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JPL Scientists Honored by California for Drought Work

/in /by /Pasadena Now

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) Tuesday named three scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, as recipients of its Remote Sensing and Drought Science Service award.

JPL scientists Tom Farr, Cathleen Jones and Zhen Liu received the honor at a Water Operations briefing sponsored by DWR and the Water Education Foundation in Sacramento. The researchers used interferometric synthetic aperture radar data from Japanese and Canadian satellites and airborne data from NASA’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) instrument to map the ongoing sinking of land in California’s San Joaquin Valley caused by groundwater extraction.

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NOAA and NASA Team Up to Investigate Strong El Niño

/in /by /Climate Centralby Oliver Milman

America’s two leading climate science agencies are conducting an unprecedented survey via land, sea and air to investigate the current El Niño event and better understand its impact on weather systems that have brought both parched and soaking conditions to North America.

The project, which will conclude in March, will deploy resources from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA to analyze one of the strongest El Niños on record. El Niño is a periodic phenomenon in which parts of the eastern Pacific warm, causing a ripple effect for weather around the world.

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Dear Drought Fighter: Online Water-Wise Landscape Ideas

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune

Q: I’m looking to upgrade my landscape with plants that are both attractive and water-efficient. How can I learn about what to plant?

A: The drought doesn’t prevent you from enjoying a range of attractive, climate-appropriate plants that make our region beautiful. The San Diego County Water Authority offers tools to help homeowners choose the right plant for each part of their landscapes.

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Watch Raw Sewage Turn Into Drinkable Water In Just Minutes

/in /by /KTLAby By Chadwick Phillips and Rich DeMuro

The technology one Southern California community is using to turn toilet waste into pure, drinkable water.

Normally we don’t think much about where our water comes from, but when I read this BloombergBusiness article about how one California community is turning raw sewage into water you can drink – I just had to see how they’re doing it.

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There’s No Such Thing as Normal in California Water

/in /by /Comstock’s (Sacramento)by By Justin Fox

Ninety percent of California’s annual precipitation usually falls between Oct. 1 and April 30, half of it from December through February. That means the next few weeks may be make-or-break for the state’s hopes of emerging from its four-year drought.
Where do things stand now?

The rain totals are looking neither terrible nor great — mostly above-normal readings for the “water year” (measured starting Oct. 1) in the northern two- thirds of the state, mostly below-normal in Southern California.

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California: Revised Drought Relief Bill “Very Necessary” Says CCM

/in /by /Fresh Fruit Portal

A new revised drought relief bill introduced by Senator Dianne Feinstein puts California one step closer to comprehensive water policy reform, according to California Citrus Mutual (CCM) President Joel Nelsen.

In a release, Nelsen said the California Long-Term Provisions for Water Supply and Short-Term Provisions for Emergency Drought Relief Act identified several paths by which the state could improve its water infrastructure and create a more reliable water system for all users.

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Did Forecasters Overestimate El Nino Rains?

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby By Gary Robbins

It’s not just you. Even weather forecasters are wondering, “Where’s all the rain from El Nino?”
San Diego’s Lindbergh Field has recorded 6.06 inches of precipitation this season, about average for this date. There are no major storms in the forecast through Wednesday. And the region has been experiencing one of the warmest Februarys on record.

Did forecasters overestimate the impact of one of the largest El Ninos on record?

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Drought Tracker Update: Warm Winter Stalls Snowpack Growth

/in /by /KPBSby By David Wagner

That “Godzilla” El Niño must have taken a nap this week.
Warm temperatures and clear skies have kept California dry. The latest numbers from the KPBS Drought Tracker show statewide rain and snowfall not budging over the past week — the snowpack has even decreased slightly in some areas due to melting.

As of Thursday morning, the state had received 76 percent of the rain that normally falls between Oct. 1 and April 1. That’s the same number observed last week, bending the seasonal rainfall curve flat for the past seven days. The average Sierra snowpack measurement was at 78 percent of the seasonal normal, just barely up from 77 percent the week before.

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Feinstein Water Policy Bill Could Signal a Compromise in Sight

/in /by /The Los Angeles Timesby By Sarah D. Wire

Sen. Dianne Feinstein filed a 184-page water policy bill Wednesday, calling it one of the most difficult bills she’s worked on in 23 years representing California.

“This is the hardest thing I’ve done, because you look for the sweet spot, the balance, and it’s very difficult because it’s very polarized,” Feinstein said. “There are some that don’t want anything and there are some that want much more.”

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CCM Responds to Introduction of Feinstein Water Bill

/in /by /AgNet West (Fresno)

Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced a revised drought relief water bill that puts California one step closer to comprehensive water policy reform, according to California Citrus Mutual (CCM) President Joel Nelsen.

“The introduction of the California Long-Term Provisions for Water Supply and Short-Term Provisions for Emergency Drought Relief Act by Senator Dianne Feinstein identifies several paths by which California can improve its water infrastructure and create a more reliable water system for all water users,” says Nelsen.  “Everybody wants something.  Most want to help people and the environment as well as sustain the production of food and fiber. But, the stakeholders who are singularly focused have been an impediment to improving California’s water crisis.”

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