You are now in California and the U.S. category.

Protecting the Pipes When the Water Doesn’t Always Flow

In developing countries, there is not always enough clean water for everybody who wants it, so supplies are scheduled to go to different neighborhoods at different hours of the day. When water flows to a new section, it can create spikes in pressure that break pipes — leading to even less access to clean water. Solving these problems and making water more regularly available could be a boost for the residents in affected areas.

OPINION: Time is Running Out to Save the Salton Sea

In the mid-1940s, the Salton Sea was a hotbed of activity, attracting Hollywood’s most glamorous actors and musicians to its yacht clubs and campgrounds. Now, what was once the largest lake in California is disappearing before our eyes and endangering all its life. We can still save it, but if we don’t, we will have a massive public health, environmental and economic crisis that could cost as much as $70 billion. The Salton Sea is a lake that was created most recently 112 years ago after canals and dikes failed along the Colorado River, opening the Imperial Valley to extreme flooding.

 

BLOG: Federal Agencies Criticized for Not Enforcing Laws That Protect Salmon

Salmon are struggling to survive all along the West Coast, where runs that historically numbered in the millions of fish have dwindled into the thousands or even dozens. Environmental laws that have been put in place to see that these fish remain healthy and plentiful are not working in many places. While some people have argued that the Endangered Species Act itself is flawed and not sufficiently designed to protect species, others believe the problem comes from the people who are supposed to be enforcing the regulations.

OPINION: Twin Tunnels, Delta and Tuolumne Are All Connected

California WaterFix is Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to build twin tunnels under the Delta to move water directly from the Sacramento River to the California Aqueduct, which serves the urban and agricultural interests of Southern California. These twin tunnels are supposed to prevent damage to the Delta ecosystem caused by direct pumping of water from the south side of the Delta. The governor says that no one will get more water and no one will get less water with the tunnels project.

State Plan For Rivers Doesn’t Hold Water, MID Says

Local water leaders on Tuesday formally scorned a state proposal to drastically change river levels, saying it would cripple farms and the economy and threaten people’s drinking water in Modesto, San Francisco and beyond. “To me, this is an outrage,” said Greg Salyer, general manager of the Modesto Irrigation District. “This is probably the worst water threat we’ve ever had at MID.”

Droughts Only to Get Much Worse! Less Snow, Hotter Water

A projected increase of water temperatures in the Southwest could cause a rise in the frequency and intensity of floods and droughts that would leave Southern California with water shortages in the coming decades, Loyola Marymount University researchers said Tuesday. Scientists predict that by 2050, rising temperatures will increase the amount of precipitation falling as rain rather than snow in the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountain ranges where the Southland imports 60 percent to 70 percent of its water supply.

California Water Wasters to Face New Penalties, Possible Public Disclosure of Names

Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 814 into law to crack down on excessive water use during droughts. The law, effective Jan. 1, 2017, penalizes the state’s biggest water wasters and could result in public disclosure of their names.The new law requires retail water suppliers with more than 3,000 customers to put in place rules that define excessive water use and enforce them during drought emergencies. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jerry Hill, stated, “[SB 814] is the result of a San Mateo resident’s demand for households ignoring water use restrictions to be held accountable.”

Try Humming ‘When the Levee Breaks’ While Reading About California Flood Control

Flood control efforts in California’s Central Valley get a boost in sprawling water legislation that reaches the House floor Tuesday. No, it’s not the drought-inspired, California-only bill that has inspired so much wrangling in recent years. That remains stuck. Instead, following the Senate’s lead, the House is taking up its latest version of the Water Resources Development Act. The amended bill authorizes 31 Army Corps of Engineers projects and 29 feasibility studies, among other measures. “This bill is by no means perfect,” said Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Penn., the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, “but it’s a good bill.”

Study: Earth’s Roughly Warmest in About 100,000 Years

A new study paints a picture of an Earth that is warmer than it has been in about 120,000 years, and is locked into eventually hitting its hottest mark in more than 2 million years. As part of her doctoral dissertation at Stanford University, Carolyn Snyder , now a climate policy official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, created a continuous 2 million year temperature record, much longer than a previous 22,000 year record. Snyder’s temperature reconstruction, published Monday in the journal Nature , doesn’t estimate temperature for a single year, but averages 5,000-year time periods going back a couple million years.

 

New Wells In California Are Going in Faster and Deeper

Farmers in central California are drilling more and deeper wells than ever before to pump water for their fruit orchards and sprawling fields following government imposed limits on surface water. Two years after Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill designed to limit groundwater pumping, new wells are going in faster and deeper than ever, according to an analysis by the Sacramento Bee published Sunday. Farmers dug about 2,500 wells in the San Joaquin Valley last year alone, the highest number on record.