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Panel: El Niño Won’t Solve Water Woes

On a day that brought with it two inches of rain in Wofford Heights and a quarter inch of rain at Meadows Field, experts gathered to discuss the effect El Niño will have on Kern County this year.

 

The “El Niño: Miracle or Just Mediocre” discussion was held Tuesday by the Water Association of Kern County, along with KBAK.

OPINION: Hopes Rise as Winter Rain Brings Green Spring

The National Weather Service distributed a remarkable photo the other day – a satellite view of California showing just how green it has become after heavy winter rains.

The occasion was St. Patrick’s Day, but the photo’s true meaning was the vernal equinox’s age-old promise of renewal. California is green again, except for its deserts and its snow-covered mountains, and its reservoirs are, for the first time in years, holding healthy amounts of water – so much, in fact, that releases are being increased to make room for melting snow.

Rancho Bernardo Residents Drank More Water in February

Water consumption in San Diego County jumped 5 percent last month compared with February 2013 because of record-setting warm temperatures, the San Diego County Water Authority reported today.

Despite the hike, customers in the region have still cut back their use a total of 21 percent since the state implemented water saving rules last June, according to the Water Authority. The state-mandated goal for San Diego County is a 20 percent reduction from 2013 usage levels.

OPINION: A Water System That Can’t Gulp

In the world of California water, there is a saying about how our statewide system is supposed to work: “big gulp, little sip.”

The idea is to pump, move and store water from the mountains and snowpack when Mother Nature makes it available. But when it is dry, rivers run low and fish need the water, the pumps are turned way down. California’s water supply is reasonably generous — we are not an arid state. But it is exceedingly volatile, going from very wet to very dry year to year. This big-gulp strategy is designed with that in mind.