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State is Years Behind on Projects to Protect Wildlife at Salton Sea, Officials and Activists Say

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Louis Sahagun

The Salton Sea is in big trouble and plodding state officials are to blame, local authorities and environmentalists say. The California Legislature appropriated money to start designing projects to restore wildlife habitat and control dust at the steadily receding salt lake in 2010. But lawmakers did not approve funding to actually begin construction on those conservation efforts until June of this year, when they included $80.5 million in the state budget for a few modest habitat projects scheduled for sometime next year, state officials said.

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BLOG: Wishful Thinking Won’t End California’s Drought

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Peter Gleick

I know you’re tired of the drought. Tired of hearing about it; tired of trying to squeeze a little more savings out of your garden and indoor water use; tired of processing bad news about dying fisheries, drying wells, suffering farmers and dead trees. I’m tired, too: tired of studying and analyzing the impacts of this drought on California, after having done so for droughts between 1987 and 1992 and again between 2007–2009.

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BLOG: Maximizing Return on Investments in River Flow

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Tara Lohan

Drought, water diversions and other environmental pressures mean that many rivers and streams in California don’t always have enough water to support healthy fish populations and other wildlife. Environmental water transactions (EWT), a voluntary, market-based system, is one item in the toolbox of agencies and other stakeholders, which they have been using to try to increase flows in rivers and streams. And these transactions may get a boost soon as millions of dollars from the 2014 Proposition 1 water bond are assigned to projects in coming years.

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Twin Tunnels Project to Face California State Audit

/in /by /Central Valley Business Journal (Stockton)

Critics of the Governor Jerry Brown’s California Water Fix scored a victory on Wednesday.  By a 9-2 vote, the Joint Legislative Audit Committee approved a financial audit of the controversial Twin Tunnels project. The two tunnels would divert water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and deliver it to southern parts of the state.The bi-partisan vote was requested by legislators representing the San Joaquin Delta. The effort was led by Stockton Democratic Assemblymember Susan Talamantes Eggman and State Senator Lois Wolk, of Davis.

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OPINION: State Needs to Unite for More Water Storage

/in /by /Calaveras Enterprise (San Andreas)by John Kingsbury

As most of California recovers from this historical drought, one thing we can count on is that history will repeat itself. Californians can take full credit for willingly sacrificing landscape and adjusting habits to save water supply for another year. Toilets have been replaced, lawns have been converted to plastic, leaks have been fixed, prime agricultural land has been fallowed, and we have learned to be more efficient with our water supply. So, fast-forward to the next drought. What’s next?

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La Niña May Develop Between Now and October

/in /by /Central Valley Business Times (Stockton)

There is little good news for drought-parched California in the latest forecast for the winter. There is about a 55 percent to 60 percent chance that California will come under the influence of La Niña during the fall and winter 2016-17, it says. La Nina is the name given to a general cooling of Pacific Ocean waters near the equator, the opposite of “El Nino.” What is means for California is general dry weather during the winter with less rain and snow than average. La Nina does pump more rain into the Pacific Northwest.

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Forecasters Backing Down on Next La Nina

/in /by /Inland News Today (Riverside)

Climatologists are backing away from a full-blown La Nina that could replace last winter’s El Nino. The Climate Prediction Center says current conditions are neutral between the two Pacific Ocean opposites. Forecast models suggest La Nina will set-in between now and October with only a 60 percent chance it will persist through the winter. 
Last winter, El Nino gave Northern California above-normal rain and snow but overlooked Southern California and failed to end the state’s 5-year drought. La Nina is known for its cooler, drier weather. The coastal waters off Southern California may still be recovering from El Nino. Sea surface temperatures in late July hit 78 degrees along Orange County beaches.

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Does the New La Niña Forecast Mean a Dry Winter for California?

/in /by /89.3 KPCC (Pasadena)by Jacob Margolis

According to a new forecast from the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center, it’s likely that the La Niña weather pattern will show up this winter. The likelihood that it will show up this winter is the same as last month: a 55 to 60 percent probability. That’s a downgrade from June, when it was 75 percent. While El Niño is associated with warmer waters in the equatorial Pacific and warm, wet winters in Southern California, La Niña can be tied to cooling waters, and is better known for keeping things drier in the southern part of the state.

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Federal Water Bills Would Harm our Salmon

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Patty Unterman and Alice Waters

Today, one of our state’s most iconic local foods, chinook salmon, is in critical danger, threatened by drought and Congress.

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Are Conservationists Worrying Too Much About Climate Change?

/in /by /The New Yorkerby Michelle Nijhuis

In January of this year, James Watson, an Australian scientist who works for the Wildlife Conservation Society, noticed an image that had been tweeted by a friend of his, a physician in Sydney. With a chain of progressively larger circles, it illustrated the relative frequency of causes of death among Australians, from the vanishingly rare (war, pregnancy and birth, murder) to the extremely common (respiratory disorders, cancer, heart disease). It was a simple but striking depiction of comparative risk. “I thought, ‘Why hasn’t anyone done something like this for the rest of nature?’ ”Watson recalled.

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