to reduce seismic risks during a major
earthquake. … Work on the over 500-foot-long bridge
consists of strengthening the three bridge piers and installing
various components to the bridge superstructure to allow for
controlled movement during a seismic event. Each pier will be
encased with a reinforced fiber wrap compound, which requires
the temporary drawdown of Castaic Lake that began in early
May.
California is in the early stages of its latest drought, one
that could worsen as another dry year continues across much of
the Golden State. With calls from Gov. Gavin Newsom and
regional agencies like Santa Clara Valley Water District for
15% water use cutbacks, residents are looking for ways to
conserve at home and work. Despite the need for broad
conservation, however, water parks in the South Bay remain
open, full of visitors seeking a refreshing cool down from the
region’s frequent summer heat waves.
The Redding City Council approved the 2021 Water Transfer
Agreement with the city of Shasta Lake. The approval, given at
the council’s meeting on Tuesday night, paves the way for the
sale of up to 120 acre-feet of Redding’s water to Shasta Lake
at a cost of $328 per acre-foot.
The largest crop grown in the United States is not corn.
Farmers grew corn on just a paltry 14,281 square miles in
2019. It pales in comparison to the largest crop
estimated at 63,000 square miles — lawns. Experts
indicate lawns in the United States collectively would almost
cover the state of Texas. Lawns are a crop that humans
cannot eat. Except for lawns that are in parks, sports field,
and golf courses the only real purpose they serve are for eye
candy. -Written by Dennis Wyatt, Manteca Bulletin editor.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack stressed innovation
and collaboration Thursday as he visited a Fresno County farm
dealing with California’s drought. … Vilsack’s visit
comes the same week the State Water Resources Control Board
imposed an “emergency curtailment” order covering the
rivers of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed —
essentially the entire Central Valley.
Regulators on the water resources control board, which oversees
the allocation of the state’s water, voted unanimously on
Tuesday to stop diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta, a vast watershed sprawling from Fresno to the Oregon
border. … But the timing of the order, which will take
effect in two weeks, could spare many growers from
hardship as the greatest agricultural demand on the watershed
tends to fall in late spring and summer …The order, which
could affect as many as 5,700 water rights holders,
includes exceptions for uses such as drinking, sanitation and
generating electricity.
In the vast tract of wilderness that is the Boundary Waters
area of northern Minnesota, kayakers still ply the glasslike
surface. But they do so beneath a smoke-clogged sky, with no
campfires to warm them on chilly summer nights. In
California’s wine country, backyard gardeners still harvest
lush tomatoes and nurture feathery lavender. But they must use
water recycled from sinks and showers, risking hefty fines
should they dare run the hose amid crushing drought.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate
Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development,
applauded the inclusion of California water priorities in the
Energy and Water funding bill for fiscal year 2022, which was
advanced out of committee today.
A “mega-drought” across the Southwest will force the federal
government to declare a water shortage on the Colorado River
this month. The decision would be historic for the watershed,
which serves 40 million people in seven states: California,
Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming. The
river system provides irrigation that turns desert into
farmland and is an important source of drinking water and
hydroelectric power.
Unprecedented drought conditions have forced state water
regulators to take the drastic step of officially suspending
water rights along the Russian River. Sam Boland-Brien
with the state water board said conditions have continued to
worsen in the Russian River watershed and the orders formally
direct those who have longtime permission to divert water from
the Russian River to stop, because there is no longer enough
water to support their water right.
The Water Committee of the City of Trinidad has announced a
drought notice for its residents. Trinidad draws about 2
million gallons of surface water each month from Luffenholtz
Creek and processes it for about 323 water customers. Surface
water flow of the creek has been steadily decreasing since
June. … If creek water flow were to decrease further,
mandatory restrictions of water use would be enforced.
Two droughts in the last decade mean a rough ride for ranchers
who are selling off cows to survive. The cost of meat is sky
high during COVID but that money is being spent on the supply
chain in the form of labor at meatpacking plants. It’s not
trickling down to meat producers. But now the drought is drying
up animal feed. … Casey Stone and his family operate
Yolo Land and Cattle Company in the hills of Esparto. They run
more than 600 cows and calves and manage 7,500 acres. Two
droughts in the last 10 years and multiple wildfires are
hitting hard. Stone is about to sell off 30 to 40 percent
of his herd.
California regulators cut off thousands of farmers from their
main irrigation supplies Tuesday, banning them from pulling
water from the state’s main rivers and streams as the drought
worsens. The State Water Resources Control Board, following
hours of debate and comment, voted 5-0 to impose an “emergency
curtailment” order covering the rivers of the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta watershed — essentially the entire Central
Valley. It’s the most dramatic step taken to date by state
regulators since the drought was officially declared in most of
California’s counties — and surpasses any of the moves made
during the previous drought.
A historic drought is spreading across California and much of
the American West. How bad is it? Which places are most
affected? What does it mean for our water supply and wildfire
risk? These 10 maps and charts tell the story.
As California grapples with the effects of an ongoing drought,
UC Berkeley researchers are studying changes in the magnitude
of streamflows and drought-induced tree mortality in order to
advise climate change policy.
MWD’s most recent assessment concluded that there will be
enough supply to meet projected demand through 2045, even if
that period includes five consecutive drought years. This is
the result of more than a century of planning, investment,
engineering and policy. However, it has become increasingly
apparent that climate change is a wild card looming over both
imported supply and the water that Southern California agencies
can draw from local sources.
