The Yuba County Water Agency might sell billions of gallons of water to Marin County through a proposed pipeline across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.
Under the proposed agreement, the agency would be able to sell Marin and the East Bay Municipal Utility District at least 10,000 acre-feet of water from its New Bullards Bar Reservoir at an estimated cost of more than $10 million.
With the drought showing no signs of abating, California officials announced Wednesday they plan to deliver almost no water from the State Water Project to begin next year — and suggested that mandatory cutbacks in urban usage could come if conditions stay dry.
Karla Nemeth, director of the Department of Water Resources, said the various cities and farm-irrigation districts that belong to the State Water Project — the elaborate state-run network of reservoirs and canals — are getting “essentially a zero allocation” to start 2022.
California water regulators have proposed new emergency drought regulations that would prohibit a wide range of wasteful water behaviors for the entire state.
On Tuesday, the State Water Resources Control Board released a draft of the regulations that would prohibit “excessive” irrigation, ban the use of potable water for street cleaning and forbid landscape irrigation within 48 hours of a rain storm, among other things.
The new mandatory rules would be enforced by local water agencies and people found to be wasting water could face fines, according to a statement from the Water Board, which will vote on the proposal sometime in January for the entire state.
Despite the wet start to this year’s rain season, Shasta Dam remains at only 25% capacity.
“So three-quarters of the lake is empty; we need some really significant winter storms back-to-back-to-back to help fill this lake,” said Don Bader, the area manager at Shasta Dam.
Bader says they would like to have the dam typically around 60% full during this time of year. He says the dam depends mostly on rainfall.
Californians may face new restrictions, including fines for improperly washing their cars, as the state prepares to virtually eliminate the water it supplies to local communities as it grapples with an unrelenting drought.
Two Southern California ski areas will open this week despite dry fall weather.
Big Bear Mountain Resorts announced that Friday will be opening day for the general public at Bear Mountain and Snow Summit. Season pass holders will get an early start on Thursday.
Weather across Southern California has been dry and mild but it has been cold enough up in the San Bernardino Mountains for snowmaking.
Whoever coined the phrase “Whisky is for drinking, water is for fighting” didn’t have things quite right.
In California, water is for scamming. The newest example is a majestically cynical ploy being foisted on taxpayers by some of the state’s premier water hogs, in the guise of a proposed ballot measure titled the “Water Infrastructure Funding Act of 2022” — or, as its promoters call it, the More Water Now initiative.
Arizona’s water authorities are close to entering into a new pact with officials from Nevada and California they hope will restore water levels at Lake Mead and stave off future rationing requirements.
A Tier 1 Colorado River water shortage begins in 2022, triggering a mandatory 512,000 acre-foot reduction to Arizona. The emergency stems from the Lake Mead reservoir reaching water levels not seen since its construction. The designation doesn’t affect Arizona residents, rather the state’s agriculture industry that represents the majority of water usage.
To visualize the hellishness of the climate crisis in 2021, look no further than General Sherman, the world’s largest tree, wrapped in fire-resistant foil to protect the legendary giant sequoia from flames burning a path of destruction through the Sierra Nevada.
California’s so-called Ancient Ones evolved with fire. It’s crucial to their reproductive cycle. But they aren’t prepared for blazes like those of the last year, which are burning hotter and more intensely as Earth warms, mostly because of the combustion of fossil fuels. Last year, flames killed roughly 10% of the world’s giant sequoias.
With just hours left to go in this month — and no precipitation in the forecast for Tuesday — downtown Los Angeles is set to experience its first rainless November in almost 30 years, according to the National Weather Service.
The 11th month of the year is typically not a wet one for the area, with downtown’s average just a hair above three-quarters of an inch on average, NWS said.
However, it’s still unusual for there to be no precipitation at all. In fact, that hasn’t happened since 1992, weather service data showed.
