A $1 trillion infrastructure bill that received bipartisan support in the Senate last month includes billions of dollars for Western water projects and programs.
The Biden administration has called the infrastructure bill, which includes $8.3 billion for Western water infrastructure, “the largest investment in the resilience of physical and natural systems in American history.”
“Mega-drought” has become a frightful “thing” in public and media discussions. In the past 1,200 years, California had two droughts lasting 120-200 years, “megadroughts” by any standard. Could the state’s water resources continue to supply enough water to drink, grow crops and provide habitat for fish with such an extreme, prolonged drought today?
Clearly, some ecosystems and rural communities would be devastated by such a drought, and it would certainly affect all California residents. But with careful management, California’s economy in many ways could substantially withstand such a severe drought.
There’s a hive of PhDs at the University of California at Davis who are working to reinvent food production in the Golden State. Researchers have fanned out across the globe collecting rare plant samples; others are grafting Frankenstein trees and stitching together root systems of plums and peaches to create better almond and walnut trees.
The Colorado River Basin is enduring two decades of drought, and water shortages are on the horizon. But scientists say this isn’t the worst-case scenario. The region has undergone longer, deeper droughts in the past. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny spoke with paleoclimatologist Matt Lachniet of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas about how knowing the past can help us plan for a warmer, drier future.
Even as she was going blind, my mom, ever the poet, delighted in sitting out among the palms and birds, and enjoying and visualizing the scene, as I irrigated my date gardens in the Coachella Valley.
In her 1997 poem, “Colorado Water,” she wrote:
The palm said, “My clover is cool around my bole, over my hidden roots.
My fronds clatter, crash
like waves in the far off sea.”
Officials say the City of San Luis Obispo is water-secure for now, despite several years of drought conditions.The City of San Luis Obispo relies on water from Santa Margarita Lake, Whale Rock Reservoir and Nacimiento Reservoir. Mychal Boerman is Deputy Director of Water for the city. He said Nacimiento’s water capacity is at 13 percent, due to low rainfall years and continuous use of the reservoir for Salinas Valley farming
The longer it takes for two new wells to be dug in Cantua Creek and El Porvenir in western Fresno County, the deeper in debt the towns are mired.
Now, with the drought, those well projects are in a race against dropping groundwater levels as farmers, cut off from surface water supplies, are leaning more heavily on the aquifer.
Thunderstorms that dropped light rain gave some breathing room to crews struggling to quench California’s massive wildfires but lightning sparked several new blazes in the drought-stricken north, fire officials said.
The storms that rolled through Thursday night into Friday were followed by weekend forecasts of clear weather and a warming trend in fire areas into next week.
Drought. Wildfires. And, for the country as a whole, temperatures worse than the Dust Bowl.
In a further bit of evidence of the reality of climate change, California has just experienced its hottest summer on record, according to data released this week by the federal government.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the average temperature in California reached 77.3 degrees from June to August. That topped the previous record of 76.5 degrees in summer 2017.
Construction will start soon on the first of three projects to increase the reliability of drinking water for Poway water customers now and generations to come. Two water storage tanks will be built as part of a temporary bypass project.
During construction access to some amenities at Lake Poway will be impacted.
The ballfield at Lake Poway will be closed beginning Monday, September 20 for the construction of two tanks, each with the capacity to store 1.4 million gallons of treated water. The tanks are part of the temporary bypass project, which once completed will allow the city to move forward with replacing the clearwell (treated water storage) at the water treatment plant.
The parking lot adjacent to the volleyball court will be used for equipment staging and parking. It tentatively will be fenced off the week of Sept. 13. The Public Works parking lot off Lake Poway Road, which is open to the public for free parking on the weekends, will be closed beginning Sept. 20.
The clearwell replacement project is expected to be completed by Fall 2024. At that time the ballfield will be fully restored and both parking areas will reopen.
The clearwell replacement project consists of replacing the existing clearwell with two new reservoirs. Graphic: City of Poway
With the goal of increasing the reliability of drinking water for water customers now and generations to come, the City of Poway is undertaking the largest capital improvement program (CIP) in the city’s 40-year history.
The CIP will include replacing the clearwell (water storage reservoir) at the water treatment plant and a new San Diego County Water Authority treated water connection and redundant pipeline. In order to replace the clearwell, a temporary bypass project will include two 1.4 million-gallon tanks for storing treated water.
Construction is set to begin soon on a water infrastructure project in the City of Poway. Graphic: City of Poway
The San Diego County Water Authority treated water connection and redundant pipeline project provides Poway with its first treated water connection to the SDCWA’s treated water aqueduct, as well as providing redundant pipelines. The project will help diversify Poway’s water supply portfolio and allow for operational flexibility and plant maintenance. It will also provide a redundant pipeline to the 36″ water transmission line on Lake Poway Road, which is currently the single transmission line that carries treated water to the distribution system.
The infrastructure improvement projects are moving ahead as part of a mutually beneficial agreement between Poway and the State Division of Drinking Water.
(Editor’s note: The City of Poway is one of the San Diego County Water Authority’s 24 member agencies that deliver water across the metropolitan San Diego region.)