Flanked by a hazy backdrop of Lake Oroville with the nearby
Dixie Fire creating a smoke-filled sky, federal and state
politicians representing the north state gathered above the
Hyatt Power Plant at Oroville Dam for a press conference
Tuesday to criticize, in their words, the state’s “gross
mismanagement” of water, wildlands and power.
San Diego is just one city among many in the country’s most
arid regions facing the ongoing threat of long-term drought.
Western water agencies continue working to not only conserve
water, but to also reuse as much wastewater as possible,
including from the stable supply [Direct Potable Reuse]
promises. As San Diego discovered decades ago, making DPR a
reality entails — along with regulatory and permitting changes
— trying to overcome the “yuck factor.” Today, despite its
“toilet-to-tap” hurdle, San Diego is now intent on becoming the
first city in California to convey treated effluent directly
from factory to faucet.
As the drought deepens across the West, coastal cities are
considering whether or not to filter ocean water as a solution
to their water woes. In the Bay Area, Marin Water is mulling
plans to draw its drinking water from the San Francisco
Bay. Reservoir levels in Marin County are at historic lows this
year, and water leaders are calling for a 40% reduction. So far
the county has reached a 23% reduction, says Cynthia Koehler,
president of the agency’s board of directors.
State regulators are suspending the ability of about 1,500
water right holders to draw from the upper Russian River
watershed, in an unprecedented bid to try to preserve as much
storage in Lake Mendocino as possible in the event of a third
successive dry winter. The order handed down Monday will affect
hundreds of grape growers, ranchers, small water districts,
towns and rural property owners. It takes effect Tuesday under
emergency regulations adopted in June by the State Water
Resources Control Board.
After tabling the topic at a previous meeting, the City Council
will discuss an emergency resolution Tuesday that would create
a temporary emergency water usage policy for unincorporated
area residents without water. The initial residential water
rate for water made available will be $10 per every 1,000
gallons of water plus a $25 monthly administration fee. Some
property owners in the county’s unincorporated areas have told
the city their wells have gone dry. The Tehama County Board of
Supervisors and Corning City Council have approved temporary
water-sharing policies.
When Salesforce Tower in San Francisco fully reopens this year
after 16 months of pandemic-induced closure, one of its more
unusual features will be found in the basement. … Taking
up the space of 16 cars, the black-water system, so called
because it treats all wastewater, including from toilets and
showers, will filter an estimated 30,000 gallons per workday,
or 7.8 million a year. [Water recycling efforts
are] gaining traction as a severe drought punishes
industries in
states like California, Montana, New
Mexico and Utah.
The Bureau of Reclamation and the Friant Water Authority
announced today a 30-day public comment period for a repayment
contract related to costs of extraordinary operation and
maintenance work on the Friant-Kern Canal Middle Reach Capacity
Correction Project. This project will restore a 33-mile stretch
of the canal that has lost over half of its original capacity
to subsidence.
The waters of the Tuolumne River flow through Modesto two
ways. One is in the natural riverbed that cuts through the
city just south of downtown. The other is in the original
“Delta bypass tunnel” — the 46.7 mile pipeline across the San
Joaquin Valley beneath the Hetch Hetchy Trail that moves water
diverted from the reservoir the urban trail is named after. -Written by Dennis Wyatt, columnist for the Manteca
Bulletin.
But come back in 40 or 50 years, and most California cities
would look very different if [new housing] bills passed. Cities
would be bigger, housing would be cheaper (after inflation is
factored in), and living conditions would be more crowded than
ever before. Neighborhoods filled with single-family homes on
distinct lots would be far rarer than today. That is, if enough
water and energy can be found to make these changes possible,
two problems that grow larger and less predictable the longer
the current drought continues and the more often dry spells
recur in an era of expanded climate change. Written by Thomas Elias, a syndicated columnist.
A recent United Nations report on drought says
climate change is increasing the frequency, severity and
duration of droughts, which contribute to food insecurity,
poverty and inequality. … In 2018, Cape Town,
South Africa, narrowly averted a “Day Zero,” when the taps
would have run dry. Indian aquifers are falling fast.
The Colorado River, a water source for 40 million
people, faces dire shortages as the American West
slides deeper into “megadrought.” By 2050, the world’s
population is projected to near 10 billion, increasing
water demand by 55%. And by then, two-thirds of people will
live in cities.
The future of Utah’s relationship with the Colorado River began
to take shape in downtown Salt Lake City on Friday, as the
newly created Colorado River Authority of Utah held its first
meeting. The organization, created by the Utah Legislature
during the 2021 session, was formed “to protect, conserve, and
develop Utah’s Colorado River system interests,” according to
the agency’s website. The agency, which is officially under
Gov. Spencer Cox’s office, consists of six appointed members
representing water interests from around the state.
Even after the pandemic subsides, the San Lorenzo Valley Water
District (SLVWD) will not turn off customer’s water supply for
nonpayment. SLVWD Manager Rick Rogers in an interview said the
board has “a strong position that we should not be turning
people’s water off for nonpayment. It’s a fundamental right,
but we also have to pay our bills.” SLVWD, Rogers said, will no
longer issue a 48-hour tag for nonpayment. Instead, the
district will, once a year, move any outstanding bills onto
residents’ property tax bills.
The Bureau of Reclamation and the California Department of
Water Resources (DWR) today released the next versions of two
computer models that simulate operations of the State Water
Project (SWP) and the Central Valley Project (CVP). Water
managers use the models – CalSim II and CalSim 3 – to examine
project operations under various assumptions for hydrologic
conditions, project facilities and regulatory
requirements.
