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Why Record Snow Followed By Warm Temperature Is A Dangerous Combination For This California Town

As snow continued to fall on the eastern Sierra Nevada this week, platoons of earth movers, cranes and utility trucks fanned out across the Owens Valley, scrambling to empty reservoirs and clean out a lattice-work of ditches and pipelines in a frantic effort to protect the key source of Los Angeles’ water.

How California Legislators Can Create a Path to Water Sustainability

What a difference a year makes, I’m thinking as I head to Sacramento for meetings with legislators and company members of Connect the Drops, a campaign my organization spearheaded to drive smart water use in California. Last year, more than 90 percent of the state was experiencing some level of drought – today, just 8 percent is. This winter, our state was inundated by rain and snow, with precipitation beating records going back to before 1895, when they started keeping track. And the Oroville Dam has been the big story of late, replacing last year’s headlines about fallow fields.

Opinion: Consumers Need To Pay More For Water Safety, Improvements

This past winter’s weather should serve as both a reminder and a warning. It’s a reminder that the California climate cycles between long periods of extreme drought and short bursts of extreme rainfall, and it’s a warning that climate change is making this cycle more extreme.  The Golden State must adapt to this “new normal” now – and that requires funding. It’s long past time that our state had a serious discussion about how to fund the kind of water infrastructure we need now and in the future.  Here is an idea: a public goods charge for water.

 

Lake Oroville Rises Slowly As Spillway Flows Halted

Water releases down the damaged main spillway at Lake Oroville have been halted in order to work on repairs there, and for now the lake is slowly rising. The state Department of Water Resources stopped spillway releases around 5 p.m. Monday and instead is running water to the Feather River through the Hyatt Powerplant under the dam. About 11,700 cubic-feet per second of water is going through the hydroelectric plant. As of Tuesday afternoon, Lake Oroville’s surface elevation was just above 837 feet, which is about 64 feet below the lip of the emergency spillway.

 

Southern California Coast Could Be Toast By 2100

More than half off all beaches in Southern California could disappear by the end of the century due to sea-level rise, according to a study published Monday in the Journal of Geophysical Research. As a result of sea-level rise, up to 67 percent of beaches from Santa Barbara to San Diego could be completely eroded back to sea cliffs or coastal infrastructure by 2100, according to the report from the U.S. Geological Survey.

Did DWP Overcharge You? Customers To Receive Info On Billing Settlement Starting This Week

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customers will soon be able to recover their money from a landmark class-action settlement. Starting this week, ratepayers will receive packets in the mail that detail what types of refunds and damages may be claimed from the settlement. The DWP has been plagued by a faulty computer billing system launched in 2013 that overcharged tens of thousands of customers while failing to bill others at all. Ratepayers filed a class-action lawsuit against the utility and the city; all sides reached a tentative settlement that was approved in December.

A 7.4 Quake in Southern California? A Long Fault Could Make It Likelier

Two fault zones that were thought to be separate actually make up one continuous fault system running through San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles counties, according to new research. If all the offshore and onshore segments of the so-called Newport-Inglewood/Rose Canyon fault system were to rupture at once, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake could seize the region.

For Water Users On Colorado River, A Mind-Set Of Shared Sacrifice

Jason Tucker’s job title is facility manager at the Glen Canyon Dam. But you could also say he’s also a kind of banker. Colorado River water flows into his bank – the reservoir behind the dam. He can then loan it out to create electricity. Some even call the dam here a kind of “savings account,” tapped as needed to replenish Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam, which lie past the Grand Canyon to the west.

 

Water Heads Expand Basin Salt Plan

Local water officials working to better manage groundwater in the Santa Clarita Valley’s water basin, are also working to better manage the salt in that basin. Members of the Castaic Lake Water Agency board approved a recommendation Wednesday to pay their salt-studying consultants more money for extra work in light of new salt demands handed down recently by regional water regulators.

 

Most Southern California Beaches Could Erode By 2100 Without Human Intervention, Study Finds

Rising seas are eating away at ocean-front sand at a pace that could leave Southern California with few usable beaches by the end of this century, scientists announced Monday. Research based on information from the U.S. Geological Survey’s newly created computer model, the Coastal Storm Modeling System, shows that with little human intervention up to 67 percent of the beaches in Southern California could erode completely in less than 100 years, according to a paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.