Bakersfield and Kern County have been in drought mode since the end of last year with restrictions and cutbacks in place to try and save as much water as possible as we head into the hot summer months.
But water officials and growers are concerned as the flow from the Upper Kern into Lake Isabella now reduces to a trickle in the coming weeks and months.
The San Diego County Department of Environmental Health and Quality has lifted the water contact closure and advisory for the Imperial Beach and Silver Strand shorelines.
Recent water quality testing confirms that cross-boundary sewage flows are no longer impacting these beaches, which remain open. Recent closures also have extended into Coronado, at beaches near the Hotel del Coronado.
The Colorado River Compact turns 100 this year, but any celebration is damped down by the drying-up of the big reservoirs it enabled. The Bureau of Reclamation’s “first-ever” shortage declaration on the river acknowledges officially what we’ve known for years: the Compact and all the measures augmenting it, collectively known as The Law of the River, have not prevented the river’s over-development.
Nearly every pronouncement from the water establishment about the centennial of the Colorado River Compact calls it the “foundation,” “the cornerstone” of the Law of the River — as though before the Compact was adopted, the river was lawless.
Encinitas, Calif. — Hydroelectric generators at Olivenhain Municipal Water District’s David C. McCollom Water Treatment Plant have qualified for the California Energy Commission’s Renewables Portfolio Standard Program and will now generate Renewable Energy Certificates that contribute to the state goal of achieving 60% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
The California Energy Commission’s RPS program was established in 2002 and was accelerated in 2018 by Senate Bill 100, which set a target of achieving 60% of retail sales of electricity from renewable sources by 2030. The hydroelectric generators at OMWD’s water treatment plant have been in place since its startup in 2002, offsetting roughly half of the plant’s power demands and saving as much as $60,000 per month in energy costs.
With the Colorado River’s depleted reservoirs continuing to drop to new lows, the federal government has taken the unprecedented step of telling the seven Western states that rely on the river to find ways of drastically cutting the amount of water they take in the next two months.
The Interior Department is seeking the emergency cuts to reduce the risks of Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the country’s two largest reservoirs, declining to dangerously low levels next year.
Construction has started on a $950 million water purification plant in Santee that will provide enough drinking water to serve an estimated 500,000 people and businesses in East County.
The East County Advanced Water Purification Program will daily produce up to 11.5 million gallons of potable water which amounts to about 30% of the drinking water used by East County residents and businesses.
When undertaking a WaterSmart landscape renovation, strive to continuously feed as much organic matter as possible to the landscape soil to keep it healthy. Start first with compost and mulch to jump-start the process. Eventually, your plants will feed themselves with their own leaf litter. Organic matter feeds microbes living in the soil that make soil fluffy. It’s similar to bread rising because of yeast.
Healthy, water-saving soil consists of elements we don’t typically think of as soil at all. In fact, one of the most critical aspects of soil is the space between the particles. Soil space results from a process called aggregation. Solid matter will aggregate under the right conditions, forming space between the masses. This allows air and water to fill this area.
During a U.S. Senate hearing on Western drought earlier this week, the commissioner for the Bureau of Reclamation told the states in the Colorado River Basin that they have 60 days to create an emergency plan to stop using between 2 and 4 million acre-feet of water in the next year or the agency will use its emergency authority to make the cuts itself.
For context, the entire state of Arizona is allowed to use 2.8 million acre-feet of Colorado River water each year.
As California’s drought deepens, it is worth checking in on the status of water supplies and what might be in store for the rest of the summer, and beyond.
What started with the promise of a wet water year, ended up dry, again. In January, the 8-Station Index showed precipitation totals keeping pace with the wettest year on record. Then it got dry and accumulated totals flat-lined. The final result is a below average water year, although not one of the driest years on record.