The Bureau of Reclamation launched a new web portal today that
provides real-time drought-related information and details of
drought actions taken in collaboration with stakeholders and
partners. The science-based web portal is designed to increase
public and media understanding of drought conditions and the
all-of-government efforts to mitigate these conditions by the
Biden-Harris administration.
A new study has found that cannabis farms in California’s prime
growing regions, including the North Coast, rely primarily on
groundwater wells to irrigate their crop as opposed to streams,
providing more insight into the debate over water scarcity as
the state grapples with a historic drought. The Cannabis
Research Center at UC Berkeley report found that well water use
by cannabis farms is common statewide, exceeding 75% among
farms that have permits to grow in nine of the 11 top
cannabis-producing counties that include Sonoma, Mendocino and
Lake counties.
Conservative talk show host Larry Elder is currently leading
the pack of Republicans hoping to replace Gov. Gavin
Newsom in California’s recall election. A new poll
from the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies
found that among voters most likely to participate in the
recall, Elder has the most support, followed by San Diego
businessman John Cox, former San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer
and Assemblymember Kevin Kiley.
How low can Lake Oroville go? While losing over a foot of water
each day, historically low is the answer. The lake is on track
to beat its lowest recorded record: 645 feet above sea level in
September 1977. Friday, it sits at 646.97 feet, just feet away
from a new record. This could drop dramatically further to 620
feet by late October, according to Molly White, Water
Operations Manager for the Department of Water Resources (DWR).
Drought conditions have prompted the building of a 750-foot
wide rock barrier to prevent saltwater intrusion into the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The California Department
of Water Resources constructed the temporary barrier with
110,000 cubic yards of rock off West False River in Contra
Costa County. Principal engineer Jacob McQuirk said that
without the barrier, saltwater would endanger freshwater
supplies in the Delta and water exports to the south.
… McQuirk said 27 million people are dependent upon
those water supplies and that the barrier will be taken down by
November.
Concerning news about Utah’s extreme drought keeps coming. On
Wednesday, Utah’s Department of Natural Resources said the
drought continues to have “a stranglehold on the state,”
despite wild weather swings that dumped rain in some areas.
Washington Post Columnist David Von Drehle recently wrote an
opinion piece about the drought gripping the West. He spoke
with KUER’s Pamela McCall about the situation.
Low precipitation and heat continue to dry out the West. With
nine of the 11 Western states recording average water
year-to-date precipitations from 50%-to-80% of normal and
record-breaking high temperatures, drought is literally a hot
topic. When water is limited, the first thing to consider is
how to better conserve the water that you have. Then,
investigate alternative water sources.
After three weeks of round-the-clock work, the emergency
drought salinity barrier (EDSB) was completed in late June. The
barrier will help prevent saltwater contamination of water
supplies used by millions of Californians who rely on
Delta-based federal and state water projects for at least some
of their water supplies.
As drought conditions continue throughout Butte County, the
Department of Water Resources is currently projecting that the
surface water level of Lake Oroville could reach an all-time
low of 620 feet above sea level by October or November. The
lake reached an all-time low of 645 feet above sea level in
September 1977. As of Thursday, Lake Oroville’s surface water
level was 648.47 feet above sea level. When full Lake
Oroville’s surface water level is 900 feet above sea level.
In Fort Bragg on the Mendocino Coast, city leaders are rushing
to install an emergency desalination system. In Healdsburg,
lawn watering is banned with fines of up to $1,000. In
Hornbrook, a small town in Siskiyou County, faucets have gone
completely dry, and the chairman of the water district is
driving 15 miles each way to take showers and wash
clothes. So far, California’s worsening drought has been
an inconvenience in big cities. But it’s already imperiling an
alarming number of communities, especially between the Bay Area
and the Oregon border, threatening the water supplies for more
than 130,000 people.
Confronting the rise of attacks on major American
infrastructure and industry, the White House released an
executive order Wednesday in which President Joe Biden will ask
companies to layer on more cybersecurity protections. The order
follows up on a series of cybersecurity directives prompted
this year when the nation suffered a series of fuel shortages
after Russian-tied cybercriminals launched a ransomware attack
on Colonial Pipeline.
Climate change projections show the Central Valley will see
more hot, dry years like 2021, but also some dangerously wet
years as well. This year has already seen high temperatures,
drought and high fire risk for Central Valley residents, and
Jordi Vasquez, environmental scientist for the California
Department of Water Resources, said climate models show the
Central Valley heating up 6 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit by the end
of the century. … The biggest impact for Central Valley
communities like Hanford will be water management, Vasquez
said.
Advocates for public water systems on Tuesday jumped quickly on
a request by a Monterey County supervisor to consider amending
a law that currently allows only public ownership and operation
of desalination facilities. The request came in the form of a
board referral, an instrument allowing members of the Board of
Supervisors to make requests to the county’s chief
administrative officer for work by staff or additional
information on a specific topic.
With a new $20 million federal grant, UC Merced becomes part of
a multi-institutional research collaborative to develop
artificial intelligence — or AI — solutions to tackle some of
agriculture’s biggest challenges related to water management,
climate change and integration of new technology into farming.
The new institute is one of 11 launched this year by the
National Science Foundation (NSF) and among two funded by the
U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and
Agriculture.
Regulatory pressures on California agriculture can have a
global impact on consumers. North American
Regional Head of RaboResearch Food and Agribusiness
for RaboBank, Roland Fumasi explained that the agriculture
industry ultimately exists to meet the global demand for food.
Restrictive policies enacted that put added pressure on
agricultural production can potentially have a negative impact
on billions of consumers that rely on California ag
products.
Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer made a stop in Fresno on
Wednesday to plead his case on why he’s a key candidate in the
potential recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom. Faulconer’s
talking points during the visit consisted almost entirely of
the state’s water woes as he stood outside the Department of
Water Resources office in central Fresno, where he was
accompanied by Fresno County Supervisor Buddy
Mendes.
Throughout the nation and around the world, purple pipes pulse
with water that has gone down drains and been treated for reuse
in landscaping, agriculture and commerce. Irvine Ranch Water
District was the mastermind behind that color: leading the
charge in the early 1980s to certify a standard for pipes
carrying recycled water, to distinguish them from drinking
water systems. But how did it happen? It’s a colorful story of
IRWD leadership, creativity and humor — centered around an
engineer who sees much of the world in neutral tones.
Not a drop of new “moon shoot” water storage has been created
in California for more than 40 years. It’s a point that isn’t
lost on Congressman Josh Harder. Nor is the fact water issues
facing the heart of the Northern San Joaquin Valley are
interconnected with communities often hundreds of miles away
from the 10th District that he represents in Congress. It
is why the Turlock Democrat has pursued do-able water projects
— including those outside of his district that would reduce
efforts to try and commandeer water from the Stanislaus and
Tuolumne watersheds to address fish flow, urban, and irrigation
needs elsewhere — since taking office in 2019.
In Spanish, Sierra Nevada means “snowy mountain range.” While
the term “snowy” has generally been true for most of U.S.
history, those mountains have seen less snow accumulation in
recent years. This decline plays a role in water management and
response to drought in California and other western states.
Each spring and summer, meltwater runoff from Sierra Nevada
snowpack helps replenish rivers and reservoirs, while also
recharging the groundwater. In fact, snowpack accounts for
about 30 percent of California’s water supply in a typical
year, according to the California Department of Water
Resources.
California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) is currently
experiencing one of the driest years in recorded history.
The US Drought Monitor recently classified large portions of
the Delta Watershed as being in a state of “Exceptional
Drought,” while the remaining portions are in a state of
“Extreme Drought.” The California Nevada River Forecast
Center also provides information that the to-date flows in
nearly all streams in the watershed are between 20 and 40
percent of the annual average. As a result, the water
supplies for many users in the region are in jeopardy.
State work to improve wildlife habitat and tamp down dust at
California’s ailing Salton Sea is finally moving forward. Now
the sea may be on the verge of getting the vital ingredient
needed to supercharge those restoration efforts – money. The
shrinking desert lake has long been a trouble spot beset by
rising salinity and unhealthy, lung-irritating dust blowing
from its increasingly exposed bed. It shadows discussions of
how to address the Colorado River’s two-decade-long drought
because of its connection to the system.
It’s sometimes thought that worsening wildfires, droughts and
farming conditions — products of climate change — will lead to
more conflicts and extremism, including in the West. Imagine a
repeat of lawless mobs confronting and terrorizing federal land
managers, as occurred at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
in 2016, and could happen again amid the Klamath Basin water
crisis… -Written by Stuart Leavenworth, LA Times’ California
Enterprise Editor.
Jennifer Beretta has been working as a dairy farmer since she
was 6 and knows some of her family’s 700 cows by name. One of
her favorites, a Jersey named Harmony, has won top prizes at
the Sonoma County Fair. … But business is business, and right
now business is bad. California’s devastating drought has dried
up most of the Beretta Family Dairy’s pastures, driven up the
cost of feed and made milking cows unprofitable. The Beretta
family has sold off more than 40 of its cows this year, and
could sell more before too long.
After the two driest consecutive years in much of California in
nearly half a century, reservoir levels are dropping. Lawns are
brown. Water restrictions are increasing. And Californians are
getting worried. Asked to name the environmental issue they are
most concerned about, more California residents cited water
shortages and drought than any other, according to a new poll
released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of
California, a non-partisan research organization in San
Francisco.
The state’s severe drought is transforming the landscape of our
streams, lakes and reservoirs as the supply of water is
depleted day by day. The changes at Uvas Reservoir in the
hills above Morgan are readily apparent. The waterline has
receded significantly as the footprint of the reservoir
shrinks. … According to the Santa Clara County
Water District, Uvas is currently at roughly 20% of its total
capacity – basically 80% empty. And a district spokesperson
says the situation is bad at all of the county’s reservoirs.
It sounds like the plot of a post-apocalyptic movie: Water
thieves roaming scorched terrain in search of nature’s most
precious resource. But in California, water theft is a massive
reality with numbers that are hard to comprehend — and as
droughts increasingly afflict the state, so does the extent of
this illegal activity. Over 12 billion gallons of water have
likely been stolen in California since 2013, John Nores — the
former head of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Marijuana Enforcement Team — recently told CNN.
Wild beavers play a critical role in the fight against climate
change by creating wetlands that combat drought and wildfire.
The species is native to California — but unlike beavers in
Oregon and Washington, they aren’t protected from being trapped
and killed in the state. Beavers have existed in North America
for millions of years, with large populations in the American
west.
In another vivid example of California’s ongoing drought and
water crisis, the water level is so low at Folsom Lake that
Gold rush era relics that typically are submerged are now
visible on dry land. … For more than a century before
the Folsom Dam was built, the current lake floor in Northern
California was used for gold mining and farming. Settlements
were destroyed when the reservoir was filled in the mid-1950s,
but some old foundations and artifacts remain on the lakebed.
Tomato sauce is feeling the squeeze and ketchup can’t catch up.
