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Megadrought Spurs First-Ever Federal Colorado River Cutbacks

/in , , /by /E & E Newsby Jeremy P. Jacobs

The Biden administration today will declare a water shortage on the Colorado River for the first time ever, triggering cutbacks in the Southwest due to a decadeslong drought that experts say is a sign of what’s to come.

Bureau of Reclamation officials will announce that water levels in the river’s main reservoirs have dropped so low they have triggered mandatory delivery reductions in Arizona and Nevada.

The announcement comes as heat waves and wildfires are scorching the West, presenting the Biden administration with another crisis. A 20-year “megadrought” in the seven-state Colorado River Basin has caused Lake Mead and Lake Powell to drop to levels not seen since they were originally filled a half-century ago.

“This drought has come on faster and harder than last time,” said Ellen Hanak, the director of the water policy center at the Public Policy Institute of California, referring to the last Golden State drought that ended in 2016. “We are in year two, but we’re in as bad a shape as year three of what was a record drought last time.”

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California Senators Seek to Expand Federal Authority Over Threatened Salton Sea

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby Chris Jennewein

California Senators Alex Padilla and Dianne Feinstein introduced a bill on Friday to expand federal authority over the ecologically threatened Salton Sea east of San Diego County.

The Salton Sea Projects Improvements Act would significantly expand the ability of the Bureau of Reclamation to partner with state, local, and tribal governments to address the public health and environmental crisis at the Salton Sea.

The bill also increases the amount the Bureau of Reclamation is authorized to spend towards these efforts from $10 million to $250 million.

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Explainer: Western Water Projects in Infrastructure Deal

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Suman Naishadham

Included in the sweeping $1 trillion infrastructure bill approved by the Senate is funding for Western water projects that farmers, water providers and environmentalists say are badly needed across the parched region.

The Senate voted this week in favor of the legislation that seeks to rebuild U.S. roads and highways, improve broadband internet access and modernize water pipes and public works systems. The bill’s future in the House is uncertain.

The federal funding would come as the West bakes under a decadeslong drought that is straining water supplies.

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Small Towns Grow Desperate for Water in California

/in , , /by /The New York Timesby Thomas Fuller

As a measure of both the nation’s creaking infrastructure and the severity of the drought gripping California there is the $5 shower.

That’s how much Ian Roth, the owner of the Seagull Inn, a bed-and-breakfast in this tourist town three hours north of San Francisco, spends on water every time a guest washes for five minutes under the shower nozzle.

Water is so scarce in Mendocino, an Instagram-ready collection of pastel Victorian homes on the edge of the Pacific, that restaurants have closed their restrooms to guests, pointing them instead to portable toilets on the sidewalk.

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Opinion: Water Storage In South Orange County, A Tale Of Two Counties

/in , , /by /Voice of OCby Roger E. Bütow

The highly publicized, deservedly acclaimed storage and treatment successes in central and northern OC are in part a function of the real estate adage: “Location, location, location.” The reality is “Location, storage, location, storage,” and therein lies the challenge here in South Orange County: We’re below-ground storage “poor.”

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California, Oregon Braced for Another Extremist Water Rebellion. Why It’s Calm, So Far

/in , , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Ryan Sabalow

Anti-government activists seemed primed for a violent clash with federal authorities this summer in the Klamath Basin along the California-Oregon border.

The federal Bureau of Reclamation had shut off water for most of the region’s 1,400 farms, denying access to the same irrigation canal in Klamath Falls, Ore., where during a drought two decades earlier, activists tried to pry open its headgates and clashed with U.S. marshals.

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Napa County Recycled Water Used at Record Levels Amid Drought

/in , , /by /Napa Valley Registerby Barry Eberling

Napa Valley Country Club golf course is lush and green, thanks to the purple pipe.

A two-year drought is helping to boost Napa County’s recycled water use to record levels. The Napa Sanitation District wastewater treatment plant provides enough non-potable irrigation water annually to fill St. Helena’s Bell Canyon reservoir and more.

Napa Valley Country Club in rural Coombsville started piping water from the plant six miles away in late 2015. That allows it to depend less on a well in an area where groundwater levels have long been a concern.

