A series of lows are forecast to track across the Northwest through the rest of the week, bringing yet more snow to the mountains and potentially flooding rains to lower elevations. The most potent system is expected Friday into Saturday which could bring heavy precipitation, especially in northern California, the Sierra and western Nevada. Here’s a quick breakdown of what to expect.
Ask the residents of San Jose’s drying-out Rock Springs neighborhood and other nearby areas if it pays to ignore warnings about future disasters that seem in normal times to be nothing more than distant, negative fantasies. During the heavy rains of February, when a crisis caused by a poorly-built spillway at the Oroville Dam drew worldwide headlines, the San Jose neighborhood and areas around it suffered at least $50 million of avoidable damage to private property and about $23 million in public property damage. Some estimates of the total toll come to more than $100 million.
In 2004, 83 percent of California voters approved Proposition 59, which had been placed on the state ballot by unanimous votes of the state Senate and Assembly. The “Sunshine Amendment” was intended to be the most forceful formal endorsement in California history of the paramount importance of government openness and transparency. It guaranteed public access to the meetings of government agencies and boards. But it also offered landmark guidance: It held that “statutes and rules furthering public access shall be broadly construed, or narrowly construed if limiting access.”
Californians are still conserving substantial amounts of water even as Gov. Jerry Brown appears ready to rescind or relax his drought declaration. The State Water Resources Board announced Tuesday that urban Californians reduced water usage by 25.1 percent in February, compared with the state’s baseline year of 2013. The February conservation results were substantially better than a year ago, when mandatory restrictions were in place for much of California but the savings rate was only 11.9 percent.
The drought in California may be easing after a long and wet winter, but that doesn’t mean the Golden State is free from water troubles. That’s why a new campaign by LA agency Quigley-Simpson for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (a state-established cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies serving nearly 19 million people) is informing people that water conservation is still a priority.
The so-called “superbloom” has apparently made some fans of wildflowers super obnoxious. Diamond Valley Lake’s wildflower trail has become so popular these past few weeks, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California – which oversees the lake – had to close it “due to excessive foot traffic.” To put it plainly, too many people were going off-trail and trampling the wildflowers. “Measures were set up to reinforce the importance of trail rules and to ensure that the Reserve resources are protected while visitors experience the beauty of the wildflowers,” according to Diamond Valley Lake’s website.
The Trump administration has removed a major roadblock to plans by a Santa Monica company to pump ancient groundwater from below the Mojave Desert and sell it to urban areas of Southern California. The federal Bureau of Land Management has rescinded a 2015 administrative finding that Cadiz, Inc. needed to obtain a federal right of way permit and thus had to complete comprehensive environmental studies before it could build a water pipeline within 43 miles of railroad right of way owned by the Arizona & California Railroad.
Testing for lead in water systems at San Diego Unified School District campuses began Monday, according to district officials. The testing program comes a couple of months after elevated levels of lead, copper and bacteria were discovered at three campuses in the San Ysidro School District. Testing previously took place at Emerson-Bandini Elementary School in Southcrest after a nurse saw a therapy dog reluctant to drink the water — which turned out to contain a variety of contaminants, including lead, according to multiple news reports.
The National Weather Service says a series of storms is supposed to hit California from Thursday through Saturday. Cindy Mathews is with the weather service. She says this will not be a repeat of the rain and runoff that we had in early February. “The term ‘atmospheric river’ is being applied to this weekend’s storm, but it is not one of the extreme ones,” says Mathews. “Snow levels will start out at pass levels and fall to below 5,000 feet by Saturday. So, it’s a moderate-type atmospheric river.” She also says a second storm could arrive Tuesday.
It was just before noon on a recent Sunday morning and a line had formed for the port-a-potties near the Wildflower Trail at Diamond Valley Lake in Riverside County. Cars were backed up around a bend in the road, and frustrated people resorted to parking two miles away and walking in.
They had come to see the “super bloom,” of wildflowers that have sprung up around the trails snaking around this drinking water reservoir. People are excited to take pictures of the flowers and themselves among the flowers, and many areas have been trampled.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