California grows more than 90 percent of Americans’ canned
tomatoes and a third of the world’s. Ongoing drought in the
state has hurt the planting and harvesting of many summer
crops, but water-hungry “processing tomatoes” are caught up in
a particularly treacherous swirl (a “tormado”?) of problems
that experts say will spur prices to surge far more than they
already have. The drought threatens to imperil some of
Americans’ favorite ingredients — pizza sauce, marinara, tomato
paste, stewed tomatoes and ketchup all hang in the balance.
Drought-plagued California is poised to bar thousands of
farmers, landowners and others from pumping water from the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed, a move that irrigation
districts said exceeds the water board’s authority. The
emergency rules would be the first time state regulators have
taken such wide-reaching action during a drought to prevent
diversions from the massive Delta watershed stretching from
Fresno to the Oregon border.
The water level in Lake Powell has dropped to the lowest level
since the U.S. government started filling the enormous
reservoir on the Colorado River in the 1960s — another sign of
the ravages of the Western drought. … The water
level has plunged as the American West experiences what
scientists are calling a “megadrought.” Too little water
is coming into the lake, and too much is being sent downriver
to maintain levels in Lake Mead, which is also
at historically low levels.
Ben DuVal knelt in a barren field near the California-Oregon
state line and scooped up a handful of parched soil as dust
devils whirled around him and birds flitted between empty
irrigation pipes. DuVal’s family has farmed the land for three
generations, and this summer, for the first time ever, he and
hundreds of others who rely on irrigation from a depleted,
federally managed lake aren’t getting any water from it at all.
… [T]his summer there is simply not enough, and the
farmers, tribes and wildlife refuges that have long competed
for every drop now face a bleak and uncertain future together.
The news reports about the California salmon wipeout got a good
chunk of the story right: Record-breaking heat waves made
Northern California rivers too warm to sustain migrating
Chinook salmon, and virtually all of the salmon in the
Sacramento River this summer have died, or will die, before
reproducing. Any eggs that were successfully laid, or the fry
hatched from those eggs, are also likely doomed. So a
generation of the rare and endangered winter-run Chinook, and
the spring-run as well, are virtually gone.
The House of Representatives approved a $715 billion
infrastructure plan, and if the Senate passes it, it will mean
$20 million for the Valley Link project to connect Bay Area
Rapid Transit to the Altamont Corridor Express commuter train.
… California would be a big winner under the proposed
law. The bill includes more than $900 million for projects
throughout the Golden State. They include bridges, bike lanes
and express lanes … wastewater and drinking water
projects and other infrastructure to prepare for rising sea
levels.
Creeks, rivers and lakes that are fed by melting snow across
the U.S. West are already running low as of mid-July 2021, much
to the worry of farmers, biologists and snow hydrologists like
me. This is not surprising in California, where snow levels
over the previous winter were well below normal. But it is also
true across Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, which in general
received a normal amount of snow. You’d think if there was
normal amount of snow you’d have plenty of water downstream,
right? … But another less studied way moisture can be lost is
by evaporating straight into the atmosphere.
After a very dry winter and spring, all of California is now in
some level of drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
One year ago, just 58 percent of California was in drought. In
the East Bay, the East Bay Municipal Utility District’s
reservoirs total system capacity is currently at 61% full,
which is 73% of average. The district is in decent shape for
now, but is encouraging its customers to conserve water as much
as possible. … EBMUD has worked for decades to diversify
its water sources, and if the drought gets worse next year, the
district will look at purchasing water from other
entities.
The drought is taking its toll on dams and rivers throughout
California and there is no clearer example than at Lake
Oroville where water levels have been dropping all year.
… The Oroville Dam is the state water system’s tallest,
but boaters and fishermen have witnessed the water level fall
nearly 250 feet below average. State water regulators are
required to release water to protect fish downstream. They are
trying to preserve as much water as possible, but levels are
dropping a foot a day.
New research says extreme weather events like the recent surge
of summer heat waves across the U.S. are being spurred by the
planet’s ongoing battle with climate change. In recent decades,
many have become all too acquainted with record shattering heat
waves that have put serious — and often deadly — pressure on
communities around the world. … New research explores this
new reality that many experts have been warning about for
years.
With water levels falling rapidly at Lake Powell on the
Arizona-Utah border, federal officials are taking what could be
the first of several steps to prop it up. This month the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation started a six-month effort to raise the
lake around 3 feet by the end of 2021 by releasing 181,000 acre
feet of water from three upstream reservoirs. It comes as the
lake just Sunday fell below its lowest level on record.
The Palmdale Water District looks to take the next step in its
years-long project to remove sediment from the reservoir behind
the Littlerock Dam and increase its water storage capacity. On
Monday, the Board of Directors will consider a $1.6 million
contract with Aspen Environmental Group for work involved with
the design, permitting and construction of the project over the
next three years, with potentially two years after that. The
Littlerock Reservoir Sediment Removal Project has been in the
works for more than 25 years.
The Santa Barbara City Council will discuss negotiating a water
supply agreement with La Cumbre Mutual Water Company during
their regular meeting Tuesday. Due to water supply
shortages exacerbated by drought conditions, officials from La
Cumbre Mutual Water Company have asked the City to negotiate a
long-term supply agreement tied to the Charles E. Meyer
Desalination Plant. The Desal plant, which was
constructed by the City in 1991, acts as a regional water
supply for the City, the Goleta Water District and the
Montecito Water District.