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Eastlake Middle School-Water is Life Student Poster Contest-Otay Water District

Young Artists Win Otay WD “Water is Life” Student Poster Contest

/in , /by

Five young artists from Chula Vista area schools are the winners of Otay Water District’s 2021 “Water is Life” Student Poster Contest for illustrating the value of using water wisely.

Otay’s educational program invites students to create artwork depicting the importance of water conservation and stewardship. The students are encouraged to illustrate the theme “Water is Life,” with the message focused on using water efficiently at home, school, business, and the community, and for environmental, agricultural, and recreational purposes.

The District selected winners in four categories: kindergarten to third grade, fourth to sixth grade, and middle school. The District recognized the five winners at its August Board of Directors virtual meeting. Students received prizes include a gift card, certificate, art kit, and goody bag.

“We are honored to have a talented group of students use their creative skills and knowledge to teach others the importance of being water smart,” said Eileen Salmeron, Otay communications assistant, and contest coordinator. “As California faces a drought, it is vital that our young generation knows the value of using our natural resources efficiently as possible.”

Otay Water District winning posters for 2021 include:

Middle School Winner

Isabella Blakely, eighth grade, Eastlake Middle School Young artists win Otay

First place: Isabella Blakely, eighth grade, Eastlake Middle School

Fourth – Sixth Grade Elementary School Winners

First place: Kristen Beltran, fifth grade, Thurgood Marshall Elementary School Young atists win Otay

First place: Kristen Beltran, fifth grade, Thurgood Marshall Elementary School

Second place: Ava Hilinski, fifth grade, Thurgood Marshall Elementary School young artists win Otay

Second place: Ava Hilinski, fifth grade, Thurgood Marshall Elementary School

Kindergarten – Third Grade Elementary School Winners

First place: Pablo Flores, first grade, Wolf Canyon Elementary Young artists win Otay

First place: Pablo Flores, first grade, Wolf Canyon Elementary

Second place: Elsa Mendoza, first grade, Thurgood Marshall Elementary school

Second place: Elsa Mendoza, first grade, Thurgood Marshall Elementary school

The five winning posters will now enter the regional competition in the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California annual student poster contest. Winning posters from entrants among various participating Southern California water agencies will be featured in MWD’s 2022 “Water is Life” calendar.

2021 Calendar-Lucia Perez Valles' winning entry appears on the July 2021 page. Photo: MWD 2021 calendar

Lucia Perez Valles’ winning entry appears on the July 2021 calendar page. Photo: MWD

Otay Water District students could keep a winning streak going. Sisters Lucia Perez Valles and Sofia Perez Valles both had winning artwork selected for the MWD 2021 calendar. The Valles sisters attended Olympian High School. Lucia is a sophomore, and Sonia is a senior. Lucia’s art appears on the July page, and Sonia’s appears in November.

2021 Calendar-Sofia Perez Valles' winning entry appears on the November 2021 page. Photo: MWD

Sofia Perez Valles’ winning entry appears on the November 2021 calendar page. Photo: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California will announce the winners later this year.

To learn more about the Otay Water District’s poster contest and find additional educational programs, go to: https://bit.ly/3jTwtHg

(Editor’s note: The Otay Water District is one of the San Diego County Water Authority’s 24 member agencies that deliver water across the metropolitan San Diego region.)

Agriculture Tops $1.8 Billion in New SD County Crop Report

/in , , /by /Water News Network

Agriculture values topped $1.8 billion for the first time since 2014 and just the third time in 30 years in the County of San Diego’s annual Crop Report that covers the 2020 growing season, overcoming decreases in many crop values and reported mixed effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The total value of all agriculture crops and commodities rose just 0.8% in the new Crop Report. But that was enough to push total values from $1,795,528,573 in 2019 to $1,810,326,411.

It was the fourth time in the past five Crop Reports that overall agriculture values increased, and the third time since 1990 that total values topped $1.8 billion in San Diego County. Values exceeded $1.8 billion in both 2013 and 2014.

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As Drought Worsens, Southland Residents Face New Calls for Water Conservation

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Hayley Smith

As drought conditions worsen, public officials in Southern California are beginning to take steps to conserve dwindling resources.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California — one of the largest water distributors in the nation — is weighing whether to declare a supply alert for the first time in seven years, officials said.

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