The state is getting ready for what is expected to be another hot, dry summer. Gov. Jerry Brown has signed an executive order saying drought is, quote, “becoming a regular occurrence,” unquote, for Californians. At the same time, some parts of the state have had rain this spring, and so water authorities have been allowing some communities to relax certain restrictions on water use.
An NBC Bay Area analysis of projects funded by California’s $7.5 billion water bond found little high-tech, innovative projects that some say are needed to upgrade the State’s aging water infrastructure. NBC Bay Area’s analysis also discovered that no money has, so far, gone to fund drought solutions included in the bond such as desalination projects, direct stormwater management and efforts to fund integrated regional water management among 13 different regions.
A mix of rising global temperatures, mysteriously warmed waters off Baja California and unusually far-reaching storms in the western Pacific Ocean blocked this year’s El Nino storms from hitting Southern California, the National Weather Service said.
Despite plenty of indicators suggesting that the 2015-16 El Nino rains would be as strong, if not stronger, than previous Southland El Ninos, heavy precipitation failed to materialize. Instead, the storms flowed north from the Bay Area to Washington, drenching the Northern Sierra Nevada and refilling some of the state’s biggest reservoirs.
Nestle Waters is pushing back against the U.S. Forest Service’s proposed rules for the five-year permit the agency is considering for the international conglomerate’s water bottling operation in the San Bernardino National Forest.
The Forest Service’s affront? Suggesting a management plan that would require the company – which last year drew 36 million gallons to bottle as Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water from the forest under a $524 annual permit that expired in 1988 – to modify its operation if it was shown that it was affecting the flow of Strawberry Creek.
Delaware County residents who saturate their lawns or refill their pools could see a dramatic jump in their water bills this summer.
Del-Co Water Co. announced a new rate structure to begin next month that will target those who use an excessive amount of water during the peak summer months. “Excessive” is defined as more than 25,000 gallons per month. The average homeowner uses about 5,000 gallons per month and will see an increase of less than 2 percent on a typical $35 bill.
I just love Gov. Brown, don’t you? Okay, that’s more than a slight exaggeration, but he did endear himself to me with his executive order regarding water conservation.
Those of you who care about such things might recall Jerry (he calls me Harry — yeah, right) standing in a mountain meadow in spring 2015, staring at bare ground where there should have been several feet of snow. It was the photo op to back up his executive order back then to force urban water users to cut the amount of water they used by 25%.
I often ask an audience — what’s the difference between climate and weather? And the short answer is climate is what we predict and weather is what we get. This last winter is a good example of the difference.
One of the largest El Niño events in recent history was predicted for this winter, based on the very large and warm body of ocean water moving towards South America from the western Pacific during summer and fall.
As Americans across the country scrambled to get their taxes filed before the midnight deadline last month, many homeowners found themselves with a new reason to feel frustrated.
Their complaint: they may have been hit with a higher tax bill just for working with their local water utility to reduce their water footprint over the last year.
A mix of rising global temperatures, mysteriously warmed waters off Baja California and unusually far-reaching storms in the western Pacific Ocean conspired to block this year’s El Niño storms from hitting Southern California, the National Weather Service said this week.
Despite plenty of indicators suggesting that the 2015-16 El Niño rains would be as strong — if not stronger — than previous Southland El Niños, heavy precipitation failed to materialize. Instead, the storms flowed north from the Bay Area to Washington, drenching the Northern Sierra Nevada and refilling some of the state’s biggest reservoirs.
With a long-term drought plaguing much of California and Northern Nevada, the agriculture industry is adjusting and innovating. “[The drought] is one of the worst we’ve had in history,” said UC Davis Professor and watershed expert Jay Lund. “In some ways, particularly up in the watersheds, because it’s been extra warm, it’s among the driest in history.” Lund added, “Some would say even the driest we’ve seen in a thousand years.”
In 2015, snowpack was at record lows in the Sierra Nevada and other western mountain ranges. California’s San Joaquin Valley was probably hit worst by the drought.