How are we messaging to our summer guests about our Climate
Emergency? About our town’s precious, empty Russian River
watershed? Is this a teachable moment for these privileged
travelers who come from places of Water Security? We should all
be True Believers in Climate Change. Effective June 8, 2021,
Healdsburg’s Stage Three mandatory conservation seeks a 40%
reduction in water use citywide with additional, restrictive
rules: 74 gallons per resident per day; No
irrigation; Hand watering only; Planting is
prohibited; $1,000 fine per day…the city means business!
-Written by Brigette Mansell, former Healdsburg
mayor.
A study tracking regulatory compliance costs in California was
recently released, with striking findings. Researchers looked
at data from 22 different farms of various sizes in the San
Joaquin Valley between 2012 and 2018. During that timeframe,
regulatory costs increased by 265 percent. Professor of
Agribusiness at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and co-author
of the report, Lynn Hamilton said several factors
contributed to the significant increase.
The drought in California isn’t quite fathomable to all. In
efforts to showcase the harsh reality producers are
experiencing, Western Growers has a new campaign called “No
water= No Crops.” In a series of videos, the campaign focuses
on a few California producers who are struggling with the water
shortages. Joe Del Bosque of Del Bosque Farms is one of the
farmers in the campaign. He started out his planting year
thinking he’d have enough water but that quickly changed as the
dry water year encroached.
Today we launch Drought Week, a five-part series looking at how
water shortages across the West are profoundly changing life.
We’ll swoop around, from Oregon to the Sonoran Desert, from
cities to national parks, from Joshua trees to lawns. To start
Drought Week, it’s only natural — pardon the pun — that we take
the bigger view first with our Masters of Disasters, the L.A.
Times reporters who focus on natural calamities. So get your
five-gallon buckets and put them next to you when you shower,
’cause things are serious right now.
On July 2, 2021, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
issued an important decision regarding Section 401 of the Clean
Water Act, overturning an Order by the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC). FERC’s Order had found that
the state of North Carolina had unlawfully “coordinated” with
the license applicant to delay the state’s certification that a
new FERC license for the Bynum hydroelectric project complied
with state water quality laws. FERC found that North
Carolina’s participation in the delay meant that the state had
“waived” its authority under Section 401 to issue the
certification.
With rural wells running dry and reservoir levels dwindling
amid the Western drought, California senators are pressing
Congress for an infusion of cash to renovate the state’s
collapsing drinking water system. But instead of new dams or
desalination plants, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla
want … to boost stormwater capture, groundwater recharge
and water recycling efforts in the Golden State and throughout
the U.S.
Through fierce reporting and captivating prose, journalist Mark
Arax paints a vivid and complex portrait of California and its
water. Born into a family of farmers in Fresno, Arax has
witnessed firsthand the cyclical nature of droughts and floods
in the state. He delves into the history and future of
agriculture and water in his 2019 book “The Dreamt Land.” Arax
joins Evan Kleiman to talk about the lessons gleaned from the
state’s fraught water history, and what they might mean for its
present and future.
The small, rural community of Tooleville is on the brink of
going dry after one of its two wells went down Friday morning.
It’s the second community in Tulare County to suffer water
problems in the last two months as California struggles through
the grip of a devastating drought. The only well in the town of
Teviston, also in rural Tulare County, broke down June 9
leaving residents there dry until the pump was fixed July 16.
Helix Water District, which provides water for much of East
County, will reinstate late fees starting in August and renew
water shutoffs on Oct. 1. The utility’s governing board voted
4-1 on Wednesday to support staff’s decision to bring back late
fees and shutoffs for nonpayment. Customers suffering financial
hardship had been given a grace period during the pandemic. The
district currently has 546 accounts in arrears for a total of
more than $470,000. Helix officials say that 475 of those
accounts are residential.
American Canyon is requiring residents and businesses to up
their water conservation efforts from 10% to 20%, though it’s
not yet ready to impose penalties. … While all five Napa
County cities are taking water conservation measures, each is
in a different situation when it comes to water sources. The
south county city of American Canyon has no local reservoir and
relies on State Water Project supplies that have seen a drastic
cutback.
Earlier this year, the Nevada legislature made turf removal a
requirement in cases where grass exists for purely aesthetic
purposes. The legislation, pushed by the water authority and
signed by Governor Steve Sisolak, requires the removal of all
decorative, or “nonfunctional,” turf in Las Vegas by 2026.
Under this law, residents can keep their lawns, and parks can
keep their fields. But that turf decorating medians and
buildings must be converted to less water-intensive vegetation.
Irrigating grass in the desert heat demands a lot of
water.
Members of Siskiyou County’s Hmong community rallied outside
the county courthouse in Yreka on Tuesday over what they say is
racist treatment by police and racist enforcement of water
usage rights by the county. An ordinance passed in May
aimed at curtailing illegal marijuana grows prohibits water
trucks and other vehicles from carrying over 100 gallons of
water on certain county roads. Rally organizers say the roads
selected, primarily in the rural, unincorporated communities of
Butte Valley and Big Springs, unfairly target the Hmong
community who reside there.
The Klamath water rights issue dates back decades and is as
complex and nuanced as it is lengthy but when boiled down it
seems to come back to one primal animal instinct that all
living beings share: to ensure the survival of our spawn. For
the Lost River and Shortnose Suckerfish in the Klamath basin,
that continuum was disturbed somewhere along the line. The
adult fish are healthy but aging while their spawn has been
failing to thrive. Pending on their survival are the identity,
traditions, culture, and livelihood of the Klamath tribes.
In the town of Happy Valley, residents are dealing with a
crisis. California is experiencing an extreme drought, and
Happy Valley says there is a meager amount of water left in the
community. Coleen Wogoman, a resident of Happy Valley said
their small farm, Wogoman’s Farm, is struggling to stay afloat
as the lack of water striking hard for her family and their
livestock. A mix of emotions is expressed from Wogoman as she
looks upon her farmland and home for over 15 years.
When the current drought began in 2000, the three Lower Basin
states that take water from the lake (Arizona, California
and Nevada) suddenly awakened to the problem. After several
years of difficult negotiations, they agreed on a Drought
Contingency Plan (DCP) that, with previously agreed cuts,
would bring the lake into balance. Hoping the drought
would lift before too long, the DCP negotiators agreed to
spread the cuts over coming years in response to changing lake
levels. However, as the drought continues and intensifies, the
Drought Contingency Plan is looking more like a Drought
Certainty Plan. -Written by former Secretary of the Interior Bruce
Babbitt.
Water could be one of the biggest investing themes over the
next several decades. An increasing global population is only
going to cause demand for water to rise in the future. And,
given the fact that water is a necessity of human life, demand
for water should hold up extremely well, even during the worst
recessions. Therefore, investors with a longer time horizon
should consider water stocks.
After some negotiation, the Friant Water Authority Board of
Directors will vote on a repayment contract with the Bureau of
Reclamation regarding the repair of a portion of the
Friant-Kern Canal. The Friant Water Authority and the
Bureau of Reclamation held its second round of negotiations
Thursday morning, which was a two-hour process hammering out
contract language in the repayment deal. … At the center
of the issue is a 33-mile stretch of the Friant-Kern Canal that
has lost over half of its original capacity to
subsidence.
Forced to reckon with a worsening drought, California’s water
regulators are preparing to forbid thousands of farmers from
tapping into the state’s major rivers and streams. It’s an
extraordinary step — and one that regulators didn’t take during
the last drought, which was considered one of the worst on
record. The State Water Resources Control Board on Friday
released an “emergency curtailment” order that would cut
thousands off from rivers and streams in the Sacramento and San
Joaquin river watersheds.
On the side of a dirt road in Gunnison County, a herd of cattle
is cooling off in the water of an irrigation ditch. Doug
Washburn, range manager for Spann Ranches in southwestern
Colorado, points at the hills surrounding the operation’s
northern headquarters. … Colorado’s Western Slope
is considered a climate hot spot where temperatures
are increasing faster than the global average. This warming has
contributed to more than 20 years of dryness,
which scientists are calling a megadrought.
Lake Powell will soon hit its lowest level since Glen Canyon
Dam started trapping the Colorado River’s water in 1963 — even
with emergency releases of water from reservoirs upstream. The
Bureau of Reclamation announced Thursday that the lake
elevation will soon drop below 3,555.1 feet above sea level,
the record set in 2005, back near the start of a 20-year dry
cycle plaguing the Colorado River Basin….The increasingly
dire situations at Lake Powell and its downstream partner Lake
Mead illustrate the stress on the Colorado River system….
New development projects in most of Marin won’t have new
landscaping irrigated with drinking water under drought
restrictions imposed by Marin Municipal Water District this
week. The Board of Directors voted Tuesday to approve the
ban aimed at preserving the district’s dwindling reservoir
supplies in the Mount Tamalpais watershed amid severe drought
conditions.
Manufacturing jobs in California have migrated overseas for
years in a race to the bottom on wages and regulations. But now
many industries face a new challenge: They depend on access to
cheap endless water, and California’s future looks increasingly
dry. Textile factory owners like [Sean] Zahedi are among the
first to ask: Will we adapt or call it quits? Eighty-five
percent of California is experiencing either extreme or
exceptional drought conditions, the highest level there is on
the U.S. Drought Monitor scale. Without water, Zahedi
says, there’s no fabric.
Lawmakers and experts on Wednesday warned of gaping
cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the nation’s critical water
sector amid escalating attacks against a number of U.S.
organizations. … [C]oncerns came during a committee
hearing on cybersecurity vulnerabilities in critical
infrastructure that zeroed in on concerns around water and
wastewater treatment facilities. Cyber threats have soared
in recent years, including recent ransomware attacks on
critical infrastructure such as Colonial Pipeline, and the
water sector has not been immune.
A windfall of state funding is coming to San Diego, including
money for Ocean Beach Pier repairs, an energy-storage project
at San Vicente Reservoir, and the city’s Pure Water
program. Money from California’s state budget, signed last
week, will fund the series of San Diego projects and programs.
A class action lawsuit was filed against San Diego and its
public utilities department on Wednesday, alleging that
residential and commercial customers were overcharged in fees
to make up for shortfalls from industrial wastewater
dischargers.
After two consecutive dry winters, Tahoe’s lake level is
sitting a little over 1.5 feet above its natural rim — a
threshold the alpine lake is forecasted to drop below in the
next three months. And while the rise and fall of Lake
Tahoe’s water level is cyclical in the short-term (with
evaporation and downstream flow offsetting spring runoff
filling the lake each year) and the long-term (the lake has
fallen below it’s natural rim over 20 times in the last century
since data collection began), experts are concerned by the
severity of the current drought and its impacts on water
supply, wildfires and wildlife.
A lot of the fruits, vegetables and nuts that you see in
grocery stores come from California. Growing them takes a huge
amount of water, which is a huge problem when the state is in
the middle of a drought. California’s farmers are pumping most
of that water from underground aquifers. They can’t keep doing
that, though, especially as the climate changes. NPR’s Dan
Charles has the story.
Confronting the historic drought that has a firm grip on the
American West requires a heavy federal infrastructure
investment to protect existing water supplies but also will
depend on efforts at all levels of government to reduce demand
by promoting water efficiency and recycling, Interior Secretary
Deb Haaland said Thursday.
U.S. Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) last week introduced three
amendments to the Energy and Water Development Appropriations
fiscal year 2022 bill that aimed to alleviate California’s
ongoing drought, but House Appropriations Committee Democrats
voted down all three of them during a July 16 markup. The
congressman’s first amendment would have extended California
water storage provisions of the Water Infrastructure
Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act for one year …
A major California hydroelectric power plant could soon stop
generating power amid worsening drought conditions. According
to state water officials, the Edward Hyatt Powerplant at Lake
Oroville could go offline as soon as August or September — a
time frame that would coincide with a feared power crunch this
summer. The plant, which opened in the late 1960s, has never
been forced offline by low lake levels before.
Join us as we guide you on a virtual journey through California’s Central Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25 percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
Join us as we guide you on a virtual exploration of the Sacramento River and its tributaries and learn about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
This tour guided participants on a virtual journey deep into California’s most crucial water and ecological resource – the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The 720,000-acre network of islands and canals support the state’s two major water systems – the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. The Delta and the connecting San Francisco Bay form the largest freshwater tidal estuary of its kind on the West coast.
The city of Lemoore said Wednesday afternoon that a water tank
explosion that killed one worker and injured another last month
was “preventable.” Officials have said the tank lifted
approximately 70 feet off the ground in the explosion, which
occurred when methane gas ignited as welding was being done as
part of a city project.
Much of the infrastructure talk in Washington these days
focuses on large, complicated projects involving tunnels,
bridges and highways. But there is a much more basic matter
involving infrastructure that also merits attention: the need
to provide clean water to the more than half a million Native
Americans who lack the sort of water and sanitation services
that other Americans take for granted.
– Written by Bidtah Becker, an associate
attorney for the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, and Anne
Castle, senior fellow at the Getches-Wilkinson Center for
Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment at the University
of Colorado and former assistant secretary for water and
science at the U.S. Interior Department.
Southern Arizona has been under the strongest category of
drought since early last year. With a strong start to monsoon,
the area should soon show a bit of recovery. It takes more than
just a handful of good rainfalls to recover from such a bad
drought. … The drought is one of the reasons why Pima County
has had so many flash flood warnings this year. Soil that has
not seen rain in a while is not as absorbent as regular soil,
so heavy rainfalls over dry ground lead to flash flooding more
often. This also causes problems on the roads.
A powerful Southern California water agency accused by some
employees of sexual harassment and other workplace violations
“generally provides a safe and respectful working environment”
for people of color, women and LGBTQ+ workers, a report on the
agency concludes. The review of the Metropolitan Water District
of Southern California found no systemic problems in how the
agency handles complaints of harassment, racism, retaliation
and other alleged discrimination.
Environmentalists say the San Joaquin watershed needs more
water. So do state officials, who in 2018 ordered water users
to give a large share of water back to the San Joaquin and its
tributaries, notably the Tuolumne. But the fight to restore
this ailing ecosystem has turned political, and
environmentalists leading the effort are facing an unlikely foe
the water service provider for one of the most liberal cities
in the country.
California Farm Bureau, as part of a national coalition
representing thousands of western farmers, ranchers, water
providers, businesses and communities, urged leaders of the
U.S. Senate to take action to address the shortcomings of aging
water infrastructure. Citing an “acute and critical need”
magnified by another all-too-familiar drought, the coalition
sent a letter last week to Chairman Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and
Ranking Member John Barrasso, R-Wyo., of the U.S. Senate
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. It called for
increased federal investment in water infrastructure.
The Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, will visit Denver
to address the worsening drought and wildfire
conditions. The biggest area of concern is the deep
drought on the western slope. Haaland will be in Grand
Junction Friday talking about wildland fire preparedness and
response. On Saturday, Haaland will be in Ridgeway discussing
Colorado’s outdoor recreation economy.
When it comes to the water year this summer, it could be
referred to as a season on the brink. Tule River Water Master
David De Groot announced on Monday water from the Tule River
began to be run off over this past weekend. … De Groot said
the water runoff will last 30 days through mid-August. He added
the Tule River’s flow was just at 15.6 percent of
normal … the lowest level the lake will be at
since the dire drought of 2014-2015.
With the North State’s drought reaching historically severe
levels, thousands of Shasta County residents from Happy Valley
and Redding to Palo Cedro could face water shortages by the end
of summer. The lack of rain and snowfall this past year
has left officials scrambling to find new sources of water to
get through the dry season. …”We will absolutely, completely
run out of water…. We will not have enough water to get
through the year,” [Bella Vista Water District General Manager
David] Coxey said.
Los Angeles received less than half its average rainfall last
year, most of the state is in a drought emergency, and Governor
Gavin Newsom has asked all residents to reduce their water
usage by 15%. But a stroll through any well-watered
neighborhood in Southern California would suggest otherwise.
… So far in Southern California, the golf courses are
almost as green as they were when it rained a lot a couple
years ago. Some Northern California communities have
already issued mandates to cut back water use, and some
homeowners have seen their wells run dry.
A 500 MW pumped energy storage project proposed jointly by the
City of San Diego and the San Diego County Water Authority
received $18 million in the California state budget. The
support will help fund the San Vicente Energy Storage
Facility through initial design, environmental reviews,
and the federal licensing process. The project … could
generate revenue to help offset the cost of water purchases,
storage, and treatment.
